quick House Sale Needed

lincroft1710

mirage wrote: »

I'm concerned if we reduce the house anymore will people think there's something wrong with the house. /QUOTE]

But there is. It's on a main road and next to a primary school.

You could also try selling by auction. But put a sensible reserve on it, even though you are desperate to sell.

mirage

Hi Cardinalbiggles.

No sorry it's not me, i'm a very long way from Perthshire, but you may be right in that people who are looking to spend that amount of money can afford to be really choosy as there's certainly no lack of houses for sale. I'm always happy for any advice/comments from everyone. At this point all ideas are gratefully received.

lisyloo

You could also consider going to auction and putting a reserve on it.
I don't know how much this costs, but auction houses tend to be reputable.
I think the average return is 70% so it tends to be used by people that HAVE to sell (death or repossesion).
I know the return isn't great but it's preferable to those companies you mentioned IMO.

If it's not selling for £490K then that's because it isn't worth that.
Sorry for this, but it's only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.
You need to drop the price.

What did you pay ourt of interest?
When you say "everything you've worked for", have you really worked for £600K or is there some profit over what you paid?

I'm not being nasty or judgmental, jsut challenging you to look at it in a different way.
Anything you get over your purchase price is profit yes?

mirage

Hi Lisyloo

You're probably right in that maybe it's time to look at this in a different way. I suppose i'm looking at the fact we've come down by £110K already and you kind of feel you're losing the money when in reality anything we make over what we paid is indeed profit. I think i'm letting sentimentality get the better of me. We spent a long 12 years renovating our property from little more than a shell and i'd hoped we'd be here until we retired so moving wasn't something i thought would be happening.

I may look into the auction idea. It's something i hadn't considered before

lisyloo

I do feel for you ahvign put all that work in, but it seems like the old adages are true.

"Location, Location, Location"
I was always told to get the worst house on a nice street rather than the best house in a worse location.

You house value is limited by the main road and to a lesser extent the school.
I live close to a school footpath and whilst there are hundreds of school children passing by it largely doesn't bother us.
I don't see why the primary school should be an issue unless the traffic/parking affects your house.
The regular comings and goings should give some security/safety and are better than some other things (like heaby industry or smelly mucky farms).

Have you had feedback from any of the estate agents?
It's their job to sell your house and they should know the local market conditions and be advising you.
What have they said?
If the location/situation is the main problem then there is nothing you can alter except the price.

Obviously the amrket is not good right now which is just plain bad luck.
You haven't said what you paid, so it's difficult to comment on that.
Surely you are still in profit after 12 years??
1998 was a really good time to buy.
Have you become sentimentally attached to a fantasy price making reductions seem like a loss? when really there is still lots of profit to be had??

hazyjo

What have other houses on the road gone for?

It might be the house itself rather than the location.

Also, are you sure it's not priced too low now? Don't want it to be ignored as people are missing it on searches!

Have a look on RM for things that people would be ticking in order to find your house (eg 4 beds, detached/semi or whatever) and ignore the price brackets for the time being. See where your house sits price-wise in relation to everything else people searching will be looking for and compare.

The stamp duty's the killer here too. Nobody wants to pay anything between £500-550k for a house. This pushes down the prices of anything under that bracket. Such a pain. If something is worth around £540k, it'll be selling for say £500k. If something was worth £490k, it'll probably now be at around £450k as the people who can afford £500k will be going for something that was worth more a few years ago that's been forced to drop. (My take on it, anyway!) Why can't stamp duty be at the higher percentage OVER the bracket and not on the entire sum. I expect what with the recession, and your house being at that 'dodgy stamp duty level', it's been dragged down quicker.

Good luck. Horrible situation to be in.

Jx

mirage

Thank you lisyloo for taking the time to reply you talk a lot of sense. The agents always say the same thing 'they genuinely can't see why it's not selling'. The feedback from the people who have viewed range from 'too close to road/not sure they wanting to live so close to school/a lot of outbuildings which they don't have extra money to renovate. They all seem to love the house and garden but i think most people looking are at their maximum buying potential and simply see the outbuildings as extra buildings they don't have the money to renovate. I ideally need a buyer who has some spare cash over when they've bought the house and some vision and use for the outbuildings....where are you buyer?

We paid half of what we're asking but have then spent such a lot on the renovation (we never ever added up just how much as it was done as and when we could afford to and never expected we'd be selling so didn't matter to take note). I know we're still on the right side once everything is taken into account and will have to accept we're just not going to be in a similar house....maybe it's my pride thats hurting which is why it's good to get feedback from other people who are detached from my own sentimentality.

mirage

Thank you Jo for your kind advice. You have hit the nail totally on the head with the stamp duty thing. Two of the estate agents said it was because we were in that 'difficult' bracket that was killing the price which is why we dropped it dramatically to just under the £500k mark. We're between the devil and the deep blue sea. Every agent valued it at within about £30k each times we looked to market it so they seem very consistent. Unfortunately there's nothing similar in the street to compare with so difficult to guage it on that. I shall certainly try your suggestion on the RM site. Many thanks x

Bermuda_John

what region is the house in?