This is how you should renovate before selling the house – NRK Livsstil – Tips, recommendations and knowledge

Norwegians are among those who spend the most money on renovations.

– Our parents reformed because they had to. Our generation is renovating because we want to, says Petter Krantz, real estate agent for Kaland & Partner.

Last year, Norwegians spent a total of NOK 95 billion on restoring houses and cabins, according to the Forecast Center. Each household spends on average between 70,000 and 100,000 crowns.

– Use what you want for the renewal, if you intend to stay. If you are planning to sell, you should probably think of a few things before you start, says the broker.

Not all upgrades provide big winnings in the bidding round.

A question you should ask yourself

Whether or not you should renew before the sale depends on the answer to an important question: How worn is the house?

– If you have a total renovation object, then there is no point in decorating the bridge, says Marita Friis Stensland, real estate agent at Privatmegleren.

Home improvement items sell easily as they attract buyers who are specifically looking for something they can shape in their own way.

– I have had sellers who have insisted on renovating before the sale. Then the buyer walks in and tears everything up afterwards. People want things their way, says Krantz.

Realtors agree that there is no point in painting walls or replacing furniture in a very worn home. Then it is better to sell it as is.

If, on the other hand, your house is quite beautiful, it may be worth investing in a few coats of paint and strategic renovation measures, depending on the room in question.

* Expert advice is general and may vary from one household to another. Ultimately, it is up to you how you want to renovate your own home.

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Should I spend money to renovate the bathroom?

This is the question that real estate agents get most often from clients. According to them, it is also the easiest question to answer.

– The answer is no. If you restore a full bathroom before the sale, chances are you won’t see the money again, Stensland says.

Runners’ experience is that a complete bathroom renovation often costs a lot more than it sounds.

– If you have bought an apartment worth 2.5 million crowns and you spend 300,000 crowns to renovate the bathroom, it is not certain that you will get 2.8 million for the apartment. It doesn’t matter how nice the bathroom is, says Krantz.

If there are major deficiencies in the bathroom, it is better to sell it as a renovation project. If the bathroom is in technical condition, but only very worn, the experts recommend the following:

• Replace the old shower stall with a more modern solution
• Replace sinks, cabinets, and countertops
• Replace flooring and paint walls / tiles
• Prioritize space for a washing machine, rather than a bathtub
• If the bathroom doesn’t have underfloor heating, it’s just as easy to sell without underfloor heating

Marita Friis Stensland talks about two almost identical apartments that were sold in the same area. The apartment with an older bathroom that was only surface renovated sold for a higher price than the other with a completely renovated bathroom.

– If a small bathroom is more beautiful than a larger bathroom, but uglier, people usually choose the most beautiful bathroom. My experience is that buyers don’t care if the bathroom is from 2010 or 2020 as long as it looks good and everything is done according to regulations, he says.

Kitchen

A complete kitchen renovation can also be an expensive and unsafe investment.

– Instead of replacing the entire kitchen, you can fix the surfaces. You can tile the area between the countertop and the upper cabinets, so the kitchen will look a lot newer, Stensland says.

Other profitable measures to renovate the kitchen:

• Painting walls and ceilings
• Paint or varnish cabinet doors and replace knobs
• Replace or polish countertops
• Replace the mixer in the sink
• Replace appliances if they are old.

– It is important to remember that the flavor is very individual. So don’t completely eliminate expensive details and design options, Krantz cautions.

Move the kitchen to the living room?

One solution that is becoming more common in smaller apartments is to move the kitchen into the living room for an additional bedroom.

– If you go from a one-room room to a two-room room, it will pay off in 99 percent of cases. Many would rather have a separate bedroom than a separate kitchen, Stensland says.

If, on the other hand, you are thinking of moving your kitchen from a 3-bedroom to a 4-bedroom, you should think more carefully.

– Then there must be a certain size of the living room, so that it becomes functional. Think about where to put the TV and sofa after moving the kitchen. You can risk destroying the floor plan of the most important room in the house, says Stensland.

Profit can also go up on spinning as costs can be high if you have to move pipes and drains. This is also something that often needs to ask for approval in advance.

In such cases, it may be worth presenting an open kitchen solution as an alternative to potential buyers.

Living room, bedroom and closet

If you are painting the living room and bedroom, you should choose neutral colors. But keep in mind, never paint the entire house white.

– It is important to have contrasts. It looks best in images, and images are how we draw people to screenings, says Stensland.

If you have large rooms with a good ceiling height, you can choose slightly darker colors. If you have small rooms with low light, then you should choose bright colors. Rooms can be painted a slightly darker color than the rest of the house, the corridor recommends.

– Our task is to make the apartment stand out from the crowd, so sometimes it can work to do something sensational. I have a client who painted a contrasting wall orange in a small apartment. People remembered that apartment, he says.

– And it’s easy to repaint if you don’t want to keep the color afterwards.

Another thing that people also worry about in projections is that there are storage options.

– More and more people have so-called smart storage solutions with shelves and cabinets that frame the bed. This makes the room appear smaller and limits the width of the bed. If you put such a solution, it must be delicate; otherwise it will quickly become too much, says Stensland.

She recommends replacing freestanding cabinets with a separate door closet or installing a clear wall to create a “walk-in closet” if the bedroom is large enough.

Outdoor areas

If you’ve spent money on making the house nice inside first, it’s silly to forget about the outside areas.

– You cannot have an ironed house and a sterile garden. If you invest a little in an easy-to-use pergola, deck, or balcony, you’ll quickly get your money back for your efforts, says realtor Petter Krantz.

He recommends making sections or zones in the garden, so that you take good advantage of the area and show all the possibilities in the property.

Warns against embellishing the truth too much

Roger Andersen is an appraisal engineer and a member of the board of Norsk Takst.

– Homebuyers can be dazzled by tiles and fine colors, but we don’t care about beautiful surfaces, says Andersen.

The appraiser cautions sellers against embellishing the truth too much or taking shortcuts in renovation to hide damage and defects.

– I’ve seen cases where people have tried to hide a basement moisture problem by painting or hiding it behind a paneled wall. You will be disclosed and then it will be expensive for you, says Andersen, who has worked as an appraiser for more than 20 years.

He advises buyers who want to avoid buying the cat in the bag to read the status report carefully.

– Although it looks good on the surface, the status report will reveal what it really is like. If you see that work has been done on the home, you should always ask for documentation of the work, advises the appraiser.