Inexpensive ideas to get a sale!

[GenderApostate19]

Right, my late Fil’s house has been on the market for 4 months, we’ve had 8 viewings in this time 😩
Every feedback has been the same - nice house but too much work.
It’s priced a little high ( thanks SiL 🙄) but we’ve not had a single offer, even a low one.
We’ve painted everywhere downstairs cream, removed the dark dado rail in the hall and got lovely new flooring for the kitchen and bathroom to replace the 30 year old stuff.
The agent said not to bother doing anything beyond a deep clean but that obviously wasn’t enough.

What colour tiles do you think we should use as a kitchen splashback ?
The tile effect wallpaper is proving an absolute bastard to remove, I’ve knackered my steamer.
We’ve bought pale wood chevron parquet style vinyl flooring - Sintra 583 if you’re interested.
Would metro tiles be too modern?

The box room will have new cream/beige carpet and be repainted, I’m in two minds whether to replace the carpet in the main bedroom. The hall/stair carpet is hideous but will cost too much to replace, we’re talking 20 square metres!
I’m painting the dark wood in the bathroom white and putting a greige plank style floor in. Nothing I can do about the ‘lovely’ vintage 70’s tiles though.

Oh, we’ve changed the lights in the hall before anyone suggests it 😉
I’d welcome any ideas 🙂

More pics

I think price needs to be realistic. You can't change everything that needs changing.

It’s price.

It’s the advice no seller ever wants - but rather than change anything, drop the asking price. It’s obvious that the house is dated and buyers will want to renovate the whole place. But the photos show the rooms well, it’s clearly a well looked after home with good space and light, and it looks clean and completely liveable if the new owners want to move in and then renovate room by room. I can’t see that changing the kitchen tiles is going to make any difference when virtually any buyer knows they’re going to rip the whole thing out in time anyway. What they’d appreciate is the financial ability to do that sooner, by way of a reduced asking price.

Price needs reducing

Weirdly when my house was priced too high I didn’t even get ‘cheeky’ offers, just none at all. Dropped it a bit and it opened up to other buyers and got a lot of interest. You need to change the price point.

Don't do too much. Houses like that buyers want to do up...not come in with it half started and have to redo. Reduce the price.

Truthfully, doing all that work is a complete and utter waste of time. Because people aren't going to walk into it and say "I'll keep all the new cheap fittings and just redo all the old stuff". Anyone who buys that house knows that it's a total project, and they'll get rid of everything you've taken time and effort to change.
Just face the facts and reduce the price and save yourself a lot of time, money and hassle

Somebody (DH, her brother?) needs to have a proper conversation with SIL about the fact that an inheritance is a windfall you do nothing to earn, and on that basis it’s better to bank (for example) £500K now than hold out for months and months for £525k, with the property deteriorating and presumably you having to pay for council tax, utilities and maintenance and risk the market dropping further next year.

Having spent MANY days painting my nans house prior to sale, I'd say stop now! You've spent too much time trying to update the house already. People will want to update and make their own stamp anyways, and likely get rid of whatever vinyl flooring and coloured splashbacks you put in.

Dont waste further money that wont be recouped! Drop the price and get rid whilst the stamp duty relief is still in place for buyers.

Price op I wouldn't bother wasting any more of your time and own money making changes.
Who ever buys that will want to renovate it I would lower the price. But agree with others from the photos you've shown it looks clean and well kept.

The only way in which there is any point in doing any more work is if you’re literally going to renovate the whole thing. Otherwise it’s a waste of time and money.

As everyone else has said, PRICE!

SiL refuses to budge, it’s £5-£10k over priced at £140k. I doubt she’ll change her mind until double council tax becomes due.
I’m doing it up for my own reasons really, my DD is considering moving in for a few months whilst house hunting as her tenancy is up in March and they’ve missed out on every house they’ve looked at - every single 4 bed house within the area they want has sold immediately over the last few months.
They will do us a favour by paying the bills, council tax becomes payable in Feb and we’re having to keep the heating on for the insurance.

The right price and kerb appeal.
Tidy up the front, trim shrubs, add a few plants, hanging baskets etc. Clean the windows and front door.

DH having a word with SiL is a non-starter, she tried to argue with the EA over the price, she’s been a complete nightmare since FiL died, she’ll dig her heels in even more. She’s just angry because she can’t afford to buy us out, she’d rather the house fall down than sell it.

Prospective buyers don’t seem to want a project and it’s not in a bad enough state for a developer to be interested. We seem to be in a kind of no mans land.

Your SIL sounds like my aunt in terms of not be realistic with prices and seeing sense. By the time we'd painted the inside of the house, added vinyl to the kitchen and other bits to 'do it up a bit', we'd lost £100,000 due to a massive housing crash! Unlikely you'd lost that much now though.

Could you get quotes from other estate agents? Is there anyone she listens to?

If there were cheap things to do to a house that made it well at 10k above its market value, everyone would be doing it.

I'd do nothing and leave it as it is until your sister in law sees sense.
Why waste your time and money on something that is highly unlikely to mean it sells for an above-market price.
Have your daughter live in it and keep an eye on it. Perhaps she can tidy the garden or plant some bulbs etc as part of living there.

I think I would paint the bath panel a deep and fashionable colour, and possibly paint the kitchen cupboard doors. If funds allow, rip up all the carpet and replace with a cheap roll of beige or sisal or similar. Avoid grey-nor everyone likes it. If you introduce an element of colour, stick to a limited palate eg blues and greens.

Wow it's a lot of house for the money. Have you looked into selling it to the local council or housing association? Ours is currently looking for more housing stock.

Does she not realise that she's better off getting a sale now before the SDLT holiday.

Where in the country is it? .

It needs new heating and probably electrics. Most will want a new kitchen and bathroom too. No amount of paint/tiling is going to change that.

The issue is the price. You could suggest that it goes to auction (may be sell.it to sil as a good way to get a higher price - you won't but it might sell quickly).

I'd speak to a solicitor to see whether you can do anything legally to force the sale or to push the costs onto sil if she's the one blocking a price reduction.

The heating is fine, boiler less than 10 years old, it will need rewiring at some point, was rewired in the 90’s, loft was well insulated a couple of years ago and roof was fixed in 2018.
If the house was ‘perfect’with new kitchen/bathroom, it would be £160k, which is the top budget for the village, which is mostly terraced and sub £100k. There is a small new build section on the other side of the village and a couple of teeny 3 beds sold for £170k last year.
FiL’s house is in a row of 10 houses that rarely come up for sale because it has open countryside views at the front and people never move, sales only happen when someone dies.
I really thought there would be more interest, everything comparable in more ‘desirable’ areas was snapped up months ago for much higher prices.
Viewers were commenting on the state of decoration and carpets more than anything else, hall and kitchen are mainly swirly artex. One even said if they made an offer they would knock off £5k right away for carpets!

We cant force a sale unfortunately, SiL and DH are joint executors and beneficiaries, if there were other beneficiaries we might stand a chance.
It’s in Staffordshire.

My friend's aunt held up the sale of their family home. Finally went Sale Agreed then Covid19 hit, buyer pulled out and it has been on the market for months.
Other houses are selling though.

I would strip it out as much as you can , ie carpets etc but not kitchen or bathroom as that would make it un mortgageable and put it in an auction , you are more likely to find the right type of buyer there and your SIL will get the highest that someone is willing to pay , sometimes ( often in the se) this can be over the market value but to be fair I'm not familiar with the house prices and popularity of your county

I think you're just going to have to wait for Sil to realise the price is too high.
Without knowing the area, it looks fine to me. We've just moved to a house that needs doing up. Ours is a desirable close so the interior didn't matter to us. We offered asking price as soon as it came on the market. I would say our interior is worse.