Unable to sell house

sheramber

By the time you pay the agents management fees and income tax on the rental profit you may not have much left.

No point in ripping up laminate to put carpet down aa a buyer may not like your choice of carpet or  may prefer laminate.

I have  had laminate down in my last three houses- my choice is laminate.

As long as the bathroom works a buyer can chose to renew at their leisure - some people want a bath, some prefer a walk in shower. 

Unfortunately, having no furniture means what the estate is highlighting are more obvious as there is nothing else to take the eye.

Bailey1980

sheramber said:

By the time you pay the agents management fees and income tax on the rental profit you may not have much left.

No point in ripping up laminate to put carpet down aa a buyer may not like your choice of carpet or  may prefer laminate.

I have  had laminate down in my last three houses- my choice is laminate.

As long as the bathroom works a buyer can chose to renew at their leisure - some people want a bath, some prefer a walk in shower. 

Unfortunately, having no furniture means what the estate is highlighting are more obvious as there is nothing else to take the eye.

Annoying my reply didn't save. 

Estate agent has also told us to pay a company to come in and stage the house, including providing furniture - ones i've found are £3k-£5K which we don't have

Been scouring FB marketplace for hours each day trying to find anything decent looking that's cheap or free but to no avail and plus I have no way of transporting anything if I did spot a gem. 

Not looking to make a profit out of rent, just enough to cover mortgage/agentfees/insurance. At the moment we are paying interest only repayments on the mortgage, as well as council tax, water, gas/elec on a property we can't use/live in whilst trying to pay household bills on where we are living now. 

Interest only repayment mortgage ends in the next month or so and it's already been causing a significant drain financially and mentally and now the mortgage payments are going to return to normal, alongside two sets of household bills. 

I can't see the right answer/any end to it. Estate agent wants us to spend money on all of this work, plus paying a company to stage the house with furniture and drop the price. 

Our only choice is to switch estate agents and if we can sell it great but if not renting it out seems to the only other choice. 

FreeBear

Bailey1980 said: With the help of the forum  and a visit to the house ourselves, we have also identified that the following needs to be done:
New double glazed window in one of the bedrooms as there seems to be condensation between the two panes ( we have previously used a company who can replace the panes rather than the whole window/window frame)

A blown sealed unit does not mean the whole frame needs to be ripped out and replaced. As long as the hinges and locks are working fine, just swap out the sealed unit - It will probably cost £100 or so, so a saving of £500 or more.

Bailey1980

FreeBear said:

Bailey1980 said: With the help of the forum  and a visit to the house ourselves, we have also identified that the following needs to be done:
New double glazed window in one of the bedrooms as there seems to be condensation between the two panes ( we have previously used a company who can replace the panes rather than the whole window/window frame)

A blown sealed unit does not mean the whole frame needs to be ripped out and replaced. As long as the hinges and locks are working fine, just swap out the sealed unit - It will probably cost £100 or so, so a saving of £500 or more.

Yes I think that is what we are going to do - I just didn't articulate it very well. Very useless with DIY - physically and explaining it! 

housebuyer143

It's not impossible to sell an empty house, you don't need to stage it for £5k, but as with anything if you price it right for the state it is in, then you will get a buyer to buy it.
It sounds like you need a price to break even maybe more than it's currently worth (works done don't really translate into the same house price increase - I bought at the height of the market and since then did £30k improvements to my home, including kitchen, windows and doors and full decoration and the house is worth the exact same as I paid for it two years on - if I sold it now I would lose a lot of money), so in that case long term rental might be the best choice and revisit in a few years when prices have risen. 
I know you think it's not overpriced, but I guarantee you if it wasn't you would have sold it because buyers know the market they are buying into would easily overlook everything if it was priced right. 

Bailey1980

housebuyer143 said:

It's not impossible to sell an empty house, you don't need to stage it for £5k, but as with anything if you price it right for the state it is in, then you will get a buyer to buy it.
It sounds like you need a price to break even maybe more than it's currently worth (works done don't really translate into the same house price increase - I bought at the height of the market and since then did £30k improvements to my home, including kitchen, windows and doors and full decoration and the house is worth the exact same as I paid for it two years on - if I sold it now I would lose a lot of money), so in that case long term rental might be the best choice and revisit in a few years when prices have risen. 
I know you think it's not overpriced, but I guarantee you if it wasn't you would have sold it because buyers know the market they are buying into would easily overlook everything if it was priced right. 

We are happy to drop down to £175k but current estate agent won't let us unless we all do all the work that they have told us to do - new bathroom, staging at £3K-£5K etc. 

So we are going to some minor tweaks - new bathroom mirror, new bathroom sink tap, replacing the window pane and putting in bath mats etc

housebuyer143

Bailey1980 said:

housebuyer143 said:

It's not impossible to sell an empty house, you don't need to stage it for £5k, but as with anything if you price it right for the state it is in, then you will get a buyer to buy it.
It sounds like you need a price to break even maybe more than it's currently worth (works done don't really translate into the same house price increase - I bought at the height of the market and since then did £30k improvements to my home, including kitchen, windows and doors and full decoration and the house is worth the exact same as I paid for it two years on - if I sold it now I would lose a lot of money), so in that case long term rental might be the best choice and revisit in a few years when prices have risen. 
I know you think it's not overpriced, but I guarantee you if it wasn't you would have sold it because buyers know the market they are buying into would easily overlook everything if it was priced right. 

We are happy to drop down to £175k but current estate agent won't let us unless we all do all the work that they have told us to do - new bathroom, staging at £3K-£5K etc. 

So we are going to some minor tweaks - new bathroom mirror, new bathroom sink tap, replacing the window pane and putting in bath mats etc

The agent works for you - they should be listing it at what you want and giving their opinion. Those minor jobs though sound easy and will probably help. 

BobT36

Bailey1980 said:

housebuyer143 said:

It's not impossible to sell an empty house, you don't need to stage it for £5k, but as with anything if you price it right for the state it is in, then you will get a buyer to buy it.
It sounds like you need a price to break even maybe more than it's currently worth (works done don't really translate into the same house price increase - I bought at the height of the market and since then did £30k improvements to my home, including kitchen, windows and doors and full decoration and the house is worth the exact same as I paid for it two years on - if I sold it now I would lose a lot of money), so in that case long term rental might be the best choice and revisit in a few years when prices have risen. 
I know you think it's not overpriced, but I guarantee you if it wasn't you would have sold it because buyers know the market they are buying into would easily overlook everything if it was priced right. 

We are happy to drop down to £175k but current estate agent won't let us unless we all do all the work that they have told us to do - new bathroom, staging at £3K-£5K etc. 

So we are going to some minor tweaks - new bathroom mirror, new bathroom sink tap, replacing the window pane and putting in bath mats etc

Seriously that's completely bonkers. They should only be advising you to do "work" if you're wanting to raise the price or keep it as it is. 

If you LOWER it, buyers will overlook issues, as they're getting it cheaper. 

It's such a no-brainer I really don't know what they're getting at, there. People will even buy complete wrecks if they're cheap enough. 
Just sort the "fixing" bits. Don't do anything silly like ripping up flooring. Any REALLY damaged and scraggly carpets, get cheap ones put down, otherwise leave them. That's for the buyers to sort out and price in. 

As to the other houses, it's hard to say exactly. Bigger rooms is certainly a plus point for yours, however how does the "layout" compare? If the others have a garage then that's definitely a plus for them. Again tho hard to say, but just remember that you're struggling to sell yours at your price, just because those others are put up for 200k or whatever, doesn't mean that they won't be on here in a few weeks making a thread titled the same as this! Especially if they're with the same agent lol. 

Also the agents shouldn't have a say in what YOU want to sell YOUR house for. If they're just being greedy and after more % commission, well that's probably why people like yourselves are struggling to sell, as they're "valuing" them too high to start with. Really wish there were proper qualifications these people had to take, rather than just pulling a figure out of their rears. 


If you want to do LONG TERM renting and then just sell it whenever convenient (if tenants have willingly left themselves) then that's fine. However as a tenant if I saw you'd got it up for sale as well as renting, I'd be put off from renting it as I'd be thinking you'd wanting to kick me out and sell ASAP. I don't think you'll get any tenants with "long term" in mind, while you've got it up for sale, too.. 

Millsandovis

I feel like you’re just going round in circles, no one is going to pay what the EA wants them to pay just by making improvements and what you spend on doing that is going to eat in to any money that you get around £179k anyway

Just insist that the estate agent does what you want them to do and put the price down to 175k

Grizebeck

Millsandovis said:

I feel like you’re just going round in circles, no one is going to pay what the EA wants them to pay just by making improvements and what you spend on doing that is going to eat in to any money that you get around £179k anyway

Just insist that the estate agent does what you want them to do and put the price down to 175k

Its you that decides the price not the agent