How on earth do you sell an unusual home?!!

[LondonTowers]

To cut a long story short we bought our home about 4 years ago and we thought we would be here for a long time....forever! Our circumstances have changed and we have outgrown our home in so many ways.

The problem is we live in a water tower. It was converted in the 60s and we have loved it and updated it a fair bit and we have invested in it because we thought we would be staying here for a very long time.

There is a number of reasons we want to move, the property is quirky and unusual which we love but it does not work with our family dynamics anymore.

We've had a valuation from a mainstream company and I get the impression it will be hard to shift....I think it's the type of house people love but not necessarily the type they would buy..... its topsy turvy living with lots of stairs ;)

Does anyone have any advice on how to sell a quirky home?!

Thank you for all your comments. Its been a big help. Definitely like the idea of a feature article and I've been speaking to someone from unique homes..... :)

Not as out there but we live in a slightly unusual development off flat roofed eco builds and although I love our house I have been a bit worried about resale value as we brought it new. However the few that have been put in the market recently seem to have gone with the "premium" local agents and sold fairly quickly. I have also seen unusual houses in our local lifestyle magazine ...that might be an option depends where you are obviously but ours is Living North.

I’m intrigued as there is a lived in water tower near me! I always drive past it and think it’s awesome.

[quote Thecazelets]There's a water tower for sale at the moment with the Unique Property Company! They had a little piece in the Evening Standard on it. Might be just a London agent though.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-83669693.html[/quote]
The bedroom looks absolutely gross! What terrible pictures!

Isn't there a stamp duty holiday? Get it on the market now.

The linked one in North London looks amazing! The bedrooms could easily be modernised. I've no idea really about London prices but offers over £1m doesn't sound hugely expensive for what it is - don't fairly bog-standard semis often go for round about £1m in some parts of London?

Quakers walk is in a nice part of north London. I used to live near there.

It does look really nice, ImAncient. If you look at the view from the window it seems to be all big houses and gardens.

I would definitely have bought one when I was younger but who knew I'd have debilitating arthritis at 58.
People love quirky properties, I'm sure lots of people will want it.

Looking at the London one, I don't think it has central heating so that would be a major cost to factor in as I can't imagine it would be straightforward to install in such an unusual layout. I'd have thought it would be a dream for someone with lots of money to put into it, though.

I would want to know

1. Can I get a mortgage?
2. What is insurance and heating costs?
3. What are the benefits?
4. What is the history?

In that order.

If it doesn't get an offer at a price you want, would it be possible financially for you to put it on a Buy to let mortgage and release about 85% of the equity to buy onwards and then let it on an AST or even as a "holiday" style rental (although there are set up costs, cleaning, agency fees etc with that). My friend did this with her unusual home and sold it a few years later to someone who had stayed in it and fallen in love with it.

I remember the one in Kennington which took a long time to sell.

It’s rented out for air bnb. It’s in Elephant and Castle. They wanted over £3m for it - in Ele! It was a Kevin McCloud one though.

We have this same issue. Not quite as quirky as yours but a bizarre layout and lots of character. We've had about 8 viewings since we put it on a month ago and everyone says the same thing. It's gorgeous but the layout doesn't work for them. The layout is not something that can be changed. It's so disheartening because every time we have a viewing I'm cleaning and prepping like a mad thing to show it in it's best light.

We'd all love to see it OP