Selling an utter dump of a house

[TumbledownHouse]

What's the most stress free way to sell a house that needs complete gutting and heavy stuctural repairs? I have zero instinct for this kind of thing and I'm on my own... no sensible person to help/talk through it with me. I have neither the money, stomach, or time to make any repairs; I'm too poor and it's too far gone. There are so many massive stresses in my life right now that I just want rid.

Plus points: It's in a nice road in a nice part of London, and is mortgage free. Minus points: I'm not exaggerating here... it's in shocking condition, horribly configured, and some of the work done (eg removal of chimney breast) was done before I bought 20+ years ago so has no documentation. It's also tiny.

I have been toying with the idea of auctioning it. Has anyone in a similar position done this? Hopefully it would be bought by a builder or someone who knows what they are taking on. Was it relatively quick and straightforward? Does the auction house suggest a reserve price? What happens if nobody bids?

I'd love to hear how others got out of this fix.

I honestly think, if it is in a nice road in London, you should seek out an estate agent. There are plenty of people with money and the stomach for a renovation job to get the location they want. Loads more visibility and exposure to a bigger market on RightMove. Auctions are for properties that are difficult to shift. Even properties in poor condition can be desirable and create a lot of interest if there are other factors like good location and period features etc and marketed well. I’d speak to local estate agents first. We bought a wreck in Islington years ago and did it up. It was on a beautiful garden square and is a super family home. We didn’t mind the work involved.

I was almost in this position - I changed my mind and decided to renovate the property (a whole other saga!) - but I was looking into selling at auction, and would suggest that this is the best option for you.

NB by auction, I mean a traditional auction, not the modern method of online property auctions, which I don't think would benefit you, since all that does is make the property available to people who need a mortgage, by extending the completion timescales, whereas, as you say, you really need a developer who is a cash buyer (or several) to take an interest in its obvious potential - i.e. a fixer-upper in an excellent location - and bid against each other in a traditional auction setting.

The fees are higher than you would pay an Estate Agent, but for speed of sale and minimising stress, I'd say it's worth it.

As regards the reserve price, a good auctioneer will guide you in how to set this appropriately for your circumstances - if you just want rid of it, your reserve could be relatively low, but the bidders won't know that, as I understand it.

The key thing is to find the right auctioneer, which means local research. Others in your area will hopefully be along with recommendations.

NB I would avoid the we-buy-any-house type companies unless you are desperate, as that sector is not well regulated.

start with the traditional route.. talk to several estate agents and listen very carefully.. they may give you some ideas you can take on and use yourself.. then if they are all pushing you to put work into it yourself (and I assume you will be very clear that you do not want to do this) look for another option

Get at least three agents round, explain you want it gone and will not be improving it. Ask them what is the lowest price you should start at to get feet through the door. Don't pay any attention to max prices, ask for the most reasonable low price point. After using the low start, you may have several competing offers.

Do not use a house buying company, they will offer 15% under then force you to take another 15% off the day before exchange.

Do not use the modern method of auction. Anyone who can Google know it's terrible for both the buyer and seller.

If it comes to it, use a traditional auction.

As @KievLoverTwo says.

Thanks, everyone. Unfortunately, it is't a little neglected gem with period features to be salvaged. It's a Victorian cottage on the outside and a badly executed, horribly proportioned 1980s open-plan hatchet job on the inside!

I've already heard that the "modern method of auction" is to be avoided, so I was thinking more of the traditional route. Does anyone know how long it takes to get a house to auction? And how long to complete after the action is over, assuming the reserve price is met?

In a traditional auction, you only have to bid £1 higher than the highest bid- and the auctioneer will have just told you the value of that bid. In a blind, ' best offer' by this deadline type of auction, you are forced to go up to a price that you'd kick yourself if you lost it at- literally your best offer.You literally don't know if bidding 20k cheaper would still have got you the property.

As a buyer of properties to renovate, a trad auction is the one I'd prefer: as a seller, it's almost certainly not your best bet.

Clearly, it's a renovation property. Don't let that worry you, there's plenty of demand for those. Yes, that will make the price lower than a finished house, but you know that. Don't be tempted to do anything at all to it- it's going to be a building site.

Get 3-4 local agents in,get them to put in writing their valuation(ie what they think it will sell for) suggested price to list at and method of sale, including total costs to you and to buyer.

Then look at their sales record( available on rightmove), and whether they've sold other renos.

Then, once you've got the info, have a good ponder.

It's going to be easy.

Haha, I came on to the thread specifically to say NOT modern method of auction, but I see I don't need to!

Points taken about it not being a gem of a house, but if it's on a nice road in a good part of london, won't someone want to do it up and live there? Do other houses on the road/area sell for a good price?

I'd approach some local estate agents and get quotes.

We sold via an estate agent to a property developer. They then for some reason flipped the property weeks later by putting it out to auction. They got less than they paid us for it.

It was autumn last year so not sure whether the property developer could see house prices coming down or building costs going up.

Ps the house we sold was in a lovely road. It was Victorian and had had the same family living in it since it was built with only emergency repairs ever undertaken. It had cracks everywhere, a garden full of broken glass and sheds, and was full of damp. It still got sold really quickly.

In all honesty, a good area and good size house will be snatched up! My grandparents are in construction and 85% of there customers and house buyers that buy do up and resell or rent out!

We purchased a 2000 sq ft four bedroom detached Victorian house in a lovely area (not London) with stunning garden a few years back. We'd done five consecutive renovation projects and - having downsized considerably, then upsized a bit - this was to be the final one...the new 'forever' home.

A whole chain of events meant we lost the motivation and £££ to do it justice so having stripped out all the acres of woodchip and replastered, we were left with a shell that still had a fairly ok kitchen and bathroom.

We actually needed to offload it quickly and as we were mortgage-free we (stupidly) didn't care if we took a hit on the selling price. Instead of going via the local EAs we decided it would be quicker to put it into auction.

Firstly, we struggled to get any auction houses interested. When we finally found one (Auction House), they valued it in early September and the auction date was a month later. We set the starting price and reserve deliberately low, but whilst we had loads of viewings and many potential buyers downloaded the legal pack, there were no bids on the night. It was hugely disappointing as it was an amazing house with fab period features in a very desirable location.

Ultimately we were contacted by one of the couples who'd viewed but who needed a small (temporary) mortgage, saying their circs had changed and that they were now proceedable. They had actually been interested three years previously when we had purchased the house.

They offered to buy it on an auction contract for a little above the amount we were hoping to achieve (a drop of £35k on the price we'd paid), but despite this there were all sorts of issues with their lender along the way and it eventually took a couple of months to complete.

Moral of my story - try selling via the normal method first if possible. Auction only as a last resort....and never Modern Method of Auction!

Also, just recalled the experience of some old neighbours who had moved out of their family home to a newer, more manageable house when they retired.

The old house fell into a terrible state of repair and they eventually decided to put it into auction just to gey rid of a millstone. It sold without issues but a week after completion the new owner - who we'd all assumed was a property developer looking to renovate/flip - put it into another auction (different auction co) and sold it for around £50k more, having done absolutely nothing to it!

The next owners ripped it apart, completely changed its - mid century meets early Victorian cottage - appearance and sold it for approximately 4x the price our neighbours had achieved....

Get a few estate agents round and get their advice.

Why are you fixed on an auction? Just go through an estate agent. They sell all sorts, not just 'period gems'

I agree with talking to several estate agents. Put in need of complete refurbishment and price accordingly. T here are always folk who enjoy this type of project.

What Kiev and Dancing said

If you’ll sell it for any kind of ‘bargain’ then in London you’ll sell it easy. People can put period features back in if they want.

do be clear with buyers that you know there are problems and you’re not planning to reduce after the survey (unless there’s stuff you would reduce for, obvs)

I bought a renovation project via an estate agent- it was all I could afford and I really went worst house best area when I bought it! Someone will take it off your hands if you go the EA route. I've completely gutted it and started again. Don't rule out EAs especially if you're after a quick sale.

You need a traditional auctioneer, like Savills, or Barnard Marcus.

You need to sort out the legal pack and they’ll guide you in that. The buyer buys it with all the shit.

You set a reserve and they’ll guide you in that and they’re allowed to bid up to that reserve if someone else is bidding.

Drop of the gavel is contract exchange and completion 28 days later - no excuses.

it’s a fast low stress way to get shot but you’ll get a lot less than you would private sale.

probably worth it in the current market.food luck!

Under 28 days - sorry I didn’t answer your question.

This might give you hope:

My DF sold his house last year for just over the asking price. It sounds similar to yours, and needed complete renovation. Fortunately it was in a sought after area and sold straight away to a young couple, who bid against another couple. It was their second property and both in good jobs with £100,000 in savings to do the work.

I was told it would be cash buyers only and unmortgeable by some, but they got a mortgage from Lloyds no problem. The estate agent said he wasn't sure, and just to wait and see if it was mortgageable.

That was last year though before the interest rate rise, so not sure if that will have an impact.