How much is this house worth?

[ianash]

A friend of mine has the Power of Attorney for an elderly relative. The only asset is a 3 bedroom semi detached house in a good area of the Home Counties. The state of the house is very poor, although the roof looks in decent condition. I would imagine any buyer would have to gut the house and put in new electrics, modern plumbing etc. The outside also needs some attention although this would mainly be decorating and touching up. Front and back gardens need tidying up. Similar properties, but in good order, in the same road have sold over the last year or so at:

9th Feb 2007 £450,000
25th Jan 2008 £399,500

My question given the poor state of the house is, how much is it likely to be worth in the current market?

[anonymous-user]

£352,000

[sday12]

Without seeing it:

£320K-400K

[Ace-T]

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/

Should give you a guide.

Trace

[ianash]

Thanks guys. So I guess what's being said is that a buyer will probably knock of £30-50K for bringing it up to standard. Sounds reasonable to me. The next door neighbour has been sniffing around and he has the added incentive of not wanting to live attached to a declining house, which will impact on the value of his house.

[scotal]

ianash said:

Thanks guys. So I guess what's being said is that a buyer will probably knock of £30-50K for bringing it up to standard. Sounds reasonable to me. The next door neighbour has been sniffing around and he has the added incentive of not wanting to live attached to a declining house, which will impact on the value of his house.

If the neighbour has a mortgage on his current home, and wants to raise a mortgage to buy the new one, he might hit problems. Some lenders are not keen on lending on adjacent properties with the same lender. They feel it opens the door for the guy to knock through, which would creat a problem in the event of a reposession, and also devalue the 2 houses as a package.

[ianash]

scotal said:

ianash said:

Thanks guys. So I guess what's being said is that a buyer will probably knock of £30-50K for bringing it up to standard. Sounds reasonable to me. The next door neighbour has been sniffing around and he has the added incentive of not wanting to live attached to a declining house, which will impact on the value of his house.

If the neighbour has a mortgage on his current home, and wants to raise a mortgage to buy the new one, he might hit problems. Some lenders are not keen on lending on adjacent properties with the same lender. They feel it opens the door for the guy to knock through, which would creat a problem in the event of a reposession, and also devalue the 2 houses as a package.

The neighbour is about 60 and he wife was telling me now he's stopped working he's looking for a project. I couldn't say whether he has an existing mortgage, but I doubt it. Anyway thank's everybody for your advice in this matter.

[TimCrighton]

Just bare in mind that since either of those sales the market has moved (even in the home counties) probably 15ish%, and if the property needs £50k spending on it, its not simply worth £50k less and you've got provide an incentive for someone to do the work - as a result £50k capital expenditure is probably £60k off the price - although it'll depend on the works that need doing as this is the case with more structural items, i.e. beyond the basically DIYer's capability, but perhaps less so for a keen amateur builder/DIYer.