Help me sell my house

[StopSearching]

I've made a new thread so that I can post updates for those that are interested.

Previous thread here

Brief outline is my house needs improvement and re-marketing so I've been asking for advice and going to start implementing it.

People are generally intelligent enough to realise what a house will look like empty, or with new doors, or a different colour, or a table moved three inches to the left etc etc

If you want to see it then reduce the price and allow people who have not sold yet to view.

/thread

I purchased a property at around the same price bracket (260k), nearly the same time as you (different location). We extended into the loft last year, and have massively improved the house including bespoke hardwood windows and doors etc. I'll be blunt, even with that work I would be pretty pleased to get 350k. We may just push to that now as our area is very popular, AND we have added a huge room and massive bathroom, spending in total around 70k on home improvements since we moved in. Don't waste money on plants and cushions, lower the price.

Give it kerb appeal. Jet-spray the front. Put a big flowering shrub in a huge pot (so you can take it with you) in front of the house. Plant up hanging baskets or window boxes, Maybe get twin bay trees for either side of the front door.

Sort out your furniture so it's not all pushed up against the walls. One massive leather chair two feet from the TV looks odd. Zone the space so the big sofas face each other with a coffee table or similar in between maybe styled with some candles, plants, coffee table books etc.

Maybe have a neutral carpet laid in the hall and stairs. Repaint all areas that are looking shabby or stained.

I'd get rid of the random circular patio in the garden or put a tiny circular table and two chair son it to give it a purpose.

The house looks unloved, unlived in. Add a few big pot plants or throws or lamps, to make the living spaces more inviting. In the kitchen add some pots of herbs or a bowl of fruit, some flowering plants. People want to feel they could have a lovely life in a home. If it doesn't feel or look homely, they can't visualise that.

Get new agents to take photos once you are done.

There isn't time to sell quickly before the stamp duty holiday ends. The longer the house is actively on the market the worse its chance of selling becomes.

Better to take it off the market, redo what needs redoing, put it on the market again with a price that reflects the end of the holiday, plus any major renovations buyers would be guaranteed to want to do, then move on with your life.

There will still be buyers after the end of the stamp duty holiday.

I agree the price is still too high. But I don't agree that plants etc are a waste of money. You can take them with you and make your new home more welcoming too.

I've sold a few homes in my time - most of them pretty run down as I don't earn a lot and spend what I do earn on holidays and experiences not home improvements. But have always achieved top end of the going market rates (even when estate agents have said it's unlikely that we will) and it's because although the houses have always been a bit shabby, I've made sure they are spotlessly clean and tidy but also look like you'll live well in them. Plants and lamps and cushions in the right places can convey comfort and relaxation and creativity etc for very little outlay.

Valspar lambs wool is a lovely warm white.

@mathanxiety

There isn't time to sell quickly before the stamp duty holiday ends. The longer the house is actively on the market the worse its chance of selling becomes.

Better to take it off the market, redo what needs redoing, put it on the market again with a price that reflects the end of the holiday, plus any major renovations buyers would be guaranteed to want to do, then move on with your life.

There will still be buyers after the end of the stamp duty holiday.

You don't think a house could sell before the end of June?

I think it has to complete by the end of June to qualify doesn’t it?

OP, one thing I would do is rearrange the furniture in the main room, it's a bit doctor's waiting room with random sofas and chairs facing away from each other. Draw a floor plan of the room to scale on some grid paper, and cut out some cardboard shapes one for each piece of furniture, also roughly to scale. Have a play with moving the furniture around on your floor plan, see what you can come up with. And think about adding a nice big plant into the conservatory. It looks like another waiting area.
Some people can see past superficial stuff, others can't. It looks like you've mentally moved out already. The photos are so important, because some potential buyers will never walk through the door because the photos aren't selling it.
I'm going to lurk around for the updates, good luck!

If no ones said it, you can buy cheap stretchy sofa covers in any colour from Amazon that will fit and tuck into any sofa. Might be a cheap way of updating without buying new furniture you might not use again

Am I the only one who, if had the money would buy a house like this.
I would want to make it my own. So sprucing it up before hand is pointless for me.

@KettleWentBang

Am I the only one who, if had the money would buy a house like this. I would want to make it my own. So sprucing it up before hand is pointless for me.

“Making it your own” doesn’t usually involve fixing damp and mould, redoing unsafe dodgy electrics etc etc.

An end of June completion would usually require an entire chain to proceed without a glitch.

@mathanxiety

An end of June completion would usually require an entire chain to proceed without a glitch.

Our chain free sale took 11 weeks so I think selling and completing by the end of June would be nothing short of a miracle!

@KettleWentBang

Am I the only one who, if had the money would buy a house like this. I would want to make it my own. So sprucing it up before hand is pointless for me.

Loads of people do it, we’ve been renovating ours for the last seven years, although it wasn’t in the ops homes condition.

But no one pays a hefty premium for the property like it’s already done, and still well over its value, and then renovates. It has to be priced to take that into account.

The issue isn’t it’s a renovation job. The issue is it’s priced like it’s been totally renovated already, and then some.

Op, also just order a shower head from b&q. They cost less than a fiver. I think the top floor one is rusty or something.

www.diy.com/departments/goodhome-blyth-single-spray-pattern-shower-head/3663602300540_BQ.prd

@Bluntness100

I don’t know, I think some folks are asking the op to spend a lot. I think she needs to set a budget and work out how much to sell it for.

Not everyone has the kind of money to throw at things being suggested here, I’d not replace all the doors, that’s really expensive, I’d potentially paint them, but that’s all I’d do. I think some folks have oodles of cash to spare.

I’d defo clean all the carpets, and the walls, and power wash outside . Front and back,

There’s some money in the ceiling repairs to be spent. I’d consider replacing the green carpet depending on budget available, if not a good professional clean,

I’d then buy some white paint and some polyfilla and paint the top floor and the shower there.

Honestly I’m not sure I’d go further than that. I’d put some nice pots she can take with her outside at the front, and tidy up the back.

Honestly I don’t think I’d do more than that.

I don't know either, when did you become the arbiter of what people can suggest? You have been really nasty to the OP about her house. She lives there, it is her home and being really mean about it is just being really mean. I think the OP has taken everything said in very good grace though.

@StopSearching

Do people think white for bedrooms as well, or would you go for a hint of something to make it warmer?

Egyptian Cotton is a lovely colour. Shows as grey, green, beige as the light changes but is not really a colour.

@StopSearching

Do people think white for bedrooms as well, or would you go for a hint of something to make it warmer?

I no designer but if the room is less than perfect or dare I say slightly on the shabby side - ours is, white or very pale colours can emphasise it, we have very bold William Morris print for our duvet covet and pillowcases which does seem to detract from the slight shabbiness of the room

Hi OP-
You are the queen of decluttering! Do 5 adults really live there with so little stuff? Or did you hide some for the photos? It’s really interesting to me that you have decluttered to the max and it hasn’t achieved the popular minimalist look. People are telling you to re-clutter.

I also have damp stains on my ceiling from a skylight leak that has been repaired and is no longer a problem. There is no way I would put my house on the market before those are fixed.

I like your house and I love your graciousness in responding to the comments.

Although staging definitely has its place, the overpricing is what's losing OP interested buyers. That's the first thing that has to change, and it will be a significant amount because sorry OP, it's way, WAY over the ceiling. Your neighbour's house is far more polished, needs little doing to it and is very nicely set out.

Any viewer seeing OP's will think the kitchen areas will be much more user-friendly if it was all one large space. To achieve that, you'd have knock walls down, install RSJs, a lot of rewiring, replumbing, plastering, tiling, new kitchen units, painting, new flooring, possibly new light fixtures. That's a big job which will run into thousands, and although very much worth doing, the price of the house as it is should reflect that works of this nature will need doing. (It's maybe not essential, but the majority of people would need a roomier kitchen in a family house.)

I would definitely get the ceiling stains fixed, but only that and general cleaning. The price drop is the main thing.

As a PP sensibly said, there's no cushion in the world worth 350K and that's the truth. Even if a person was prepared to offer that, no way would the mortgage company agree to lend it. I think OP should seek some more accurate and honest valuations. Maybe get advices from her successful neighbours about good EA?

You are the queen of decluttering! Do 5 adults really live there with so little stuff? Or did you hide some for the photos?

This house has massive amounts of storage. I've never lived in a house with so many big cupboards. There's more storage in the loft bedroom, in the eaves too. It's actually got more rooms/space than a lot of more expensive houses.

We have never used our 4th bedroom as a bedroom but sometimes people have stayed over on airbeds, etc. and we've used it to sleep in then. We also have the office room in the garden which is a really good, useable space. It has an aerial too so the kids used to have it as a playhouse when they were young and watch movies out there.

Half of the garage is storage and the other half we have gym stuff in. We have the living room but also the garden room so that if some are watching tv and others want to chat/hang out, we have another room to use. In the summer, we open up the bifold doors and let all the sunshine and fresh air in. The living room stays nice and cool for when it gets too hot like it did last summer.

We have a patio to the side of the garden room, I'm not sure if it was on the photos, but that's where we put the garden table when we want to eat outside. We mostly use the little round patio for our sunbeds so that they don't sink into the lawn or ruin it.

We have yet to find a house that we want to move to. They all seem to be lacking in something that we've got already. If anyone wants to help me find a house to buy once this is sold, here are our essentials:

4 bed detached (4th room can be small)
Parking for 3 cars off road (but not one behind each other as that's a pain)
Living room (preferably at least 13 x 14 ft)
Separate dining room
One other reception room for socialising in
Study
Utility room/area
Downstairs loo
Bath
2 Showers
Garden - south or south/west facing - does not need to be large but not too overlooked
Garage
Don't mind village location if it at least has a shop or is within 5 miles or so of a shop for essentials
Don't mind town
Not on a main road
Not near a railway line, sewage works, recycling centre, etc.

That's it. Our house currently has all of this. The location we're looking in is about 10 mile radius of Glastonbury. Not Yeovil and not Bridgwater. Budget is about £500,000

That amount of storage will be a big selling point. Be sure to highlight it and include pictures.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/89346403#/

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/83981006#/