When preparing to sell, it is easy to start noticing everything that needs attention. The carpet looks tired, the kitchen feels dated and the bathroom is not quite what you would choose today. But preparing to move does not mean paying to give the next owner a newly renovated home. In our previous article, Home Staging: Is It Worth It?, we explored the role of presentation. This time, the question is more practical: which jobs deserve your money, and which are best left alone

You own the house. You pay the mortgage. If you leave it empty long enough, your local council can potentially take control of its management and ultimately put tenants in it. EDMO - An illustration of a local council taking management control of a long-term empty home. This is an Empty Dwelling Management Order (EDMO). You remain the legal owner, but while an EDMO is operating, the council can acquire substantial management powers over the property. On 27 September 2026, the

Five questions to ask before choosing a mortgage or remortgage, from early exit fees to less obvious lending options.

You look at your Energy Performance Certificate [EPC] and see a big D staring back at you. Underneath, it tells you that your home could potentially become a B. So, if you're thinking of selling, should you spend money getting it there? Perhaps. But a better EPC rating doesn't automatically mean you've made a good investment. Some improvements can make your home warmer, cheaper to run and potentially more attractive to buyers. Others can cost thousands of pounds for surprisin

So, you decide to update the bathroom... It sounds straightforward. New tiles, perhaps a better shower screen and a fresh colour on the walls. Then the choices begin. Ceramic or porcelain? Large format or smaller tiles? Matte or gloss? Plain or patterned? Which grout? Which trim? What works with the light? What will still look good when the latest social-media trend has moved on? Before long, you have 30 tabs open, a phone full of screenshots and no clearer idea of what to bu

At the end of the day, politics will continue to change, and people will still need to move. Governments change, policies change and new housing announcements appear regularly. This can leave homeowners wondering whether they should move now or wait to see what happens next. However, people rarely move because the political conditions are perfect. They move because their family needs more space, their work has changed, they want to be closer to relatives or their present home

When selling a property, sellers often ask whether home staging is genuinely worthwhile or simply an unnecessary decorating expense. The honest answer is that staging cannot change the location, repair serious faults or rescue a property that is badly overpriced. What it can do is help buyers understand the space, appreciate its strongest features and imagine themselves living there. What does the evidence say? Research suggests home staging helps buyers picture themselves li

When we think about building a house, we usually picture bricks, timber and months of construction. But some homes are now being 3D printed. Imagine being offered a home built using earth, natural fibres and a giant 3D printer. It looks different from a traditional brick house, but it is designed to be comfortable and kinder to the environment. Would you buy one, build one—or worry about living in such an unfamiliar property? TECLA, an experimental 3D-printed earth building c

When everything else has been improved, sellers may need to ask whether the property’s asking price still reflects today’s market and what buyers can afford. AI-generated image. You have improved the presentation, refreshed the photographs, strengthened the marketing and made viewings easy to arrange. Yet the property is still not selling. This is the point where the conversation becomes more difficult—but also more useful. If the obvious problems have been dealt with, the pr