Selling from afar woes

[PansyPink]

In a nutshell we were forced to relocate years ago due to job. House was in negative equity so it was rented out. Last tenants moved out earlier this year but unfortunately had absolutely trashed the place and a lot of work/expense has been needed to get it right again.

Thankfully we are now in a position to sell it, but we live a 4 hour drive away and getting the needed work done and preparing it for sale is a nightmare.

There are just a few small-ish jobs left to do including new boiler (old one has now gone kaput) and getting the v large overgrown garden tidied (again!).

It's just impossible to get up there regularly enough to do it all All the while it's costing us four figures every month sat empty.

We've bitten the bullet and arranged for several estate agent valuations this week, in order to choose who to go with and get a feel for current value, but it still isn't ready to go on the market.

One of the EAs also does lettings, so presumably have trusted plumbers/gardeners that they use for their rental portfolio; do you think if we went with them and gave them the keys they'd be willing to let their people collect keys from them and get the last bits done that way?

Neither my DH or I are in a position to take time off work until Christmas and just feel so trapped and fed up with it all! Of course we could just flog it as it is but we have lost about £50k already on this house (still worth far less than we paid for it!) so can't really afford to write off much more, and believe these last few jobs will make it far easier to find buyers which in theory will save money given the monthly running cost we are incurring.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? If so, do you have any words of wisdom? Don't think there is an easy solution and it'll probably just be a case of plodding on but worth an ask and it's quite nice just to have a moan.

Yes; we were in a similar situation but were living overseas and rented out our house for many years. We returned (well my husband did, I was selling our house overseas and joined him 3 months later). The tenants left the house in a filthy condition and needed total inside redecoration.

An estate agent who deals with sales and lettings has a number of trusted tradesmen/handymen who go into the properties they deal with and do necessary work - the EA gives them the keys and they drop it off after the work has been done. (btw we didn’t know anyone in the village who we could ask as we have been away for 24 years)

It worked out well and the house has just gone SSTC.

Thanks so much for your reply @Pinotpleasure! That's super reassuring that the idea of the EA facilitating jobs might be a goer. We've been overseas too but back in a different part of the UK now renting until we can shift this house.

Sorry to hear your tenants left yours in a state too. It's so galling, especially when you do your best to look after your tenants. We bent over backwards for ours but between the last EA inspection and leaving they did serious damage inside the property and sold everything belonging to the house that could possibly be sold.

Very best of luck with your sale, hope it all goes smoothly!

We moved out of old house and bought new one in different area and had to do work on old one before marketing - its been a challenge as can only get down at the weekend. We give keys to tradespeople when they are doing work, once left with neighbours but maybe worth asking estate agent.

That's a point @KoalaRabbit, could always meet with tradespeople while there and leave keys with them to do the work during the week when they have time to do it etc. If the EAs won't hand out the key they should be able to recommend someone trustworthy.

Did you get yours sorted and sold or still a work in progress?

Feeling less defeated this afternoon! Where there is a will there's a way, just wish it wasn't such a long drive!

We just sold today - well offer agreed at least - but it did take forever to get house sorted from here as just doing it ourselves one day a week and we also had lots of work on this one. In retrospect we should have paid people to come in and do work more. Ours was empty so not really much risk of tradespeople having keys - even at start when it wasn't I took out anything valuable. We sometimes use the government approved traders list and sometimes you can see references online. I did find when you talk to people you get a very good idea if they are reliable too.

Hope you can get everything finished soon and get on the market and sold.

Congratulations @KoalaRabbit! I hope it all goes through quickly for you!

Thanks - hope you can get yours ready soon. I would say boiler you could do whilst its on the market, (unless its freezing in there!). We changed ours to artifical grass in the end which I don't like but garden was a nightmare from a distance. We went on with garden half done but would advise against that as people are looking at gardens a lot atm. Though ours took around a week to go on which gave a bit of extra time.