Advice on buying a house (for MIL)

samhuzz

Well not actually my MIL, but boyf's mum, but you get the idea. Anyway she currently lives in Oxfordshire and wants to move to our town in Leics. She has her house on the market for 230k (i think) and wants to buy one up here for anywhere between 80-150k. Trouble is she hasn't sold her house yet, but has seen some she likes up here. Is there anyway she could buy one here without selling her house? There is another problem though, her and her husband are retired. Any ideas or is it impossible? I have no idea as I have never bought a house.

Thanks in advance

Fire_Fox

Unless she has a very healthy pension or private income, I would advise not trying to own two properties simultaneously - they would need a 10% deposit, probably still wouldn't get a mortgage and would have all the stress of two lots of utility bills and council tax to pay. In this market it is rarely a good idea to be househunting before you have accepted an offer. Her old house needs to be priced realistically: have you researched land registry sold prices for the street and area?
https://www.houseprices.co.uk

hazybubbles

samhuzz wrote: »

but has seen some she likes up here.

I doesn't sound as though there is a shortage of suitable places for her to buy once her house has sold, and its not as if there is one particular property she has her heart set on so I would advise to hold off buying until her house has sold.

In the mean time just keep an up to date list of properties she is interested in so once her house is sold she will quickly be able to decide on somewhere to buy.

samhuzz

Oh no, there is definitely no shortage of houses in my town that she would want to buy there was about 140 odd in the price bracket she was looking at. She is just desperate to get up here!

hazybubbles

If she is really desperate to move then perhaps the price of her house should reflect this? Alternatively are there any inexpensive changes she could make to her house (a la House Doctor!!) to make it more appealing for a quick sale?

Fire_Fox

Agree with HazyBubbles, being desperate is a reason to price their currrent home realistically not a reason to saddle themselves with two lots of outgoings. Buying a second property is not going to help the first house sell, whereas selling the first house is going to help them buy a second property.

samhuzz

To be fair, her house is messy and I wouldn't buy it because of this, but how on earth do I break that to her? She hasn't even had one viewing and it's been on the market a while!

hazybubbles

Perhaps you could look at houses similar to hers in the area on rightmove and see if you can 'spot' any differences together

Comments like, "oh aren't they clean/tidy/well presented, I couldn't possibly live like that all the time, THEY MUST BE MAKING A SPECIAL EFFORT TO SELL" may hint to her that things need to be spruced up a bit without appearing critical.

If that doesn't work then you will just have to say it straight without being rude. Could the EA maybe speak to her about it?

samhuzz

hazybubbles wrote: »

Perhaps you could look at houses similar to hers in the area on rightmove and see if you can 'spot' any differences together

Comments like, "oh aren't they clean/tidy/well presented, I couldn't possibly live like that all the time, THEY MUST BE MAKING A SPECIAL EFFORT TO SELL" may hint to her that things need to be spruced up a bit without appearing critical.

If that doesn't work then you will just have to say it straight without being rude. Could the EA maybe speak to her about it?

Good idea. The EA hasn't put any photos of the inside of her house on the brochure, and I think it's because it is messy. I've offered to help her move some of her furniture around. I might get my boyfriend to try and broach the subject with her, it will sound better coming from him, he's her son after all!

hazybubbles

If there are no photos of the inside then this may put some potential viewers off anyway. Getting that addressed by the EA may be a way to get her to tidy up and improve the presentation, if may sound better regardless of who it comes from if it is put as making her house look its best/more spacious for the photos. Then it would just be a matter of encouraging her to keep it that way until its sold!

Fire_Fox

samhuzz wrote: »

To be fair, her house is messy and I wouldn't buy it because of this, but how on earth do I break that to her? She hasn't even had one viewing and it's been on the market a while!

Good idea. The EA hasn't put any photos of the inside of her house on the brochure, and I think it's because it is messy. I've offered to help her move some of her furniture around. I might get my boyfriend to try and broach the subject with her, it will sound better coming from him, he's her son after all!

You won't get viewings without photographs of the inside unless it is cheap as chips, is there a floor plan with room sizes? A houser that is cluttered looks smaller so will be perceived as worth less ... that is if you can get them through the door!!! Speak to the estate agent and say you want photos of the inside, when they say it is messy agree that both they and your BF to raise this with MIL and FIL. Why is it so untidy - are they hoarders or do they have health issues, are they finding it hard to cope?