A cunning plan? What do you think?

[dogman]

16 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

Mentalpause here mate!

For those who are in the same boat 

Will we need to heat a passive house?

[Ian]

7 hours ago, recoveringacademic said:

 E7; never get our money back. Oil; just don't like it. Illogical? Maybe, but that's it.  That leaves LPG.
Calor are fitting tanks free. Salamander cottage is 20 meters away. Any reason I shouldn't use Calor for both properties? Too simple?

 

We've recently completed a small holiday home in North Wales (71m2) and are using bulk LPG for similar reasons to you + with it being used mainly at weekends and very remote with no close neighbors I figured LPG was less vulnerable to theft compared to oil.

 

As a bonus it's also nice to be able to have a gas hob for cooking.

 

We connected our LPG tank to the combi boiler at the beginning of Nov last year and paid 30p per litre for 1200 liters. It's a 2 year contract and there's a fixed max uplift price for year 2 although we won't need this as the supply will last us longer than 2 years. Avanti and Calor both offered the same deal - free tank and connection and 30p/liter (we laid a small concrete slab and dug the trench for the pipe). This price works out at about 4.3p per kW.

 

There are regulations with bulk LPG now which mean you can switch suppliers after the 2 year contract with little/no hassle. The regs govern what happens to the bulk tank at no cost to you assuming you're renting it. Our rental is £60/year.

 

Most gas combi boilers have an LPG version so there's a good choice and great boiler efficiencies - ours is 91% efficient. Assuming that your house design has good insulation you may find that the difference in running costs between LPG and oil is less than you think.

Edited March 22, 2017 by Ian

[Onoff]

31 minutes ago, dogman said:

For those who are in the same boat 

Will we need to heat a passive house?

 

PMSL! 

 

Here's hoping for some major hot flushes then, we've used 100L of oil since 10th March. The house is like one big patio heater. Even the vermin have moved out.

 

 

[ProDave]

7 hours ago, recoveringacademic said:

Our current house is a cool, drafty colander. And to finance Salamander Cottage, we need to sell the colander. [The sublime built next to the ridiculous]  

So I'm putting Repair-and-Replace plan together. Trying hard not to look at the cost. Done my due diligence , thanks  @Ferdinand, @Onoff, @JSHarris , @Crofter , @TerryE  and others.

EPC for the current house is likely to be X, Y or probably Z.    To top it all off, the main heating system is a multi-fuel stove that enchants everyone who comes in and settles down on the sofa. Heats all the hot water, a good few rads and a cat. Bless it, the fire needs daily maintenance and has never yet performed well when there's a blocking high-pressure system.

We'll never sell with the current set up. So out with the old and in with the new. E7; never get our money back. Oil; just don't like it. Illogical? Maybe, but that's it.  That leaves LPG.
Calor are fitting tanks free. Salamander cottage is 20 meters away. Any reason I shouldn't use Calor for both properties? Too simple?

Based on a recent experience, do NOT do a single thing to a property to sell it. You might as well push boulders up a hill.

 

We had a recent viewing (a rare thing in itself). they seemed to like everything EXCEPT the fact the house has wooden windows and he does not want the maintenance of periodically re painting or varnishing them. They are on good condition and just sanded and re varnished last autumn.

 

If you think I am going to try and predict fickle requirements like that, and pre empt it by ripping out perfectly good windows and fitting plastic ones just so this buyer might have bought it, forget it.

[Stones]

6 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

 

As systematic answer as I can think, as I was trying to think this through. As ever, ignore the bits that are gibberish or irrelevant.

 

1. You don't want the highest price, you want the highest net value add (= extra price over current value minus cash you have to spend to reach that price), balanced against your time.

 

2. You perhaps don't want to spend time on it over the minimum because you are nurdling the new one. And for you, time and money are both things to maximise(?)

 

3. ISTM that there are three options:

 

a - Sell as a 'wreck' in current state.

b - Sell as a 'liveable but needs work when they have thought about it'. ie Good enough that they can move in and say wait a year,

c - Sell as a "it has been done up".

 

It *will* sell in each state, but at what price? I think your obvious choice may be 2, given the 30k or whatever 3 would take and the risk of not getting it back, and the time involved. Spend your time and money on the new one.

 

4. Budget. When we sold our tired house (albeit different: 5000 sqft former small manor) - the Estate Agent was adamant that we spend *nothing*, because we would just be limiting the options of the new buyer and not adding much to the likely price (2013: difficult), as the buyer would be wanting to do a full renovate and would not give us money for the bits we second-guessed they wanted to do.

 

In the end we just spent on necessary repairs, and replacing the grotty bathtub. Plus a *huge* amount of decluttering, including sending 3 vans of furniture to auction. The photos are online here - that is after 3 Luton van loads of furniture had gone.

 

No point in expensively poshing it up beyond 'liveable' if the reality is that it is a project. Lower the price slightly and attract a wider range of buyers. In the end we had to drop our price by 25%+ to sell, so it was a good recommendation. It felt a huge reduction, but now there is a new bit of HS2 close enough to (unnecessarily) unsettle buyers - glad we escaped.

 

5. What to do?

 

I would draw 2 Golden Rules and a PS.

 

1 - Do not spend on anything that moves beyond "liveable", or your target buyers might want to remove (leave that as available negotiation).

2 - Do things that will stop people buying it ie remove barriers or anything that will appear in a Homebuyer's Report. Don't leave stuff that will obviously need doing in the next 12 months .. replacement cost will just come off the price.

PS If there are easy clear value-adds or increase-sellabilitys, perhaps do these. Example: if you had an ensuite that was plumbed in but in use as storage not a shower, put a shower in it, or board out a loft ready to be boarded out.

 

Clutter

 

Or rather declutter declutter declutter. We tried to touch each item just once. It went to 1 - Keep 2 - Auction 3 - Burn or skip. Didn't manage it entirely, but it helped.

 

Cosmetics

 

Is there simple stuff to make it easier to sell. Lick of paint? Room sized rug on a threadbare carpet that you then take with you? 

New doors for the kitchen units?

 

Outside needs to *look* manageable even if not.

 

Advice

 

Get a couple of Estate Agents round to look early - it will just take a promise to give them a run at selling it when the times comes. Personally I am quite impressed with the likes of House Simple.

 

Timing.

 

If you really intend to shift it, *shift it*. Now is a good time - low supply. Can you get it on the market by April 10th - the big buying season is Easter = April 14/15 when you can have an open day. It can be done. Or at least make the May Bank holiday. 

 

Price.

 

Suggest price to sell, and sell to a cash or non-chain buyer. Is it perhaps worth losing 5-10% on this to save waiting for an extra 6-12 months before moving into the new one because you haven't released the funds.

 

For most people, 12 months would be up to 5% of the time period between retirement and the move to a very small wooden house indeed. Sell quickly not next year to have that extra year in your new house not the old one .

 

Ferdinand

 

 

I agree with much of what @Ferdinand detailed above.  

 

If you really do feel you need to put in a boiler so that you can tell people there is a CH system, how about an electric boiler?

 

https://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/ehc-slim-jim-10kw-electric-flow-boiler/

 

Relatively cheap, and should plumb into the existing wet system.  Not going to help the EPC, but I doubt you are going to make any meaningful improvement to that and anybody who wants an old cottage probably isn't going to care.

 

Absolute musts - deal with anything that would show up in a survey, de-clutter as much as you can, and clean, clean clean so the place sparkles.  Make sure the cat (and litter tray) are banished from the house.

[asklair]

Everything sells, in a space of under 12 months we sold a plot of land, a house and bought a flat and a house. This was not part of the original plan, but what I can say is what others are saying, do not pour money into the house you are selling and take a hit so you can move forward. On paper, we lost money, in reality, we sold what we wanted and our lives have moved on. Those in my age bracket, 1960s child, a few years to sell a house is way too long.

[MikeSharp01]

( @recoveringacademic I refer here to using it in the new pad - the old one is another matter as you are selling it..) Don't get me started on LPG - oh you did so sorry about the missive below.... LPG is great but expensive and is, frankly, a contract nightmare. Essentially we have to change suppliers every two years to keep the price even slightly keen, you cannot switch when ever you like and managing the top ups is an art. EG they won't top you up when you feel you need it only when they think you need it as they want to see a mighty low reading so they can fill it up. So even if you want a little bit now and again they won't do it. The tank location is also an issue, not under trees, near power lines or roadways, if close to paths you will need a stone / blockwork wall to prevent fires on the path, you see them everyday don't you, warming up the tank. When you switch suppliers they have to 'accept' the old tank or, if they won't accept it, you install another one, with associated ground works, and have the old supplier remove the old tank. (I speak from personal experience) When you do the maths you find that, if the LPG price is high enough - as it often is, the cost of using electric heating, leveraging things like ASHP,  or LPG are about the same and if you get a good electric deal you might just beat it. Even here, millstone manor, 18 months back we existed without LPG for OCT / NOV & DEC because I was so annoyed with our then supplier I would not buy any more from them and ran the immersion (E7) for DHW, the log burners and some electric heaters without too much inconvenience or expense. Would have stayed like that but the price from the new supplier beat the electric price so we went with them. In 6 months the contract will be up for renewal and we will have to switch back to the people, there are only two suppliers here, we were with when I said I would never buy from them again! I think that is the very definition of a racket! And relax...

 

[Ferdinand]

+1 electric boiler possibly unless EA says it could scare them off.

 

Would count against new wiring needed for E7, perhaps.

Edited March 22, 2017 by Ferdinand