selling country farmhouse with no kerb appeal

[Brenno123]

hi all

we have made the decision to sell our country farmhouse, (well its actually in dublin 15) to downsize.

would value peoples thoughts:

the house itself is well finished,in very good condition with a very nice kitchen etc and people always comment on such a wow house it is, it is 4 bedroom 2500sq foot cut stone\reclaimed brick house, sash windows etc

however, the outsides\outbuildings are very unfinished and definitely would not have that kerb appeal i hear so much about.

there are 2 options we are considering, trying to invest a few grand to get it at least neat and tidy on the outsides before we try and sell.

or else just leave it the way it is and let a buyer see the potential for the place and let them do whatever they want with it then

the auctioneer reckons he could get around 550k for the house, stables workshed and 6 acres but i am thinking it is a bit optimistic in this climate.
any thoughts, would i be better just putting it up the way it is and let someone else have a vision because the house itself is beautiful?

 

[dubgem]

It's not just about "kerb appeal" it's about "web appeal". So many, if not most, potential buyers look online first. And most properties have a picture of the exterior as their main picture - any property that doesn't looks suspicious IMO. So it's really worth having the front of your property looking good.

Also, if the interior is as attractive as you say, make sure you get good (but accurate) pictures of it. I think many estate agents who otherwise presumably have a lot to recommend them are shockingly bad with a camera. If you look at Daft or MyHome you can see a dark, cramped, dirty house on the same road as a bright, airy, clean house with loads of storage - and they are the exact same house-style and plan, just with different estate agents and pictures. At least in that case you can see both houses and realise that the small cramped one could become the bright airy one with a little TLC, but if yours is a one-off house (as it sounds) then you don't have that advantage.

Also buyers now don't have spare cash to invest in a property beyond the purchase price, so I think it's more important than it used to be to have a property in "needs no work done" condition (unless it's a total fixer upper).

One last thing, if your house is a one-off house then I think it's worth including a floorplan (doesn't have to be to exact scale) in with the pictures.