Tips to sell house quickly

[ChickenBurgers]

I’m really after some tips to get our house sold as I want out of this house. I hate it, it’s been three years and I hate it as much as the day we moved in. It was a mistake moving here.

I was looking at the cash buying companies but it’s such a big hit and I don’t think we’re that desperate yet, so we need to go on the open market. There’s 22 houses similar to ours (3 bed terrace) on Zoopla currently within a 1/2 mile radius of us, only 4 are under offer. Lots have been on for 6 months plus which is not filling me with confidence and is what prompted me to look at cash buying services in the first place.

I’m happy to take a hit on the valuations we’ve had, but i’m not sure how low to go. I’m not willing to do any further renovations (kitchen, bathroom, kids rooms and garden all done). I’ve just taken on a second job on top of full time work, me and partner have 3 young kids and my partner has dragged his feet the last three years with DIY and I’m done with arguing with him about it anymore (which is partly why I want to move) so it will be going on as it is.

I just want it to go on the market for a reasonable price and get an offer in so we can make arrangements to move elsewhere, but I just don’t know how low to go to make it appealing over everyone else but not so low that we still get a reasonable amount back! The only other house we have sold was shared ownership and we had no say in anything, it was handled completely by the housing association, so I’m a complete novice. I feel quite lost and out of my depth, I’m being left to sort everything but I haven’t got a clue what I’m doing.

In this market the only way to sell quickly is to price it low. Get an estate agent round and tell them you want to sell quickly and they’ll advise on price accordingly.

I am looking to buy and have been watching this guys advice, maybe this video will help https://www.youtube.com/live/9HOQAoiOnho?feature=share

It's nearly always about price relative to location but this is what we did recently before photos and viewings and were under offer pretty quickly:

Massive de-clutter, get rid of stuff and hide the rest in boxes in the shed/loft
Sugar soap all walls and touch up paintwork
Everywhere very clean
Nice new doormats, stairs carpet steamed
Plain bedding on beds, made very neatly
Nice cushions on sofa and chairs
Hide all products in kitchen and bathroom
Put washing rack away
Hide kitchen bin in shed
Garden very tidy, lawn mowed and pots colourful

Look at what's sold in the last month or two in very similar condition and size. Then take ten percent off the advertised price which is probably what they sold for.

Then take another ten to fifteen percent off that and list it low. It should generate a lot of interest and perhaps start a bidding war.

Worse case, even with those sums you will probably get the same or more than one of those house buying firms will pay you. I don't believe they ever give anyone 89% of market value or whatever it is they advertise at.

I would look carefully at the 22 comparable homes. Decide on the 3 that are most like yours then list at 5% less than the cheapest. Then cross fingers and toes because you have an awful lot of nearby competitors.

We are having trouble getting any viewings so feel your pain. I contacted a cash company just to see what they would offer. A nice, non-pushy chap said they would offer 395k for our advertised 600k home. Even then you don't know if further down the line they come up with an excuse to offer less. I now know this is not an option. Have reduced to 575k today and have my fingers crossed. Good luck with your sale.

Drop the price and tell the estate agent to encourage ANY offer from chain free buyers, so that you can consider it.

This is how I sold my BTL property when it became vacant in November, most the other houses that came on the market around the same time and since are still for sale.

This approach got me about £10-15k more than the property buying companies were offering (house sold for £115k).

To sell quickly you need to price below where the market currently is.

So find out what current similar properties are at and go lower. Not much more really to it than this. If you've got a lot of similar properties on the market in your area that works in your favour because you can stand out from the crowd by offering yours at a discount.

Agree with the above, to shift it quickly, yours needs to be evidently the best value of any similar houses on the market, you also need to be prepared to take an offer. This should still give you a better result than the house buying websites.

Thank you all. I know in theory it’s simple, I just feel a bit overwhelmed, lost and bogged down with it all.

Our house has been valued at £325k by 3 agents and all those on the market in the surrounding roads are up for this price or thereabouts.

A couple of the cash buying companies I’ve contacted to get quotes have said they can do a slightly different route and market to investors for £290k and then there’s no agents fees etc, but I’m skeptical as it feels a bit like it’s too good to be true. If anyone has any experiences with this kind of scenario, please feel free to share!

I’m going to contact our preferred agent this week and go from there and make it clear I want to be priced to sell. We’ve done some touch up work on the rooms we haven’t fully renovated, but whilst we’re not too cluttered we could do with having a clear out as we find we accumulate a lot of shit stuff that we just don’t need.

Thank you all again!

I think that a lot of buyers have a very visceral reaction to walking in to any prospective home and it comes down to a very few things (I have renovated myself up the chain in often difficult circumstances, so I have been where you are many times).

Immaculately, freakishly, unnaturally clean. Mrs Hinch level of insanity. People don't like other people's dirt, we are much more comfortable with a layer of our own grime and dust than we are with anyone else's. Think of paying for an end of tenancy type clean if you really don't have time to do it yourself. As others say, start at your gate and work in - tidy outside, new inexpensive plain coir or rubber doormat (can't offend anyone!), clean front door with any glass panes and doorknockers etc cleaned. No weird air perfumes or plug ins inside as they put some people off - faint smell of freshly cleaned house and clean laundry is better.

Tidy up the garden/yard and make it look like a place someone can sit and have a cup of tea or a drink with a friend.

Go through and aggressively declutter (it will make your life easier if you move anyway), but make sure you still accessorize nicely - you're trying to create the visual of a place someone would be proud to call home, would be able to snuggle in, welcome guests to, host Christmas in. Not a spartan barracks.

I find looking at glamorous interior design layouts a bit overwhelming and pointless at this stage and find looking at TV sets of ordinary shows set in homes more useful as often they are carefully designed to look like very appealing 'ordinary' homes. E.g. the dread Topsy and Tim house looks like any typical family home but if you look carefully is painstakingly designed to look like 'appealing cosy family house!' similarly Sex Education Gillian's house was 'carefully boho artistic house' - every book, cup and accessory has been carefully placed to suggest an atmosphere. There's a reason they call it 'staging your house'.

If you have a garage, go out and clear it now while you're considering the whole thing, create space to put all the crap from your house that you want to store while you have it on the market.

You have my full sympathy as it's really hard. Just make sure that when you're arranging your house you're not thinking of how much you hate it.

The only house of ours that didn't sell instantly was one where we had moved countries and my DH (who HATED the house) had been left in charge of selling it... it languished for ages after a quick sale fell through, it just felt laced with his despair and despondency!

After a leak did serious cosmetic damage I went back for a week and literally have never, ever in a lifetime of renos have worked so hard in my life, I repaired and repainted, paid a junk company to remove I'd say a third of our stuff (it was in lockdown so no charity shops open, really tough), washed curtains, ironed and steamed everything, cleaned, polished, arranged, rearranged, art books out on the coffee table, the smell of expensive furniture polish and some wildly expensive natural pot pourri made by poor old monks in Italy, rugs cleaned by me by hand (no cleaners open), I literally sat around and thought 'if this was a film featuring fun young family buying a charming old house, what would they want to see' (rather than a leaky old money pit). People fall in love with charm and the potential of the life they see themselves living in a house, and it's up to you to present that vision. I mean, there are people who actually do that for a living in London (I know one!).

It sold to a delightful young couple a week after the turnaround and putting back on the market.

Sounds sensible. One final thing I would try to do: whatever you can to make your house stand out from all the rest.

Now, if your house is cluttered, take the time when the photographer is due to physically move any 'excess' stuff to the shed/garden/neighbour's front room whilst they're photographing. If you have to pay extra for professional photographs, do so. If you have to pay extra for a really good floor plan that includes ft measurements, do so. And for goodness' sake, don't let them get away with listing your property with 9 photos. It really winds me up when I see houses with that few in your price bracket. 45 is far too many, 9 too few.

Make sure no paintwork is flaking at the front of the house, paving is power washed, and that it has maximum curb appeal.

If your bedroom walls are currently covered in kid's wallpaper/murals and you think it would give you the upper hand to have them all magnolia, do a bit of redecorating.

I agree with everyone else.
If you genuinely want to sell, make it look as good as you possibly can and price it low, significantly lower than similar properties. If similar properties are priced at 325K (is yours in worse condition?), price it at 275/280 if you really want to sell. Pricing low is far more likely to stimulate interest in a falling market.

The name that must not be speaketh. Trigger warning to twiglets and other snacks of a nervous disposition.

^ If you search through his library he did a video for people who feel that they "have" to sell, in the last month or so.