Selling elderly parents house - tips please!

[sarasabrownie]

Sad task of clearing out house in another part of the UK. No relatives remain in the area so we're going to have to take holidays/long weekends to clear. Realise we might need to remove stairlift - do people buy these second hand? The bath was removed a few years ago and relative was ripped off and had a big shower with grab rails installed for £9k. With a bit of a clean and removal of grab rails it could look OK. Carpets downstairs are OK bit tired and walls when we remove pictures will be patchy because of nicotine stains. Kitchen done up a while ago so not too bad but they never finished tiling properly and kept old white goods. We are just wondering how much to do before putting on market. It's in a part of the world where 3 bed semis go for about £150k. Garden back and front that will need cutting back tidying. Because we have such shortage of time and just want to get rid we want to do enough to sell it but not go too over board. Anyone got experience of this and tips?

I sold my dm's house a few years back. I went with the average price quoted by the agents but it sat on the market for six months with no viewings.

I decided to sack first agent, moved to another and dropped the price. I also decided to paint it throughout and it looked a whole lot fresher. Was really, really hard work though as I have to cover blown vinyl.

It went on with new agent Friday and was sold on the Tuesday. Very low offer but the EA took buyer (buy to let) round again and he did say it was in a whole lot better condition than he originally imagined and offered £3,500 more which I took.

Tbh, I think he would have bought anyway. The paint cost me around £50 on offer but the labour was ridiculous.

He wanted a ten day completion as well and did not even have a local search or survey done. The solicitor who was dealing with mum's estate had a secretary whose brother did some house clearances and he took the larger items that I could not move myself for around £50 and the solicitor used money from the estate to pay him.

I used to go up every weekend and in the end my family told me it was time it went so I cut my losses. It was hard making my brother accept the financial reality, but that's a whole different story.

Stair lifts are easy to remove, they are usually fixed to the treads not the wall. There is a busy market for them on eBay or Gumtree. They don't fetch lots but they do sell.

Thanks again. Really useful advice.

You have two issues . time and money.

If you try to tart up the house it wil take you time, or you will have to pay someone to do it, which will cost you.

personally if I was buying an old persons house I would probably want to do stuff like upgrade the heating, electrics, plumbing before I started on kitchen/bathroom/decoration. so any painting/new carpeting done by the old owners would be wasted effort as far as I am concerned.

So I think the best thing you can do to save both time and money is to completely strip the house, including old carpets and the stair lift, though I would leave current bathroom and kitchen fittings. Leave an empty shell so that potential buyers can see the space . I would also cut back the garden. but that is it , anything else in my opinion is a waste of your time and money.

We looked at a lot of houses of elderly previous owners. They would all have been "projects" but the most appealing were clean and fresh smelling (maybe try having carpets cleaned), completely clear of furniture and not looking botched. So you could see what you had to work with and could conceive living there for a bit. I.e. The impression of a home that had been cared for but was ready for updating. Would that be achievable?

Of course, carpets could also be removed as pp said

I sold my late parents house in January, on the first day it was advertised. Estate agents said dont do anything except remove stairlift and majority of furniture. They suggested leaving some furniture in so prospective buyers could get idea of size.
It was stuck in a 70's timewarp but no point in putting in s cheap new kitchen or bathroom as it wouldnt attract more interest.

Get several estate agents around and ask what the market is like in that area, what they think is best etc. Probably with putting a link to specific area on here to get people who are into housing markets to help you research.

The EA want your business so they tend to say what they think you want to hear!

We bought a house that had been adapted for an elderly lady-bath removed and disabilty seat in the 'wet room'. It was in such a good school district we were in a bidding war and had to offer a good 12k over the asking price. The owners had repainted it and put new carpets in- we were very grateful for that. The kitchen is the original from 1957 and we have kept it! If the house is sound it will sell. I would have carpets cleaned and repaint in white and sell as is. We were the buyers that preferred to pay less and we live with it till we can afford to do it up.