Putting my house on the market

Foxglove77

When we sold Mums house after she went into care, she had a junk room which was full. The estate agent photo shopped it so it looked empty on the brochure! Once sold we had a clearance company to take anything we couldn't remove.

What a great idea 💡

Remove all shampoos, lotions, toothbrushes etc.
I think that looks very off putting in the photographs. So personal.

Have enquired about part-exchange, but have to get my property up to a reasonable standard first. I will put my property on with Quicklist. Many buy- to- let landlords are selling cheaply at the moment.

Have seen lots of bargain properties out there, so it's a great time to buy. I hope everything goes smoothly. Good luck.

Grammaretto

If it goes on the open market I will take note of all your suggestions but the 2 who are currently interested off the market will rip the house to pieces (metaphorically) and are mainly interested in how they can make it work for them.

I don't think flowers or beautiful scents would make much difference but I could be wrong.
I do intend to fill a tub at the front door with bedding plants. It can't hurt and the window cleaner is coming. 😃

Some of the houses I've bought suffered from really appalling decor/ fittings. As I'm always going to redecorate I couldn't care less. Meanwhile I can happily live with an avocado bathroom suite, acres of anaglypta wallpaper, bare boards found beneath the manky carpets, decrepit wiring etc.

If it goes on the open market I will take note of all your suggestions but the 2 who are currently interested off the market will rip the house to pieces (metaphorically) and are mainly interested in how they can make it work for them.

I don't think flowers or beautiful scents would make much difference but I could be wrong.
I do intend to fill a tub at the front door with bedding plants. It can't hurt and the window cleaner is coming. 😃

The ground floor flat down the road went on the market a month ago. The estate agent's photos are absolutely awful.
When I last sold a house, the estate agent taking the photos was a gem.
"Put that vase of flowers in the fireplace"
"Move that chair back a bit"
"Straighten that curtain/books on the shelf/cushion"
I was thrilled with the results

These days some agents post untidy rooms and grubby-looking kitchens & bathrooms
Choose a local agent who cares. One way of deciding is looking at a lot of photos on Zoopla and Right Move. Another way is personal recommendation

NotSpaghetti

I have sold several books of PG Tips cards!
People seem to want them!
And cigarette cards...

😲

I'm not sure if they are complete, though!
They might end up in the skip otherwise.

Might a local museum or a school be interested in some of these “social history” items, do you think? Even books of Green Shield stamps might be classed as history! I’ve seen all kinds of stuff on display in some places and have often said, “Oh, we used to have one of those!” (My son soon left me in Beamish to wander on alone when the man behind the counter in the old Co-op and I started reminiscing about the old days! )

I have sold several books of PG Tips cards!
People seem to want them!
And cigarette cards...

Grammaretto

That's very funny Fallingstar and NotSpaghetti
I empathise totally!
I'm also have green shield stamps but I have managed to get shot of a butterchurn, 12 heavy boxes of 78s. I still have the wind up gramophone.
There's still a long way to go
I've held a bric-a-brac sale and may do another.

I'm also have green shield stamps

Somewhere I have books (not complete) of PG Tips cards!
We used to swap them at school.
I quite fancy having a butter churn 😀

Must get back to decluttering.

Good luck, Grammaretto!

Books are hard to get rid of IME. I was quite ruthless a couple of years ago and surprised myself by donating reference books rather than novels, on the grounds that reference books go out of date and their contents can be searched online very easily. Unfortunately I have accumulated more since then, so am going to have to have another purge soon.

The biggest problem we will have is the garage, which is crammed with power tools and similar. Mr D has an unfeasible number of the things. Plus whole cabinets of screwdrivers and spanners. He rarely uses them, although he recently fixed something for DIL, so the odd one comes in handy now and again. I have no idea about any of it, and if he goes first I don’t know what I will do with it all. Neither son nor SIL will want any of it (and daughter and DIL won’t give any of it house room), so I’d either have to pay to have it all taken away or put an ad online for people to come and take what they want. I wish he would sort it out, but (a bit like me and my yarn) doing that would be acknowledging that he’s coming to the end of his usefulness, which I don’t want him to do.

Any ration books?

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Why do you all hold on to such ancient stuff?
Books of Green Shield stamps?
Oh lordy - no wonder decluttering has been/is being such an ordeal for some of you. 😦

😂

Fallingstar

knspol

‘ In the UK you can definitely put an offer on a house when you don't yet have an offer on your own home’

That was not our DDs experience, estate agents in her area told them they could not offer on a property until they had an offer on their’s, perhaps other areas are different, they live in the south east.

I live in the South East and you and the estate agent are wrong.
Perhaps what the agent was saying was that the vendor only wanted offers from a buyer who had an offer on their own house.

Sending you my best wishes Grammaretto it’ll be a wrench one way and another. I hope it goes well for you this summer in that you not only sell but buy too and find contentment (more sustainable than happiness I find, which comes in bursts) going forward. You are one brave lady doing this alone without much support (or encouragement) from your family. Trust your gut.
It’s rarely wrong.

I suppose some of us had loads of space and simply allowed deceased relatives things to "exist" for many years in spare rooms, outbuildings or under beds.
We bought or exchanged strange and beautiful things and treasured lots of hand made things - what do you do with the items made by your ancestors - engraved glass vases, embroidery, inlaid boxes, fire irons and so on that you don't want to just "get rid of"?
Then there's the thousands of books, engineering research projects, 50 plus interesting baking tins (oh, which to keep?)...

Then the furniture...
Who wants "occasional tables" these days?

All can have a home but the decision making is really tough.

I get it Grammaretto.
If I work more earnestly on this now I may get somewhere by next spring.

I think you and I have to be quite ruthless.
I am taking digital photos of the things I'm actually binning (that are too unfit for anyone else but me) and am feeling that is easier.

I think you could do this too. Maybe it will help with those things that "just need rewiring" or need gluing with hoof and horn.

Thinking of you.💐

You've had lots of good advice here so would just like to wish you luck. Its a huge upheaval for you, having lived in the same house for so long. I sold my mine to move to a bungalow but it was a small modern house and I dressed it to look like a show house so it sold very quickly.
So good luck, have faith and hope you find a lovely new place to call home.

My stuff goes nowhere near that far back, thankfully.

Why do you all hold on to such ancient stuff?
Books of Green Shield stamps?
Oh lordy - no wonder decluttering has been/is being such an ordeal for some of you. 😦

Fallingstar

NotSpaghetti

I just feel the need to comment...

Lots of people say they decluttered over A month...

I think SIX months is optimistic!
Even doing it every day, all day I know I couldn't do it in a month!

Those of us with stuff and those of us with not so much stuff are poles apart!


My mother-in-law thought she was cluttered(!)
She had kept almost nothing...
I think the only thing in her house that there are duplicates of (for example) are new light bulbs, wine, and rolls of toilet tissue!

I agree totally.
Have been decluttering for months now. I have never been a hoarder but my husband is, and we have deep cupboards and a big shed/workshop, is never ending.
On the other hand a neighbour of mine said she was decluttering prior to a move and it had taken her two whole weeks and a couple of trips to charity shops to get rid of it.
We should be so lucky.

This is why I started 6 years ago.
I am plodding on.

I didnt know back then, and still dont, if and when we will move.

I am not the most physically strong of people.
And no way did I want my DH to merrily throw all sort of things away, if we moved in a hurry.

Well Grammaretto I have gifted all the 78s and wind-up gramophone!
"Luckily" a shed at the bottom of the garden took longer to replace than expected and quite a few things were beyond rescue!

Someone is coming later today to take away lots of beer-making stuff and the old Burco which we used for mashing has already gone!

That's very funny Fallingstar and NotSpaghetti
I empathise totally!
I'm also have green shield stamps but I have managed to get shot of a butterchurn, 12 heavy boxes of 78s. I still have the wind up gramophone.
There's still a long way to go
I've held a bric-a-brac sale and may do another.

Ha ha NotSpaghetti, that sounds like a treasure trove 🫣
We had several yoga mats, neither of us do yoga, old green shield books filled with stamps, half empty rusty tins of cow gum glue, empty browning photo albums - we kept the full ones, and for some reason a lot of plastic spoons.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg, or the iceberg destined for the tip.

And a 1970s computer which runs/ran on huge floppy discs...

I seem to have a lot of really interesting stuff.
A very very early hoover anyone?
A single brass door hinge of about 9"
A huge lovely box of Bilofix with no lid.

Beekeeping stuff, my old spinning wheel (missing a flyer - but here somewhere), knitting and sewing stuff, paper making, candle making, rag rugging, felting, leather work, printing, weaving stuff... gardening stuff and a pack of clay.
This is just what springs to mind.