Phil Spencer

olly300

Dan-Dan wrote: »

The thing is , i get the impression they dont want to be told what to market it at , just through professional pride , how do i get past that ,and get them to market it at what i might think is more realistic !?

Do the work needed then talk to them about the price.

What everyone is suggesting is how to get people to view the property and offer on it.

Fire_Fox

Dan-Dan wrote: »

8 bungalows in the cul de sac

all but ours and next door have been extended in some way , as in going upstairs (which kind of restricts resale to pensioners down the line?) or by bringing the front room to the level of the house (you will know what i mean going by the picture of the front?)

all bungalows have roughly the same size footprint tho ours has the largest garden.....

Next door was redone , lovely it is , two dorma rooms , decorated etc , the builder who did it got 450k for it!!

Then over the road , number 4 , he literally took the bungalow apart , other than external walls and rebuil it , then replaced the roof , he tried to sell it for 500k with no takers

I discounted the £450K one because I guessed it was huge or done. All the others sold for roughly what you are asking now or less, they can't possibly have needed more work surely? The average of the four others back at the peak in 2006/07 is £308K.

For sale prices are irrelevant: number 4 sold for £250K at the peak in 2007 presumably in unmodernised condition just as yours is. Zoopla claims prices have dropped 10% in the last five years for that postcode. Sorry but the more I look at it the more overpriced I think it is.

Dan-Dan wrote: »

Thank you LL , i appreciate your err , bluntness lol (and expertise i know you were an EA as well)

We thought (i am not saying we are experts obviously) that priced at 325k , knowing we would take 10k less than that , was enough to get a buyer as we have spent lots of blood sweat and tears here looking after Nan and now just want to get on with our lives elsewhere

So we made sure the place is CLEAN and uncluttered , i think that has been done OK , but yes , the house would need modernisation everywhere , we know that , if it didnt , we would have put it on for more....?
I am starting to get the vibe (within myself as well as on here) that we will never get a buyer whilst its up at 325k even tho its only been 4 weeks :eek:

It still looks cluttered, lots of kids drawings and tiddly family photos and clashing patterns. Better with large single prints of something impersonal/ inoffensive like photographic canvases that you can pick up cheap.

Dan-Dan

Gra76 wrote: »

When you're selling you have to be as critical of your own home as possible I think.

Ask yourself this. If it were someone elses house, would you buy it at the price you're asking. Be brutally honest with yourself. Where would you try and knock money off the price if it was someone elses? Would you look at it and think there was a lot to do?

I would say to myself…
The cul de sac is exclusive , this is actually true , its very very desirable as a location within the town , excellent local schools (not that this is relevant with the target market!) good links , very very quiet , next to woods , only 8 properties , the sale values are so hard to judge as they only really go for sale when someone kicks the bucket so to speak , subject to trimming a lot ,the garden has lots of potential for verggie patch , decking , etc etc , the roof , garage roof and bricks are all in good condition , structally the building is good
BUT
I also know , it will need new carperts througout , some walls will need skimming , along with ceilings , and redocration of every room on the walls ,prbably someone will want to replace internal doors , they will probably want to make the toilet and bathroom one room , which entails knocking down a wall and blocking up another wall , the kitchen needs complete overhaul as in brand new , with applicances , this would create a lovely breakfast/dining area but I know this is 8-12k of anyonnes money
If i`m being ultra picky , the windows are all aluminimum style and at some point someone will want to replace them (even though they are bloody good quality!)
Looking at it , i`m thinking , once done up , it would have a value (subjective I know) but comparable to what others MIGHT price for , around the £395k upwards mark

But at the same time , it`s a buyers market and were in a dreadful recession


Add to this , we are only teo of the beneificiries of the will and so have a resposbility to maximise the value of the estate !!


Tough really , tougher than we though

Dan-Dan

olly300 wrote: »

I brought my property from old people.

They had the decency to:
1. Get out the paint brush and paint every single wall white in every room apart from 4 walls in different rooms.
2. Paint all visible skirting boards and doors white.
3. Paint the front door and outside cupboard door Chelsea blue
4. Repair the fence and keep the garden neat.
5. Cover the carpet tiles in the kitchen with vinyl.
6. Change all the fitted wardrobe doors
7. Remove all polystyrene ceiling tiles and put paper on the ceilings.
8. Retile the bathroom

The guy doing most of the work had a heart condition so got help from their children and neighbour.

I udnerstand , our nan was housbound though so couldnt have done it herself , we used to pay for a gardener to come in to trim bushes etc

we should have donw more i think , such as the things you mention above , whilst she was still here

lessonlearned

Be patient. 4 weeks isn't that long. The weather has been dire. You are getting viewers.

Dan - I'm sorry if my bluntness offended you. It was not my intention to be rude. These things always come over harsher in print then face to face.

I really cannot comment about the price - where I live I would expect a mansion for that price. :rotfl: and in turnkey condition.......

I do appreciate that your area may be considerably more expensive than my neck of the woods. However, £325k is a lot of money in anyone's book - except perhaps central London.

I firmly believe that once you get over a certain price bracket - I would pitch this at around £250K - then irrespective of the area where you live - buyers are entitled to expect a certain standard of quality and level of finish.

I'm sorry but your property doesn't meet that standard.

The garden could be cleaned and tidied up and given a bit of TLC with a relatively small financial outlay. It would make a huge difference. Add some spring and summer colour to bring it to life.
Bedding plants and seeds cost very little.

The kitchen really needs something doing to it. If the cabinets are ok, then you could just replace doors and worktops to bring it more up to date.

You really do need to replace those tired worn out carpets. That lovely parquet flooring should be restored to its former glory. Then repaint throughout. Some fresh bedding and accessories would make a huge difference and of course you get to take them with you when you leave.

At the moment - because you are living in the property it currently falls between two stools. Viewers can't work out whether it is meant to be a family home or a probate sale. It's just not working either way.

As someone else pointed out. Rooms have to be clearly delineated ie bedroom, dining room or whatever. So too do houses. You must decide on who your target market is and then tailor the house to meet that market.

It's good that you are prepared to be flexible when the offers start coming in. However, the trick is to start getting some offers in the first place.

olly300

Dan-Dan wrote: »

I udnerstand , our nan was housbound though so couldnt have done it herself , we used to pay for a gardener to come in to trim bushes etc

we should have donw more i think , such as the things you mention above , whilst she was still here

What's stopping you from doing the work now?

My vendors did it in a month.

The reason I know is that they scribbled dates on the plaster in the kitchen which I uncovered when I removed wallpaper.

You can probably do it in less if you get some co-operation from your wife and help from some friends.

phoebe1989seb

Norma_Desmond wrote: »

I just can't understand people who can't or won't 'see beyond'.

Same here - our current one was unmortgageable - presented by the EA as a 'half-finished project' and barely habitable even by our standards. Two years on we're getting there, but still most of our friends would balk at having to live on such a building site of a house

We've already thrown in excess of £50k at it and recently it's been valued at £70k more than we paid......another £30k should see it finished, but not sure if we'll want to stay or move when it's done.....

After all the effort we put in (doing much of the work ourselves), there's no way I'm going to paint it all white/magnolia and add the ubiquitous vase of twigs/silly decorative words at the behest of some potential buyer that can't see beyond their nose..........regardless of what Phil (however much I respect his opinions) might say

ACG

I seen the first bit of it before switching over.
One house had been up for 4 years. It was obviously bad enough that people couldnt see past it.

You generally have 2 choices when it comes to selling a house thats in bad condition or outdated. Sell it for under its true value, to the point where its worth someone coming in and spending the money to do it properly or tart it up yourself for a fraction of the cost to the point where people will live with it.

Why should a buyer have to pay full whack AND do the work?

I bought my house for about £20-30k less than its true value, all in all it will cost me about £7-10k to do it up, i would never have paid its true value as i could have bought one i can move straight into without having to do the work.

I personally have no issues giving most things a try (that included installing GCH). But the other couple who seen it at the same time as me went in there saying look at that which needs doing - somehow expecting it to be near perfect for a fraction of the price! They couldnt see the potential.

Dan-Dan

I think we thought in our naievity , that decluttering the old furniture and making the place emptiable in a day , and cleaning it , etc , plus pricing it at 325 would be enough to get the place gone , fairly quickly, based on these not coming up very often and being quite a desitable location, i think we were hoping that someone would bite our hands off

This is starting to not look that simple

mummyroysof3

Our house is being photoed and put up for sale tomorrow. I know that a lot of the work work could do with some attention and some walls could do with a coat of paint but it would be impossible to do it and the kids not touch it before its dry so will have to leave as is and hope we still get sensible offers