Selling - how much of a financial hit for a house in need of improvement?

lizards

I've never sold a house before. We're looking to move soon to a much bigger house as our family has outgrown our current place several times over. Our current two bed house is not what you would call immaculate, but it's perfectly functional. However, it looks a bit "tired" I would say. We just never got around to upgrading things as planned as life got in the way (three children 5 and under will do this..)

I'm wondering how much of an effect the state of the house would have on the final sale price. Say identical houses in excellent condition sold in the same immediate area for £150-160K, what sort of financial hit would we be likely to take for a house with the following issues:

* 80s kitchen, bit tatty (hole in sink, missing drawer front)
* 80s avocado bathroom (yes, yes, I know..)
* most rooms could probably do with a repaint and some need new carpet
* old style ancient boiler, but reliable
* old style electricity fusebox with wires, not fuses

Everything else is perfectly fine and modern (e.g. double glazing, decent doors, central heating, tidy garden and house exterior, no damp/leaks etc etc)

With the exception of the boiler and electrics which need doing regardless, buyers may conceivably want to replace the other things even if they were immaculate - I don't know if that factors in at all. We could possibly replace the sink and drawer front, but finding something matching when the original was early 80s..!

And finally, out of interest, would this be (in estate agent terms) "a house in need of modernisation" or is this state of repair considered acceptable and not worth mentioning?

I realise nobody has a crystal ball but I genuinely have no clue as to how much of a financial hit we can expect to take for needing this sort of work doing.. any sort of vague estimates or advice very welcome!

Thanks in advance!!

cattie

All I can tell you is that if it were me, I'd be wanting to go in at around £25-£30k under. As I know from when I bought this house, which was in need of some of the same work as yours, ie, kitchen, bathroom, new boiler etc. etc. etc. this is what I ended up having to fork out to get my place renovated, what with vat on top of everything as well.

And some of my stuff was sourced at good prices too, so end cost could have been even higher.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

lizards wrote: »

I genuinely have no clue as to how much of a financial hit we can expect to take for needing this sort of work doing.. any sort of vague estimates or advice very welcome!

Thanks in advance!!

Very much depends on the area, local market conditions, and price of houses.

If you're in an area where the market is flooded with near identical properties in perfect condition that still aren't selling, then you'd probably need to discount this one a fair but to get a sale.

If you're in an area where little decent comes up for sale and demand is strong, then you're not talking much of a discount at all for what are mostly basically minor cosmetic issues.

Also if this is the sort of place where people tend to move in and redo everything to their own taste anyway, again not much of a discount. Whereas if it's the sort of place where a likely buyer will be stretched and have little to spend, you may need to discount it more.

PasturesNew

lizards wrote: »

...finding something matching when the original was early 80s..!

...

There are a lot of reclamation companies, with websites, that buy/sell old stuff, so it's not impossible to get a match... it might just be awkward, faraway, expensive, so not worth it once you find one.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

lizards wrote: »

* 80s kitchen, bit tatty (hole in sink, missing drawer front)
* 80s avocado bathroom (yes, yes, I know..)
* most rooms could probably do with a repaint and some need new carpet

That should cost you no more than 6K to 8K to fix to a cosmetically acceptable standard if you can do some of the work yourself, buy discounted stuff online, and find a local tradie to do the complex bits cash in hand.

Paint and carpet in particular are cheap, and will make a big difference to buyers impressions of the house.

So if you need to discount the house more than this to sell, I would get it done.

* old style ancient boiler, but reliable
* old style electricity fusebox with wires, not fuses

Doing these will not add any value.

If they work, they're fine, so leave them.

lizards

Thanks, both of you!

There's not many identical properties up for sale round here, and they seem to be selling reasonably fast close to asking which is promising. It's likely to be a first time buyer though, who may well not have the funds needed to do the place up to their liking (which was us 8 years ago) so that's a good point.

I agree the work that needs doing would be a substantial amount, which is why we never got it done initially as we had stretched ourselves to get our first house. If the house was only worth £60K it would seem mad to discount by £30K, yet if it was worth £950K, £30K would be a drop in the ocean and I'd expect to drop by more considering the hassle involved, so I'm not sure it's quite as simple as the true value of what needs doing either..

lizards

Cross posts!!

Great advice again, thank you! We can do a bit of stuff ourselves - husband isn't too bad at hammering stuff together if needs be. And I'm pretty good at sourcing cheap stuff if necessary! It may well be we put the house on the market for a bit and see what happens, and if we have no luck, take it off and reassess and do a bit of work. We'd just prefer to avoid the hassle of having a kitchen/bathroom out of order for a few days with three young children underfoot and nowhere else to go!

PasturesNew - that's very interesting to know! That hadn't occurred to me! Thanks!

bris

25 to 30k is way to much to discount. I reckon 8 to 10 max, even at that, if it's a good sellable area I would hold out for more.

Contessa

Perhaps you could sell your avocado bathroom suite on one of the sites that PN mentioned?

fannyanna

We're in the process of buying a property like yours - no structural work just modernisation throughout.

We're paying asking price although similar properties have been coming on the market £10k more.

Debt_Free_Chick

10K discount was my gut feel, before I read replies from others.

I'd describe it as "in need of updating" rather than "for modernisation". Perhaps that's just me though :-)