I need to sell my house!

Pixie5740

AnotherJoe wrote: »

From a previous post of the OP's

It doesn't say they were local to Orkney though. It could be people having issues shifting properties in Aberdeen or someone wanting to move from the Fair Isle to the more cosmopolitan Orkney.

fairy_lights

Becks32 wrote: »

It has a 270 degree view of the sea with an island, lighthouse and ships passing regularly. There are secluded beaches, regular sightings of orcas, seals and the Aurora is visible when the conditions are right.

Sounds Idyllic, but from scrolling through the photos you'd never know it.
It looks like an ugly house in need of updating in the middle of some scrubby farmland in a barren landscape. Nothing about it say "perfect country retreat".

I wonder if it would be worth getting professional photos done of the landscape around the house, the sun setting over the sea etc to make it look more appealing?

Teasedale

fairy_lights wrote: »

I wonder if it would be worth getting professional photos done of the landscape around the house, the sun setting over the sea etc to make it look more appealing?

Spot on, fairy. So many properties are condemned by crap photography to linger unviewed at the bottom of the market (I've bought some!). Yet with smartphones there are gazillions of good photographers out there and I'll bet the OP knows someone who would enjoy the job and maybe a bottle of Scapa when the property sells.

AnotherJoe

fairy_lights wrote: »

I wonder if it would be worth getting professional photos done of the landscape around the house, the sun setting over the sea etc to make it look more appealing?

Theyve had 8 offers. Theyve all fallen through for reasons unconnected with the house.

fairy_lights

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Theyve had 8 offers. Theyve all fallen through for reasons unconnected with the house.

In three years! So the pool of local buyers seems to have dried up, and to someone looking for a holiday home it just doesn't look appealing. It's got a touch of the 'Craggy Island' about it.

Brock_and_Roll

I see the last sale of the property was in December 2006 for £35k.

11.5 years later the property is being marketed for £210k - I make that a compound annual increase of 17% every year for 11.5 years.

I dont know a great deal about property prices in the Islands but even with low borrowing rates, I am struggling to see the causes of such a huge increase - a casual perusal of the sold stats for the area shows that prices for detached properties have been relatively stable for the last 6+ years.

davidmcn

Brock_and_Roll wrote: »

I see the last sale of the property was in December 2006 for £35k.

11.5 years later the property is being marketed for £210k - I make that a compound annual increase of 17% every year for 11.5 years.

I dont know a great deal about property prices in the Islands but even with low borrowing rates, I am struggling to see the causes of such a huge increase - a casual perusal of the sold stats for the area shows that prices for detached properties have been relatively stable for the last 6+ years.

In which case the £35k is probably a rogue figure rather than an open market sale. Things like transfers of equity on divorce etc often creep into the house price data.

ProDave

I have mentioned this before many times. the housing market in many parts of Scotland has not yet recovered from the 2008 crash. We have had 10 years of stagnation, little demand and no rise in prices. It is not unusual for large properties here so take 3 or 4 years to sell, but when they do eventually sell, they sell for close to the asking price. and of course surveyors valuations are based on local sales, so if one sold at that price, that is it's value, even if it took 4 years to find that buyer.

I must admit I thought Orkney was fairing a bit better

Also this illustrates what I have also said, that house here are "under valued" By that I mean you could not buy a plot of land and build that house for that money. Even if you got the plot for free, you would struggle to build the house for that money. So we are in a situation where a house value is less than the actual cost of building it.

I have also speculated before what the "problem" is and I believe it to be the SNP. As long as there is a continuing threat of another referendum and Scottish Independence, then most English buyers are simply not interested in moving to Scotland, and is is an unfortunate fact that large houses like this near the top of the market are outside the reach of locals on lower wages.

It is a telling fact than when we tried to sell, we only had one viewing from an Engishman. Had it been on the market pre 2008, it would have sold very quickly with loads of English bidders probably forcing a closing date and best and final offers.

Drop the price to give it away might make is sell if it drops enough for a local to buy it, but I assume you want to buy another property, you would also have to find one where the vendor will match that price drop. Unlikely.

ProDave

davidmcn wrote: »

In which case the £35k is probably a rogue figure rather than an open market sale. Things like transfers of equity on divorce etc often creep into the house price data.

That was probably when the land, and the dereleict cottage was sold as a building plot. The house that is there has been built since that date.

Brock_and_Roll

ProDave wrote: »

That was probably when the land, and the dereleict cottage was sold as a building plot. The house that is there has been built since that date.

Yes you are probably right - I realised this after my post. Presumably the OP's mortgage is a lot more than £35k