Advice please - buying to restore chain

littlelily

OK, here goes nothing!

Link to my house....


http://212.50.188.107/cgi-win/vebra.cgi?details1?src=vebra&PropertyCode=1560001/WOODH/13261/1

Comments very welcome!

Doozergirl

I'm drooling over the kitchen

I am not seeing floorplans or square footage I feel they are both quite important above a certain pricepoint.

I'm guessing you are pretty rural? There are only 67 properties for sale on righmove within a three mile radius of your village. Can you find out from your agent, if indeed you don't know yoursself where your previous viewers have been coming from? If you are using a local agent that deals locally then I would suspect that your viewers are quite local too.

I'd be far more inclined to use a larger, prestige agent in a larger town to draw in buyers from further afield. I see there a few properties on with Humberts and Savills. I'm using Knight Frank and whilst I'm still getting local viewings, I've had people from all different counties as we are within commuting distance of a major city but probably not immediately where people moving up for work would think to look given the sheer number of properties within commutable distance. The prestige agents will automatically draw people looking to move to a particular city.

I've had professional photos taken and they just blew me away. Quality product needs quality marketing, IMHO.

Change agent. If people are using rightmove or prime location to search around a given town, for example, yours may simply not be included in their searches, despite you being potentially perfect for them.

I'd have the same carpet running throughout to give a better impression of needing to do absolutely nothing It's still absolutely lovely though and nowhere near enough to stop me viewing that absolutely stunning kitchen

silvercar

Its lovely!

Have you had any feedback from potential buyers?

The only downside I can see is the lack of an en-suit to the master bedroom.

The price may be tricky, there is a psychological barrier at 500k plus, stamp duty increasing from 3% to 4% doesn't help.

littlelily

Thanks so much for taking the time to look and for offering your feedback!

The kitchen is indeed great, but with my honest hat on I know the house is let down by having lots and lots of little rooms (it's a bit like a rabbit warren, especially downstairs!) and only one bathroom upstairs. We have extended the house ourselves without the help of a top drawer architect and it shows - it has grown rather organically - or, put another way, not terribly well planned! That said, if the house were perfect it would be on for a lot more money!

We have had over 20 viewings since we went on the market in April - and all 3 of our potential purchasers plan to knock down walls to open up the space into more manageable, modern living accomodation. We seem to have attracted buyers who are happy to do work - but completely turned off those who want to move straight in. I am currently thinking of re-decorating and re-carpeting much of the house in neutral tones - do you think this is worth an investment of around £3K? It may improve the overall look for some of those who are turned off by the small dark rooms but it's obviously not the real solution which is to knock down ealls with a big sledgehammer and go back to the drawing board with the design!

Re agents - I have been pretty happy with the agent. I'd say 20 viewings is pretty good and it's not really their fault that none of those is in a position to proceed or actually like our house? I will certainly check if we are on Rightmove, though - good point! I'll also ask about floorplans, though for all the reasons given above, I'm not sure they wouldn't put off purchasers rather than attract them!

silvercar

Now I like the number of rooms. With teenagers, its useful to give everyone their space without impinging on the rest of the house. Our house has a similar number of rooms downstairs and we really like the layout. But then I couldn't live with only one bathroom upstairs (especially with smelly sporty male teenagers).

The amount of land you have should be a real plus.

Doozergirl

littlelily, I've had over 20 viewings in about 7 weeks! Why turn down the opportunity for more?

If you are the sort of people happy to take a sledgehammer to a house then why not do it yourselves? Get best value out of the property. Taking non-structural walls would mean only a small amount of plastering before you put in that carpet. Even if you just create a lovely master suite with that extra bathroom - knock through a doorway and create a dressing room and bathroom from another room? People are mostly concerned by the rooms they will inhabit themselves.

Even if you don't, I do think that the sense of continuity afforded by the same carpet throughout would be particularly useful in a large house. It's not much of the overall asking price after all?

littlelily

All of the bedrooms are good sized doubles and putting in a second bathroom upsatirs wouldn't be much of a problem - there's an ideal space in a 'dead' corridor between two of the bedrooms and the master bedroom is also plenty big enough to add in a shower room if a buyer wanted to. The feedback is that the amount of small, dark rooms is the problem - and only a MAJOR investment would sort that out!

BrandNewDay

I would love lots of little rooms. Everybody can have their own little room to do as they like. But, that's immaterial, as I don't have £550,000. Add a second bathroom, because that would be the one thing that would turn me off. If I *did* have that sort of money, I would want an en suite.

That kitchen, though, is amazing.

franklee

£549,999 is an awkward price as the stamp duty changes at 500K.

What was the offer you accepted? You may have to drop to 500K or offer to pay the extra stamp duty.

The property looks fine to me. Especially the kitchen.

If you were doing an exchange of properties with your buyer, and I think it doesn't seem worthwhile, I wonder of you can save on stamp duty for both of you in any way? Worth checking if you can just pay on the difference between the two properties or something? I seem to recall something along those lines but that was ages ago so may not still be possible

silvercar

If you were doing an exchange of properties with your buyer, and I think it doesn't seem worthwhile, I wonder of you can save on stamp duty for both of you in any way? Worth checking if you can just pay on the difference between the two properties or something? I seem to recall something along those lines but that was ages ago so may not still be possible

It used to be possible but not any more, stamped out about 5 years ago. Nothing to stop you knocking 40,000 off the value of both properties provided they are both still near market value.