Do we have to continue works in order to sell

[what2dowith]

So, house is better than it was when we first got it, but things like new doors are needed, the front porch currently has no ceiling due to plans to extend porch (electric meter is being moved at the moment and front drive is dug up 😭) we have the planning permission already for the porch.
Our front room needs painting due to a water pipe that burst in the bathroom a couple of years ago.
The die stairs toilet is half done, needs the panelling on the walls finishing and new flooring put down. We plan to do the toilet so it's finished.
The rest of the house is fine, lived in, but fine. We had a kitchen diner extension a few years ago, the garden was all done out with new limestone patio and top of the range fake grass (needed as grass didn't grow) new fences etc.

Realistically what do we need to do? We don't really want to continue with the porch as it's more money.

Can be sold as work in progress as long as it is a mortgageable or you get a cash offer.

It won't realise its full value.
People may be wary of the quality of the work part done though.

A house near to me is part finished and up for auction. Does make me wonder the back story.

The works that have been done so far is all done properly with the relevant certificates.
Dh runs his own business and likes to do alot of things himself, so things haven't been done as fast as I'd like ! That's all.
We've had a new boiler recently and all new radiators too

I would definitely get your front room painted. Water damage looks awful but painting the room will make it look good as new again. And obviously the downstairs toilet needs to be finished.

I feel like the state of the porch and drive would put a lot of buyers off (including me if I was looking at the moment) as they would worry how hard it would be to get the job completed and how expensive. So my advice would be finish the porch if you possibly can but leave the doors.

No ceiling in the porch would really bother me. Wouldn’t mind rooms that needed painting, I can paint. But getting the relevant tradesman to finish a half finished porch will be more tricky and would put me off. Finishing it all would make it so much easier to sell, especially if your husband is capable.

You will lose a lot of money if you don't make things look good.

Just paint the rooms yourselves. After work or at weekends. Even just white.

Take a couple of annual leave days to finish the panelling or whatever. It will be worth it. You don't have to finish the porch but you should make it look nice at least. For the least expenditure possible.

A little bit of money out into the house should reap thousands more in value. That's what all these house flipping shows say!

I don't mind the painting etc that isn't an issue, it's the bloody porch and drive that's stressing me out. Dh now thinks we shouldn't bother with the toilet either !
We've seen a house that we absolutely love so wanted to get this on the market asap to show we're serious, also with the same agents as vendors. But it's too quick of a turn around to get everything big done. I could cry

The house looks good in all other areas, it's the porch, toilet and doors.

The issue with the porch and drive is that they are the first impression- if it was the back porch it would make much less difference!
You want viewers to think “oooh my live would be so lovely and so easy here!” Not “that looks like a faff to sort out”…
Can you bodge the porch so it looks nice, at least? What is the missing ceiling revealing? Can you paint it all white?
I’m assuming the drive will be dealt with once the digging up is over!

But buyers will focus on the things that don't look good not the things that do look good and will knock you down hugely on price with so many things half finished & looking at that stage of looking worse before they look better.

The house you are interested in buying - I'm assuming that is nicely presented?

We bought a house which had an unfinished bathroom and other cosmetic issues as well as needing a new boiler etc

we adjusted our offer accordingly - you will have to adjust your expectations or do the works

@Twiglets1 it's clean and tidy enough, very dated though and old fashioned, nothings been done for a long time. But we like that as we want to do it all up and do some proper works at some point.

Yes I am expecting lower offers to account for works to be done. Maybe we can make the porch more presentable as pp suggested, the drive will be put back as it was (I hope!)
One major issue I have is dh has adhd, so too much stuff to do and he just literally shuts down. Hence a lot of half done stuff in the house due to him not being able to cope with running the company and the diy, but then not letting anyone else do it !!!

I viewed a house that had a half finished shower room downstairs. It was a total no. I ended up buying a complete fixer upper, which was fine, I'd also have been happy with something that was done. But half finished is the worst of both worlds, harder to get anyone in to finish someone else's work, and you've got no idea of the quality of what's done so far, and you're tied in to spending money on something that you wouldn't have chosen.

So finish what you' ve started, and do the basic painting etc.

Well he needs to be realistic if he wants to achieve a quick sale & decent price on the house you would be selling.

Either he finishes a lot of the work or pays for someone else to. Otherwise I can see your house languishing on the market for ages unfortunately.

Thanks this is helpful.
In that case then it's only the toilet that needs finishing. We haven't actually started the porch, just moved the electricity meter ready for it. The ceiling was ripped down to do new electrics for the kitchen extension as we replaced the old fuse box which was bloody ancient !!
We was going to move the gas meter but won't bother with that now

@Twiglets1 Yes I agree !

Ripping down the ceiling would count as starting the porch to me, so I'd definitely finish that.

I'd be worried that once you move your husband will continue to start jobs/tasks and only half finish them, I couldn't live like that.
Your house will sell, so long as it's priced realistically to reflect the work needed to put it right.

Yes I know, it's caused many arguments before. I get accused of nagging him when I ask if what's going to happen with... etc

One major issue I have is dh has adhd, so too much stuff to do and he just literally shuts down. Hence a lot of half done stuff in the house due to him not being able to cope with running the company and the diy, but then not letting anyone else do it !!!

And about the ‘next’ house…
But we like that as we want to do it all up and do some proper works at some point.

Are you sure you want to move to another house that needs work…

You will definitely not realise it’s true value if you don’t finish these jobs. We have recently moved somewhere that has a lot of potential and you could easily spend 100k if you wanted to doing a big extension, new kitchen, flooring etc etc. if you wanted.
However the house is sound and if the previous owners had spent about £10k tarting the place up, it would probably have sold for around 40-50k more than we paid. Like yours it’s not just purely decorative but a few bits and bobs needed doing that just put people off a lot.

Never leave water stains/leaks on show - get it painted.

Only leave "easy" half finished jobs. Replacing a porch ceiling is not easy and could possibly be expensive especially since most buyers wouldn't attempt it themselves. It might cost you a couple of hundred to fix but would knock thousands off your sale price (or lose prospective buyers).

Panelling and flooring in the toilet room can be cheap and easy to do by most people themselves so leave that for now. You could finish it off after doing the other two jobs if house hasn't sold by then.

The garden being dug up would be okay providing you agree to get it finished before exchange of contracts which will give you a few months leeway.

Thank you for this.
I think we're going to board the ceiling and leave it as is. The porch is still standing and not been started (other than the ceiling being removed for new electrics) so it's not like it's half down.
I think selling with planning permission may be beneficial?

Yes we are today going to paint the front room to get rid of water stains.
The toilet we're leaving, it's not hard to rip off a few wall panels and start again so I don't think that would put people off if they were going to do their own things anyway. It wouldn't put me off anyway.

I think if the agent lists it as a work in progress in a couple of areas then there won't be any suprises for potential viewers. I'm happy that we've had new carpets and flooring, new boiler, new garden, kitchen extended with new kitchen (although aware people may just rip it out anyway but my point is it's certainly liveable and nice as it is)

We marketed our renovation project a few months before it all being finished. Similar things to yours, shower needed fitting, bathroom tiles, moving a radiator etc.

We had viewings and offers and the guys who bought it agreed a list with us of what they would like completing and what to leave.

We agreed and the thing is even if they had pulled out we were getting the work done.

we did sell just after Covid but got 50k over asking, also most renovations sell for the same as completed homes. So I'd be getting it on.

Is your property old?

This makes me hopeful, thank you !

My main problem atm is a seriously unmotivated dh. It's like he's allergic to diy, honestly everytime something needs doing in this house he gets ill 😆