Do I install a driveway in order to sell the house?

[puffylovett]

We've been languishing on the market now for 18 months. The area is lovely, but you've got to want to live here in order to sell IYSWIM. Many properties around here have been on the market for a similar length of time, so it's not THAT unusual (nice part of Stoke).
We have reduced the price from £144k to £114k in the last 18 months (vastly overvalued initially, reduced when we remarketed with another EA, then reduced twice again).

We have had viewings.
Everyone loves the house, the views, the area.
The main issue is that you have to climb a fairly steep set of steps up to the front of the house, and the parking access is a single (small and inaccessible with my citroen c4) drive next to the patio around the back off a dirt track.
Almost every single viewer has come back with parking and access objections.
We also have held off putting in a new bathroom as per EA recommendations, they said not to bother as people would want to put their stamp on it - however, it's desperate for renewal so we're going to do that in february anyway, as I feel we're very firmly in first time buyer bracket, who lets face it are not going to want the expense of a new bathroom (downsizers won't consider an elevated property with limited parking).

I want to take out a loan / equity and install a driveway in order to sell (quotes coming in at about 7-8k due to the excavation and retaining walls required). My other half disagrees. Financially it would be hard as if we use up equity, we won't be able to afford a 10% deposit on a new house. He's not as utterly desperate to move as I am, but really wants DS1 to go to school anywhere other than Stoke - he starts in September...

What would you do? Happy to link to property for comments.
Thanks !

[Fiddledee]

Why don't you rent out this house and rent out another house near the location you want your child to go to school?

[lalalonglegs]

Yep, no point using up all your equity and then not being able to get a mortgage for another place.

Is there anything you can do to your bathroom without a full refurb? New taps and flooring?

[puffylovett]

Fiddle - have thought about renting, but DP not keen to take the risk, plus we'd lose a cracking mortgage deal (mortgage is portable).

Lala - it's a manky old battered avocado suite with dodgy mouldy grout... it's useable, obviously, we've cleaned it up and it's perfectly presentable, but it REALLY needs replacing...

It just feels like the one objection that needs overcoming is insurmountable - and it's really depressing and getting me down. We've no room to swing a cat and we're not in the area we spend most of our time in

[Fiddledee]

Bathroom sounds awful I'm afraid, I would definitely spend the money on that and not the drive. Where do you park your car?

[Pannacotta]

Am sure you could do the bathroom cheaply but nicely, look at Plumbworld.co.uk for a cheap white suite and taps/shower etc.

I would try and leave the drive, have you talked to the EA about it? Also have you had a few quotes?

[thisisyesterday]

tbh i kind of agree about the bathroom. a new bathroom isn't that much and the new owners would probably rather do that themselves and have it how they want it

the problem is that a new bathroom and a driveway will surely up the price? or would you just swallow the cost?

you could apply for permission to do the driveway and see if that helps it sell?

[puffylovett]

We;ve costed the bathroom out, I've picked out a cheap suite, some decent taps and nice but fairly cheap tiles - but we think it's still going to cost us in the region of 1k as suspect we will need to skim the ceiling etc etc. It's definitely getting done, there's no telling how long we're going to be stuck here and it's the only horrid room in the house now.

We've given info to the EA's on driveway quotes, which they said was a big help - not sure if they passed that info on to Sunday's viewers (first time buyers who seem to want to be able to tick every sinlge box in this price range, which is impossible imo - you always have to compromise on something - they wanted parking for 2 cars, not one apparently )

We've been told that installing a new bathroom will make it more saleable but not increase the value, and the same with the drive - although if we installed a drive, I feel we would need to increase the price to try to recoup some of the cost.

TBH if we installed a drive and removed our garage, living here would be soooooo much easier as we would actually have some outside space for the boys to play !

[thisisyesterday]

would that be an option then?

do the work, stay put for a while longer and then try and sell at a later date?

[thisisyesterday]

ahh sorry, no it's the school issue. hmmm

really tough one. don't suppose you know anyone who could lend a hand with doing a basic driveway job so it would cost less?

[puffylovett]

Am also really fed up with living here - I've never liked the house much, it was only supposed to be a stop gap to get me out of a bad relationship, and I'm still here 7 years later
Yes school and size are the issues. We don't know anyone unfortunately, DP would do it if it was flat but it's the amount of soil moving and digging that makes it a big job

That said, the outside of the house is shabby old concrete and really does need dragging in to the 21st century. The trouble is, any landscaping work will probably not add much value. Argh !!!!

I guess DP is right and we just need to sit tight with fingers crossed