What’s in a roof? Balancing quality and cost when preparing to sell your home

Whether or not you’ve reached the stage of planting a bold white ‘For Sale’ sign in front of your house, you’ll no doubt have been going through the place from top to bottom, making sure everything looks and feels… well… homely. You’ll also have probably put some thought into what could help to sell the place, and what could go against you in securing the ideal valuation.

Photogenic or full of faults?

Does the garden look neat and tidy? Are the kids’ rooms comfortable and playful, or complete disaster areas? Does the loft look practical, or like a long-lost, terrifying crypt? These and similar visual aspects of the home can all play a part – but what about key structural elements, such as the roof?

According to MyBuilder.com, the average cost of a new roof in the UK is roughly between £5,000 and £6,000. This, of course, is a massive cost to consider spending before selling a property, particularly when you’re looking at between 1.5% and 1.8% in agency fees just for selling. However, that £5,000 to £6,000, if it is indeed needed, could end up being knocked off the overall value of your home.

So, in terms of balancing quality and cost, it helps to put yourself in the shoes of the potential buyer. As you may already be in their situation, what do you look for, personally, when buying a new home? While you may have several key things in mind, such as a bigger garden than you already have, or more bedrooms, you’re also looking for problems, too, right?

Solutions over problems

Moneycrashers.com report six key things that can deter potential buyers, ranging from the quality of the windows to unusual odours and strange stains. Also on this list is the number of recent upgrades to the property itself. Essentially, this equates to how much work the new owner will have to put in to modernise the property to the standards they expect.

In an ideal world, we’d each move from one home into the ready-made next (and this is one of the attractions of new builds). However, in reality, there’s always going to be, at the very least, some decorating to take care of and maybe some more extensive work to plan for. Therefore, nobody’s really going to want to pay for something as substantial as a new roof at the same time they get a new set of keys.

Hence, if something like the roof needs attention, it’d be worth you dealing with it before you sell. A new roof could help to sustain the value of the property, as that roof will likely be guaranteed for a long time, and any other repairs could also further prove that you’ve looked after the home over time.

It might be worth getting a multi-skilled contractor to look at the roof and other areas of the home, and agree a single cost for whatever needs professional attention. There are combined building and roofing companies all over the UK, like the firm of Findley’s builders and roofers in Chester le Street, that can tackle repairs and home improvements from top to bottom of a property. We can help you to balance quality and cost effectively as you prepare to sell your home.