putting home on the market

No, you are not being unreasonable.

You cannot please everyone and whatever alterations you make now "in order to sell your house" are likely to be a waste of your good money, as the first thing anyone does these days when they buy property is to redecorate, put in new kitchen, bathroom etc.

As long as there are no illegal electrical installations, lead pipes, asbestos or other heath hazards just find another estate agent.

Witzend, I have an acquaintance who does this too and often the the properties don't even get advertised because they have been snapped up before the paperwork has been completed. It is then difficult to prove that the estate agent has done anything wrong because there is no paper trail. The elderly are the most likely to be preyed upon. I was horrified.
We had a situation where a Loss Adjuster (LA) was asked to look at a house where there was evidence of subsidence on behalf of the owner. The LA took his builder round to quote and the somehow they managed to convince the elderly owner that the claim would not be met by the insurance company so best to sell at a loss. In telling me what had happened the owner mentioned that the builder was looking for a property like his and he was considering an offer. I was horrified and my sister stepped into help him navigate the legitimate insurance claim. There are some awful people out there.

Just to add, I’ve known personally of one case where an EA used the renovation costs reason, for inducing the vendor to accept a very low price, because he or she had developer friends or ‘clients’ with whom s/he had a ‘brown envelope’ arrangement for picking properties up cheaply from relatively naive and trusting vendors.

This was openly admitted to me by one such developer - not a friend, I hasten to add! - who I met socially somewhere. He was quite unabashed about it - he had such ‘arrangements’ with more than one estate agency.
I do that know most EAs are not like this, but there is certainly the odd shark in the waters.

Another ‘shark’ story - the entirely reasonable offer I made for a flat some years ago, was turned down on the spot, ostensibly because I could not exchange contracts within 24 hours! Well, of course I couldn’t - I’d never heard of such a thing. But the EA told me it was quite usual for buyers to able to proceed very quickly.

I thought little more about it until some months later, when I had a good old nose on nethouseprices, to see what the flat had sold for.

It was at least 20% below my offer!

The EA had seemed such a nice, trustworthy young chap - who’d told me at the viewing that his father was a vicar!!

When we were selling my mother’s house - she’d had to move into a care home so the money was needed for fees - my brother handled the sale. The house was clean and perfectly liveable, but decidedly dated.

Brother picked the EA who said, ‘I’ll give you 3 prices - one, very optimistic, it’ll take a year. Two, more realistic, probably 3 months.
Three, I’ll sell it in a week.

Brother went for 3, and he did. None of us lived nearby for maintenance, garden, etc. and we didn’t want it sitting empty for month, esp. over the winter. There wasn’t actually a major difference in the prices anyway.

But we were certainly struck with such unusual straight talk from an EA!

It’s my contention that those who are looking to buy a property are buying, land, bricks and mortar and a sound structure. Not whatever internal fixtures and fittings that happen to be in vogue at any one time. Decor and any alterations must be taken into account within the buyers own budget not the sellers. Any Estate Agent that comes along with such a high handed manner must look to themselves there are plenty of EA’s on the High Street. After all Estate Agency is not a profession it’s a Marketing Service that take instruction from the client not the other way round.

It's the estate agents job to tell you what best action to take to get the most money for your property. If the kitchen and bathroom look outdated, any buyer would significantly drop their offer to account for replacement. Many buyers don't want a 'project' and want a home where only minor updates are required as opposed to new jobs. Make some enquiries because (obviously I haven't seen your kitchen) but there may be a cheaper solution for this like just buying new doors for the cupboards and a second hand counter top? If you have family, I would seek some help and advice from them as they may be able to think of some cheaper solutions. Yes this is your home and you love it but you're not trying to sell the image of 'your home' you're trying to sell a home that a buyer wants to buy.

Forgot to say, we sold using the online estate agent Strike which doesn't charge a fee, although you do have to do your own viewings and they do their best to persuade you to use their (paid-for) services for the conveyancing, survey etc

We sold our house two years ago, it still had the original 1980s dark oak fitted kitchen, although we had updated the bathroom, and it sold in a week for more than the asking price. We described the kitchen as "serviceable but would benefit from refurbishment" (or something like that).

A neighbour replaced their kitchen before putting their house on the market and after it was sold found that the buyer planned to rip the kitchen out and install a new one because they didn't like it, so it was a complete waste of time and money. Just set the price accordingly and you should be fine.

when estate agents value a property they over state value to get you to put it on the market then within a week get you to reduce it by £5000, a disgrace. this happened to a family member so I checked other property for sale with same agent and sure enough it happened to all.. a week is far to soon to reduce.

They certainly are very variable. When we sold our last house we instructed a long established local agent. Useless. No viewings. We then instructed a well known national agent (name beginning with S) at a higher commission but they were really excellent - had people on their books looking for our type of property, vetted their ability to proceed, an offer at the asking price from a cash buyer accepted within days and they were well worth the additional fee. You really do get what you pay for.

If the house is already on the market, my guess is that the EA overvalued it to get the contract, and is now using the kitchen and bathroom as an excuse for it not selling.

My sister had her house on the market last year, and the EA was useless. The marketing video had errors (eg the number of bedrooms!) and despite the fact that the agreement was that all viewings would be accompanied kept sending people round, or asking if sister and BIL could 'just give them a quick look'. Unfortunately for the agent, they weren't bothered about moving - the house is too big for them now their children have grown up, but they can easily manage it for a few years yet, so they waited the 6 months necessary for the contract, then took it off the market. If/when they decide to try again, they will use a different agent - they are very variable in quality.

I’d change estate agents. My partner has a beautiful flat in a converted chapel. He got an estate agent to come and value it. I was present but she completely ignored me . She had very short hair and was conscious of the fact but told my partner … not to worry as she intended to grow it long again. She also told him that she was newly single ( and , by implication, available ) ! Even so , what flabbergasted us most was that she asked to use the bathroom and took longer than expected. She explained that she couldn’t find the flush. However, later that night, I discovered that some new underwear that I’d bought that day ( and put in the bedside drawer out of the way ) price tags still on ) was missing. We laughed about it after and always grin when we see that estate agent’s sign. As for your case, I think you should ignore what they say. See what viewers’ feedback us even before lowering the price. I was told to rebuild the back elevation of my first house before I sold it. I got another agent to look who said there was absolutely nothing wrong with it ! I hope you get sorted soon .

You can’t simply change agents. You will have signed with them for an agreed period and only when that’s expired without an offer having been accepted can you appoint another.

Houses selling like hot cakes near us, usually around 2 weeks from advert to offer, this includes older houses 'needing updating' average price 250k, I would change agents, if she can't do her job unless house has new kitchen and bathroom then she's not worth her fee

Oopsadaisy1

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.

You wouldn't actually drop the price for this, the agent should be giving you a valuation for the house as it is. If a buyer comes back and tries to get it for a reduced price the agent can simply say that the kitchen and bathroom were taken into account in the asking price.
You'll probably find that many people are interested in a house like yours because it hasn't been highly priced to include an expensive new kitchen, bathroom and other "improvements".
I agree about the price, it needs to be properly valued and if it's priced well it should sell quickly.

Callistemon21

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.

Not many buyers will need a 100% mortgage though, so a slightly lower mortgage valuation really doesn't matter, provided the house is worth at least as much as the buyer needs to borrow.

I think his advice is wrong. Who is to say that any replacements that you installed would be to their taste in any case? As others have said, many buyers want to put in their own kitchen and maybe bathroom too, so you would just be wasting your money.
We bought a property from an older person who had a perfectly usable (though older) kitchen and bathroom and we used them for a couple of years before we replaced them.
Use a different estate agent, this one clearly doesn't know what he is doing.

1) get another agent, one with manners and respect would be good.
2) don’t change anything, as others say the new buyers will almost certainly change it and you will have lost out.
3) if you haven’t changed things then you can have in mind that you may need to take a reduction in price to accommodate that but this will usually be less than money spent on replacements AND the hassle of having your home upside down while it’s done.
4) we have taken the above approach in our moves with good outcomes.
5) EG we totally rebuilt our home before last and spent over £150,000 on the work (2007 prices) sold at £625,000 and the buyers within 6 months had ripped out the oak, granite and slate kitchen and replaced it with Ash. In all they spent a further £60,000 after buying the house but were happy and still call us very now and then!
GOOD LUCK with your move.

Did he have a friend who does kitchens and bathrooms who gives him commission? All the estate agents around here tell you not to update your home because people want to put their own stamp on it.

I moved a year ago and a couple of the estate agents who came to value the house told me that I needed to redo the kitchen and bathroom. Yes, they were dated but I felt that I had covered this by lowering the price slightly. I don't see why someone would go to the expense and disruption of having this done before they moved. In fact I was moving because I didn't want any more building works done (I am too old for the hassle). As it happens I went with a different estate agent and had no difficulty selling! Change your estate agent! (And good luck with the sale)

Mabon1 NO, you are not being unreasonable. Potential buyers often have a visionary take on a space when they see it, and would probably change/remodel to their liking whether you leave as is or spend money to change things - just to appease the realtor (estate agent).

A GOOD realtor would be able to sell your house without the upgrades. There ARE buyers who want to purchase what they see as “fixer-uppers.”

Get a different agent and don’t take her abuse or condescension! She’s bad.
Good luck!
USA Gundy

Totally ignore them ! The asking price is far more important. I’ve just sold my elderly parents house and I literally did nothing other than clean and market it at a sensible price.

When we bought our house it needed work! We did the essentials before moving in and planned to do other things as we could afford to. Sadly my ex husband and I parted company within the year and I eventually kept the house which I could only afford due to an inheritance allowing me to overpay the mortgage to make it affordable. Needless to say none of the desired renovations have happened and 20 years later I'm looking to sell. It will most definitely be as a doer upper! There are horribly dated kitchen and bathroom, threadbare carpets, damp and a bit of mould in a room I don't use. however my neighbours when I first lived here had what I considered a perfectly nice home which new owners ripped apart doing what to me seemed unnecessary work. When they moved the next owners did the same again! I see no advantage in doing the place up, even if I could afford to, as my tastes will not be everyone's! I'm trying to tidy up my garden a bit - it is huge and overgrown - to increase kerb appeal. Of course I won't get anywhere near the price that appears on Zoopla which probably assumes at least 2 full renovations in the last 20 years. It will go to someone who can see past the faults to the potential of the house. Many houses sell, then the builders arrive to do the renovation before the new owners appear. I guess that will happen to mine. We couldn't have afforded it in the first place if it had been pristine.
Obviously I'm going to be looking for somewhere ready to move into, hopefully with decor to suit me, as I won't want to have much work to do at my age. If the kitchen and bathroom are not to my taste then it will depend how bad whether they are a deal breaker. If they are fully serviceable, then probably not!

You have 'Homes under the hammer' programs where houses need new bathroom and kitchen. Or normal house sales where location sells the house regardless of decor. If you are in between, with prices coming down anyway, I would not change anything and sell as it is for best price. Get lots of quotes. Good luck

We bought a 1990’s built house 3 years ago that had all the original kitchen, bathrooms etc, including the artex ceilings. Had absolute great fun gutting it, and starting from scratch with new bathrooms, kitchen, windows etc and decorated to a more modern style. It’s nonsense to say potential buyers won’t look at houses that need updating, sometimes it’s just what a buyer wants.