I am helping to manage the sale of my late uncle’s property, a three bedroom semi in Stafford built around 1972. Probate was granted in April so we now have the legal authority to sell but the house is still full of his belongings, furniture, books, tools in the garage, the lot. We have had two estate agents round for valuations and they gave us quite different advice. One said to clear it completely before marketing because buyers are put off by a cluttered house and it makes photos look terrible. The other said list it now as is because the market is slow and every week counts, and that most buyers at this price range (around £210k) can see past the contents.
My instinct is to clear it first but the family are spread across the country and coordinating a clearance is going to take time. We got a quote from a house clearance company of £1,800 which felt steep for what it is. The alternative is doing it ourselves over several weekends but realistically that could drag into July or August.
The house itself is in reasonable condition, the boiler was replaced about five years ago and its had a new roof in 2019. The kitchen and bathroom are dated but functional. There is a cracked drain at the back which we know about from a CCTV survey.
Has anyone been through a similar sale and can share what worked? Did you clear first or sell as seen? How long did the whole process take from listing to completion? Any tips on managing it from a distance would be appreciated.
Sold my father in laws place last year, similar vintage. Listed it full of stuff. Got an offer in three weeks from someone who wanted to renovate anyway. The clearance would have cost us time and money for no benefit. At £210k you are looking at first time buyers or investors and neither of them care about your uncles sofa. Get it on the market now.
I would push back slightly on the “list it full of stuff” approach, though I understand the logic. When we were helping with a family member’s house in Lymington a few years ago, the agent told us the same thing, but the reality was that the photos looked dreadful and it sat on Rightmove for six weeks with barely a viewing. We ended up doing a partial clearance, just the worst of it, over two weekends and the improvement in the listing photos was remarkable. Got an offer within a fortnight of the new photos going up.
The £1,800 quote for a full clearance does not strike me as unreasonable for a three bedroom house in the Midlands, depending on what needs skipping. We paid about £1,400 down here in 2021 and prices for everything have gone up since. If the family cannot coordinate weekends, it might be money well spent just to get it done. The alternative is months of half-hearted trips and the place slowly deteriorating.
One thing worth checking: does the property insurance cover an unoccupied house? Most standard policies have a 30 or 60 day unoccupancy clause and if probate was granted in April you may already be bumping up against that.
Had to do this twice.. once for a property in Hexham and once in Edinburgh, so I have seen both approaches play out in practice.
The Hexham one we cleared first and it sold at a decent price to a young couple. The Edinburgh one we left furnished because the family couldn’t face the clearance and it attracted only investors who lowballed us by 15%. Eventually sold for well under what we expected. Obviously different markets but the lesson I took away was that presentation does matter, even at the lower end.
One thing nobody has mentioned yet.. check with Stafford Borough Council about council tax on an empty property. Some councils give a discount or exemption for a limited period after probate (Class F exemption used to be 6 months but many councils have scrapped it). If they have scrapped it you could be paying full council tax or even a premium on an empty house. That is a cost that mounts up fast if the sale drags on.
Also worth noting that in the current market (@CyclingChap47’s comments in the Nationwide thread are spot on) properties at the £200k mark are sitting longer than they were six months ago. Get your pricing right from day one!!
Cheers!
Thank you all, some really useful points here. @theartfulfreeholder you have flagged something I had not thought about. I checked the insurance yesterday and the policy does have a 60 day unoccupancy clause as @greenwhistle_hants mentioned, so we are going to need to sort that out fairly soon. The insurer said we can extend it but it costs an extra £180 for six months which is not ideal but better than no cover.
On the council tax, I will phone Stafford Borough tomorrow. My uncle was living alone so there was a single person discount in place and I assume that stopped when probate was granted. If there is no exemption period that is another cost ticking away.
I think on balance we will do a partial clearance as Green suggests and get the photos done properly. The full clearance can happen once we are under offer and waiting for completion. That feels like the sensible middle ground. The cracked drain is the other thing I need to get priced up before we list, as I suspect a buyers surveyor will flag it and I would rather know the cost upfront than have it used as a negotiating tool.
Just a quick update on this. After reading all the replies I have decided to list it as is, with the contents. The estate agent came round on Thursday and was quite relaxed about it, said buyers at that price point in Stafford expect to see a bit of a project. He valued it at £165k to £175k which is about where I expected.
One thing he mentioned is that the EPC expired last year and we will need a new one before marketing. He offered to arrange it through their preferred assessor for £85. Is that reasonable or should I shop around? I know when we did probate for my father-in-law the EPC was about £60 but that was five years ago now.
@Monk1954, £85 is about the going rate for a three bed semi. I had ours renewed last autumn and paid £75, but that was through someone I found on the EPC register directly rather than going through the agent’s contact. The agent’s preferred assessor is fine, but you might save a tenner or so by booking one yourself on the gov.uk EPC register search page. That said, for the sake of ten pounds it might not be worth the hassle of coordinating access separately.
One thing worth checking is whether the property has had any changes since the last EPC, new boiler, loft insulation and so on. If nothing has changed, the rating will be the same, but if your uncle did any upgrades the assessor should pick those up and it could bump the rating slightly. A better rating never hurts at the marketing stage.
Glad you have made a decision on it, @Monk1954. Two things worth keeping an eye on from here. First, make sure whoever does the EPC can actually get into every room. When we dealt with the Lymington house I mentioned, the assessor could not access one bedroom because it was stacked floor to ceiling with boxes, and he had to come back a second time which cost another £40. If there is a lot of furniture pushed against radiators or blocking windows, it is worth spending an hour clearing a path before the appointment.
Second, check the terms of the buildings insurance on unoccupied property. Most standard policies have a clause that kicks in after 30 or 60 days of the property being unoccupied, and a probate house can easily drift past that without anyone noticing. Some insurers want to know about it and will either charge a loading or exclude certain perils (escape of water is usually the first to go). Worth a quick phone call to the insurer now rather than finding out the hard way. If they are difficult about it, there are specialist unoccupied property policies from the likes of Unoccupied Direct or Adrian Flux that are not unreasonably priced for a few months.