Feedback from viewers - I can't get my head around.

[Downsizingandmovingon]

Hello everyone. Please go easy with me on this, as it's all a bit overwhelming.

I am early 70s and my husband of more fifty-three years died almost five years ago. After a huge amount of thought, I have decided I need to sell my home, because even though it's a typical thirties-semi, it's just too big for me now. I want to move to either a bungalow or a flat (I am very much keeping my options open). It's a huge step, as this is the only house I have lived in since 1972.

My husband used to do all the repairs, and we have all the usual things like central heating, although a part from a lean-to extention to the kitchen, the house is the same size as it was when built. I won't be posting a link to it as I don't want to show the world, and I know it needs some updating, but the estate agent has assured me the asking price will reflect this.

The problem is this; it's been on two weeks and I've had three viewings. The feedback from all of them is that it needs TL and that it wasn't right for them, however, the agent asked one of them to go into more detail, and they said that it's not the work that puts them off, it's the fact that it 'obvious' a lot of it was done by a DIY person and that they are worried about what's going to turn up over time!

I'm horrified, and a bit offended too, as we never had any problems with anything my husband did or repaired, but they've mentioned really silly things, like in the kitchen (which my husband put in) the flexes to the appliances below go through a hole in the worktop and are plugged in above - I mean how else are they supposed to be plugged in? They also mentioned how some of the doors didn't look well fitted - there were several things, but I don't remember as I was too upset.

I feel thoroughly down about it, and I'm really worried that other people are going to pick up on it too, not that I can see a problem, but if this is going to be a thing then how do I make it better? I have three more viewings booked for tomorrow and it's making me sick with worry. I thought people bought houses knowing that problems might show up, but I didn't know some people think the previous owners could leave them a legacy of unknown issues. Please share you (kind) thoughts.

Just ask not to receive any feedback like that.

you may need to lower your price specially if a new kitchen is needed.

when we viewed the house we live in the owner claimed her husband was a joiner to trade and had done a lot of work in the house eg flooring, skirting, kitchen, banister etc.

my dh is very handy and can assure you her husband either wasn’t a joiner or a crap one at that as dh has fixed so many jobs he had claimed to have done! It was like the house that jack built!

Try to shrug those comments off. It’s hard to do that because they are talking about your home and your late husband’s hard work , which are of course personal but you have to detach from that when you have potential buyers coming in and commenting.

The thing is any real problems with a property are raised in the survey report and buyers know this. So they know if any DIY was an issue it would be raised. The feedback you’ve been given is aesthetic criticism rather than structural problems. They are just finding something to say other than they just don’t want that house or perhaps that much decorating to do (especially if they don’t do any themselves as they seem to think that is a bad thing). Or more likely they need to find a property that is decorated to their taste because they can’t afford to make any changes. Especially if they have all their work done by contractors. A lot of people budget for replacing the kitchen and bathroom when they buy a new home. I don’t think I would want to move if I couldn’t do that.

so that was a long winded way of saying they are time wasters who like to sound clever (in my opinion)

Something practical you could do OP is start your own house hunt. You will see a range of things - new and immaculate and older too, and will see yours as entirely normal?

You don't need to do anything. My dad did all the work on his house himself. He was fairly competent and his wife, of a similar age to you, thought it was great. And it was great...for them. My dad thought when they sold it would be worth a lot of money and people would be impressed.

I didn't think that, although I never said, I always thought it was done to DIY standard and by someone more interested in getting the job done.

The house sold for a lot less than envisaged, and was described as needing work in the agent's blurb. My dad's wife was shocked at this, like you are, but it was really obvious that it did need work, and of a proper professional quality.

I hope it sells soon, and that you can move into a lovely new home.

Ofc different expectations can sometimes be framed in terms of improved safety as well as changing tastes and sheer entitlement.

However expectations nowadays also seem to correlate with a gargantuan decrease in ability when it comes to the basic tasks of home maintenance and repair and improvement. Many tasks would once have been standard competencies of any home owner, or someone in their immediate circle. Or they'd expect to have to hire in because they knew they lacked the skills themselves, but saw that as their responsibility and choice.

So these 'higher' expectations nowadays are being thrown around by people who are simultaneously hugely inept and unskilled compared to previous generations, which is something I find an odd mix of unintelligent and absurd and offensive.

If it makes you feel better OP my friend bought a house that had belonged to a fully qualified and apparently very experienced electrician ( who is still trading in the next town over). They have had the most horrendous problems with the electric system , both in the house ( weird wiring hidden behind appliances, strange light fittings in , illogical placement of plugs and switches) and in the wiring of the external buildings, so much so that 18 months in they are having the whole place rewired - not by him though! It isn’t just amateurs that get home improvements wrong.

Your house will sell, someone with contacts in the building line will spot it as a bargain with huge potential and won’t be phased by the work, but it might take a time as winter isn’t peak selling time.

Please don't worry about modernising at this stage. It's likely the house will need rewiring after 20+ years, so anything you improve will be ripped out anyway.
All that will be reflected in the valuation.
House selling is known to be one of the most stressful life events.

Again, would like to point out that the "uselessness of this generation" is caused by few factors. Mainly because no one taught that generation (how many here got their kids to change flooring, plaster a wall and move a socket to a point they would be confident doing it themselves?).
Secondly, time. The only reason my family could do complete refurb mainly ourselves was the fact father had time due to uber flexible work when he could just not pick some up for couple of months. Everyone on MN seems to work 50+ hours but somehow expect buyers not to and have time to DIY house?
Thirdly, understandable some level of entitlement when houses cost ££££££££ no matter what state they are in and materials and work costs ££££ on top.

Plus, many of us had it said numerous time about hidden issues and "unless you are ready to do proper works, be careful even just taking wallpaper down". So apprehension to issues even small ones is again understandable.

@Stravaig previous generations weren’t paying £500k for a three bed semi in the North though were they? I think it’s reasonable for people to have higher expectations.

Ask the estate agent not to give feedback unless it’s a question you can answer.

You can’t change the kitchen but viewers will mentally add the cost of a new kitchen to the asking price and then worry what else there might be to do. It will sell but I wouldn’t expect too much before the new year - the fact there are a number of viewings is positive though.

Not really, I'm a qualified spark and have no RCDs in my house, in fact I still have rewirable fuses in a 1970's box - they have more favourable breaking carachteristcs than MCBs, which is why we still use fuses in industrial settings, and it will outlive me. RCDs are useful in some respects, but can be a right pain too detecting cumulative IR's and going out of spec and tripping endlessly.

Lampholders used to all take up to 150W, shades rated on the distance from the lamp to the shade and ventilation - however with modern LED lamps being say 13W max in a domestic setting all of that is moot.

Why 20 years, 1965 was the change from no earthed lighting and the end of VIR cable - in 20 years in the electrical trade I have NEVER encountered a house wired after that change that needed re-wiring.

I have just completed the 5 year EICR on a large state school that was wired in 1957, and has nearly all its original fuse boards (some 50 of them) and original light switches - none of which need replacing or show any signs of issues.

There is one thing you could do IF you get lots and lots of viewer feedback worrying about the DIY and potentially uncovering problems. You could pay for a surveyor to come check the electrics plumbing structural work etc. Assuming their report says it’s all fine and safe (albeit may need updating) then you could show it to buyers to assuage concerns.

Now this is unusual and will put you out of pocket, and I certainly wouldn’t do this just based one on or two bits of viewer feedback. I would only consider this several months in the future if you are still having no success and many viewers are saying the same thing.

I think once you decide to sell your home you have to find a way of disconnecting from the house. No matter what price you market your much loved house at, buyers will see what needs updating. That's not a reflection on your husband, it's a reflection of the significance of the purchase.

Good luck with your move. I completed this week and I'm exhausted.

Regarding the decor - I think you just accept that any viewers will want to redo it. Not because it’s awful but just because it’s not theirs and not completely current style.

@florasl So what? Houses cost what they cost in any given time period. They've always been a major purchase. If you disagree with the way the housing market operates, then don't collude by participating in it.

It used to be, you'd look around, visualise what you might do, and what that would require in terms of time and money, hard graft, and skills you'd need to learn along the way. The timescale would be years; the investment would be every penny beyond necessities; the hard work and learning of skills would be all-consuming.

These days, everyone expects to just walk in to their dream home and start showing it off. That was only ever the preserve of the genuinely wealthy; but now it's seen as an indisputable entitlement, with much whining and outrage when thwarted.

Honestly as someone who bought a house where there had been a lot of amateur DIY by someone who clearly thought they were really handy, I would give your house a hard swerve. You’ll find a buyer for anything at the right price though, and make clear in the listing that it needs modernising.

@Stravaig you are wrong. One earner used to be able to buy a house on 3x their earnings. Average people with average jobs. Now it’s 5x joint income.
There is a vast difference.
The OP’s house is most likely a renovation project priced barely below the modernized alternatives. It sounds like a good 60k of work would be required.

@Stravaig the average house costs 8x times more than the average salary compared to 3x in the 80s. Where do you think people getting the money for all these renovations? Most people have already taken years to save a deposit. You then expect people to be happy with living in a dump for years while they save again to do renovations.

Construction is so expensive now, many large scale construction schemes aren’t viable let alone renovations.

That was very tactless of the Estate Agent and there was no need for that kind of feedback.

A lot of buyers are just rude in the hope they can get a price reduction. When I sold a few years ago, I had a new kitchen and bathroom but that wasn't good enough for some people. I was told the house was a slum and unfit for children as there was no downstairs toilet. I was also told it was a slum as the double glazing was old and the price reflected that it would need replacing.

The thing you need to do is accept your home may command a lower price.
Its not going to be possible for you to sort the sort of issues you've mentioned so the other approach is, accept that people may make 'low' offers, and try not to feel offended by this. Some people take it as deeply offensive when buyers make offers they deem inappropriately low - accept that those buyers might be the only buyers you may get.

Really doubt anyone said anything close to "slum". Sorry. Not saying some buyers are really not unreasonable or twats for the sake of it, but doubt slum

Exactly.
Why do you think this generation so 'useless' @Stravaig? It's not very smart to accuse others of being unintelligent, absurd, whining, etc, etc, without even thinking about this. Times have changed, as @ChickenNuggetFromSpencies points out.

As @florasl and @HellsBalls say, the cost of housing is much greater and younger people are having to work much harder, usually involving both partners working rather than just one. Two reasons for different expectations already.

Since the costs of work doubled from around 2022, houses needing lots of work are not selling well because the figures simply don't add up anymore. If sellers of these sort of properties want to sell, they need to reduce their prices accordingly. This may or may not apply to the OP's house as it's only been on the market a short time at a slow time of year. @Downsizingandmovingon I'm sorry for your loss. It sounds as if your home has had a lot of TLC over the years but perhaps not as recently. Try not to take any feedback personally. These things usually come down to ££ now as housing is so expensive. Perhaps you could consider taking the house off the market for now and relaunching in Feb/March. The main disadvantage in doing that would be that I suspect lots of other sellers plan to launch this Spring but perhaps launch on the early side at a competitive price (worth trying to price up the work and compare to 'done up' properties).

I think @CeliaCanth's suggestion is very wise. You only need one buyer who can see past all the DIY, which is all perfectly fine in my opinion (everyone works on their own home to some extent).

Even if it's all done by professional tradespersons things can go wrong. It just best not to hear any feedback other than an offers. Good luck with your move.