PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING: Hello Forumites! In order to help keep the Forum a useful, safe and friendly place for our users, discussions around non-MoneySaving matters are not permitted per the Forum rules. While we understand that mentioning house prices may sometimes be relevant to a user's specific MoneySaving situation, we ask that you please avoid veering into broad, general debates about the market, the economy and politics, as these can unfortunately lead to abusive or hateful behaviour. Threads that are found to have derailed into wider discussions may be removed. Users who repeatedly disregard this may have their Forum account banned. Please also avoid posting personally identifiable information, including links to your own online property listing which may reveal your address. Thank you for your understanding.
We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

Character property but very few viewings recently

Options
1456810

Comments

  • Albala
    Albala Posts: 310 Forumite
    100 Posts Second Anniversary Combo Breaker
    edited 18 May 2019 at 8:25PM
    Yes, but not everything you do to a property automatically adds value. For example, in a previous house (also old and very characterful) we removed most of the hideous woodchip wallpaper that smothered almost every surface, replastered where necessary, repainted including externally in tasteful (imho, lol!), period colours, removed all pink and/or swirly carpets and stripped/painted the floorboards, fitted new fencing to two sides of the large garden (the remainder was walled) and spent well in excess of £2k on plants.

    None of these *improvements* added any value......but we hadn't expected them to......


    Good points there. In our over 20 years here, we've reinstated parquet floors, put down woodblock floor in only non-parquet room downstairs, had new soffits/gutters, all bar one window is new, all exterior doors are new, a small extension was built as a utility area, it's been re-radiatored throughout, got a new (oil) boiler and tank, and a high quality conservatory (underfloor heating, for example, and a top-spec glass roof). We will also be re-carpeting stairs and all upstairs rooms, are redecorating to modern tastes, and are putting in a new kitchen likewise before we sell. We reckon that's maintained our place in the market, no more. That's just the costs of keeping a house up to the mark, unfortunately. The place we're buying has had virtually nothing spent on it for over 20 years or more, it's worth far less than it would be had similar work been done, but probably overall the costs would have outweighed that loss (we did most of what we did because we wanted to live somewhere decent in our time here).

    With property, I'm afraid you have to spend a fair bit just to stand still. You can't expect a return on things like a new cooker when the old one was knackered when you bought it. Buyers aren't interested in what you spent, only in what they are buying and whether it's worth it to them.
  • Clutterfree
    Clutterfree Posts: 3,679 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker Photogenic
    It’s a period property yet none of the fireplaces are shown. I only saw them in the previous vendors photos. Are they still there? If so, why no photos?

    What happened to the kitchen floorboards since the previous photos?

    Also you say you spent £3500 on a new cooker but this is not mentioned in the particulars so many may assume it’s not included.
    That said, it is now a second hand cooker so no longer worth what you paid for it.

    Unfortunately, potential buyers will look at the previous photos to compare and I’m afraid they were much better.
    Good luck!
    :heart: Ageing is a privilege not everyone gets.
  • Crashy_Time
    Crashy_Time Posts: 13,386 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Seventh Anniversary Name Dropper
    Needs a price reduction.
  • OldMusicGuy
    OldMusicGuy Posts: 1,768 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Two options - reduce the price or hang on until you get lucky with a buyer that is looking for something "quirky".

    We have been in a similar situation. Our house isn't a character property but has some USPs that caused the agent to suggest we might get the upper end of his valuation if we found the right buyer. We knew we were being optimistic but we thought we'd give it a try at quite a high asking price and see how things went.

    We had loads of viewings in the first four weeks. People always liked the house and its USPs but the negatives put them off. The agent knew we were open to offers and that price needn't be an issue, but no-one was prepared to even make an offer, which surprised us (probably like you).

    We reduced the price, targetted buyers in a lower price range and we sold pretty quickly (accepted an offer 4% under revised asking from a cash buyer).

    Houses that are desirable and priced right should sell quickly. Round here they are (our buyer sold his in two days, one in our road went in two weeks). We have seen houses hanging round for 6 months to a year where they are not priced right (we have been looking to buy for 18 months).

    No-one will be put off by the "price jump" because it's irrelevant IMO. They will be comparing your property to others in the market, not going through the kind of calculations you have done. So all that matters is what is happening in your area with competing properties, and what type of potential buyers you are getting through the door.

    IMO your house is too unique to appeal to most buyers so you will either have to reduce the price if you want to sell relatively quickly or you will just have to hang on and hope that special buyer turns up.
  • Crashy_Time
    Crashy_Time Posts: 13,386 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Seventh Anniversary Name Dropper
    How many viewings has it actually had?
  • Albala
    Albala Posts: 310 Forumite
    100 Posts Second Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Just a thought- if the music studio has been done to a pro standard, have you thought of advertising/mentioning on websites, forums etc. for musicians that the house is for sale including a studio, especially any sites that have members in the immediate area? You never know.....
  • dinverro
    dinverro Posts: 22 Forumite
    So we have agreed to lower the price 5% to 365k now, looking for a sale. Hopefully it will attract a slightly different market now. Thanks again for the comments.
  • OldMusicGuy
    OldMusicGuy Posts: 1,768 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    dinverro wrote: »
    So we have agreed to lower the price 5% to 365k now, looking for a sale. Hopefully it will attract a slightly different market now. Thanks again for the comments.
    Best of luck. We dropped the price by 3.5% and then accepted a cash buyer offer that was 4% below the revised asking price. We ended up accepting 5% less than what we had originally (optimistically) hoped to realise from the first price. We might have been able to hold out for a bit more but we have found a great property so didn't want to miss out on that.
  • need_an_answer
    need_an_answer Posts: 2,812 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts
    dinverro wrote: »
    So we have agreed to lower the price 5% to 365k now, looking for a sale. Hopefully it will attract a slightly different market now. Thanks again for the comments.


    Have you told the agent this?

    It seems the property is still being marketed as before,shame you didn't do a little to get the photos adjusted too.
    in S 38 T 2 F 50
    out S 36 T 9 F 24 FF 4

    2017-32 2018 -33 2019 -21 2020 -5 2021 -4 2022
  • dinverro
    dinverro Posts: 22 Forumite
    It is just going through the system now so yes the agent has made the changes needed (hence why I posted on here!!!). More photos are being added too.
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 350.7K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 243.7K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 598.4K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 176.8K Life & Family
  • 256.8K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.