Selling a period property

[goldenlilliesdaffodillies]

Does anyone have any tips on how best to sell a period property full of beams, inglenooks and wooden floors? I appreciate a very old house won't appeal to everyone.

Are period houses much harder to sell and currently out of fashion?

I think there are plenty of people who love period homes providing they are well-maintained.

Same rules apply to all properties I.e. Is the property well maintained, clean and uncluttered? Make sure you have all documentation relating to any building works you may have done and get 3 local agents to value the property. The main reason properties don't sell is the price. I work in EA and over the past 2 years we have found grade I listed houses more difficult to sell - unless they have been recently modernised and opened up inside. One if the things that does seem to put some people off period homes at the moment are a number of small rooms leading off each other, low beans and ceilings and small doors which can be found in cottage properties. What she is your house and where in the country are you?

Period properties are snapped up in no time round here. Often sell before they even make it on to RightMove.

It sounds gorgeous! Keep clutter to an absolute minimum and colours as light as possible. And post us a link to pictures?

Round here, there is definitely a premium on old houses, especially those that have been well cared for.

Really old places are often quite dark, though, so make sure your bulbs have a strong enough wattage. Have lots of lights on the stairs when people come to view; ditto in the kitchen because nobody wants to be stuck in a pokey kitchen.

Also it won't hurt if you can brag about the extra insulation you shoved in the loft, and the tasteful secondary glazing you've had installed.

Typically many period properties are very badly maintained because it I expensive to do it properly.

If a period property is in top condition and priced properly it will sell. If it is badly maintained it will sell at a deep discount.

I live in a Grade II property in a conservation area. Many oldpeople live in poorly maintained listed properties in my street. They take an age to sell. Once done up they sell fast.

As others say, declutter, thoroughly redecorate, remove carpets, clean wooden floors, repair. Tidy and prune the garden and returf the lawn if necessary. It will sell

Thanks everyone- some useful advice, particularly about the light bulbs.

We have maintained our house well and done quite abit of work to it over the years (including adding a big, bright kitchen). As it's Grade 2 we haven't been allowed to have secondary glazing. The planners in our area are extremely fussy (and quite rightly so with an old house as we are very much custodians).

I am afraid I can't add a link to right move as it will out me instantly!

Well, theres no disguising it!!

We've just sold our G2 listed and yes I do think it was more difficult (although strangely the price was higher than a modern house). Ours was also in the country which didnt help matters.

There isnt much of a local market, so we had a lot of viewers from London, but once there they didnt seem to have really thought through the whole "life in the country" scenario. They didnt like the low ceilings (they're not really), they didnt like the small rooms (wanted open plan), didnt like not having double glazing, found the garden too large, wanted extortionate amounts off for what was basically ongoing maintenance ( a large house so in 2 years x or y needed doing), didnt like the tractors trundling through the village, didnt like going 2 miles to the farm shop for bread/milk.

I suppose it depends who you're market is, but keep rooms light, bright uncluttered as generally this where they fall down against modern homes.

As for the windows - we were allowed magnaglaze, a thin PVC screen which temporarily fixes to the actual window frame. The National Trust uses a similar version. We didnt even have to get listed permission, just called in to see the council with pictures. Its amazing and stops all draughts.

Now I need to find myself another one in our new area!!

If you are already on Rightmove this advice is too late but I would get lots of close up pictures of the period details and if you have a working fire, get a photo taken of it in use.

Sunnyshores- that has been my experience of London viewers (no offence to any London viewers out there). They have to drive about 2 hours to get here and then complain about the beams and doorways being too low or the beams being too dark on rainy days or the cottage garden being too small or the cottage might be too much maintenance in the future. It's a Tudor house. It's not going to be open plan and bright and airy. What do people expect from a house this old? (Thanks for the tip about the glass- will look into that!)

Pinkje- thanks for the tip we do have the period features showing on Right Move but a picture of a the inglenook in use is a good idea.