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Put it on the market last September. Had a few viewings, feedback was too much work to do (decorating only) or too big or garden not big enough.

Have just dropped the price by another £10,000 to attract interest. The agents aren't suggesting anything useful.

We don't have the money to tart it up and will take a cheeky offer - just want it gone tbh

Has anyone sold through National homebuyers or similar? Are they a good bet or just a rip off? I know they only offer a % of it's value but i'm getting desperate.

Hi village,

Have you any ideas how much a home goes for all done up or needing work in your area?

Do you have a mortgage on it!

Our's has been on the market since last May. We've dropped the price by 10%. So, you're not alone but that probably will not help much.

Hiya - yes to mortgage but have plenty of equity. Every house on my road is different so hard to compare to others pricewise really. I just would rather not borrow money to decorate and take that into account with what we're asking for it.

It just needs a fresh coat of paint and a little plaster work in hallway. Kitchens and bathrooms are o.k. Just costing us the longer we keep it. Have had offer accepted on another house (not dependent on this selling so no chain).

I have contacted companies claiming quick purchases but they do offer a lot less. Will have to hope the market picks up I suppose and the new price does the trick. Am never selling again it's so fucking stressful!

My mum and dad contacted someone like National Homebuyers around 8 years ago when they were trying to sell. M&D paid around £800 upfront for a survey and quote. No-one even visited their house and the quote came in very, very low. Can't remember exactly, but they were offered, say, £185K on a house they eventually sold for well over £300k.
I wouldn't go down that route myself.

Economy sized tins of paint in a neutral colour and some plaster shouldn't cost more than £100. For the want of doing that, you could be losing thousands.

They're cowboys avoid like the plague.

If you drop the price enough it will sell.

After six months of our house not with our first estate agents we instructed a further two estate agents and then all three fell over themselves to sell the house and get the comission.

It sold a month later.

10L of Magnolia emulsion in B&Q is £14.48, it won't cost a lot to tart up the paintwork a bit.

Want to show us pictures? Advice is free!

Show us a rightmove link, we will advise.

I'd look at auction rather than those people if you really want to sell quickly.

Find a good decorator and get the plasterwork done and coat of neutral paint, clean your carpets as well if you have them - we did this when ours wasn't selling and it made a huge difference, cost us about £500 and we gained £22k, as undecorated we had a low offer, buyers were PItA about everything as it looked like it needed lots of work. They pulled out, we redecorated, got a buyer quite quickly and a much better offer. Can you rent it out for abut if our don't need the proceeds for your next purchase?

The usual reason houses don't sell is because the price is too high

Nothing to do with the decor etc

I'm house hunting at the moment.

Things that put me off are:

Naff tiles
Dodgy windows (cracked seals and so forth)
Half finished jobs
Messy garden
Old/dated kitchens
Lies on estate agent details (viewed a house recently which claimed to have gas central heating - had no gas at all and was fooking freezing)

Don't know if that helps at all.

We've been house hunting recently and I agree with most of Mrs Rajesh's list - apart from messy gardens, they make me quite excited as I love sorting out gardens (and we've just bought a house with a very messy jungle garden! )

Misleading photos put us off - we went to view a couple only to discover they were much smaller in real life than they looked on the photos.

I disagree with the poster who said it's only price that matters and decor won't stop a buyer.

I can say for definite that it can matter to a lot of buyers (me included). Many don't have the skills to do decorating themselves when they buy (me!) and some can't afford to decorate once they get into a property. Plus houses that need a good decorate often look pretty horendous to viewers.

I agree with the above posters who said get some cheap paint, even if it's white or magnolia and get painting. Drag friends over to help if needs be. You could even put a wanted ad for paint on freecycle (I've seen people do this - don't know if they are successful or not). You could also rent a carpet cleaner as this makes a difference. Have a major clear out and clean. De clutter massively as this helps. Clean your windows. Get the garden looking its best. Sweep paths and get rid of weeds. Stick some flowers in a vase. Have google on your laptop so the viewer knows your house is internet ready.

Price is definitely an issue. We put 2 bids in on a flat that were rejected. The owner wanted to recoup all the money she had spent on it. She bought just before the crash (so 2008 when prices were sky high). We are not going to refund her for what she chose to do.

Your estate agent should be advising you. If they are not - move. We sold last house within weeks of changing agent. The first lot were fooking awful!

That was also in an area where all houses were slightly different so hard to value. But the second lot got it spot on.

Another thing to think about is changing your estate agent. We tried to sell last year through a traditional commission-based ea with no luck. We then changed to an ea who charge an upfront fee (around £300) & for this they just advertised the property for us including sending details to existing clients & we did the rest - arranging & conducting viewings, speaking to people after & negotiating offers & contact with solicitors. We found it great to be able to deal with people personally & to know what people were being told! We sold within a fortnight

Hiya village gossip. I don't think you need to do work but it will have to stand out in the market as being cheap. Do you think it seems cheap for where you live considering work needs to be done?
If it seems really cheap you will find a buyer. If the agents don't seem very good I would change ( get some reccomendations off people you know) then market it looking significantly cheaper than ones in your area and it will sell. Every house has a price.
If you really want a quick sale knock more off. Don't go with one of the silly companies. You don't need to. All they will do is say they can give you a quick sale by knocking the price down to a really low figure, you will then end up with a lot less when you could get a quick sale by putting it on at a price that sounds cheap and end up with much more. These companies will want it for peanuts.

Drop the price more!

Decide on the minimum you can accept for it and put it in an auction.

Difficult to tell without seeing photos but I agree with others. We're looking at houses now and would be put off by:
- unfinished jobs (including your hallway but the description)
- windows or external doors in poor repair
- poor guttering

I guess, all of the above make me think the house hasn't been looked after and therefore what else is lurking. Obviously not assuming your house is like that at all.

We would look past the decor but we couldn't afford a new kitchen and bathroom (we could do one or the other). So if both of yours are dated, that wouldn't be great for us. You can just update your kitchen doors and or work top fairly cheaply.

We've found a carpenter to do some jobs around our house and will get a decorator in to spruce things up. It shouldn't cost us more than a few hundred pounds and hopefully will help us sell quickly.

Ours is a small starter type home so our buyers aren't going to have much spare money to do jobs around the house, so we need ours to look ready to move into.

by not but!