Doing up mum's house for sale.

[dandelionfluffy]

Mum died last month and her main residence (2 up 2 down with non-approved attic "bedroom", in England) and rental flat (Scottish tenement) will probably both need to be sold.
Neither sibling lives near house, one is sometimes near flat but also runs own business abroad.
IHT will need to be paid so need to sell.
No idea on state of decor of flat, but house is done in PBW throughout except attic, very tatty paintwork and a lot of pictures (she was into picture walls which looked very homely but not suitable for viewing and very dirty when taken off).
Furniture is probably ok to stay for staging (swapping 2nd bed which was study, and attic which was bedroom).
It's not an "old lady" house but it is a very lived in and loved house.
Are there companies that will repaint for sale if we remove home decor?
I don't think either sibling has time or mental energy to repaint as well as take stuff to charity etc.
What else do we need to think about?
I'm not sure if Mum or previous resident did the attic stairs but they are not even, she moved in in 1992.

You need a handyman type person rather than a proper decorator who will come and white wash everything. Worth asking on FB or Nextdoor. Might be worth telling robrh estate agent about selling the house as seen and having that reflected in the price.

Sorry for your loss 💐

Firstly, sorry for your loss. Realistically you should get the properties valued in their current state and then get quotes for deep cleaning to work out the net. As the cost of labour and materials has risen hugely over the past couple of years, you may be better to get a quick sale now rather than spending money on repainting. Individuals with vision prefer to see property in its raw state rather than those where attempts have been made to freshen it up with a quick paint job, which will have to be “undone” anyway. The estate will have funds more quickly. Waiting to freshen up then reprice and market will mean a delay and probably no more money once you take into account costs of repainting etc.

Sorry for your loss.

What’s the market like for both properties? Are places selling? If so I wouldn’t do much.

I would have thought that keeping it furnished and with pictures on the wall will be a better idea than shelling out for redecoration. Doing the whole house will cost you thousands and presumably it will be sold as a doer-upper.

Re clearing it, you will presumably remove personal items and things you want to keep. Then you can get a charity shop to come (eg British Heart Foundation) or pay a house clearance company.

Good luck OP.

I've had to sell a couple of probate houses in recent years. It's not worth the painting. The best thing is to have them spotlessly clean, not smelling bad and the outside tidy. One was sold empty, the other one was furnished, the empty one sold quicker. The future purchaser is almost certainly going to be doing a big makeover and redecorating throughout to their own taste.

I’d clean throughout and then get valued as is, it may not be worth paying out on, if once on the market you are getting specific comments about a room that’s when to paint but you probably will find that you can sell without

I'm sorry for your loss

I'm not sure what your acronyms mean IHT and PWD?

My nan moved to a care home and the original plan was to rent out her home. New lino was laid in the kitchen, a new oven and fridge/freeze bought. My mum and aunt then decided that selling would be better. Half the real estate agents said to white wash inside, the other half said to leave it as is.

My domineering aunt insisted on re-painting, but not paying anyone else to do it. Long story short, we all spent weeks re-painting and I'm sure the cost and time wasn't worth it at all. It sounds like your mums house needs lots of modernising anyways, so don't waste your money/time on making minor decorative changes.

To add, the house sold to a builder who ripped out the kitchen and re-designed the whole place. It was back on the market in 5mths and looked completely different.

so sorry OP.

TBH I’d sell as seen.
save the stress and management and just get them moved on to take away the liability

people like somewhere to feel a home so I’d be reluctant to strip it of that in favour of fresh pain.

If they don’t get it like that it’s not for them

IHT = inheritance tax.
PBW = pure brilliant white.
Easy enough to work out from the context.

Thanks all - one sibling is quite enthusiastic about removing bric-a-brac so we will probably sit down and decide on a medium level of decluttering.
IHT is inheritance tax, I can't see PWD so not sure what that means.

Ypu will have to clear the house at some point. I would do it now, then pay someone handy to paint all the walls white. We paid 2k for this on a similar house and it helped sell it.

I would definitely suggest talking to a couple of estate agents before spending any money.

A few years go we sold a house in similar circumstances. It had previously been rented out while its owner was in a care home.

The house (mid-terrace with 2 bedrooms plus tiny boxroom) was looking very neglected, including the stair carpet which had been ripped to shreds by the tenants’ cat.

We talked to two estate agents about what needed to be done before we put the house on the market. Both said it wasn’t worth doing anything, because anything we did would probably be changed by the purchaser anyway. It turned out to be good advice. We had an early offer and completed within 3 months of our first discussion with the estate agent.

I’m sure that advice was based on the local area and the market conditions at the time, so it might be very different where you are, and these days, but the local estate agents should know.

Good luck.

I'm sorry for your loss.

I bought my home as probate. I hadn't been decorated or had any work for decades but it was spotlessly clean and completely empty. It meant I could see exactly what I was buying. I'm now remodelling it.

I wouldn't bother repainting as the next owners will do that.

Estate agents tend to know their market and speak to buyers daily. For a similar property an estate agent told me recently that a thorough clean and completely emptied out was the best move, there were a number of enthusiastic buyers in circulation that would thrive on seeing basic work that needed to be done and wanted to decorate things their own way. Ask the estate agent what they reckon.

We emptied PIL house, gave it a basic clean and sold as seen. It was massively in need of modernisation . It sold the next day. After several months of sorting out the admin and physical mess they left behind, no one had any inclination to give it any more headspace.

Sorry for your loss, OP.

Ask estate agents whether worth spending the time and money cleaning and painting to refresh would yield a better return than just letting it go as it is.

Lots of people like a project And with the cost of labour and materials these days you may find it’s cheaper to let it go in a slightly worse state in my opinion.

I would just clean and sell as a doer upper. It will look like a bodge anyway if you just paint walls and don't replace carpets. And then if you did replace carpets realistically you are going to go cheap so buyer probably going to rip them up anyway. And then you'd have new paint up against an old kitchen, bathroom etc. If you just paint rather than fully renovate I'd be concerned as a buyer it might be an attempt to cover up damp or water damage.

Just a thought- are both properties insured? Empty properties tend to be more expensive

Really depends on the state it's in. When we sold DH's Mum's house, we achieved £50k more by decorating it, replacing carpets, and a new kitchen, than the offers we'd got for it when we first put it on the market with the old (functional kitchen), and tired carpets/decor. We only spent £10k on it to have a cheap new Howden's kitchen fitted (like for like), new carpets throughout and a week's labour from a decorator to paint all the walls (mostly wallpaper!).

We've just sold my Mum's house which was in a much better state as she was house-proud. We just cleared it of the possessions/junk etc., minimalised down to bare bones of furniture (removed things like side tables etc) and just left bed, sofa, TV, wardrobes, etc. Then spent a couple of days ourselves painting the walls to cover where the pictures had been hung. Yes, it "needed" a new kitchen and bathroom, but that would be personal preference rather than because the existing ones "needed" it, as they weren't old and manky - maybe 10-15 years old. We got an offer for full asking price within 2 weeks of put on market - didn't even get chance for the EA to put a board up!

Some people really do want to buy somewhere "to live in" straight away and have no immediate plans to replace kitchens and bathrooms. If the house is basically sound, things work, etc., lots of people will buy and move in and then do the decorating, replacing kitchens and bathrooms etc at a later date. The question is whether the OP's inherited homes are of that kind of standard, where someone "could" move in and live there, or whether they're too bad for that and they need works doing prior to moving in. If the former, could well be worth "tarting" them up a bit to be more attractive, but if the latter, no point at all as the buyer will be wrecking it as soon as they get the keys, so a bit of paint on the walls is just a waste.

I agree with PPs that I would do very little before sale. I would definitely declutter personal items, and I'd probably completely clear it. I used a house clearance company for my mother's flat. I went through her things for anything I would like to keep then got the house clearance company in, who did it in half a day.

I wouldn't bother with repainting as the buyer will almost certainly want to repaint.

In terms of the non-approved attic bedroom, do nothing. It is not approved so there is no point worrying about the stairs.

It is hard to deal with a loss then the sale of a house . Declutering is the hardest bit , deciding what to keep / what to recycle/ what to dump/ what on earth do i do with this?

We sold as seen for DParents house . Emptied the house , took up a couple of carpets that were horrible but left the rest for insulation.
Clean but didn't replace kitchen or bathroom as it would either have been a cheap quick-fix which would've got removed , or if we did a nice job the rest of the house would look rougher .

There was a post on here someone wanted to paint in a beige , most replies were "Don't - it looks like you're cvering up"

White paint you can clean with those white eraser blocks in warm water .

We're not redecorating MILs house, it needs updating but everything was expensive when bought (e.g. Poggenpohl kitchen) and they had excellent taste. House is being decluttered but it will be marketed furnished and styled (using their own stuff) because their stuff was cool so the rooms will look better like that. The market is still rising where they live but whereever you are it makes no sense doing a quick job on a house, everyone can see through it and we'd all rather buy a house that shows it has been loved than a 'renovated to sell' property. You won't get a return on you investment.

Siblings and I had to sell our late fathers bungalow a couple of years ago. It was dated but generally in good nick. We cleared personal possessions and then gave it a very good clean.Got a three estate agents round.Their advice was not to bother decorating. They also advised to stage it with existing furniture as it gives a better idea of available space. We had to visit weekly as a condition of insurance so made a point of opening windows each time to keep it aired. The estate agents we went with offered a handyman service to keep the gardens looking respectable. Took about a year to sell in the end .We got an offer within a couple of weeks but unfortunately the chain collapsed and we had to remarket in the middle of winter.

We sorted 6 months of insurance on her own house when she died and the company said they don't need visits.
For her rental flat we must check, it's occupied and I'm assuming she had landlord's insurance but we haven't actually looked for it.

Phew, DH has found the rental flat insurance all paid up till Dec.