What to do re selling when you know your property has problems

[InescapableDeath]

We want to sell soon. Our house has more land (garden) than others on our road (lots of potential to extend) but probably more problems. The kitchen needs redoing (cupboards blown/damaged) and the double glazing is clearly rubbish (kitchen window has a small crack, same in living room).

I don’t want, as per other threads, to sell, get to the point of making offers on houses, then renegotiate - we do not have additional savings to cover that and then risk getting our mortgage turned down. We want buyers to understand they’re buying something that needs a little work (and fine price accordingly). But how do you convey that without putting people off entirely?

My fear is selling low then people realising what needs doing and wanting even more off.

Can you pay for a survey to provide to potential purchasers (only those that make an offer). They then have a chance to make a proper offer and you can caveat it with you wont accept any further reductions further down the line?

We have a Georgian house, there is so much that could be fixed but doesn’t need to be fixed so if we sell we will either over price it knowing we will have to reduce post survey or we will pay for a survey and they can base their offer off of that. I’d prefer the later to save everyone’s time.

We have just put a house on the market, and have had an offer which we have accepted. My husband wanted to do the place up before selling, but estate agent said not to bother. Will see what the buyers surveyor comes up with when they do a survey.

Don’t sell a house with cracked windows!! They’re easy to get replaced and will make people assume there will be serious hidden maintenance issues. Which actually there might be, if the maintenance level is at the ‘don’t fix cracked windows’ level.

We had to replace the kitchen and the wiring when we moved in. That was reflected in the price and was made clear to us. I loved the house and dh didn't want to view any more so everyone was happy.

Other than cracked windows, I wouldn't bother doing anything. The house just needs to be priced to reflect what/where it is and the condition. I always ask agents when they're valuing to let me know at what level they'd tell me that offer was one I should really consider - that will be quite a bit lower than their valuation range!

I would be very unsympathetic if a buyer came back and said that he needed to drop his offer as he'd realised the windows were old etc. If it's a defect which the surveyor picks up and isn't really obvious to a buyer, that's a bit different but otherwise buyer need to offer on the property as it is, not how they think it should be!

Thanks everyone, useful info.

re. the cracked windows, they are double glazed so not cracked all the way through. There is damage to a front window that was there when we moved in (like someone has thrown a small pebble at the window). and a small kitchen window suddenly developed an actual crack out of nowhere. We've just been living that intense jobs, small children life that meant we haven't even looked into getting it fixed. Pretty poor I know! And yes, god knows what that means for the rest of the house... I think it's okay. We've done stuff like fix leaks and bits of roof over the years.

We are actually repairing some decking out the back right now and then will get some valuations/opinions about what to do next!

Good luck with it, and don’t knock yourself out on improvements. The fairly new kitchen in the skip reminds me of our previous neighbours’ house.

Occupant 1: Fits white uPVC double glazed windows all round. Stays two years.

Occupant 2: Throws all uPVC in skip. Fits dark wood windows with double glazing. Also fits beautiful marble bathroom with corner bath. Luxurious fittings in bathroom. Stays only one year.

Occupant 3: Hates the dark wood windows. Hates corner baths. Dark wood windows straight into skip, replaces with… …white uPVC double glazed windows all round! Within 6 months the whole bathroom skipped as well, in favour of white laboratory style bathroom.

We asked if we could scavenge their skip - yes, no problem. We made over £300 on items we didn’t want and saved ~£600 on items we took along to our next property. IPMSL.

Such is life…

People can see what they’re buying surely for the most part.

We bought a house like this - I’m not sure how it works in England but here in Scotland we can view a home report before seeing the house so you can see exactly what is wrong with the house anyway and whether it’s a category 1, 2 or 3 - 3 being needs repaired imminently. So we knew what we were getting plus it was blindingly obviously just looking at it that it needed done.

We’re hoping to sell it soon and have attended to almost everything so most of the 2s we had on our home report should now be 1s and affect the value accordingly.

Some people want exactly what you’re offering - a house they can do to their own taste with the price being a reflection of that. There’s definitely a market for it.

OP it’s so hard to be on top of all these little jobs when you have kids! We can barely keep the house clean and tidy never mind all of the little maintenance jobs that need done to keep a house looking spruced up. It’s exhausting. We’re going to finish doing ours up and get it sold ASAP!

OK but just remember potential buyers go by what they can see. They're not interested in your backstory. So get the windows fixed but don't worry about the kitchen.

It’s a different system in England, the buyer puts in an offer and then pays for the survey.

So potentially multiple surveys on the same property @GreyishDays? Seems daft but good business for the surveyors I suppose! I think the Scottish way makes a lot more sense. I can view a home report without even needing to leave the house and straight away can discount a property that needs too much done to it.

We're in the process of completing on a house that sounds a bit like yours. Ex-student let, needs some work. We went for it as it's the only way we could buy a property of this size in the area we wanted. Seller was up front about the issues and it was reflected in the price. It's not perfect but we didn't expect it to be so we weren't disappointed when we saw it.

I personally think it helps for the pics to be honest. I once purchased a place where the pics were dated back several years before the new tenants trashed.

@TWAMSWIAO

So potentially multiple surveys on the same property *@GreyishDays*? Seems daft but good business for the surveyors I suppose! I think the Scottish way makes a lot more sense. I can view a home report without even needing to leave the house and straight away can discount a property that needs too much done to it.

Potentially, but not usually. Offer is accepted, then buyer does all the survey jazz, then hopefully it goes through. If it doesn’t go all the way, then there might be another buyer and so survey.

I’ve bought in both England and Scotland and prefer the Scottish method, for the most part.