Should we redecorate before selling, or just reduce the asking price?

[Glimmerleaf]

I separated from my ex 2 years ago and we now need to sell the family home (where I'm currently living with the dc). For many reasons, we weren't able to keep up with the house internal decor, so it definitely needs some tlc, although not major building work or restructuring.

At the moment, quite a few rooms need painting as the walls and woodwork are peeling/ chipped, and the kitchen and two bathrooms look shabby and need to be replaced (although they are functional), and it needs new carpets. There was a roof leak which has now been sorted, but one of the bedroom ceilings has got waterstains on it and needs painting.

We've signed up with some estate agents and they have shown some people round, although it's not on rightmove yet.

All of the people who were shown round have said that it needs too much work for them. (To be fair, one lot wanted to do major changes with the kitchen/ dining room/ living room, and convert the garage, so that wasn't anything we could help).

It's a 4 bedroom character detached house, with a large garden, in a quiet lane, within 5 minutes walk of the high street of a nice market town in Sussex. It is a lovely house, but just needs updating.

The estate agents have priced it at £850k.

I guess I'm wondering - should we repaint and decorate the rooms before putting it on rightmove? Would the state of the walls and woodwork be putting people off? The whole house is clearly a bit of a project and I don't know if anything we can do now would really make any difference or if we should just reduce the price now based on the feedback we've had.

My ex and I would like to sell asap, but obviously we are hoping to get the best price we can. But I really don't want to put it on rightmove and have it hanging around for ages then have to keep on reducing the price, so would like to give it the best chance possible.

Cover it all in a neutral shade?? Then potential buyers can have a blank canvas to add their own personal touches .

It sounds pricey, even for Sussex. You can get four beds that need no work for less than that. (I live in West Sussex).

Yes, painting the whole house and getting rid of clutter/ unnecessary furniture will help a lot. You could lose thousands by not doing so

This ^ I also live in West Sussex and whilst there are some very £££ areas, it does sound quite high considering the condition, @Glimmerleaf.

Has the fact that it's basically a doer-upper been factored into the price and what have nearby properties been selling for?

@Buscobel @LibertyLily I know £850k sounds a lot. The cheapest four bed you can get in this town would be around £450k and that would be on one of the housing developments that I think were built around 50 years ago.

The lane I live in is one of the only ones in the town with individual character houses with large gardens, so it's quite a sought after area. One of the houses a few doors up which has three bedrooms sold for £950k last year! But the house and garden was immaculate and done up. Then another one in the street with 3 bedrooms sold for £865k last year, but again was in immaculate condition.

We had three estate agents over to value the house, two of them said £850k and the other one said £800k.

As a bare minimum I’d paint the water stains on the ceiling.

If it looks a bit shabby because it’s not been decorated in a while, I think that’s ok for a lot of buyers. But tired/tatty plus water stains looks particularly “not looked after” which would put me off because I’d worry about what else might not be maintained.

ETA - I would paint this stain even if I also reduced the price

Ask your estate agent how much you need to knock off for it to sell quickly. There is your answer.

If i was buying a house for that price i would either want it to be ready to walk into - Not just a lick of beige paint on everything. Or i would want the price to reflect me redecorating it from top to bottom.

You have given examples of ready to go houses around the price you are asking. I would say to remodel an entire house of that value (You cant put a £5k kitchen in a house of that value, same with bathrooms) i would want it £100k below. I reckon thats where your EA will start £750k

I would definitely paint the water damaged room using special paint that covers damp.
Then I would touch up the worst marks in other rooms. Then I would go on the market at the lower price (800). If you get more than one interested buyer they will have a bidding war anyway and so you might get more.

It’s a tricky one. If you redecorate or make improvements then people will still want to change things. But if you leave it looking unloved then they’ll not want to do any work.
All the houses near me are either very expensive because they’ve had new kitchens in etc, but not to my taste. The price is high. Or they are more dated and I don’t fancy the idea of doing work either. The market seems to be wait and see at the moment.

I would definitely paint it all in a neutral colour and remove clutter. We did that when selling a few years ago and I’d say we got about £30k more than we would have otherwise (based on selling prices of neighbouring properties). I also suggest doing some “staging” for the Rightmove photos. That makes a big difference too. Good luck with the sale.

If viewers are saying it’s too much work, then you either have to smarten it up, or reduce the price. It’ll cost money to repair, replace and repaint, so I’d reduce the price and see if that makes a difference.

What have the Estate Agents said. We sold my late father’s house which needed a lot of work doing, but Estate agent said to try and sell it as it is first at a lower price than a couple of houses in same road which were more modern. We sold at asking price to the first buyers. I would try and paint the ceiling where the leak was, as that is going to put people off.

I wouldn't bother doing kitchens or bathrooms but if it's looking very tatty with pealing paint, then decorating with plain white or cream so new owns can then do their own thing will help it sell.

If you want to sell quickly just reduce the price.
And it is presently overpriced.

Surely painting the whole house properly will cost thousands too? . There's no point slapping a bit of paint on to brighten it up, if it's still scruffy, because e.g. the woodwork hasn't been prepped properly, it won't help.

OP, I'd repaint the water damaged ceiling because that will raise questions about what other remedial work is needed, but unless you plan to have professionals in or have weeks to give to doing it all properly, I don't see the benefit of painting the rest.

In either case, it does of course need to be priced realistically, in a very stangant market.

I agree re painting the water stained ceiling, but I wouldn't paint anything else as it sounds like the house is going to be purchased by someone looking for a bit of a project @Glimmerleaf. Imo, if you're going to the trouble and expense of painting the whole property, you're then into the territory of the rest (kitchen, bathrooms etc) looking shabby......

The price needs to reflect that it's a doer-upper, so based on what you've said about other houses locally, I imagine you'll be looking at more like 750k max.

I’d repaint everything in neutral shades - cream or a warm white emulsion for the walls, white for ceilings, and white satin for any grubby woodwork. I wouldn’t replace the carpets unless they’re ripped, but I would get them professionally deep cleaned. Get rid of all mess or clutter, make sure the gardens look good. If it’s on at £850k it’s probably worth spending £10k on it to get it into decent shape. I wouldn’t replace bathroom or kitchen but make sure they’re in good repair and consider whether it’s worth replacing tiles or updating backsplashes or flooring.

"The price needs to reflect that it's a doer-upper, so based on what you've said about other houses locally, I imagine you'll be looking at more like 750k max."

I think the same, that price bracket is also in the slowest moving band. People with money dont want to buy in an area at that price point - and the people who used to be prepared, or able, to borrow at those levels have been hit hard by interest rate changes/taxation and cost of living increases. Its very much the squeezed middle territory. Downsizers and Landlords wont generally be looking at it - so your only target audience are the higher earning upsizers who are being super cautious at the moment. The cost of the cosmetic work that needs doing will definitely need factoring in as will the hassle and time to get it done. The market doesn't look like getting better in the short term. Probably the opposite, so its important to not set the initial listing price too high if you really want to move.

You say anything immaculate version sold for 100k more last year. But it sounds like yours could easily take 100k to do up and the buy would have all the hassle of doing it up. People will be very suspicious of damp stains and it will make them wonder what other you haven't kept up with. It sounds like repairing thatxand dropping the price is the bare minimum you need to do.

I think it is worth 'tidying up' if you can.
Eg remove clutter, paint walls and so on. But only do this if it is manageable for you, you have a lot on.
Also, don't go bland, yes a neutral colour but if it is a character house then it needs to feel like a home. So if the property needs warmth then a warm neutral or mix warm neutrals so there is cohesion but it's not devoid of life.

Do you want o share a few pictures. there may be some 'quick fixes'.

I dont think redecorating but still in need of new kitchen and bathrooms will help much, it's still a doer upper.

Interesting. Paint and deep clean and stage for photos, but price a bit below £850k, because of the scarcity of similar houses. I'm going to be asking about the same for ours when we're ready but we are on the other side of the country so my insight really isn't helpful. Good luck.

Thank you everyone. I think what we'll do, as some of you have suggested, is paint over the damaged ceiling and also a couple of rooms have peeling paint which looks very tatty, so we'll do those too, but not the whole house. Then we'll declutter even more and try to get the garden looking as good as it can.

It's really weird re the price as actually one of the estate agents who priced it at £850k said he thought it could even be worth £950k to the right buyer (he would have been happy to market it at £950k, but we thought that was unrealistic). And the other one who said £850k said that she thought there could be a few buyers interested who could even push the price up to £900k. They are both long standing estate agents so it seems weird that they have got the price so wrong - I don't know if they were both just trying to get us to sign up with them or what.

We'll have a think about what price to market it at, but I think we will probably have to reduce it based on the feedback we got!

On that basis, with your new disclosure, I've upped my mental asking price to £850k, which gives you lots of scope to negotiate privately. If, as you say, it is one of a handful of houses for sale in a few sought after streets of individual houses that rarely hit the market, then my gut instinct says that even in a soft market there will be someone who wants it and can stretch to it.

We are downsizing and relocating from the ideal family 4-bed in a glorious location for retirement, but that does not mean we shall be moving to a 2-bedroom bungalow or sheltered accommodation.

A doer upper!! No. A few updates