Current value of our unique period property!

liberty_lily

Hi Westlondonbuyer

Thanks - yes, the square-footage idea might be worth pursuing.

Regarding the surrounding properties, they are all either detached/semis. A few date from a similar period (1920's/30's) but as the estate was never completed at that time most are later builds - our neighbours either side for example were built approximately 10 and 20 years ago.

They do vary quite dramatically in size/price though and on the estate I would say ours is if not the largest, then one of the largest. I must admit we are guilty of that 'no-no' - buying the best property in the road (although at the time of purchase the condition was certainly not the best!) - something we now realise was a little foolish.

The house isn't listed - although most people assume it is - but is definitely a total one-off and people have suggested before that because of it's uniqueness and the style of decoration/furnishing it should feature in a magazine. Indeed only a few days ago started looking into this, but my initial enquiries discovered that even if photographed before this Christmas, this would not be for publication till next December - too late really for what we had in mind, selling-wise.

Someone did suggest - and I know I'll probably be shot down in flames for saying this - that because the house is so unusual it might actually be ideally suited to being auctioned. Again because of it's potential desirabilty to the London buyer seeking a retirement/holiday home, it may be the kind of house that would do well at an auction held by one of the main London auctioneers.............

Possibly worth further thought/investigation?

LL x

westlondonbuyer

I don't know much about auctions but would have thought it was well worth a try - you can always set a reserve.

I posted this morning about an auction property not far from me which sold yesterday at 15% more than it would ever have fetched if it had been sold by an estate agent.

westlondonbuyer

The lead time for a national newspaper features desk is about 4 weeks, so whilst that would probably be too late if you want an offer before Christmas, it's well worth thinking about if you find yourself still on the market in the spring.

Riq

I am intrigued to look at this house!

When you eventually list this house on rightmove please come back and post a link.

I think your house sounds fantastic.

liberty_lily

Thanks Westlondonbuyer - that's encouraging!

I did have a quick look online and see that Allsops have an auction in London on Thursday, so might pop along to see how it goes - at least that will give us a feel for the way it's done (last time I went to a property auction was with as a child with my parents in the 1980's) and an idea on the percentage/type that sell.

I'll also take a look at the various London property auction results online!

LL x

liberty_lily

Riq wrote: »

I am intrigued to look at this house!

When you eventually list this house on rightmove please come back and post a link.

I think your house sounds fantastic.

Hi Riq

Thanks for your compliment...........I'm glad you like the sound of it!

When it does go on the market I'll defintely post a link here - you never know I might find a buyer on MSE

If there was some other way to post up pics I would, but that's obviously not possible............

LL x

g_attrill

liberty_lily wrote: »

If there was some other way to post up pics I would, but that's obviously not possible............

Photobucket is pretty easy to use, you can upload photos and either paste a link to the album, or embed the photos right in the post using the "insert image" button and pasting in the direct link.

I'm sure you will get some tips on a few things to do to prepare it for sale, it does sound nice.

liberty_lily

g_attrill wrote: »

Photobucket is pretty easy to use, you can upload photos and either paste a link to the album, or embed the photos right in the post using the "insert image" button and pasting in the direct link.

I'm sure you will get some tips on a few things to do to prepare it for sale, it does sound nice.

Thanks g_attrill

I hadn't realised that I would be allowed to do that...........will give it a go!

LL x

mostlycheerful

“we have an awful lot of antique furniture which we would not be prepared under any circumstances to leave behind so the house would have to be let out unfurnished. We would then obviously have to find an unfurnished property for ourselves to live in and one that could accomodate all our furniture would need to be pretty large..........and consequently expensive.”

Not necessarily. There are several ways you could deal with this.

“which we would not be prepared under any circumstances to leave behind”

Well, yes, but surely there’s at least a few items that are not that precious or valuable that could be left behind to be recovered at a later date. Decent tenants aren’t going to trash or rip off everything, are they, so surely some of the stuff could probably stay. Or be packed away piled up in the corner of one room with a please do not touch sign placed on it.

Or maybe not, maybe every last drop of it is much loved and very valuable. And the mere notion of someone else being in the vicinity of it unattended is unacceptable, sure. Yes, I’m very particular about who I let loose on anything of mine so I understand not wanting to let anyone near your stuff, if at all possible.

Could some of it be farmed out to family and friends to look after? Bit of a nuisance but it’s only them turning up to collect it and or a few round robin drives dropping it off. If ten people each took three pieces that would be 30 pieces being looked after. One or two people would probably be happy to accommodate 5 or even 10 pieces if they’ve got some space and or like your stuff or particularly care for you and would like to step up to the plate and help for a while in your moment of need.

If you get a place with a garden and a relaxed sympathetic landlord then it’s legal, without any permissions or planning permission necessary, to put up a shed as long as it is less than half the area of the garden. The law about this changed three years ago and so far there’s not been any suggestion that the new regime have got round to trying to rescind this so it’s probably still the case. So if you do this it can take another load.

Similarly garages can be bought for as cheap as £3k to £6k depending on the area. And when eventually you don’t need it or them you can sell it or them and recoup all or nearly all the cash.

Similarly garages can be rented as cheap as £2 a week (Brighton a couple of years ago) and in London they’re available as cheap as £70 a month so that can contain all the less precious or valuable stuff.

And maybe perhaps you could let go of a few items that you’re not particularly attached to or that would be easily replaced at a later date so you can put these out on consignment sale or return to one or two antiques shops for 3 or 6 months and or punt them out yourself on ebay and loot which would reduce the load a bit - and generate a bit of cash.

Yes, when solutions are required a bit of lateral thinking and thinking out of the box can sometimes suffice. When a wall can’t easily be jumped over then burrowing underneath or going for a walk around it can sometimes achieve what you want. Where there’s a will there’s a way. Well, not always, but it’s often worth a go.

Alternatively maybe none of these ideas will suit your purpose but this is what I’d do in your position so, obviously, it’s up to you if you decide that these are doable or not.

So there are some possible solutions to consider. Hope this helps your thinking if only to discount these ideas as not acceptable. Good luck.

liberty_lily

Hi mostlycheerful

Thanks so much for your continued and detailed input on my dilemma - it really is most appreciated!

The idea about renting/buying a garage is possibly worth considering as if some of our items were to go to my parents that's where half would have to go - the rest would be in a conservatory. The only problem again is the value of these pieces and the potential lack of security in a garage - at least at my parents' the garage is next to the house, but in a rented situation the garage could be some distance away. Maybe therefore the shed in a rental house garden would be better, although damp could also be a problem!

The furniture and other items are collectively worth quite a bit and some are virtually irreplaceable so we wouldn't be prepared for any risks to be involved where they are concerned. To show you how fussy I am about these things when we moved here I insisted on bringing all of our carefully packaged ornaments here by car! To be honest I don't even like the idea of storage facilities really, especially after I read one story the other day of a person whose wordly goods had been devoured/defecated on by an army of mice in the storage container

Unfortunately most of our relatives/friends have young children who once again I wouldn't trust near our valuables - god, I'm beginning to sound like a right old bag! - and even the thought of leaving too much at my parents' fills me with dread with my mum having alzheimers as she has recently managed to lose a valuable ring of her own, so goodness knows what would become of our stuff! Our large book collection, loft items and maybe some well-packaged pictures could be farmed out to friends/family though.

Regarding leaving some of it here temporarily - we probably have about 17 or 20 large items plus some chairs we could realistically leave, which sounds good but on the other hand apart from smaller items/ornaments, rugs, pictures etc there are a further 22 large furniture items that we would have to find safe, dry homes for. We also have approximately 60 planters of varying sizes complete with plants which would be taken with us.............

To give you an idea of the scale of the operation involved, when we moved here (which we had expected to be our forever home so no expense was spared!) we had two huge removal lorries (and that was after we reduced our furniture collection considerably, ie, we reduced 11 sofas down to 6!!!) and apart from all our other stuff we also removed a 6 seater hot-tub all 150 miles 'cos our buyers didn't want it. The cost of moving that time was over £5000 which I guess was probably above average!

Maybe we should change our style and become minimalists then we wouldn't have this problem, or else do what I've seen some Americans do and get the whole house and contents moved from one location to another.............that might actually be simpler

Thanks again for all your help and hope you don't think I'm being ungrateful for your suggestions - on the contrary it's helping a lot!

LL x