Help please

jbatista

As some of you may or not know, My Dear Dad passed away in April leaving a lovely home and about £13,000.

My husband and I live in a Council property (rented) with our 3 sons. My hubby is ill and not able to work and I am only working casually at a Pri School, not much income coming in.

Dads house is up for sale since July, its in need of some repairs. Had 1 couple to look at it. Its reasonably priced for the area.
This is dads house:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-16754219.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

There is a another house for sale down the road, which has been on the market for well over 18 months now-was put on originally at £158,000, they reduced it earlier this year to £149,995 and last week it was reduced to £138,000!!!!!
This is it here:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-6642345.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

We are now seriuosly thinking of leaving the council house and moving into Dads property and do it up slowly.

In such a dilemma, my head is all messed up as to what or not do for best.

The primary idea was 2 sell dads house, buy the council house and bank some money. Now we are not so sure...
Helpppppp please.

Badger_Lady

Hmmm... I can't see any pictures of your Dad's house..? The "Full Brochure" link isn't working for me (and I'm always less inclined to click on it anyway).

It sounds like pricing might be an issue, although I'm not at all familiar with your area - if you could get a quick and easy £130k now, would you be happy?

I normally see merit in holding out for a decent price, but in your case a quick sale sounds more beneficial... (without seeing pictures), often houses being sold for inheritence are less well-decorated and expected to sell for less.

My Great-Granddad passed away in May and his house sold for about £10k below market value, but it was more important to withdraw the equity quickly than to hold out. Personally, I was keen to get in there and decorate it first, but it would have been a lot of effort for money that, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't that important.

How much could you get your council house for? If there's a substantial discount, it would be a shame to lose out on that, particularly if you're comfortable there (not to mention the hassle of moving!).

pcwilkins

My opinion --- sell your Dad's house and stay where you are.

I think you need to hassle the agent --- there is only one picture on rightmove of your dad's house and the "full brochure" link isn't working for me either. So I am unable to see the inside of the house. Coupled with the fact that there is an almost identical house down the road for almost £10k less, this probably explains why you have little interest.

You say that it is reasonably priced for the area, but this is only based on past house prices, I guess. The market is slowing and you might be better off getting a quick £130k rather than hanging on and finding that in a few months you can't even get £120k.

At the end of the day this is all free money so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Peter

Doozergirl

The most any house has sold for in that street is number 7 £125,000. It was in 2005. Looking at Land Registry HPI for Stoke on Trent, that would put the current value around £141,000. You know that dad's house needs some work so you need to knock a bit off for that, plus you now need to undercut the neighbour again.

The current price doesn't really sit well when you can buy a nicely presented detached house for £157,500
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-8875344.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

What you should never do is compare your asking price to a neighbour - especially one that hadn't sold in over a year! You have to look at the entire area.

I would sell it. Your council property is like golddust. You could use the money from your dad's house to buy your council house if you wanted. You have to accept that it has been overpriced and that you were never going to get what you were hoping for; but don't sit on it in the hope that prices will rise to meet what you want - if the market is slow, prices are not rising. All the money from a sale at a lower price is far better than no money from no sale.

You could try using an agent like www.housenetwork.co.uk so you don't have to pay out huge EA fees. I've sold successfully and my brother in law just let his property through them, both to the first viewers. I will be using them again shortly because I can no longer see what benefit a high street agent offers me for a small fortune that I can't get for less than £500 with HN

silvercar

Another problem you will have is the stamp duty threshold at £125k.

Any buyer is going to be reluctant to pay an amount just over the threshold and have a bill of £1,250+ for the privilege.