£3000 psm for refurbishing?

Doozergirl

It's the market that sets the price.  An agreement between vendor and purchaser. You need both in agreement.  It's okay to say that people shouldn't expect the vendor to pay for certain things in a reduction in asking price, but the price will be set primarily by comparison to what else is on the market at the time.  

If people want eg. open plan and the house doesn't have it, they won't want it.  If there's a house or houses down the road that have the bells and whistles and the price reflects favourably then that is what people will buy.  Or, you shrink your market and hope that there's also someone floating around that wants the original floorplan or boiler and you wait hopefully.  

You have to create a market and the best way to do that is by price; being prepared to accept a price where that the required work appears feasible to more than one buyer.  

All of that said, we go straight back to the three agent valuations for a guide and the simple fact that if it is priced correctly it will sell.  As long as you pick a decent agent who will show the house in its best light to the maximum number of people, even if it is initially priced too low you'll end up with a bidding war. 

There's a lot of perceived mind games in selling houses but it's not really that complicated as long as your marketing is of sufficient quality and it's in front of people's faces.   People do underestimate reno costs and so as long as it's mortgageable, GDB will almost always do better than if they paid someone to do the work.  (Doing it yourself is a different matter, like Freebear will reap the reward of a slower paced DIY reno.)

markin

Just paint every room, Swap all socket and switch face plates, Swap all rads if they look dated and hope for a buyer not getting a full survey and reports on electrics and plumbing, Or just knock off 1k per room from the price of a fully renovated house only if they play hardball. 

justwhat

You cant expect to sell an property that has not been modernized for the same price as a well loved modernized property.

Sometimes when something is tatty/un-modernized   it causes people to scrutinize other things in a critical manner.  Does the extensive modernisation actually need done. Most sellers get to emotionally attached to a property they are selling.

No one wants to take on a full refurb if they can help it. 

A "buyer" that gets  emotionally attached to a property  is the buyer you want. Those rose tinted glasses do wonders for a house sale lol 

Your buyer actually dictates the price and what they think needs modernised.

i have not seen your house, i would say the EA has come in with a critical buyers eye. 

Assuming you do not want to do a full refurb. You are probably best to work with what you have and tidy it up for as little cost as possible.  If things are not to grim , it may not cost much.

Current photo's would be good but i understand you may not want to post on a public forum.

GDB2222

We have been doing a tarting up, so buyers don’t shudder when they come in through the door!

I have gained some very useful information from the helpful comments you have all made, thanks:

£3k psm for a complete renovation is quite possibly absolutely correct.

I need to get the house insured for much more.

 I will get a third agent round. At the moment, we have two valuations that are within 10%, but it would be helpful to have a third opinion. I’d be inclined to market at a lower guide anyway.

ComicGeek

mi-key said:

I'm sure they may want underfloor heating, aircon and major building works, but those aren't really things you can use to reduce the price on a house if it is perfectly functionable ( like 99% of most houses in the UK that don't have those things ! ).

It's like saying I would like to buy a house for half price because I would like to buy a Ferrari to look nice on the drive !

I read the OP as saying that all the higher sold prices in the area are for houses that have been fully updated prior to sale. So aren't comparable prices to a house that hasn't been updated for 25+ years, which is a very reasonable comment. References to air con and underfloor heating point to high end areas, not standard £200-300k houses.

There are lots of £1M+ areas where our clients will have a £2M budget, buy a property for say £1.2M and then spend over £800k getting it perfect for themselves - then sell it 5 years later, and the next purchaser completely gut and start again..... For them the purchase price is essentially just for the location and land. They might not find their perfect layout/spec in a property already renovated, so an undeveloped house in a good area is going to attract a lot of interest, but still subject to a maximum price factoring in an expected spec level for the renovation. £3k/sqm is probably at the low end of most of our high spec projects at the moment, to cover new electrics, new heating, air con, insulation, changes to internal layouts, new bathrooms, additional bathrooms, new kitchen, new flooring throughout, interior design costs, new lighting, front & rear garden works etc etc.  

I remember working on the most expensive new build apartments in West London at the time, which were all fully fitted out with £150k+ plus kitchens, hideously expensive bathrooms, some even sold as fully furnished with high end designer pieces. Most ended up being fully gutted again when purchased (brand new, so never actually used!), with everything just skipped and more hundreds of thousands spent refitting. 

ComicGeek

GDB2222 said:

We have been doing a tarting up, so buyers don’t shudder when they come in through the door!

I have got some very useful information, thanks:

£3k psm for a complete renovation is quite possibly absolutely correct.

I need to get the house insured for much more.

 I will get a third agent round. At the moment, we have two valuations that are within 10%, but it would be helpful to have a third opinion. I’d be inclined to market at a lower guide anyway.

It might be worth getting the agent to handle all viewings - it sounds like you'll be dealing with the type of purchasers who will very loudly and without any tact proclaim that everything needs gutting and is absolutely hideous. It can be difficult not to feel personally insulated!

silvercar

GDB2222 said:

We have been doing a tarting up, so buyers don’t shudder when they come in through the door!

I have got some very useful information from the helpful comments you have all made, thanks:

£3k psm for a complete renovation is quite possibly absolutely correct.

I need to get the house insured for much more.

 I will get a third agent round. At the moment, we have two valuations that are within 10%, but it would be helpful to have a third opinion. I’d be inclined to market at a lower guide anyway.

Your tarting up will probably mean that buyers will be fine with living in the house while they get plans drawn up for their designer restyle. So you should be attracting a wider audience. 

You may be lucky and an estate agent has some buyers lined up who will offer before it properly goes on the market. 

GDB2222

This particular road seems to have people who move in and then stay for a long time. Several of the houses are still occupied by the same people as when we moved in 25 years ago.  When they do move, the house then gets sold to someone who often alters it a lot.