Advice on selling our dilapidated house

[GurlWithACurl]

I am asking the collective Mumsnet wisdom for help and apologise for the length of this post!

As I have posted on here a couple of times, we are fortunate that we can afford to buy our next home before selling this one. At the moment, fingers crossed, all is going well with the purchase and we should have completion in a month or so. The issue is with our existing home.

Sadly, DH and I have become seriously ill/disabled over the last 10 to 15 years. When we moved into this traditional 1930s three bedroom semi over 20 years ago, we were reasonably fit and well and we brought up our two DC here. Around 10 years ago, we came into some money and fully refurbished the house with a new kitchen and bathroom, redecorated throughout and built a lovely study area in the rear extension. The house looked amazing then.

Unfortunately, our health then deteriorated and I became virtually bed bound and DH so disabled that he can hardly leave the house. This is why we decided to buy a bungalow.

Our issue is that we want to put our house on the market as soon as we have moved out, but it is in a really poor state. Everything is very “tired” to say the least. The kitchen and bathroom are tatty, the carpets are worn or moth damaged, some of the rooms have peeling wallpaper in places, there are cracks in some walls, the window in the flat roof has a leak and the double glazing is blown on some windows. We have had a new roof fitted in recent months. The house is in a good area and we have a large garden. Similar houses in our road have sold for around £350,000 in recent months, but these were immaculate.

I read a post on here yesterday where people were critiquing a house that is up for sale. There were very strong comments about it being old fashioned. Ours is much more than old fashioned! In fact, I am terribly upset about the state of it and very sad that what was such a lovely home has become like this.

Anyway, our plan is to get a cleaner to blitz it when we have moved and a gardener to tidy up. A few bit of furniture and appliances will be left. In your opinion, should we try to do more? We are prepared to drop the price quite low to attract someone who wants a doer upper! But do we need to do up some of it first? We struggle every day to manage, so organising anything on top of the move would be extremely difficult for us as we are so ill.

TIA

I would get the cleaners in as planned and then get a few valuations. Can you afford to sell it at a 'come and get me' price? If so it will sell

I would get an estate agent round to ask them. Tbh it sounds like the whole place would need gutting so probably better to target buyers who do exactly that and therefore no point in you doing anything.

Can you afford to put money into the property or do you just want to sell?

Its easier (and cheaper sometimes) to do the work once the house is empty

If you did a full refurb it should not be too old fashioned and paint can do a lot to lift a tired look or make it appear as a fashion choice.
I would advise to paint it if you can afford to.

If you just want to sell you could spend time pricing in the fixes with quotes from local trades add that + a litttle more wiggle room to what you want as a sales price and sell as a fixer-upper

Getting the cleaners in sounds a good plan: dilapidated is one thing, dirty is another. Maybe try to get the leak fixed , that will get worse as time goes on.

Can you make up a sale pack with any guarantees or bills, for example with the roof, so that buyers ca see what has been done, and what needs doing.

Chin up, someone who wants a house to do up will buy it at the right price.

How much do you need the money versus how much do you want to avoid stress.
if you price it right you’ll sell it as it stands, if you need to get more for it you’ll have to do some practical upgrades.

Surely it can’t be that bad if you had a refurbishment 10 years ago? Maybe it just needs a really good clean and tidy?

Personally, no, I wouldn’t give yourself the added stress.

just spend less to achieve less.

You seem realistic about pricing it as a doer-upper, so I wouldn’t give yourself just do that.

you won’t get back, pound for pound, the money you spend on it, and you don’t need the added stress.

You also can’t account for taste. People often prefer to modernise than rip out stuff that’s new but not to their taste.

Whoe buys it won’t value any cosmetic work you do, it’s money down the drain. If you’re selling as a project there’s no point as the buyers will be prepared to make the changes they want and anything you do is going to be ripped out. Just accept that it’s going to achieve less money. It’s not a judgment about you, plenty of houses get sold that haven’t been maintained for years. It might be worth exploring getting it sold through auction with a reserve price. That’s where a lot of house-bashing developers find property.

gwt advice from an estate agent - what are the things you could do which would
coat less than the value it would add.
eg - new kitchen - prob not worth it.
deep clean of all carpets and get a painter in to paint every wall white - probably worth it

Surely it can't be that bad if it was done up 10 years ago? I've had to sell a couple of deceased relatives houses in the last few years. I got them spotlessly clean and pretty much empty of all furniture and they both sold well.

My mum went into a care home and needed to sell the house. Was the same as yours. Estate agents said don't do anything.

Honestly, if the price is right don’t worry about it. My dd is currently looking for a house and they all sound in a similar state to yours and in need of updating.

Do exactly as you plan, clear it, get it cleaned, then sell.
No need to worry yourself with any more actions.
Yes, it'll be reflected in the price but doing work costs a lot anyway, both money and energy-wise, plus a doer-upper is often more attractive than a half hearted done up, likely not to the prospective buyers taste.

All the best.

When we sold my nans house whose kitchen frankly hadn’t changed much since she bought it in the late 1940s we priced accordingly.

She like you had kept the structure sound and had been modernised in terms of central heating/double glazing etc but interior wise it was stuck in the 1950:

if it is just dated clean it and sell it at that price

If it is priced to sell then it WILL sell.

We sold ours £40K under the going rate for a decent/immaculate property on the understanding that everyone knows it is a fixer upper cosmetically. We got several bids.

Get the leak fixed.
Get the misted windows units replaced (these are very cheap compared to a full window, plenty of companies just do repairs on units or broken locks only).
Get it cleaned.
Get it decluttered.
Price it slightly under.
Don't fret about it needing decorating or new carpets - these would get changed by new buyer anyway.

If it has a new roof and a 10 year old kitchen and bathroom it’s not dilapidated!
sounds like somewhere a family could move in and redecorate when they have time/money.
Yes get a deep clean done, and carpets cleaned too. And get the leaky window fixed. Try to get local recommendations for people to do it, Facebook groups are good. Also Taskrabbit is a great app for finding handyman people for small jobs. Don’t spend money redecorating or on new carpets, it won’t be worth it.
This may not increase the value of the house but will help it sell quicker, which means less hassle for you.

Perhaps it isn't as bad as you think if you did a full renovation 10 years ago. Given your health, which I am sorry to hear about, perhaps fix anything that is relatively easy eg the window, clean and declutter, tidy the garden and then put it on he market at a low price. Someone will buy any home if the price is right (excluding major issues, which don't apply here). If you can get someone round to give a realistic estimate of the work required, deduct a percentage from that when you list.

This is what we did with my late mother's house. She had to go to a nursing home and it was vacant for a good while.

Clear out everything
Get deep cleaners in
Fix any leaks
Sell.

It was an ordinary house like many others, but in need of a good bit of TLC and refurbishment here and there. We put the price at 20k lower than the surrounding houses for sale and in a bidding war achieved 10k more, so in other words got 10k less than others in better condition.

Estate agent advised to sell as it was, subject to full clear out and deep clean.

The amount of stress we saved was worth every penny in the end.

Good advice

As others have said, you do not need to do much - All you need to do is show the structure is sound. To do that - fix the leak, empty all the furniture and clear the garden. Clean.
Think about who your potential buyer is - someone prepared to do a renovation. So all they need to see is if there are any problems. No point in repainting - the buyer might think you are hiding a leak or crack. Completely empty it, so the buyers can see the fundamentals.
It will sell quickly. I would not even upgrade the blown double glazing, you won't get your money back.

A bathroom and kitchen put in 10 years ago can’t be that dated. We had our replaced about the same time ago and it’s definitely not dated.
It may be unkempt and in need of decoration and cleaning but the actual hardware can’t be that bad surely.
The 2 choices are - clean and sell it for whatever it is worth to someone who will come and do it up.
or - clean it and then spend some money on it.
At the right price, someone will buy it.

Sensible advice. You are more likely to achieve a better price if you don't list it too high initially.

When we sold my DGMs house (which was huge but very dated) we cleared it out, cleaned it until it sparkled and marketed it at a good price that was realised.

If your kitchen is only 10 years old it might be ok?

Can you try and declutter? Then get a cleaner to scrub it all?

With houses you need to think about presenting it in the best light for what it is. If you are pricing it with near immaculate houses, you need to smarten it up. If it's a "project" for renovation then just make it clear and empty so people can see what they are getting. 10 years isn't that long, unless your fittings were very cheap. It's probably worth some cleaning and minor repairs so you get a fair price for a house needing cosmetic updates rather than completely gutting. If you can be bothered of course.

Wow! Thank you all so much for your really helpful advice. Yes, I agree that we should fix the leak, so we will try to find someone to do that. But will not do anything else apart from a deep clean.

The new house is lovely and I can’t wait to move in, but I am very nostalgic about our present home. We saw our DC grow up to adulthood here and I will always remember the day that we viewed it. They saw the huge garden and ran down the length of it laughing happily. That’s what sold it to us! I will definitely have a little cry when we leave for the last time.

Onwards and upwards, as they say! Thank you once again.