putting home on the market

Good advice all round especially from M0nica and no mabon you are not being unreasonable.

Get another estate agent. I had three to look round when sold my house. One of them was so enthusiastic about it I knew she would sell it quickly and she did. She also told me not to do anything andtold me about a house she sold where the owner had put in a brand new kitchen which the buyer immediately had taken out.
A good way of finding a succesful agent is to look round your area and see who is selling houses well. The chances are they will have more people who are looking for property

I had three estate agents round recently to value my house. They all made favourable comments. ( they wanted my business). I asked one if them if they would recommend any renovations. He replied,’ no more than maybe a lick of paint, but buyers will want to redo it anyway, so don’t bother. ‘

Our last EA was adamant, touch not a thing - including the, out of fashion but something we loved, pale blue cloakroom suite - as the new owners will want to make it their own. Ask some more agents to come and look at your home mabin, as others have said choose a polite one you can trust and rely on. They will be paid by you and should be working for you, not being rude .

The house next door to us is on the market. Someone made an offer of £150k below the asking price because 'the kitchen needs replacing'.

We are selling DM house just now. It needs completely modernised - windows, kitchen, bathroom, boiler, painted but no point in replacing things as whoever buys it will have their own ideas. Had 3 EA to see and none were rude like that. Went with Mov8 and have been pleased with them so far.

£150,000????? To replace a kitchen? What with? Titanium and solid gold? That's nuts! I hope your neighbours gave a suitable reply?

No, you are not being unreasonable.

Whoever buys your house will want to do their own thing, which may well be loving your welcoming, cosy fittings.

Ask other estate agents to come and give you a valuation. Work with the one you feel most comfortable with. It's a (hopefully) brief relationship with an EA but it can be quite intense and emotional so you need to be at ease with them.

I hope your sale goes smoothly.

IClaudius

£150,000????? To replace a kitchen? What with? Titanium and solid gold? That's nuts! I hope your neighbours gave a suitable reply?

They did. Sad really as they have been unable to sell and have moved out leaving the empty house still for sale.

Estate agents round here suggest buying new carpets if a house is not selling.

A buyer can make any offer they want and seller feel free to reject it

Obviously.

Do not go to additional expense. Even if you changed the bathroom and kitchen, who is to say what you changed it to would be to the buyers taste? The only time you might consider any kind of change is if, after your property had been on the market for some time, it wasn’t selling. That would be the time to consider either changing the bathroom and kitchen or reducing the asking price slightly to appeal to would be buyers.
If your existing estate agent won’t budge, try a different one and depending upon what they advise, act accordingly.

In any case, it will be advisable to get the views of about 3 different agents anyway, as previous posters have said, before choosing one to market your property.

Some buyers will always want to update the k and b themselves, because whatever you chose, however nice, it would almost certainly not be what they’d choose for themselves.

I’d certainly get another agent’s opinion, if not 2 more. Of course the cost of renovations will need to be factored into the price. Please beware of agents who overvalue in order to get the business- it’ll just take longer to sell and will probably mean reductions along the way.

A lick of paint and a de-clutter is more likely to be sufficient than going for refurbs in my opinion, plus making sure that the bare bones of the place is ok - deal with any issues such as leaks, damp patches, etc. No point spending a fortune unless you can recoup it in the asking ( and final accepting) price.

One problem now is that a house can be put on the market at a price which reflects average prices in the area, a prospective buyer may put in an offer for the asking price but the mortgage valuer will not agree the price offered therefore the lender will refuse a mortgage for the full amount.

I’d certainly get another agent’s opinion, if not 2 more

"Alway get three quotes" says DS.

If the house needs work doing to it, then it should be advertised as ‘with potential’ and the price should reflect this.

Get 3 agents in to give you a valuation and take the average price but go with the one whose professionalism you consider to be the best, you really need to get along with your agent.

Our kitchen and bathroom need renewing, our agent told us not to bother redoing them, best to drop the price. We have lots of plus points which should outweigh the negative ones.

However, these days it’s all down to price, if it’s priced well it will sell.

Setting aside economic and wider problems that affect house sales generally - like the effect of recent interest rate rises and economic uncertainty, If a house is not selling then it is over-priced or has a major problem.

Having done a lot of Rightmove surfing recently as we are considering down sizing. We have seen a number of houses that have been on the market for quite sometime and one of the two reasons above has applied in each case.

Major problems do not need to be ones that require major expenditure. We were admiring one house recently and it was only after we had been studying and looking at it online for a week that we realised that the second living room and one of the bedrooms had almost no natural light, just two tiny windows, which for different reasons let in very little light. They were dependent on borrowed light from adjoining rooms. That killed our interest in the property, and probably many other people's.

When previously selling property I always took down personal photos etc and kept the decor minimal. Most people who buy a house change bathrooms kitchens to their own taste.
Get yourself another estate agent and tell the one who gave you their advice you won’t be requiring their service.

You are not being unreasonable. Definitely not. Lots of good advice above. You don't have to do anything that you are not comfortable with.

Utter nonsense.. Change estate agents people with vision see past the existing layout.
My daughter and her now husband bought their 1st house 10 years ago when they were both 21.
Ripped everything out, made significant changes sold 5 years later for a big profit.
2nd home exactly the same..
Do what you want to do, don't listen to not rude estate agents.

These days with the cost of mortgages rising people are often looking for something they can “do up”. You could spend money on a kitchen and bathroom that buyers don’t want as they often have their own ideas. Agree ask another estate agent to visit. Don’t forget the agent wants the highest price for your property as they get the commission. You have a perfectly decent kitchen and to hell with spending unnecessary money which you won’t get back.

Just to say, not that long ago both our dds bought houses with extremely dated decor, but clean and perfectly liveable. Old Ks and Bs certainly didn’t put them off.

I don’t think a word of this is true!
No agent would ever give such advice, they price the property accordingly.

What are you implying Sago ?