Selling a house what needs a total overhaul

[Notsleepingx]

Very stressed. Selling parental home as got to pay large IHT bill. It's been on the market for a week with only 3 viewings.

3 viewings in a week is good. Why are you stressed?

Some people look for a house that needs renovating. As long as it is priced to reflect that I wouldn’t worry too much. (Although selling houses is always stressful!)

It will be down to price, presumably you’ve got a valuation for probate and as long as you don’t sell it too far below the valuation, then price it to sell quickly.
After the IHT bill, remaining money is better in the bank than sitting tied up in a house.

3 viewings is ok .
Make sure the EA is marketing it correctly. Investment property, ripe for improvement and updating, make this your perfect family home — those sort of terms.
Price will be crucial so do the maths carefully.
If you’re selling at £250k or less EA can stress the lack of stamp duty.
You have to keep pushing.

1970s kitchen and bathroom, peeling wall paper, electric storage heaters. I'm worried it won't sell in time for next IHT payment

Doesn't still have furniture in it? When we sold PIL house we decluttered to the bone but left enough furniture in to look nice/show proportions of the room. Plus some fresh linens and things like that do it looked more neutral.

3 viewings in a week is great, what area of the country are you in?
If you are desperate slash the price and it will go quickly.

Is it empty, cleanish and swept so people can see what they are getting, and with a decent dimensioned floorplan? If it's a renovation project people need to see where they are starting from.

I think you can pay IHT in annual instalments rather than all in one go - so that may help IF the house doesn't sell.

As other have said 3 viewings in a week isn't too bad. It's Spring so the housing market should be picking up. Dont worry - there will always be people out there looking for a project. Make sure it's priced and marketed correctly. Good Luck

Sorry for being thick, but if you have inheritance tax to pay you must have inherited a very large sum of money. Where is that?

You have to pay IHT before you get probate (I think)

I don't know much about it either, but assumed the IHT would be based on value of the property?

I'm looking specifically for a probate house (again). They divide very cleanly between sensibly priced and woefully optimistically priced. The latter group tend to languish on the market for a year before the price is suddenly dropped.

I think being realistic about the costs to renovate and building that in to the asking, is the main thing you can do to get a prompt sale.

Not necessarily, the price of the property could push them over the threshold and if there is very little cash in the estate, it is hard to pay the IHT.

OP don't waste money on updating anything is the advice we were given. Price it appropriately for the condition is in.

With my parents house, we paid the first instalment of IHT then the rest was paid about 15 months later (with interest added) when the house finally sold, we had 2 buyers string us along and then pull out. Plus my brother was being greedy and it went in at far too high a price to start off with.

My view is that if it's clean and tidy and doesn't smell bad the rest doesn't really matter. Viewers should have already worked out from the photos and EA particulars that the place is going to need time and money to bring up to current day standards.

Hopefully at least one of the viewings will turn into an offer and do ask the EA for feedback, although some of that will be ridiculous and irrelevant. I wondered what goes through some buyers minds!
The right buyer will be out there, you just might have to wait a bit for them. Our dream buyer finally turned up and the whole process only took 5 weeks AND they paid full asking price as well. So that wait and £95k more money was worth waiting for just for the tax bill alone. When I met them on completion day, it turned out she'd been looking at the house on rightMove for 6 months and just knew it would be her next house, knew the 2 previous sales would fall through and she'd get it. they weren't in a position to proceed then but when they were it was all systems go. Now it's all being refurbished and extended and going to be beautiful.

As PPs have said lots of people want a doer upper but the price must reflect that.

If the house sells for less than the IHT valuation you will get a reduction/rebate I believe.

Having to pay IHT doesn’t mean you’ve inherited a dollop of money. It’s payable on the property value too, and 10% of the tax has to be found six months after the person died, whether probate has been granted or not - and nothing can be transferred to the person inheriting until probate has been granted (in other words the government can do their bit as slowly as they like, but you can’t). And yes you can get a loan, which is great if you can find a few hundred a month in repayments! IHT has nearly broken us financially, on top of the grief of losing a loved one suddenly.

Anyway, back to the question- we are about to market a half finished house. The plan is to clean and leave the unfinished rooms, and stage the finished rooms with furniture, lamps, cushions bedding etc, but no clutter. It’s priced at 25% less than it would be as a finished house. It might take a bit of a wait, but for the right person who is prepared to do the work it’s a good buy.

Scour the cupboards for a stunt pineapple...
Job done..

House rich, cash poor I'm afraid.

OK so my understanding from this thread is that you have to pay the tax before the property you have inherited has been sold?? How can that be right?

OP don't waste money on updating anything is the advice we were given. Price it appropriately for the condition is in.

We were given the same advice last year. The kitchen and bathroom were in a reasonable state, but it needed new flooring and decorating throughout.

We were lucky that the house sold much more quickly than we had expected.

You have to pay 10% every year (with interest). If you sell anything belonging to the deceased it has to pay IHT off first. It was a bit of a shocker for us when the solicitor told us, I hadn’t realised. We have paid more IHT than we’ve earned in wages this year (my husband was seriously ill and on stationary sick pay and I’ve been on part time minimum wage looking after him. It feels really harsh. We’ve sold just about everything we own. I know we’ll end up with a nice house (albeit one that needs a lot of work) at the end of all this, and we’re lucky, but at the moment it’s scary!

Wow ...I am a shocked and worried about what @Roryhon has just said !

I did not know that was how it all worked .

My DM has loads of collectable things/ornaments and things that she has always said....ohh bizzey ...you can have them ..
But it is not mentioned in her will.

So , they will get classed as her estate then along with the house ?

And if sold ...IHT will be liable ?

Ohhh man ...

I really don't think we have ring fences ourselves for a massive bill 😕

What if she sells them now ...and gives me the money ....is that a deprivation of assets ?

Or if I sell them in my name ...does that make a difference?

I don't think doer-uppers are popular any more with the increased prices in labour and materials. So that just leaves price. Is it priced accordingly?