Selling House in Probate Estate Agent or Auction

Hagar_uk

Hi just looking for some advice, my father recently died leaving a house.
I am just wondering what will be the best way to sell, I am probably in the middle in the Speed vs Value need on the sale. 

The house is a 1930s semi with attic extension so 3 or 4 bedrooms.  The house is I think structurally sound, but in need of huge updating. It does have working central heating, old kitchen and bathroom recently updated for elderly care.  There is some damage to ceilings from leaks, but the actual leeks were fixed, but plaster not. So who ever buys it will need to do a bit of work to make it a family home.

is it still worth putting it up for an estate agent?

GDB2222

I’d say it’s perfectly saleable through a normal process with an estate agent. As long as it’s mortgageable and structurally sound it’s not a problem. An old kitchen is still a kitchen. 

My experience is that people like to buy down at heel houses, so that they can put their own stamp on the place, and they will pay more than they really should. By that, I mean they pay more than the value of the place in good condition less the cost of the work. 

user1977

Have you not looked at how similar properties are sold? Plenty of houses like that listed in the standard way through agents. I wouldn't be auctioning, unless perhaps the "normal" market in the area was particularly slow for some reason. 

gwynlas

You are likely to attract more viewers through conventional EA route with the right description. Buyers could live in the house whilst work completed. Auction might not have developers looking for that style of house in the area. Further more developers might look at all routes of puchase but Joe Public would not normally look at auction catologues.

TripleH

Sorry for your loss.

Don't be tempted by the 'delights of a modern auction' though.

You'll waste time and money (keeping place ticking over) waiting to not sell it.

Use your time to air the property and sort it out.

mi-key

List with a normal agent. They will advertise it as 'needs modernising'. They will value and list it accordingly bearing that in mind. The ceilings shouldnt be an issue, and if you are worried, a cheap job to get a plasterer in to fix them before listing ( might be a good idea to do that anyway for the cost involved ).

Houses that are just old fashioned sell via normal agents every day, so it doesn't put people off. If you think how many houses are sold because the elderly owner has passed away and as they had lived there for years, then didn't put in a new kitchen or bathroom when the old ones worked perfectly well.

Auction will be a quicker sale, but you will end up with a LOT less than the house is actually worth as anyone buying there wants to get it as cheap as possible so they can flip it

FreeBear

mi-key said: The ceilings shouldnt be an issue, and if you are worried, a cheap job to get a plasterer in to fix them before listing ( might be a good idea to do that anyway for the cost involved ).

If it is a lath & plaster ceiling, any "cheap job" is going to be a bodge. If any of the ceilings had distemper applied or has iffy artex, any fresh plaster won't stay up long. The cracks will reappear within months, especially if the nibs or nails are failing.

To tart up, I'd suggest stain blocking paint where the leaks marked the plaster, and just give it a coat of emulsion. Be honest with any prospective buyer about the state of the ceilings, and let them decide on a long term fix.

Got a late 1920s semi here that has cracks in some of the ceilings along with distemper & artex - Patching has never been successful, so slowly taking them down and putting up plasterboard (insulating where necessary and fixing plumbing/wiring).

Hagar_uk

thanks thanks to everyone one that replied, 

Selling via an agent makes sense, the MSE part of me would try purple bricks type sale, but as I am an hour away a local agency makes sense

Sarahspangles

We used a local agency, part of their service for empty houses is a weekly check.  We got unoccupied house insurance and this was a condition.

You know the house you’re selling is okay if it doesn’t appear on ‘Check this out’ on MSE.

GDB2222

Hagar_uk said:

thanks thanks to everyone one that replied, 

Selling via an agent makes sense, the MSE part of me would try purple bricks type sale, but as I am an hour away a local agency makes sense

There’s also Strike. Their basic service is free, including a listing on RM.

A typical high street agent charges 1-1.5% of house value. 

PB charges around £1k whether they sell or not, and I don’t know how motivated they will be to sell a house which is unoccupied and they have to attend every viewing. 

I have recently listed my house with a local agent, which grieves me greatly when I think about the cost, but I can’t fault the service.

eddddy

Hagar_uk said:

Selling via an agent makes sense, the MSE part of me would try purple bricks type sale, but as I am an hour away a local agency makes sense

This sounds like the type of sale which might need some 'skilled' sales progression.

The survey will probably list a series of issues, you probably won't know the answers to all the questions on TA6 the property information form, etc. So the buyers might start getting nervous and/or start to ask for price reductions etc. 

A good 'traditional' local estate agent might have met the buyers, shown them the house, and built-up a rapport with them.  And a good estate agent should then be able to keep the buyers calm, help resolve problems, deal sensibly with price renegotiations, etc, which could be very useful. It could help carry a sale through, which would fall apart otherwise.

Many online estate agents never meet the buyers, and do no real 'sales progression' at all - they just pass messages backwards and forwards between buyer and seller.

Also, some of the estate agent chains use admin people to do sales progression, or they use 3rd party companies for sales progression - so again, they aren't really 'problem solvers', they're a bit more like 'box tickers' and 'message takers'.

So when you speak to estate agents, grill them about how they do sales progression, and which people will do it.  And decide if it's worth the higher fee.