Realistically, how much do we need to do?

kiss_me_now9

I suspect I already know what the answer is, so be as brutal as you like! 

I have been offered a job the other side of the country, which means relocating. This is a good thing as we will be within 30 minutes of almost all our family members rather than 2 - 3 hours drive from them. We have been talking about this for years and after having our first child two years ago, the impetus has increased (especially as LO is unfortunately as afflicted by travel sickness as I was as a child, so journeys over an hour often result in projectile vomit). 

We have a lovely 3 bed home which is a perfect starter family property, and honestly if we weren't so far from home we wouldn't move for a good few years until we had a second and that one was old enough to need their own room (the third bedroom is currently being used as an office). It isn't untidy and cluttered but it is a family home that two adults and a toddler who's just been given a tonne of Christmas and Birthday presents live in daily, so it's not a show home by any means. But it's clean, tidy, plenty of floor space even at it's worst and on viewing days/photography day we will do our best to move as much as we can to showcase the house (like put the buggys in the car, shove the majority of toys under our bed, all that jazz). I'm at the point where I really do not care if I have to run around behind the estate agent moving things as he's taking photos and throw all that we can't put into discrete storage into our cars for viewings. 

We've had two independent valuations on the property, both of which sound good and about what we expected. However both estate agents said that there are "a lot of things" that can be done to improve the sellability of the property, and potentially doing them might be the difference between achieving 310k - 315k and 325k, as buyers will see a more polished, put together property and not be as inclined to low ball the offer (we're likely to list for £330k I think - or there abouts). 

The issues are: 
1) This job is likely to expect me to hand my notice in by the start of next week, giving me a start date of 8 weeks time (we both know we won't be able to buy a house from start to finish in that time, and can stay with family for a short period whilst we do buy, so that's not a problem, but not having offered on a house before that timer starts ticking is making me feel sick tbh)

2) My husband has fully taken to heart the estate agent suggestions and has now written a 45 bullet point list of things we need to do before we list the house. I wish, wish wish wish I was joking. He will not even engage with the idea of getting the house be put on the market until these things are done or at least the majority of the big items are done. 

The list ranges from easy, quick things I can do in the evenings - like wiping the finger prints off the cabinet doors in the kitchen; medium things that will take an hour or two in the evening but once done are done for a long time like redoing the silicone on the bath; and Very Big Things like completely decluttering our office (which will need doing, tbh, as it does make the room look very small and I understand that buyers will walk in and say "oh you can't fit a bed in here" when it's big enough for a single bed, chest of drawers and child sized desk or other furniture item with some floor space spare, it's a good sized single bedroom) which will probably take me about 3 evenings to do if not longer as I have a lot of stuff in here. 

3) I am currently committed fully at weekends, and 4 days a week with work. The other day a week I look after our son. My husband works full time and at present, has to care for our son on the weekends due to my commitments. We have about 3 hours spare a day if we're lucky with bed time to get all of this done. We do not have any childcare options outside of the working week and my annual leave has all run out. 

I understand that there's a lot of psychology behind it - like I said the day I got the offer, before we agreed to move, enough things in the property that "aren't quite right" either put people off offering at all or give them excuse to put in a lower offer. Yes, a clean oven and a painted loft hatch (both done now, ha) aren't going to sell the house but if you have a list of 30 things that aren't appealing to you it's going to put you off, and if you can remove those 30 things you're more likely to like the house. But we are incredibly limited on time and I am getting increasingly stressed with the process. We haven't even found a house we like yet, because OH again won't start looking until ours is listed (I had to talk him down from "has an offer on"). I have the recruitment services of the hospital I'm moving to chasing me and I worry I'll lose this opportunity if we don't get sorted soon. 

teaselMay

I don't know and have only ever sold one house, >15 years ago, but I remember having similar issues. I desperately needed to sell, didn't have the energy or time to do much and the house was a doer upper that I'd only half done up. Everything I read suggested it'd never sell as it was. I did nothing more just gave it a good clean. It sold to the first viewing the day it went on Rightmove. They actually arrived early, whilst I was cleaning! For several years it was the highest priced selling house on the (cheap) street, I know several of the others that sold around that time were much more presented than mine was but went for significantly less and more slowly.

You can only do what you can do, if circumstances dictate I'd put it on the market now as it is and see what happens.

incus432

kiss_me_now9 said:
2) My husband has fully taken to heart the estate agent suggestions and has now written a 45 bullet point list of things we need to do before we list the house. I wish, wish wish wish I was joking. He will not even engage with the idea of getting the house be put on the market until these things are done or at least the majority of the big items are done. 

I feel your pain.  Here it was my wife who refused to consider marketing until eveything was spit spot. She hired a strorage unit and a man with van decluttered tons of stuff to it. We got a plasterer in, redecorated top to bottom, paid a local handyman to do a lot of jobs (jet washing drive, fixing silicone seals, painting, pointing bricks etc). We are fortunate enough to have enough money to do all that but honestly it was a terrible strain even with help. Lots of mutual frustration.  Even after all that then it's taken 6 months to get an acceptable offer.

But take heart - people do fall in love with a house when they walk in, even when you know there are things needing fixing. And most of us are tolerant when we view houses with young families.

kiss_me_now9

teaselMay said:

I don't know and have only ever sold one house, >15 years ago, but I remember having similar issues. I desperately needed to sell, didn't have the energy or time to do much and the house was a doer upper that I'd only half done up. Everything I read suggested it'd never sell as it was. I did nothing more just gave it a good clean. It sold to the first viewing the day it went on Rightmove. They actually arrived early, whilst I was cleaning! For several years it was the highest priced selling house on the (cheap) street, I know several of the others that sold around that time were much more presented than mine was but went for significantly less and more slowly.

You can only do what you can do, if circumstances dictate I'd put it on the market now as it is and see what happens.

Thank you, I honestly do not have any energy to care about it at the moment either! The weekend commitment is an am-dram show which starts this weekend and runs for three weeks, making it impossible to 1) think about anything else and 2) view anywhere anyway as it's a long drive there and back and I can't fit anything around the shows. Really all come at the wrong time, I could have done with the show being over by now. 

incus432 said:

kiss_me_now9 said:
2) My husband has fully taken to heart the estate agent suggestions and has now written a 45 bullet point list of things we need to do before we list the house. I wish, wish wish wish I was joking. He will not even engage with the idea of getting the house be put on the market until these things are done or at least the majority of the big items are done. 

I feel your pain.  Here it was my wife who refused to consider marketing until eveything was spit spot. She hired a strorage unit and a man with van decluttered tons of stuff to it. We got a plasterer in, redecorated top to bottom, paid a local handyman to do a lot of jobs (jet washing drive, fixing silicone seals, painting, pointing bricks etc). We are fortunate enough to have enough money to do all that but honestly it was a terrible strain even with help. Lots of mutual frustration.  Even after all that then it's taken 6 months to get an acceptable offer.

But take heart - people do fall in love with a house when they walk in, even when you know there are things needing fixing. And most of us are tolerant when we view houses with young families.

This is what I thought. I understand that there are some areas that need to be done (for instance, the front hedge is a nightmare - but that's being chopped on Friday, weather permitting) but a lot of it feels like we're chasing our tails for no reason other than to get a little extra on whatever offer we can get. I did say to my OH it could take until Christmas or longer to get moved so we need to start ASAP. But alas. 

badmemory

You could rent one of those storage places & just dump everything you possibly can into that.  You will possibly save what you have to spend by getting a quicker sale.  I would make a note of what you put in though as that way you won't buy again something you already have.  I suspect there have been busy times when I could have put a third of my kitchen in.

Albermarle

If it was me I would prioritise any important jobs that should have been done anyway. Such as damp patches, leaking gutters , mould, missing roof tiles etc
Then I would try and improve the kerb appeal ( like cutting the hedge), painting the windows/front door etc 
Then some declutterring and general cleaning.
If I was busy like you are, I would leave it at that.

strawb_shortcake

We've been talking about moving for a year, so had much more time to start declutterting - not that many would notice! 

I'm planning on paying for a one off deep clean before it goes on, we are making sure it has kerb appeal, hedge tidy and dead flowers/plants removed. 

Our attic is almost empty but the spare room is full, it feels like we are just moving muddles round but there's logic amongst the chaos somewhere. 

Due to the sheer amount we had we couldn't have moved quickly.

If my husband and I get through moving and not fall out it'll be a miracle!!

But think you and your OH need to meet somewhere in the middle.

youth_leader

I paid two wonderful women £200 for a one off deep clean, and then kept on top of it - wiping light switches every day, always wiping down the shower doors,  etc. 

Good luck!

PS 'Kerb appeal does count - I lost a viewing because of a drive by.

EssexHebridean

We went round our flat  room by room when we were looking to get it listed with a view of "what catches the eye" - so for example the grotty sealant and grout in the bathroom was an easy fix, a patch of bubbled paintwork in the kitchen, a "tired" wall that needed repainting in the bedroom (we cheated and made it a feature wall as we had paint in a suitable colour but only sufficient for that one wall!) and some general tidying up outside to make it look a bit more appealing at first glance. We didn't really go much more in depth than that though. we also made sure that the spare room that MrEH was also using as an office had a defined "sleeping zone" with bed made up and looking inviting, and "working zone" with a tidy desk, clean keyboard and minimal clutter to underline the point that the room could be multi-purpose and had plenty of space for everything.

If there are any obvious bigger jobs that really "need" doing then either knuckle down and get them dealt with, or be prepared to see some negotiation on price. 

Minimising clutter is a great trick as a home that appears cluttered in photos tells people that there might not be the scope for enough storage, and might put them off if they can't see at a glance how to introduce more - that's especially relevant in bathrooms IMO - so slim that cluster of half used bottles down to just what is in use right now! 

Vacuum right through before viewings, make sure windows and mirrors are sparkling clean, and make sure the place is well aired out but also warm enough to feel comfortable - all really easy things you can do just to make a home appealing to someone viewing. 

MysteryMe

Short term pain for long term gain.  

If two estate agents have suggested their are issues with presentation then accept what they say, they are in and out of houses all day every day.

This time last year I had to do a major declutter after many years of just accumulating stuff.  I am in such a better place now for having done that. 

The most difficult part is just getting on with it. I spent hours thinking about it and putting blockers on myself. How I didn't have time, how I was tired etc.  I was wallowing in self pity. 

Your husband has created a list, I don't think that is a problem at all. Being organized helps you both focus on priority jobs and set targets. View the creation of a list as something you haven't needed to do, someone else has done it. Don't waste time resenting it or fretting over it. That's just negative energy that makes everything more difficult.

Focus on one job at a time and I would do the decluttering first before cleaning and small maintenance jobs. Aside from making your house more desirable it's something you need to do before moving anyway. You don't want to be dragging a load of stuff you don't need or use to your new home.

When it came to decluttering, I worked on the principal that if I had not needed it or used it in a year out it went. Either charity shop or taken to the tip. You have to be ruthless. 

You may need more short term storage, I bought a couple of really large storage containers and because they were water tight I put stuff in them I didn't have time to deal with right that moment, such as paperwork that needed shredding before disposing, to just got it out the house. 

https://www.wickes.co.uk/Strata-Black-Wheeled-Storage-Trunk---145L/p/213529?gclsrc=aw.ds&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PMAX Shopping - Monthly Event&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAneK8BhAVEiwAoy2HYX8u4_POVKkt4ciyi-PTZNst_vkx3MZKPoObSO3pzM28aZKAiOfR_hoCe8AQAvD_BwE




Good luck, always remember why you are doing this. You work hard for your money, don't throw thousands down the drain just because you need to go through a few really tough weeks.

Myci85

I don't know if EAs all do this, but could you list it initially without photos whilst you crack on with the immediately obvious jobs, so that you're perhaps getting interest in the mean time, then get photos done and start viewings once ready? 

I fully empathise with the situation, trying to sort out a house when you've a little one is hard enough as they usually follow you undoing everything you've done, but even more so if you work pretty much full time and have weekend commitments. Do you have any good friends you can call on either for childcare or help with the job list, and pay them back with a pint when you've got sorted?

And like others have said, perhaps pay out for a one off big clean so that keeping on top of cleaning for viewings is then easier, and you can concentrate on the bigger jobs. Decluttering is always worthwhile before a move anyway, maybe in the evenings take it in turns for one to be on parenting/cooking etc duty and the other to be free to do some jobs.