Selling a house that seems "stuck"

jackyann

I posted awhile ago about this house & found you all helpful; so more advice please!

I am staying in an inherited property, temporarily, and need to move out for family & job reasons this autumn / winter.
I have been trying to sell since April. we have one private offer on the table, but he is unable to sell his house.
With his agreement (and promising to keep him informed) I went to an estate agent in June. They have been helpful, but have had only 1 view from 15 enquiries (their usual rate is 80% & feedback indicates that it the road that puts buyers off).
The road is very narrow, and has a lot of cars parked on it & the pavement. We have a drive & garage, but anyone coming here has to negotiate 150 yards of narrow road with cars on either side. It is also a rather unusual house, and I think in this current market buyer are going for the neat new 3 bed semis being built nearby.

It would need a lot of money & effort to make it legal to rent - I estimate £20-30k + the effort that I am not in a position to put in. Estate agents also advise that even "done up" it would not be a likely candidate for rental, so I am very reluctant to go that route.
It is already competitively priced to take account of the work needed & the location as I wanted a quick sale, but as summer ticks away I am worrying.
As an old house it will deteriorate once I move away, and at a minimum I would have to keep the heat on and pay someone to call in & check it over.
Any thoughts on what kind of % it is worth taking off for a quick sale? Or whether it may be wiorth trying to keep it ticking over until spring?
I am also wondering about asking our only potential buyer to reduce his house price so that he can sell and adjust ours accordingly.
I have tried to ask my co-owner brother what is the minimum price he would accept, but he keeps saying "just wait"!
All advice & shared experience welcomed

Owain_Moneysaver

rightmove link please?

celyn90

If it is your brother that is preventing you dropping the price; I'd get a quote for a company that checks houses in the absensce of the owner, work out how much it will cost to leave the heating ticking over and all the other sundries like house insurance and council tax - then tell him how much it is going to cost him for it's upkeep per month whilst you both are waiting. If he is the co-owner, he should be taking co-responsibility for the property.

cel x

poppysarah

Could a fire engine get to your house?
If this concerns you then ring the nice men at the fire brigade and ask them to assess the road.
People who block the road will get nice tickets and it might make the road clearer.


EDIT: IMO (And this is where I am truly a grumpy old woman) if you do not have a drive you should not have a car. It's ok for temporary visitors to park on a road but when it's day in day out by car owners then it annoys me[1]
OK so maybe not a good thing to measure as lots of things annoy me. People parking on the pavement blocking it for pedestrians does a good job of that too.

[1] Nowhere near as much as when muppets park on the road whilst having a perfectly empty drive.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

jackyann wrote: »

It would need a lot of money & effort to make it legal to rent - I estimate £20-30k + the effort that I am not in a position to put in. Estate agents also advise that even "done up" it would not be a likely candidate for rental, so I am very reluctant to go that route.

That's quite interesting.

What needs to be done? That's a huge amount to make it legal......

And why not a likely candidate for rental?

jenhug

could you sell it through auction?

jackyann

Thanks all!
Poppysarah - this has happened whilst I was at the house! It was a very minor electrical fire, but I dialled 999 whilst someone tried (successfully) to extinguish it.
The fire station is at the bottom of our street, they got the engine out ready and asked for me to walk down and inform them if it was serious enough to "bash through all the cars". As the fire was out by then, they walked up to check.
They said that they are insured if they cause damage when necessary, but obviously don't want to!
It (and the neighbouring, similar road) do cause headaches for the council & emergency services. Parking on the pavements is the compromise that they allow as there are no nearby roads or places to take the overspill. When I was a child most people rented lock-up garages and only parked outside their homes for brief periods, but that does not suit modern life!

Hamish - not a likely candidate for rental as it has a lot of downstairs rooms but only 2 proper bedrooms upstairs, and the general aspect of the downstairs rooms make them not very suitable for bedrooms. The kind of thing that wouldn't bother students or workers on short-term contracts, but we are not in that kind of area.
There is a bathroom upstairs & shower room downstairs, both of which need upgrading, as well as other work.
We have also looked at turning it into 2 flats, but planning permission would not be granted b/c of the road issues - we could make plenty of parking room as we have a large garden, but the council does not want even more cars cluttering up this cul-de-sac.

Celyn & jen - I will investigate - thanks.

Owain - I am feeling slightly uncomfortable about giving the link - if you feel that this is unfair when I have asked for advice, you may be correct. However, given some experience on forums, I am wary of letting people know where I am. I do apologise, as I think most posters here are very genuine & helpful.

jackyann

Update - estate agents advises advertising as "offers invited" so I will give that a go before considering auction. I do feel better equipped after your advice, so many thanks.