Selling a house that's in need of modernisation

[Archie_tect]

Unless you can save labour costs by doing it yourself best just sell as seen.

Ring British Heart Foundation. They do a House Clearance service which cost me £300 for dad's house to take everything in a lorry and they sort and sell what they can. Take care to remove anything really valuable first to sell separately. BHF will even take carpets and fixtures if you ask them. £300 compared to hiring a skip which would cost you around £250 for a week and you'd have to empty the house yourself which would take at least a couple of days.

 

[Levo-Lon]

Sell as is, its a classic property developer house.
You’ll get a decent price as these are very sought after.

Why work and spend on it.
Get what you can and use the saved time to do your own stuff.

 

[tom73]

clear and clean it and sold as seen.

Totally I've done the same twice less hassle all round. As for total clear out not everyone wants big items I ended up clearing what I could and the left rest.

 

[fossyant]

There isn't anything structurally wrong, or any damp, it's just outdated. Getting nephew round ASAP to take the fridge and some of his furniture that's stored in the garage now he's sorted his flat. Will see if any of the nieces and nephews need garden tools etc.

The cash is all going to go towards MIL's nursing fees - over a grand a week - blooming shame when you've worked all your life (but that's another thread).

Righty, now to get the family together for a clear out. I've been drafted in to fix a cupboard and drawers one night this week.

 

[tom73]

Good idea get them round and more hand and all that.
As for the rest let them take what they want and do what you can with the what's left.
In the end it's just stuff that rightly or wrongly won't change anything.
Another idea for furniture wise is see if you have a local community furniture resell project.

 

[ColinJ]

My house needed probably £20k+ spending on it to bring it up to a decent modern standard. I couldn't afford that so I sold it at a realistic price, which was about £25k less than similar properties that had already had the work done. It saved me a lot of stress and a struggle to raise the money to modernise it.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

My house needed probably £20k+ spending on it to bring it up to a decent modern standard. I couldn't afford that so I sold it at a realistic price, which was about £25k less than similar properties that had already had the work done. It saved me a lot of stress and a struggle to raise the money to modernise it.

Sound advice

 

[Cuchilo]

Dont bother doing anything . You will be asked for all kind of certificates for any electric or plumbing work you carry out .
Take anything that is dear to you and your family and let the buyer deal with the rest .

 

[alicat]

I thought that if you sold a house, KNOWING there was a hidden problem eg drains but did not disclose that problem, then the buyer could claim against you.

No, it's up to the buyer to get a survey.

That's what I thought too. Unfortunately there is a little known rule that means that the new owner can come back anything up to 6 years after the sale if anything has been "misrepresented".

Your solicitor is paid to make sure that nothing is misrepresented.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

......

Your solicitor is paid to make sure that nothing is misrepresented.

I can't give details because the case is ongoing but sometimes it doesn't work out as simple as that.

 

[Bazzer]

My sister and I sold our Mum's house earlier this year. The options we had:
1. Sold as seen.
2. Modernise
3. Do sufficient work to let it.
We went for 1.
The problem with 2 was incurring costs a potential buyer might not appreciate. The kitchen was the obvious thing. For example my sister's and her husband taste for kitchen fittings is very different to that of my wife and I.
The problem with 3 was the amount of work would pretty much bring it into 2's range and would be expensive. (Edwardian 4 bed detached house).
In the event, the buyer could see the development potential, (part of which we built into the sale price).

Clearance was a ball ache. Don't underestimate how long it will take and how much stuff there might be. For example the garage in my Mum's house was my responsibility. Two transit vans later and we still had stuff for a man and van.

Look carefully for personal stuff you or other family members might want to keep.

Organisations BHF will help with the clearance, but IME, they only take what they want, i.e think they can sell. Anything with fabric on it, such as chairs, BHF will not touch unless you can provide evidence of fire certificates.

Gumtree and Freecycle were very useful, for stuff BHF wouldn't touch. - For example our Mum had a walnut dining suite BHF wouldn't take (fabric on the chairs), which because it was dark wood auction houses wouldn't touch, (not fashionable) and would have been criminal to skip. For their cost of a hired van, a family got some lovely furniture.

 

[Salad Dodger]

We were in the same situation as ColinJ when we sold our last house. We sold for probably 20k under what anyone else in the road would have asked, knowing that it needed that sort of sum spent to refurbish it. And if we had spent the money ourselves, our house would have commanded a higher price, but then buyers might well have been more particular, and may not have liked our choice of new kitchen or bathroom, if it wasn't to their taste. Better to let it be the new owners problem.....

 

[ColinJ]

My sister and I sold our Mum's house earlier this year. The options we had:
1. Sold as seen.
2. Modernise
3. Do sufficient work to let it.
We went for 1.
The problem with 2 was incurring costs a potential buyer might not appreciate. The kitchen was the obvious thing. For example my sister's and her husband taste for kitchen fittings is very different to that of my wife and I.
The problem with 3 was...

My sisters and I went for option 3 with our late mum's house... Nightmare!

We had a dispute with the tenants who ended up refusing to pay the rent. It took us months to get them out, during which time we found out they were spending the rent money doing up another property to move into! When they finally moved out (having completed the repairs on their property with our rent money!) they left a load of stuff behind which my sister tried to arrange for them to pick up. We changed the locks after they moved out. Rather than answer text messages, emails or phone calls, they simply went round the back and smashed a window to get in! The police refused to get involved, saying it was a civil dispute...

 

[ColinJ]

We were in the same situation as ColinJ when we sold our last house. We sold for probably 20k under what anyone else in the road would have asked, knowing that it needed that sort of sum spent to refurbish it. And if we had spent the money ourselves, our house would have commanded a higher price, but then buyers might well have been more particular, and may not have liked our choice of new kitchen or bathroom, if it wasn't to their taste. Better to let it be the new owners problem.....

The one part of my house that had been modernised was the kitchen. I saw all of the newish units in a skip outside the property a couple of weeks after completion!

 

[tom73]

Same thing with my mums house had a brand new one fitted which turned out to be a few weeks before she died.
The whole lot get ripped out once sold.