Selling a pig in a poke!

moneyistooshorttomention

iantojones40 wrote: »

The notion that houses in any particular area "take ages to sell" is complete and utter nonsense.

Regardless of the house or area, if it's priced sensibly and realistically it will sell in a perfectly reasonable time frame.

I would say that the "taking ages to sell" thing does apply more to some areas than others BUT that is down to the level of demand in the area basically imo.

I am from a pretty fast-paced area. I am now living in a much slower-paced area. In this area - people are fond of telling me houses "take ages to sell". I don't agree with them. I know of houses that have been on the market here for literally years and, basically, it's down to them being "duds" that I wouldnt even look at (eg very poor condition or really bad location etc).

Houses I would consider if I'm feeling brave (including the one I actually bought) stick around on the market in this area for literally months - because they need a lot of work/money, but are basically okay once that work has been done.

Houses that I think "Now you're talking - the house is ready to live in" will go just as fast in this area as in my home area.

Basically - I think the houses here are, on average, in worse condition and/or more old-fashioned than those in my home area and that is the reason they take longer (and not to do with the area itself per se iyswim).

In my home area - houses are rather more unlikely to be a Right Dump. Right Dumps will take months to sell there. Here Right Dumps will take literally years to sell. That's the difference imo.

"What I actually want in the first place" houses (ie normal standard) take about the same amount of time to go in both locations.

Cakeguts

The house isn't a pig in a poke it is just a house that you paid more for than it has turned out it was worth to you. What comes next is either you sell it to someone for what it is worth to them or you continue to live in it. A house is only worth what someone will give you for it. It sounds as if buyers in your area won't give you what you think you want for this house.

[Deleted User]

If you renovate the house to a bit more what you like, won't you like the house better. If it will take 3 years to sell, I'd have thought it would be worth doing.

If you have already bought the kitchen units, can't you just install them yourselves (having already done lots of renovation) or hire a carpenter to do it, doing as much of the work yourself that you can?

Decorating can be done cheaply but still look very nice. And it can be a lot of fun feeling like you've achieved something that looks brilliant at bargain bucket prices. It might also make life look a bit more positive after recent events. Selling a house right now, after all that stress is actually going to increase stress, right when you don't need it. Again, see if you can live without doing the big ticket items you were going to do. YouTube can be really helpful if you want to do things yourself.

Do what you can yourself so the place is more liveable for you. I don't think you can lose then.

phoebe1989seb

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I would say that the "taking ages to sell" thing does apply more to some areas than others BUT that is down to the level of demand in the area basically imo.

I am from a pretty fast-paced area. I am now living in a much slower-paced area. In this area - people are fond of telling me houses "take ages to sell". I don't agree with them.

This happened to us when we were selling our last house. It was in ready to move into condition, but our next door neighbour - who'd only lived there six months longer than us so was hardly an expert - told us houses took at least a year to sell in that village. She was a nosey old gossip, so we took great delight in going under offer five weeks after putting the house on the market and completing two months later :T

getmore4less

Low supply with low demand can take ages for the match to happen.

If there are buyers waiting try to find out what they are looking for.

If there are areas reasonable close with bigger turnover what do you need to do to attract some of those buyers.

If it is going to take time then do some of the things that make the place more comfortable, finish started projects, nothing says desperate more than a 1/2 finished job.

liberty_lily

getmore4less wrote: »

If it is going to take time then do some of the things that make the place more comfortable, finish started projects, nothing says desperate more than a 1/2 finished job.

Thank you. That's exactly what we've been doing today! Trouble is there are quite a few (large) started jobs!!!

Thank you for all your helpful suggestions. I won't respond to each one separately, but just address a few points -

We have fallen out of love with the house/area, that wouldn't be so much of an issue and it is in a nice area (on the edge of an even nicer one, but with a far less appealing one a short drive away), but we miss the hustle and bustle of where we lived before. It's really too sleepy for our taste.

It could be perceived that we've decreased the value as we have several rooms that are started and not finished. See above. The very large hall, stairs, landing area had textured paper and swirly carpets. As did much of the house! When stripping the hall etc we found the plaster in an awful condition. Will be a major job to put right. Although we are used to doing renovation work we have first hand experience of throwing good money after bad and based upon local knowledge feel reluctant to do it again. Might have to I guess.

Otherwise we have decorated four rooms to a high standard, but one had a concrete floor under the pink carpet. We thought it would be parquet, as in the adjacent rooms. If we were going to stay forever we would have laid reclaimed parquet or flags.

The vendor took the aga and as we planned to replace with a range when we did the kitchen there is just a large empty space. We cook on the domino hob and built in oven they did leave, but it's not ideal for a family.

We have improved the garden that was totally overgrown and jungle-like by spending £££ on new plants. We did that two years ago so it looks established and far nicer. Also we fitted new fencing (£3000) as the old was just unsightly broken down wire stuff.

So it's hard top gauge really.

A few older houses have sold, but not many come on the market.

We didn't pay £800,000. Houses in our road range from £300,000 up to £850,000. Ours is somewhere in the middle. The most expensive sale was at around £750,000, but that was a new build and not as large as the one currently on for £850,000.

Nearby some houses have sold for £800,000 up to over a million. Some are on huge plots and have been knocked down and replaced with trophy homes. Ours doesn't lend itself to that kind of thing.

A colleague of my husband said that in this area people prefer newer builds and see older (Victorian) houses as too much like hard work

We have no pre-conceived idea of what we'd hope to get if we sell as is. If it goes for less than we paid so be it. What we don't want to do is spend money on things that won't be appreciated. The kitchen (solid wood, hand painted) cost loads. The tap alone was £700. I have no intention of fitting that when a buyer won't appreciate it! Plus we still have to buy oven and worktop.

Previously we priced a house realistically and we accepted an offer in 10 days so we know it can be done. That house was finished though. And we lost tens of thousands of pounds.

Thanks again for all your comments. This obviously needs further thought