Asking price advice please - London 3 bed terrace

[Lincsafron]

Hello property people.

Our near neighbours have put their house on the market. It is a 3 bed terrace with a converted attic, so now 4 beds and two bathrooms. It has also had a side return extension to the kitchen.

It is immaculately decorated and everything finished to the highest standard.

We want to put our house on the market too in the near future. It does not have the loft conversion, or a kitchen extension into the side return. It needs redecorating and new carpets throughout, but the windows, boiler, kitchen, bathroom and electrics are all good.

How much less £££ than the done up house a few doors along do you think we should be asking?

London is a big place OP - you'd have to be more specific. Have you looked at sold prices and asking prices in your area? There must be something comparable nearby to give you an idea.

The house is on the market for £1,150,000. I actually want to put ours on the market at the same time to make it seem like a bargain in comparison, just wondering what sort of price we could get given those differences between the two I've mentioned? I want to know now, before getting the Estate Agents in, because I want to know if we can afford what we want in our next move.

Aaargh what happened to my nc?

Name change fail

But based upon what you've said, I reckon they'd put it on for £950k-£1m

I don't think your place would seem like a bargain unless it was at least £250k cheaper - loft and side return plus new whizzy kitchen could easily cost £150k plus new flooring and redecoration throughout plus all the inconvenience...

Is the sq ft stated on the particulars? Work out what they are asking per sq ft for theirs, estimate how much sq ft you have and that should give you a rough guess.....if your location is good then it's probably £100k - £150k less.

I think your strategy is a good one. We're in a similar position (except you could get four of our house for that!) as a few doors down a house has had a refurb and extension.

Lots of buyers would like somewhere they could just move into but with potential to add value/grow with their family.

I'd put it on for £250-£275k less. I'm assuming you only have one bathroom, dated decor, dated kitchen, one less bedroom. Getting it up to your neighbour's standard would cost a bomb. £1500-2000 per sq m for building costs in London, easily. Plus vat, kitchen, curtains, staircase and other soft furnishings on top.

People like being able to 'put their mark' on properties. I think you're probably in a better position than you would be if you had done up your house 5 years ago. Why don't you go for the traditional 3 quotes from agents & pick something in the middle? My guess is your house is probably worth £975, where is the stamp duty split, can you price so you benefit from that? I just looked - around £58,750 on £1150000 (5.11%) but at £925K it would only be £36,250 (3.92%). Pity the rate goes up at £925 rather than £1m. How quickly are houses selling near you? Do you want to try & move in Jan/Feb? Could work well if they want to have the property for school applications & can then work on the house before the 2016 school year.

Quite a bit less I'd say. All other things being equal like garden size and so on. Estimate roughly how much it would cost somebody to make your house the same as the other house. Deduct that fromthe price and then deduct a bit more. But not everyone will even want an extended house. And it's a bit boring moving into a house all ready done so you can't choose kitchens and bathrooms yourself or justify replacing them if they are quite new.

Thanks for these replies. Our kitchen is large and lovely and we spent a lot on it 3 years ago, so it's not unlivable with, but we didn't do the whole side return thing. It boiled down to spending £70,000 just to be able to fit a sofa and tv in the kitchen when we already have two other large reception rooms downstairs.

But I know people like them and think they have to have them these days!

Aside from the side return and the loft you would only need to spend £10,000 tops to get the rest of the house up to scratch. All of the bedrooms have been decorated recently, so it means decorating the exterior, the downstairs rooms and the hall and stairs. And new carpet throughout.

If we got anything over £900,000 for the house I would be absolutely delighted tbh. It is more attractive from the outside and probably a tiny bit larger.

Work sounds as if its £150-£200k so that brings you in at £950k. But to be a comparable 'bargain' I think you'll have to be just the lower side of stamp duty at £925k.

Alot of people will prefer yours and to do the work themselves. It is an ideal time to market yours. Maybe even with the same Agent as you know then everyone who sees theirs will see yours too and you wont get their agent saying "theres a complete wreck down the road only £250k cheaper, so this is the bargain".

I agree that the stamp duty threshold of £925k will make yours look like a bargain. Do you need planning permission for the loft? If so, get that and sell it with permission - that will help I think.

Yes £925k sounds perfect. Your house will sell faster than the other one. Where are you moving minty? Leaving London?

PP will take too long - but if it doesnt need PP cut and paste the relevant council wording for the website. Get a quote for the loft, quote for painting exterior and use your previous quotes for the side return. Get some fliers from decorators and carpet shops. Put it all in a nice pack where people can see it (Dont give it to the EA and expect them to show people IME they dont bother or lose it).

I also add the local school info and anyhting else that may be of interest or a selling point.

People do prefer projects, but ultimately they are lazy, so do the leg work for them!

Going by houses near us by the good school I would say £900k. The houses that have been done in the area I'm thinking of go for £1.2m and so for somewhere that hasn't been extended I'd expect to see it on the market for £900-950k.

If they are getting top dollar for theirs and it's had all that work, yours should be at least £250k cheaper. Especially if they have designer kitchen etc. A side return and loft conversion on a big Victorian / Edwardian terrace could easily cost £200k if it has high end finish.

I would personally prefer to buy a place that needed the work and do it myself but it is A LOT of hassle. You not only need to compensate for the cost of the work but the hassle of getting the work done. If I had to live through all that work being done I'd expect to be at least £75k better off at the end of it!

Post a link to the posh house - I love a bit of London house porn!

If put it on at 925 or 950k.

I know that in London you're not going to see change from a 100k to put in a loft conversion and side return - plus the 'cost'of disruption.

I think you'll get your 900

I'm not going to post a link as its pretty "outing" to me.

I wanted to be more anonymous but my name changed failed .

When I worked as an EA, we didn't actually automatically deduct the cost of works plus a bit more on top as "compensation" on a doer upper, because there were so many people out there wanting to do a house to their own spec. So unfinished houses were at a bit of a premium.

But anyway, I have decided on what I'd like ideally from the helpful replies on the thread, now to see what the EAs say ...

You could always put it on at 999,990 for daft people like me who had no idea how much having work done in the south-East cost.

I had an amazing loft conversion, side return, masses of work done for less than £30k in the Midlands. Then I moved to the south east and it cost me £44k to put a (shit) conservatory on.

Good luck, I think you'll have no problem getting the figure you want at all.