Don't be a DIY dodger: Skimping on regular maintenance could cost you a sale

Your flooring in the kitchen will catch the eye. Consider an economic replacement like LVT where it's really stressed. Picture: Pergo

Maintaining a house properly is important, and yes, sometimes it’s an expensive, weekend-devouring nuisance. In the big picture, it’s easier and less stressful to address problems head-on as soon as you have the time and money to afford a fix. Careening around in the final weeks before bringing a house to market, is stressful enough without facing a laundry list of repairs, some of which may have advanced from a DIY project to hiring in a trade to shore up the damage.

Speaking from personal experience, this loving, steady care is something that never seems to end if you’re in a dilapidated old pile. Approaching a home to buy, your viewers want to know that you’ve been kind to this house and you’ve taken its welfare and upkeep seriously. Further to that, where there’s been a chance for an upgrade, and I’m thinking particularly of inexpensive energy upgrades, your efforts will really count on those specs. Weeds waving from an uneven gutter, flaking paint admitting rain to a timber front door, dripping taps, skinny loft insulation and cracked tiles — it’s not a good look. A viewer’s mind can leap from the simplest repair issue or dated bit of décor, to presuming the house has serious structural issues, verging on subsiding.