Inherited nightmare house - what to do?

[TomHanksintheMoneyPit]

Last year I inherited my late mother's upper floor maisonette, which was in an appalling condition due to my mother being disabled and mentally ill and a hoarder, and a squatter living in the house for five months after her death who trashed the place.

The place is basically structurally sound and does not have any mould or mildew, and no problems with insect or rodent infestation or anything like that. But it's in a terrible condition and has not been touched since the 1970s. The bathroom and kitchen both need to be ripped out and replaced. It probably needs a new boiler. Every room (even the bathroom!) has stained, threadbare carpets. I've pulled some of the carpets back and the floorboards underneath are in reasonable condition albeit would need a fair bit of work (sanding, staining and varnishing) to make them look good. All the rooms except one have ancient tatty wallpaper. The doors, door frames and window frames are filthy and yellowed and would need to be deep-cleaned then re-painted white. The massive garden is a jungle with knee-high brambles and at least two fallen down sheds. The garage is so jammed with stuff you can't even get inside.

I have health problems, do not drive, and it takes me 90 minutes on (free) public transport to get to her house. I don't have anyone to help me and earn a pretty small salary, although I do have a generous cash inheritance which is in an ISA. I generally can only visit her house once a week, twice at most, and spend perhaps 7 hours there. It's taken me a year just to clear out her personal possessions and furniture. On the other hand I'm not bad at DIY/decorating and feel confident in being able to do stuff like prep and paint walls or put down laminate flooring.

I'm now at the point of having to decide when to put it on the market, and how much work to do in advance. People with experience in selling houses, and in particular selling or buying fixer uppers, would you recommend:

1. Putting it on the market as-is, as a fixer upper, in the knowledge that the sheer look of the place is so off-putting.

1. Doing superficial DIY work to make it look more appealing, eg. stripping the old wallpaper, giving the walls a fresh coat of paint, cleaning and re-painting the doors, ripping up the carpets and putting some cheap laminate floor tiles down, just so that the property looks clean, neutral, and not totally neglected. But leave the kitchen and bathroom and sell it with the understanding the new owners will need to do some work in installing a new kitchen and bathroom, new boiler, fixing the garden, etc.

1. Invest the contents of my ISA into paying someone to do it up properly including installing a new kitchen and bathroom, before putting it on the market.

I'm leaning towards #2, but I'm uncertain exactly what I should do, vs what I should leave. I keep thinking of new things that need fixing or replacing, like the garden fence, and going AAARRRRGGGHH! Any advice?

Get some estate agents in, they'll know the local market, how fast things are moving, whether a lick of paint would be worth your time.

Price up your time as well as what a skip etc would cost. There's lots of people who will clear garages and gardens.

Price up your 3 hours on a bus as well.

I don't know how old you are OP, but I would choose option 3 and use the rent as a pention top up. Of course if you decide you can sell it anytime.

Also, as already said if you decide to sell do NOT get rid of the bathroom and the kitchen as it would be unmortgageable. When we were house hunting you wouldn't believe the state of the properties that we saw! All those were selling at market price. In fact it was the properties in a good state who would sell above market price to claim their price and investment back. It stinks and I wish there were laws to claim money on a house with essentally no useable kitchen but here you are, allowed to sell.

We have just sold a property that sounds very like yours, we cleared it and did nothing else. We put it on the market, had 2 offers in the first day very close to the asking price

Option 2

Option 1. Not worth the stress, time, inconvenience for the little extra you may get for it. You start peeling wallpaper off for example and plaster will come off with it. Then you are looking at re plastering as well. People / builders love to buy a property do upper like yours. Get rid.

The point about there being no surprises hidden in a house which has been "patched up" is a good one. Our house has nothing that does not need replacing, it does not even have electricity, plumbing etc, and we are having to replace the whole roof. That was actually a selling point for us, as we knew before we started that everything had to be replaced and we could see that from the outset.

House clearance then sell at auction.

I would go for option two.

Clear out and rip up carpets, possibly clear garden too just so people can see how big it is, and paint walls - clean white walls and windows are the best money you will spend.

don't bother about kitchen or bathroom - you might get back the money you spend but you might not, just make sure they are clean. there's nothign worse than a hasty kitchen/bathroom renovation.

Also think about timing - when is the light at its best, does it look better in spring or winter. The market is pretty dead around Christmas and you don't want it hanging around too long or people will think there's a problem, so try and get it on for early spring if you can.

Remember that your time is precious and must also be factored in - i would aim to clear house and garden, paint and clean windows and get it on the market for April. And be savvy with your agent, ask around, get recommendations, and get a few to value it, then go for the one in the middle. Let them do the work.

Opton 2 for me, it leaves a potential purchaser with the choice of kitchen and bathroom, I lost count of the number of houses where the vendor had obviously replaced the kitchen and bathroom which we didn't like but we were bring expected to pay for!

Have you thought of auction, a buy-to-let landlord might be interested depending on where in the country it is.

It's not worth spending your time and effort on it. Pay to have the carpets removed and disposed of and anything else left in the house cleared. Pay to have the garage cleared. Then get EAs round and market it for sale.

Have it professionally cleaned and then sell it. It'll be sold as 'needs modernising' and there are plenty of people happy to buy fixer-uppers. I was one of them.

Property like this flies out with developers usually getting the nod from estate agents. I would do nothing. We owned a property next door came up just like your place. The son had the place emptied put it on the market we bought it. In the outhouse found dozens of pairs of rubber gloves, dusters, cleaning products. The house was filthy. Also decades of newspapers. We got the builders in stripped it out, new kitchen, bathroom, decorated throughout, carpeted it and let it out.

Boxing Day is the busiest day of the year for Rightmove hits apparently - aim to get it on the market for then.

OP. I have bought properties in such a condition and then let them. The reality is that given the awful base condition you are wasting time and money doing any work, apart from making sure it is cleared out and a base clean done to facilitate viewing

You can try an estate agent (and they will encourage you) but reality you are better selling via auction. That way it is high,y likely to sell and the buyer has no come back...they know what they are getting and buying in that expectation. You don't want hassle over buyers dropping out as they can't get a high enough mortgage etc.

Watch Homes under the Hammer which will give you an idea but reality is I suggest that is the best option for you

I would say definitely not #2. It's a waste of your time and money because there are two main markets for the property;

Someone looking for a project. They will see straight through all of your pitching up jobs and be factoring in the cost of renovating anyway.

Someone looking for minimal work. They will want it to be good enough to live in.

By patching up, you've not really hit either of those buyer needs, and have spent time and money and effort that simply won't pay back.

You will get more money for it if you do #3, but the property/location will determine whether you get back the £££ you spend on it. You'll get less money for it if you do #1, but will have the money more quickly and with less stress and with no danger of "losing" some of your ISA in the process.

No brainier for me; #1 every time.

Call up an estate agent and get advice. They will know the area and what's in demand. Maybe add some pictures as one persons idea of what's acceptable and another are often quite different.

Sometimes it's better to just put it in for sale as it is. Some people like property developers can see beyond that and will happily take it on. Personally for me I would prefer it in a state and rip it all out myself, then a half done approach. But we are all different.

2, but scaled down. clear property and garden

or 3 if you are financially and emotionally able for a better financial return. cut out the middle man (property developer). but it's hard, hard work. financial outlay can be massive if the work is more substantial and less cosmetic.

1, put it on the market now, if it doesn't sell you can consider the other options

Option 1. Chances are estate agent has list of builders who turn over houses like this. Especially important to see now while stamp duty holiday.

Dont bother spending any more time on it

OP, I inherited my grandparents home which was in a similar state and had the same dilemma. I am also disabled and the house was very far away.

I had the walls painted a white colour and when the local estate agent went in she said its actually pointless and a waste of money to do that as your buyers will be looking at it as a doer upper anyway.

I left the keys (you could post them special delivery so you don't have to travel) with the local estate agent so they could do all of the viewings, which was great. It will also probably need an energy rating and they can facilitate that for you too in your absence.

If I were you, I would just sell it as is. Its very stressful otherwise, especially when you are also dealing with the loss of your mother.

Rip up the carpets (easy) and possibly strip the wallpaper (but not necessary). Get clearance company to clear garage, sheds and basic cut back of the garden. Basically the bare minimum to make it look a blank shell.

Don't bother laying new flooring or painting, new owners will do that anyway.

It's going to be bought by a developer / competent renovator so the effort of you doing the work in option 1 compared to them is pointless.

I'd go with 1 and save yourself all that hassle for what's a run of the mill part of a reno for the buyer.

There’s an article in the Guardian this morning saying that properties like this are selling quicker than anything else in the UK sounds promising? So I’d say no.1

I was also able to do most of the paperwork via email so it didn't involve having to travel to solicitors to sign things. And any wet signatures were sent by post.