At our wits end - house for sale

FingersCrossed_2

It's communal. We've added some plant pots and a bench under the window but there really is nowhere to form any sort of a garden. It does have two private parking spaces further across the courtyard but again there is no scope to change them in to a garden as surrounded by other parking.

AdrianC

societys_child wrote: »

In this forum, someone will always tell you "it's overpriced" even though they know nothing about the property . . .

What else do you need to know, apart from "nobody's interested in buying it"?

The ONLY definition of the value of a property - or anything - that makes any sense at all is a point at which somebody is willing to buy it.

It didn't sell at auction (were there no bids at all? Or did they just not meet reserve?) then the one and only offer after the auction was considerably below the advertised price. Does this not tell you something about that price? If the mortgage is more than anybody will buy it for, you're in negative equity. That doesn't make the house worth more, it means selling the house will still leave you with a debt.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

It's very nicely presented inside (I like your solid-looking wooden furniture with the neutral walls). I don't think you can do any more on that score.

What attracted you to it initially? It's a family-sized property, but for a family that doesn't want a garden, which I can't imagine is a large pool of buyers. Never heard the term "upper villa" before, although perhaps it's a common term in Scotland? Is it near enough to a university or college to be marketed as a student let?

I think the least worst option may be selling at a loss,writing it off and getting on with your life. It sounds like a tedious millstone.

AdrianC

OK, looking at the auction details... I'm not even sure from the main photo which property/bit of the property it is. The floorplan doesn't seem to relate to the main pic at all - it's not the one with the scruffy terrace (is it?), and it doesn't have a two-story bay window (does it?). Where in the pic is the three-sided top floor window? That should be a really obvious clue as to which it is.

As for the text - it's doing you no favours. "Spacious family home"? With no garden and no scope for one? "Excellent sales evidence"? Apart from the fact it clearly doesn't ("fresh listing"... alarm bells!), because it's not sold, !!!!!! does that even mean? Woo. So a place nearby sold for more. Was it even vaguely similar? (Strange how they don't shout that 3a sold for £50k in 2013)

RM link : http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34395828.html

Oh, and for the same price nearby...
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47923669.html
Yes, it's smaller, and yes, it has a bedroom less, but...

jc808

first thing i would have said is 'overpriced'

but you seem to be reducing it nicely

run opf bad luck?

hope u sell it soon

Beancounter

FingersCrossed wrote: »

Last home report was done at the end of last year and reviewed for the February sale in January so should be an accurate value.

The valuations on the home report only have a shelf life of 12 weeks so a refresh may be needed.

At the very least any purchasers lender will want a new valuation but that would be the buyers worry.

quidsy

The house is huge but with no garden you are limited to who would want to live in it.


I would have personally split it into flats or let it as a house share.

liuhutOz

How much rent were you getting for the place? Can it be marketed as an investment opportunity?

FingersCrossed_2

Thanks all. I appreciate the constructive comments. The property was originally a large hotel which had been split in to three properties so the layout is a little quirky. The previous owner went bankrupt so I bought it in quite a state. I'm from Edinburgh and couldn't afford to get on the property market there. The house is a commutable distance to the city which attracted me. So I expect a first time buyer or professional/s to buy it. I did it up gradually and expected to love there for a long time but circumstances changed.

The rental income is around £500 a month. You could make more renting to students (there's a uni and college nearby) but we never went down that route as would have needed to change to a house of 'multiple occupancy' which would cost a little to register and meet the requirements. Also, being quite far away, would be anxious about multiple tenanats we couldn't keep an eye on. If our borrowing was more affordable then renting it out would be a viable option long term and it may be we have to return to that.

Really useful points about the layout and property description which I will address with the auction company. The balcony isn't part of the property, neither is the bay window. I wonder if it might be worth getting the auction company to do a walk through video which would make it clearer.

Returning to the price, the properties nearby are all different so it's hard to find something comparable. I truly believe 120k is good price and it did recently 'sell' for 119k. Their mortgage issue was to do with their finances rather than the property. If I could I would sell for any amount just to get rid of it but financially we just don't have the option of going below 110k. Re renewing the valuation, we simply can't afford to do that every 12 weeks. The last home report was only around 4 months ago and we would redo of goes back on open market or required by a buyer. We have a good few reports from the last couple of years that demonstrate the price is stable too.

StumpyPumpy

I agree with quidsy I think it would sell a lot better as two flats.

In it's current form I can't envisage who the target buyer would be. With no outside space and a door opening directly onto a car park (with what might be a partially concealed entrance) I can't see anyone with young children or pets wanting to live there. So the 4 bedrooms could well be putting other people off especially with the restricted height in most of them making them less useful for people that might want to house share.

There are lots of questions I would want answering before even considering looking at it. For instance: Is the livestock market still there? I found planning to move it but the maps of the area are all quite old so I don't know if it has gone - if not that is a big negative as they are always very noisy and have lots of heavy transport coming and going. The same applies to the pubs on both sides, are they still there? Is the car park for residents only or does it also serve the pubs etc.?

I also wonder about the description - I wouldn't describe it as "three floor" I would describe it as a duplex over shops (and car park entrance archway) as it was previously listed- and the previous listings had better pictures too! It is also quite hard to relate the floor plans to what is yours in the building - are there any flying freeholds (whatever they are called in Scotland ), for instance?

I certainly wouldn't keep the comment about how much another house in the area sold for - it is nothing like yours and, I'm sorry to say, puts yours in the shade completely http://www.zoopla.co.uk/property-history/10/railway-court/newtown-st-boswells/melrose/td6-0pw/31963842 and even that took a long time to sell and was sold at much lower than the home report. For me, it only serves to highlight the deficiencies in what you are offering.

Ultimately the reason it is not selling is the price - it always is. It will sell for £1; it won't sell for £1,000,000 and it appears that it won't sell for £135k or £120k either. Your options are to wait for the market to catch you up, reduce the price or reconfigure it to something people are willing to pay what you want.

SP