Looking for advice - renovate or sell as is.

[Cantalever]

We have a 3 bed terraced house, about 50 years old, but for difficult reasons we were not able to keep it in good repair. We must now sell it, as need the money from its sale.

To get it up to scratch to sell, which could realise £240-£250, it would need rewiring, new windows, new boiler and central heating system, new kitchen and bathroom, and possibly carpeting, as well as rebuilding/replacing a small rear porch. It would be hard, but just about possible to find some money to do this - say £35,000 to a basic standard (there is a ceiling price in the location). We can stay elsewhere while the work goes on, and paint and decorate ourselves. But if we sell it to someone else as a renovation project we will take a huge hit in its value. WWYD? Thanks.

Get three agents in for discussions and valuations.

Look carefully at their websites to see the type of property they are interested in and choose those that seem to know your market.

Do you know where you are going to and what you need to get there? Will that influence your decision making?

Unless you can do it mostly yourselves, £35k isn’t enough. It may be better to sell as it is and just take the hit. Much less stress too.

Agree 35k will not be enough.

35k won’t be enough for all the things you are talking about doing, costs will escalate which will be stressful. The EAs will advise you to list the house in its current state (mainly because they want to win the business immediately but in this situation, that advice is probably correct).

You won’t achieve a great price on the property but that is to be expected because you haven’t spent any money on it over the years.

35k isn’t going to come close to doing all that, I’m sorry. You’d need 3 times as much. Which means you just sell.

Sell it as it is but price it as a renovation. Too many renovation projects around here are coming on the market at a similar price to houses that are finished. From the work you’ve outlined I’d do top price for a nicely finished version -75k as a starting price.

Agree with pp.

35k won't do those improvements, there is probably no point doing half of them as it's still a do-er upper then.

Get an estate agent in and discuss all this with them, all then about the market and what selling strategy they'd recommend and what they think that will achieve for you. Maybe the hit won't be as big as you think.

On that note...
Many estate agents are franchises of national brands and the quality of their advice and service can vary hugely.

I have twice used estate agents who are members of Property Mark, formerly known as: the National Association Of Estate Agents (NAEA).

Members have to abide by a certain level of professional standards of quality and service, and I have to say I have found them to be a cut above in reliability and service, so in your shoes I'd see if there was any estate agent in your area who belongs to the organisation and go to them first with two others thrown in for comparison and good measure.
https://www.propertymark.co.uk/

I would perhaps do the rewriring and plastering and a new boiler then price it as a renovation. It’s not worth putting new kitchens and bathrooms in as tastes differ so much.

You won't get the money back on the sale from doing it up unless you can do it yourselves. And that work is a major project which will take a year or two to do at least - and if you need trades good ones are booked up for months.

Are you sure It definitely needs all that work doing? It would be unusual for a 50 year old to need rewiring - it might just need a new consumer unit, which is much less expensive. Are you eligible for any grants for central heating? Have a look at ECO4 which might cover the some/all of the cost of an air source heat pump to replace the boiler.
Windows - do the frames need replacing or if it's that the double glazing has blown, you might be able to replace the glass only.

Have you had any quotes? I’m guessing the work would cost more in the region of 70k than 35k

I agree, why do you think it needs rewriting, is there scorch marks and the lights flicking on and off?

it doesn’t matter though, as you can’t do all that work, so don’t bother with the invisible stuff, just price it as a renovation job. Get some agents round.

But if we sell it to someone else as a renovation project we will take a huge hit in its value.

You won't though, it's only worth what's its worth. That's a low price becsue it is not in good condition. You are not losing anything, I think you need to switch your thoughts of 'what if' off here.

I don’t think it will need rewiring but a few changes including a new consumer unit.
Depending on where you live depends how much plumbers cost. If you are replacing like for like a bathroom could only be £3k for basic white fittings, tiling and fitting.
Kitchen is most likely to be £10k unless very small for buying the kitchen, fitting and other bits that need doing.
Windows can be very expensive depending on the type needed. Do they definitely need replacing or has the glass blown?
It is possible to do it for £35k ish but it’s going to take a lot of work on your part to source and organise everything

The problem is with a lot of these jobs is that you assume your taste will be someone else's taste, that seems a common theme on here when people post up their house.

£35k for those jobs assumes a budget kitchen/bathroom

You'll put those in and think it is excellent because of the comparison to what was before. But someone coming in and buying may well decide they want something better and thus attribute no or little value to it.

Unless something is essential or fairly cheap it is just better not to have sunk costs like this, mentally you'll 'add on' the prices of the renovations and then feel less inclined to negotiate unless someone pays the price for your work (which as above, people may not value).

Been a few sellers in the past that have suffered from this mindset.

Sell as is for a slightly lower price. Make sure it's squeaky clean. I'd take a squeaky clean reno over someone else's taste any day of the week.

To be fair she will versus if it was in good condition, as you need to allow a margin for how much it costs. However if it’s not a hugely expensive house the hit is likely way less than she thinks.

its irrelevant though, there is no way she can do all that for 35 k, she’s likely looking closer to 100, so it’s best to just get it valued as is, and take it from there, she might be surprised,

so if high end value is 240, she might be able to get 200 or 195.

Definitely do not renovate. People are struggling with the mortgage rate, and a lot of people would take a doer upper with smaller mortgage then renovate as they go, than be able to afford a done up one. You will surely get more selling it as is ( eg 50k less than top price ) rather than sink the time, effort and money ( eg. 80k ) doing it up. The days of making money on a renovation project (using trades) has passed. Just get rid.

Are you a landlord?

What is the current value as it is?

If you could sell it at £240k and it would cost say £40k to do it up, then it would need to be currently worth a lot less than £200k for it to be worth your while.

Thank you so much for all the advice. We have somewhere else to go, but we are not landlords and don't want to be, and need to sell it. Interesting that it may not need a rewire - I had assumed that over say 25 years old it would. The windows are single glazed, with badly deteriorated frames, so need replacing with double glazed. Bathroom is the original with coloured bath and loo. The kitchen is small and has dated but solid oak 1980's cabinets. The boiler has given up and needs replacing, and I imagine that the original 1970s radiators would not suit a new boiler. The wooden floors (not the actual floorboards) are a mess and need replacing. One motivation for doing it up is that I am ashamed of the state of it, and don't want pictures of it on Rightmove.

A lot of erroneous assumptions there op, unless you’re wiring is blowing or you smell burning or you see scorch marks, it’s highly unlikely you need a full rewire. Likely just a few hundred in a new rcd.

there is no reason the radiators won’t be fine, mine are,very old indeed but had a new boiler in last year and they work excellently

you can sand down and paint the window frames if wooden. Make it look better for sale. And irs up to the next buyer if they wish double glazing or not, plenty of homes are single glazed, ours is as it’s an old listed building.

on the shame thing, if you want to sell it, you’re going to need to put it on Rightmove. They can try without but it is seriously limiting your market.

I'd bet money that your radiators are fine. At most they might need a power flush. Our radiators are mostly pretty old but they work fine with our new-ish boiler. You could probably paint the cupboards, especially if the units themselves are solid. Maybe speak to some estate agents about what they'd value the house at with/without various aspects of renovation.

We bought a house built in 1969 14 years ago, so it was younger than OP's house. Whilst the wiring may have been safe, there were nowhere near enough sockets for anyone wanting to use a 'normal' (in the 2020s) lifestyle. So it definitely needed a rewire (and a new consumer unit as part of that). The plumbing was hideously dated too.

I would definitely sell as a project. Feels like a no-brainer to me.

i would see how much without doing it up a house two doors from us was for sale i had a look on rightmove and it was immaculate in walk in condition with a modern kitchen and bathroom new looking carpets i would have loved it not to have to do the work weve done on ours the people who bought it stripped everything out of it kitchen, bathroom and carpets