Selling a house quickly

ellielou_2

Hi

My partner and I are moving extending my property so he can move into mine. After the extension is finished we want his to be gone............. sold!

He bought it from his mum & dad several years ago & has basically done nothing to it since - it's slightly dated - green bathroom suite, old fashioned fitted wardrobes & kitchen with a dreaded serving hatch through to the dining room. However, it does have a fantastic garden, not overlooked & a lovely paved drive, with parking for around 3 or 4 cars.

His next door neighbours went up for sale a month ago for £165k & looking at the pictures it's as old fashioned as his, but they're not after a quick sale.

The estate agent has said he has almost 700 properties on the market in the the area & the older houses aren't selling too well due to the number of new properties being built. We're not desperate to sell as we can afford both mortgages but it would just make life so much easier if we can get rid sooner rather than later.

We were considering selling it at auction but we don't have any experience or knowledge of the process to know if this is going to be a good or bad option. So any advice would be greatly appreciated.

It's a 3 bedroom semi with garage in the NW, I forgot to mention that earlier.

Many thanks for reading x

epsilondraconis

You're not allowed to advertise on this site. Clearly sales are down at KitchenPerfections which is why you are scrabbling around for some work. With all of this time on your hands it makes me think that KitchenPerfections may be going out of business soon. Clearly steer clear of KitchenPerfections. Also, the fact that they can't even type their website name correctly the first time doesn't fill me with confidence.

Consider yourself reported...

epsilondraconis

Regarding the OP question - I imagine you would get a lot more money for your house if you were to sell it privately rather than going down the auction route. With a bit of decorating here and there and 10-15% off the typical asking price for houses of your type in your area, I'm sure you'll find someone soon.

Good luck.

Newbird

KP, this is not an advertising forum!
OP was asking about selling at auction not renovating the kitchen!

Selling at auction is often taken by buyers as a measure of Sellers desperation to shift it, so you are much more likely to get a lower price than the open market. I would only go there as a last option...If it (the property) has advantages of not being overlooked and lots parking even tho it needs a spruce up, will still be attractive to buyers...that's if there are any buyers to be found out there right now. :think:

Try it, you've got nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying to sell now rather than down the line, the way its looking. Could also try renting it out? some are selling first and renting while waiting for further price drops....Good luck.

ellielou_2

Many thanks for comments Newbird & epsilondraconis.
We were hoping to sell it in it's current state really, mainly due to not wanting the hassle as we've a baby on the way too - not ones to do things by halves lol.

Personally I'd be happy with around £143k, but estate agent said put it up for £150k. I think O/H will go with the estate agent, where as I think say offers around £147k so it looks more appealing and it may just get a quicker sale.

Another option is to rent but obviously the ideal option is to sell - but with the current market who knows.

Many thanks for the advice anyway x
:beer:

Newbird

Thx for the Thx EL.....
DYK you can thank us with the thx button, on the right under the appropriate post? cute eh?
Anyways, congrats on expecting :j and good luck with the house sale. Think you are right about pricing, you may have to drop more to hook an elusive buyer.

ATB with it all anyhooos.:D

pooler_2

It may help if you can offer the buyers some help. A lot of people who want to buy at the moment are strugling to get mortgage funding (whether FTB's or people trying to renew a mortgage) and its almost impossibe without some sort of deposit. One way to market could be to put the house up for £154k with 5% deposit paid, if of course you could afford to put up the funding out of the sale proceeds.

As the previous posts suggests it is always worth getting a house to a reasonable selling standard (cheap white bathroom, plain decor etc). This is outlay however it may get you more on the final purchase price. Plus this may not be a realistic option what with a baby on the way- congrats!

Re: renting, the rental market is pretty strong at the moment due to the fact people are strugging to get mortgages, and even if you didn't want to do up your property, if it has reasonable travel links and close to amenities you may find it much easier to rent in the short term.

Hope this helps a little, this is my first ever post

Newbird

Welcome to the forum Pooler - thx for your contribution, some good points raised there. :T

Doozergirl

Advice on this board is not to offer incentives such as deposit paid as surveyors are not likely to be having any of it in this market.

If you are happy with £143k then why not put the house on the market for "offers over £143,000" and have an open day in order to stir up competition. If peopel think it is worth more, they will still pay more. There's very little selling but that which is noticeably well priced is flying out the door.

guppy

ellielou wrote: »

The estate agent has said he has almost 700 properties on the market in the the area & the older houses aren't selling too well due to the number of new properties being built.

The current market situation just isn't normal, its a terrible time to sell and frankly the only way to guarantee a sale is going to be to drop the price to such a level that people can't resist. Or auction it.

That probably isn't in your best interests if you can avoid it.

The decor is only going to compound the above, in a manner it might not have done a year ago.

The rental market is reportedly quite strong at the moment, so why not consider renting out the house? If its clean and in reasonable condition I'm sure that would be feasible.

Once the market sorts itself out (by that I mean properties start shifting again, albeit at lower prices) then you can reconsider. It might be better to let it rather than have it empty and unsold, and liable for council tax and utility bills etc. etc.

dander

Personally I would just whack in up for sale in its current condition and price to sell. If you do decide to market below 150k, you'd be undercutting next door by a good margin, and people will immediately think yours looks like a bargain. Make sure it's clean and tidy and looks cared for but I don't think you need to worry about it being dated - plenty of people prefer to pay a bit less for a house with potential.

My sister recently bought a house and one of the things she fell in love with was the serving hatch :-)