Property for sale not shifting: return to lender?

mike_paterson

You can in your own ad on Little House.

I'm suprised that the estate agents cannot say " ideally suited if you intend to have a lodger".
It is very common for them to say - "ideal for use as an annexe" or other similar statements.

Perhaps an estate agent MSE'r could comment on this.

northantsandy

I did on The Little House Company and the pulled the advert until I removed that info.

EdInvestor

northantsandy wrote:

I have. They all said the can't cosssa the law

What law is that?

northantsandy

The selling of property and its description.

AndrewSmith

EA's have to be very careful what they say due to the Property Misdescriptions Act and the Estate Agency Act.

mike_paterson

Surely it is not a misdescription to say that a house has a layout that would be good if you wanted to rent a room. Sounds to me like that would be the correct and proper way to describe this house.

Still - might be worth talking to the estate agents about doing an open day - lay on some cheap bucks fizz and a few cakes and drop the price as a one off for that day providing completion done by year end ???

All the TV programmes say that a house is more easily sold if it is lightly furnished. If it is emptay (as I suspect) then it may not look so appealing.

You could move back in for a little while with a minimum of furniture and maybe borrow some nice prints/ vases etc from friends to meke it look lived in and nice.

northantsandy

Can't afford to shift furniture the 100 miles back to the house. The estate agents have also said as long as its clean then furniture shouldn't matter.

And I asked about outlining the rental potential. You're not allowed to in writing: you can mention it but give a figure.

AndrewSmith

I have a reasonable knowledge of the Misdescriptions Act having worked in an Estate Agents for nearly 8 years.

You will be hard pushed to find an estate agent who will be prepred to put in writing that one or some of the rooms have rental potential, unless the rpoperty is being marketed as an investment or buy to let.

Not saying I Agree with it, that's the way it is I'm afraid.

Andy

EdInvestor

How odd.

Is "Granny annexe" banned too?

Fondue_2

If the rightmove link is your house, then I think you need to do the following for a quick sale:

1) Repaint the property - at the moment it looks quite dated, people are prepared to buy a house for redecoration but will always prefer a newly, neutrally painted house. Everything magnolia does sell, at least it does in the NW, as buyers can view a blank canvass that they can change to their tastes.

2) Your kitchen is quite dated, you need to get rid of the curtains and spruce it up as much as you can.

3) Tidy up the gardens.

4) Get one of your estate agents to take photos of every room of your newly redecorated house. We have been looking for a house for about a year and generally I won't waste time on a house that doesn't have lots of photos, unless it states in need of updating (which is the house we are now offered on). I always assume that if there are few pictures then there are problems, and generally I am right.

All of the above will cost, but the impact of inviting a lender sale will be huge. Essentially you own the property with a loan secured on it. If you try to get the lender to sell, you will be defaulting on your mortgage agreement and, since their reserve will be outstanding mortgage plus costs, potentially you will lose all of your equity.