In How to Buy Your First Home, property expert Phil Spencer takes the worry out of the property market. Breaking everything down into simple and achievable steps, he makes this daunting process easy. Learn how to:

- Find your perfect pad
- Get a mortgage that’s right for you
- Negotiate with estate agents and sellers
- Organise exchange and completion

Including indispensible advice, money-saving tips and an essential trouble-shooting section, this guide covers everything a first-time buyer needs to know. And when it’s time to move on again, this book will show you how to sell your home too.

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Equally, if there are no internal pictures, it generally means the inside of the house is in a bad state and there is no advantage in showing any photos of its unloved rooms. If no one can supply decent pictures, then a canny buyer reckons he can save some time and not view the property at all – unless, of course, he is after a bargain-basement wreck.

So, keep this in mind if you are selling. If you aren’t able to come up with some decent photographs, you will be driving away a good number of buyers, while those who still want to view your home are likely to be after a ‘bargain’. People equate bad interiors with a wreck that they expect to get for a knockdown price.

–Phil

The house was bought in 1999 and we added an extension on the back of the house in 2009, creating a new downstairs shower and an open plan kitchen. We also re landscaped the garden completely.

- Justin

The original kitchen was fitted in 1961 – we found the receipt when we dismantled it!

The kitchen used to be L shaped with a lobby, we had the lobby knocked down new RSJ’s fitted, the front wall removed and replaced with opening glass doors the left wall rebuilt, a new concrete floor poured, new wiring and plumbing installed, a slate floor laid, kitchen and appliances fitted, granite worktops installed and the final piece was the chandelier/extractor fan which we imported from Italy.

-Gary

As a trained building surveyor, I like to get my hands dirty checking and repairing my home. In the autumn – a good time to carry out work before winter rains and winds arrive – I clean out gutters, make sure drain holes are clear and airbricks clean. Chimneys get a once-over as well to ensure air is circulating around.

Also, make sure your roof is water-tight, re-fi x slipped or missing tiles and remove vegetation growing in masonry.  Leaving these items un-repaired will result in frost damage and allow damp to penetrate. It is far cheaper maintaining your house regularly than leaving it for years and having to pay for more serious work.

Good maintenance is important even if you aren’t planning to sell. Looking after the place where you live has never been more vital.

PHIL’S TOP TIPS

• Clear plants, leaves and silt from gutters, hopper-heads, flat roofsand drainage channels.
• Check for blocked down-pipes: during heavy rain look to see watercoming from leaky joints and in dry weather look for stainedbrickwork.
• Keep gullies and drains at ground level clean and clear of debris, such as leaves, twigs, and even balls and toys.
• Remove potentially damaging vegetation from behind down-pipes by cutting back or removing plants altogether.
• Use a hand mirror to look behind rainwater pipes where splits andcracks in old cast iron and aluminium often occur and are not easily noticed.
• Fit bird or leaf guards to the tops of soil pipes and rainwater outlets to prevent blockage.
• Have gutters re-fi xed if they are sloping the wrong way or discharging water on to walls.
• If sections of guttering or pipe work are beyond repair, make sure replacements are made of the same material as the originals. On older listed houses, this is sometimes lead, but more typically, cast iron.
• Regularly paint cast iron to prevent rust and to keep your property looking smart.
• Don’t undertake routine maintenance work at high levels unless you are accompanied and have suitable equipment – if in doubt, hire a professional.

—Phil

From Adding Value to Your Home

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However, it started to languish on the market. Interested buyers lined up to view the house, but felt it lacked a good bedroom layout and large reception room. Ironically, the main reception room in the accompanying cottage was larger than the living room in the house.

So the owners decided to add some extra rooms and give the buyers what they were asking for. Just over a year later, the thoughtfully extended 4,000-square-foot (372-square-metre) house was back on the market with a large new ground floor drawing/dining room and an en-suite master bedroom and dressing room above. Along with the extra floor space, the price went up accordingly to £1.5 million, to cover the building costs of nearly £100,000.

Making key rooms bigger gives the property an added dimension and added value, says the estate agent who helped with the Hollands’ sale. ‘You are turning a modest farmhouse with a cottage into a splendid country house with a cottage.’

This is an example of a homeowner taking expert advice to enhance a house and help sell at a good price. It might seem baffl ing that buyers felt the property lacked space, as the place was awash with rooms before the building work was even planned or carried out. However, people expect a good-sized living room in a country farmhouse where they imagine everyone gathering for Christmas and other major occasions. If it is too small and out of balance with the rest of the house, it doesn’t fit in with what people expect from a decent-sized rural property.

The original 16- by 14-foot (4.9- by 4.3-metre) drawing room is now called the sitting room and the extension has become a spacious drawing room of 25 by 24 feet (7.6 by 7.3 metres), with doors opening onto the dining room. Above, the new master bedroom suite with a fitted dressing room and smart en-suite bathroom is closer to the ideal a prospective purchaser would have in mind when buying a family house in this area.

Marcia Holland, a 48-year-old health practice administrator, says they were careful to match the new rooms to the older Victorian house.

‘Some people go hunting for animals, but I went hunting for beams,’ she explains. ‘During my search, I also found round bricks and slate for the fireplace, so it doesn’t look too glaringly new.’ The Hollands also put in wood skirting and architraves that look similar to what would have been in the house originally.

Costs were kept down with members of the family carrying out some of the work themselves. Marcia’s husband Kevin, a 50-year-old lighting designer, helped drive a small digger to get rid of some of the soil and Marcia sourced most of the materials, ordered them and kept track of the budget.

The family is moving on with their children, Jeff, 15, and Louisa, 13, and Marcia says the extension has been ‘lovingly done for us, and not just to sell the house. This is not a quick bodged job. We selected good oak flooring over less-expensive laminate and put in wood detailing above the windows’.

Marcia and Kevin also have planning permission in place to build a tennis court on their land. An outbuilding has been converted into a small gym and new owners could turn it into a home office or a studio if they preferred.

‘We wanted to use the best of the space we have and offer flexibility as needs change,’ says Kevin. ‘There is a large games room above the garage and a separate 2,000-square-foot (186-square-metre) three-bedroom cottage, ideal for visitors or for an office if you work from home.’

After only three weeks on the market, the re-launched house with its roomy new extension sold for close to the asking price.

‘We covered our costs, managed to make a bit on top and sold the house for what we felt it was worth,’ points out Kevin. ‘And guess what the new owners like most? You guessed it – the master bedroom suite and the new living room.’

– From Adding Value to Your Home