Advice on selling our dilapidated house

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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

Dated might not be an issue, I'm perfectly happy in a dated house as long as things function. I would choose vintage style over modern landlord grey any day.

I also expect to, even in a perfectly habitable house, change cosmetic things when moving, most people want to decorate to their own tastes.

There is not point spending loads to make it look more modern as the buyer might not like that anyway.

Your best bet is just to price it well, if its a good price it will get loads of offers no matter how 'dated'.

If it’s priced accordingly, and is in a decent area, it will sell as it is now. Spending £20k on cosmetic things won’t necessarily make it sell for £20k more. I think people fall into 2 camps when it comes to house buying. Those who want a house in turn key condition so they don’t have to do anything, and those with a limited budget who want the best house they can afford in a specific area who are willing to do the house up over time as they live there.
What I would say is, be prepared to reduce the price in order to get a solid offer.

I would empty it completely including carpets and curtains and give it a thorough deep clean. That’s all, if the only good thing to show off is a clean, empty, open space and blank canvas then do it.

Don’t leave tatty carpets or bits of furniture in, it’s hardly showcasing the house. You want someone to come in and say “what a great space, imagine how amazing it will look with our own stamp on it”.