House on the market ....

I agree with all the comments, it does pay to have a gleaming house. Also a very tidy house. Always let the viewer go into the room first is a good trick, looks larger!. I put cottage on market on Friday, six viewings Saturday and it went to highest and final offer today out of four offers on Saturday. Now to Suffolk or Norfolk to buy hopefully a new build. If anybody has moved to those areas recently, tips would be welcome on areas ?

I sold up and moved house in 2019 ... and I too made my house spotless. Well, you do don't you.

What I didn't like was when they got their mobile phones out and took pictures of the inside.
Perhaps that's the way it is now but I'm afraid I didn't like it and asked them, politely, if they would stop. One of them got a little uppity and just walked off without a by your leave.

Mortgages linked to endowment policies are a thing of the past as the after the global financial crash policies didn't yield enough to pay off the mortgage. The price of your son's flat satisfied the valuer who would have considered it on behalf of the mortgage lender Mummer, or they wouldn't have given him a mortgage. Before I retired I was a solicitor acting for big property developer and it wasn't uncommon for a lender's valuer to downvalue a property, resulting in renegotiation of the price. It's no good blaming the lender if the valuer considered the flat was then worth the asking price, nor for granting an interest-only mortgage. Possibly the mortgage was for upwards of 100% of the price? Buyers thought that prices would always go upwards but depending on what and where the property is, that isn't so. There is a big over-supply of flats in some areas and in those areas people just aren't buying them other than for letting. Going bankrupt would prevent him get a mortgage anywhere else for a long time so isn't really an option.

Mummer

Ds bought apartment 2 beds in 2007.... exactly. They allowed him to buy interest only without any means of repaying (endowment policy etc) scoot forward to 2022.? Stuck on negative equity apartment only one not for rent in area. Stuck seemingly forevermore and will hav to sell probably at a loss to repay when mortgage finishes.! Been for sale for 12yes12 years!!! Lovely and clean /tidy well maintained BUT overpriced by Barratt when he bought and cannot cover what he owes!! So! Short of do in g a runner or declaring h I'm myself bankrupt? In the north West of England this sad sorry tale is oh so common, and I'm sick to the back teeth of everyone saying how property markets are booming! Not here they're not

I guess it depends where you are in the North West. My daughter’s 2 bed terraced house, on a very busy road in Atherton, near Wigan, with no off street parking sold this week for £150,000 - she paid £98,000 less than three years ago! There are hundreds of similar houses in the area and they sell very well to first time buyers and buy to let investments.

It is tough when a new build property is over priced initially and ends up in negative equity, 14/5 years is a long time not to get some increase in value, it must be soul destroying for your son.

Whereabouts in the North West is he?

dalrymple23

I would suggest tackling a little every day if you can.
Clearing out the easy stuff first gives encouragement ie today we tackled a cupboard which had shelves of stuff we kept 'just in case' but nothing of much value ie a printer and inks, nearly new lampshades, lamps, toys etc. If they haven't been needed/played with in the last 12 months then they're going.

Things of potential value need a bit more thought.

The shredder has been busy too as DH seems to keep a lot of unnecessary paperwork.

Good suggestions from HazelGreen, we have used auction houses with mixed results. When we moved from Bedfordshire to Shropshire in the 1980s we sent a lot of stuff to an auction house because we were renting for a while and we were amazed that everything sold and also at how much it went for. The last time was when we downsized about 12 years ago and again we sent a lot to an auction room but some things didn’t sell and we had to arrange and pay to have them brought back, consequently we made nothing and had to dispose of the stuff that didn’t sell.

Dalrymple, as an only child I inherited a lot of things that I couldn’t bear to dispose of. My son is also an only child and though interested in the family history, there’s a limit to what he could take on. Luckily I had a large loft, but then came the time to downsize. A lot went to charity (British Heart Foundation were excellent, collected so much and even told us from time to time what things had sold for. Also they claimed Gift Aid on sales proceeds so seemed to be very well organised.) A lot of furniture, silver, pictures and two Victorian teasets were purchased and collected by a local second hand furniture dealer. I have kept just a few meaningful items which take up very little space and are on show, not in the loft. We did get a local auctioneer round to look at the things which eventually went to the dealer, but as we would have had to arrange transport to the auction house and collect what didn’t sell we decided against that. Obviously worth doing if you have valuable items that are likely to sell though. Good luck!

My sympathies to you in your situation dalrymple. I have just cleared my mother's house that was full of my great grandmother (born 1860) s items. My father was an only child and only grandson who inherited a houseful. In addition there are Victorian photograph albums and autograph books and post card collections to deal with. I was surprised that a local auction house was prepared to take nearly everything with the exception of some 'brown furniture' of more modern vintage. The latter were taken by local charities tho some were a bit fussy. I had boxed up about 25 boxes of 'bric a brac' and other small stuff including some books and in the end one charity took them, again not easy to get organised. I used a local freecycle group and also sourced a charity that took tools and a sewing machine and another took garden tools. Sadly there are few people now who will remember my gran and the house she lived in which belonged to her mother. So there is little interest from the descendants scattered around the world and of course people now have smaller houses, smaller families and different lifestyles. For example no one wants silver due to burden of keeping clean and no one now has 'special' stuff/room to display such items.

Then 5,000+ books!
Oh yes, I know how you feel

I've started!
Today I got rid of the first 10 ?, only 4,990 to go through, wondering if I'll re-read or not .....

Everywhere looks worse now I've started to go through cupboards. 5 million photos to sort through (well, it looks like 5 million in various boxes).

A clean and uncluttered house does give a viewer the chance to see room proportions, and gives a better first impression surely. I've seen houses on Rightmove with unmade beds, duvets pulled up over lumpy items ( possibly somebody?) and kitchens with much grease in evidence and washing up stacked on the sink and drainer. Not to mention the grim bathrooms with black mould in the grouting - yuk. I wonder if it does make any difference? I remember one set of photos with an elderly person sitting eating off a tray on the sofa. Pehaps she refused to move!

There are two of us rattling around an eight bedroomed Victorian semi. Ridiculous. It has to go. Then there are the three large hounds, a snake and four birds of prey. Both of us are chronically untidy and I stopped cleaning when I had to start working 10 years ago! Had a heart attack, so no longer earning, so cannot afford a cleaner.

Then what to do with all the "stuff". From family antique furniture, paintings, crystal and silver. Then 5,000+ books! My young are disinterested in heirlooms. Anyway, two no speakies and youngest in LA.

Envisaged things staying in the family for ever, as they did historically and in stately homes!!

Patently my life is now truncated. Offspring scattered with no permanent residences.

Any advice would be appreciated.

DD

My daughter didn't understand my constant cleaning when we were on the market. I kept the whole house tidy and hoovered and dusted, sometimes not cooking the night before so the Aga was pristine! I always thoroughly cleaned both the kitchen and bathroom before every viewing. I had to hide the cat litter tray under a sheet in the airing cupboard (always clean!) and all of their food dishes in the kitchen.

So terribly disappointing when people cancelled, I missed quite a few events due to viewings. Lack of feedback always upset me too, although some of the feedback I did receive was tripe.

I would definitely be the same, though hubbie says it is because I am a Virgo! A friend sent me this recently which made me smile as it is so true ... of me anyway!
''I do not need to hire a housekeeper to get my house clean ..I just need a friend to text me and say they are stopping by in 20 minutes''

Ds bought apartment 2 beds in 2007.... exactly. They allowed him to buy interest only without any means of repaying (endowment policy etc) scoot forward to 2022.? Stuck on negative equity apartment only one not for rent in area. Stuck seemingly forevermore and will hav to sell probably at a loss to repay when mortgage finishes.! Been for sale for 12yes12 years!!! Lovely and clean /tidy well maintained BUT overpriced by Barratt when he bought and cannot cover what he owes!! So! Short of do in g a runner or declaring h I'm myself bankrupt? In the north West of England this sad sorry tale is oh so common, and I'm sick to the back teeth of everyone saying how property markets are booming! Not here they're not

Beanutz2115

De-clutte,de-clutter,de-clutter before putting the house on the market. Get the garden in good order, put some pots of plants outside, we had the front door repainted into a more modern colour from red to grey, kerb appeal is key here. We put our modest three bed bungalow on the IOW and received £30,000 over the asking price.

It's IOW dear , not Burnley!

I'm with you! Does he really want to sell? Don't sound like it! I wonder what fellas would do if we "left" cleaning etc as they moan at us to? Probably wouldn't notice the filth , it's genetic ya know?

We have a lovely estate agent living and working from a village near us. If things don’t look right he advises the client to change the table around or move a piece of furniture out to give it a more pleasing look. I think it’s a great idea because most of us just get used to the way we like it and not someone else’s viewpoint.

I hope the viewings went well.
I had a stream of viewers the weekend mine went on the market and cleaned and tidied for days before!
I sold it that day and was glad as I found the viewings pretty stressful!

Myself and DP ‘went’ to view a house on Saturday. But we were a week early DP hadn’t read the email properly ?
Both disappointing and embarrassing!

Not only clean and tidy but no unpleasant smell. When we were house hunting as soon as the vendor opened the door we knew whether they had a dog or baby. Also clean paintwork.
When buying a new caravan instead of going to a Show we asked people on a site if we could look at theirs in the morning when it was untidy and before the beds were stored away.

De-clutte,de-clutter,de-clutter before putting the house on the market. Get the garden in good order, put some pots of plants outside, we had the front door repainted into a more modern colour from red to grey, kerb appeal is key here. We put our modest three bed bungalow on the IOW and received £30,000 over the asking price.

Good luck, hope you have a quick sale. Clean and tidy but not obsessively so. Last sold 2009, financial crash kicked in as well as the stupid home report. Had thought it would take a year. House on market Friday afternoon, viewer on Saturday am, sold on Monday after second viewing. Did have other viewers booked for the week. Even offered more than the value which was determined at that time by surveyors. Couldn't believe it, scramble to find a new home.

Definitely clean and tidy. Then people can visualise what living in your house would be like. If it’s untidy or needs a good clean that’s the memory people will take away, an unloved house. Clean the windows too it just makes everything seem brighter. The old trick of baking bread or cakes always helps too. Gook luck

How did it go hazel93? Fingers crossed someone fell in love with your house.

I cleaned mine just before the valuation, never mind the rest!

I agree. Clean house makes all the difference. NB I didn’t say “tidy” because that isn’t important.

I once moved into a rental house in Jersey CI from the mainland with a 12 week old baby. It was filthy! I just sat down and cried, before wiping my tears and getting on with it. Lesson learnt, I left each house pristine when moving.