Can't sell home. Anyone sold to we buy and home type places?

[Rainingdogsandcats]

We want to sell our house. We've tried to sell previously and had an offer but the wife changed her mind.

We have 2 problems that we can't change.

Our house is on a dual carriageway, fairly close to the road.
There is a barn conversation across our drive that's not finished. It's been in its current u finished state for the whole 7 years that we've lived here. Chap comes a couple of times a year and maybe does a bit of painting. The garden is a mess and not fenced off and building materials are at the top of his drive. It looks a mess.

Our house is large, 5 bed, 2 ensuites, extra loos and bathrooms, 3 receptions. An acre of garden. It needs some cosmetic work, not too much though.

Every one has said the same thing. Too close to the road. Don't like the barn.

We've approached WBAH and they've offered us somewhere between 325 and 350. They don't buy it off us themselves but use a different website to find a buyer. They reckon 30 days max.

This house had been on the market 3 years when we bought it. We didn't know that. Bought in a hurry, didn't check properly as we were relocating quickly.

I'm torn. An agent said he could get 400 for it but obviously we don't know how long that will take.

I just feel 325 is a piss take.

Thanks if you got this far.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush...
(something like that anyway).
Get rid and buy the house you love.

I live a couple of miles from you and know the road well, it's extremely busy but as you said you can't do anything about that.

Looking at the photos I think you need one from the front of the house not the back as it's very pretty, do something to make the front garden appealing as it looks like a verge so makes it look even more like it's right onto the road, even if it's a few planters and a little picket fence.

With next door could you tidy up the rubble or explain to the barn owner that it's stopping your house from selling.
At first glance it looks like it's all one property with maybe a builders yard business there.

Regarding price as another poster said it seems rather expensive as it's close to Brownhills and Walsall Wood, a couple of miles closer to Lichfield and it'd probably sell.

We've wanted to move for a good 3 years.

The massive garden is hard work even with a ride on. The outside needs a coat of render which means scaffolding.

We paid 400

It's a Lichfield postcode hence the ridiculous green belt.

We're not allowed to put a picket fence due to Green belt.

I'm not sure why the front isn't shown. Mind you I'd need a good tidy up as it looks it's worst in winter as we don't go outside to do the garden.

Yes it looks like the barn is ours, it's so frustrating.

That’s such a beautiful house inside, but my gut feeling on seeing the initial picture is that it looks isolated and like the priests house on Craggy Island in Father Ted! I don’t know how you get away from that. I just can’t imagine wanting to live there marooned by the side of the dual carriage way. How much did you buy it for OP?

How much does the house you like near your child's school cost?

Is there any chance that the people doing the barn conversion might want to buy yours?

The one we like is 381 ish but it's been on the market for a year. It's over priced but if we could get it for less we'd be happy.

Guy with barn conversion isn't interested in ours. He had other properties further away and has just had a baby. We've offered to buy his before now but he wants too much money for it and has made bad renovations.

Has other properties

I also know this road.
Agree with the PP - Its definitely Brownhills rather than Lichfield.

It's a tough one OP but i can only imagine how much your everyday life would improve being able to get places. I'm guessing the kids can't even walk to a bus stop from there?

I think your home is lovely BTW, but it's a family home in an impractical location for families, meaning it's definitely going to be a tough sell in an already hard market.

After a lot of readings of reviews and being very sceptical of these types of companies we decided to try Quick Move Now. I have to say they were very good, gave an inital estimate over the phone which I didnt expect to get, they sent round a local estate agent and then phoned with a confirmed slightly lower offer which was within our price range of what we wanted. They appointed a really good solicitor and sent all the paper work to us by courier. We moved into a new house and the completion date moved 4 or 5 times and they were completely fine with it, no pressure from their side. On completion we had the funds in the bank by 9.30am and I dropped our keys to a local estate agents.
It took them around 10 months to sell our house and we later saw that they sold it for £8k more than they paid us, to me that was worth it!.

Ok. For the photos.

Photo 1 - needs to be only the house front, no red brick wall and no car and no vast expanse of open either side.
P2 - fine, but low, why take the pic from lower than the sofa arms?
P3 - it looks like the hob and extract are on an island? If so, get a pic of that too. Remove the standing lamp and those two little boxes by the window. Clear the worksurfaces - is that a used cloth on the counter? Remove the carrier bag hanging on the door handle. Close the door. Put your spectacles away.
P4 - better angle, all I see is "massive couch". Tale picture out of the fireplace. Take the stuff on top of the cabinet away. As well as the stuff slotted down the side of it. Remove the rug, and if it's covering a stain, replace with a smaller rug that fits in the gap of the L shape sofa. There's a little something on the floor in front of the fireplace- what's that?
P5 - need a pic of the room. This is really just the window and an alcove. Remove all the games from inside the fireplace. Remove all the stuff from in front of the windows and along the windowsill. Declutter the unit so everything fits in. That room screams "we have no space for anything you won't fit your stuff in this house".
P6 - fine. But again, very low angle. Bed and drawers make it feel dark but it's just the angle as obviously those windows let in loads of light. That tv and unit is enormous!!
P7 - fine. Wires in the right hand corner so tuck them out of shot.
P8 - needs a tidy before the next photos- I'd swap to white Bed linen and if poss put the bed off the right hand wall.
P9 - remove the towels. Again you are telling people "there's nowhere to store your towels in this house"
P10 - sort of looks like two angles of the same room except then that'd mean two toilets in one bathroom. Separate the pictures in the order and paint one a different colour as they are both the same.
P11 - take away the stuff on top of the cabinet.
P12 - everything feels pushed down one end. Can you spread stuff out a bit more? And remove that yellow mat too. Hang the picture up that's sat on the floor.
P13 - dismantle or fix the trampoline. It looks shabby.

Sometimes you have to think about the quality of life and how much it would improve if you moved rather than the financial aspect.

We moved to be close to shops and buses plus the kids schools and friends even though DH lives the countryside.

Our lives are easier and the kids more independent, we have three so understand the constant lifts, I have not idea how you manage with 6! You must be exhausted!

I was feeling desperate when we were selling our old house, and contacted a few of these agencies. In the end we dropped the price ourselves and got a quick sale.

We bought it for £255000 4 years ago.
Estate agent valued it at £275000 but felt we could get more.
WBAH type agencies were offering £175000!
In the end we sold it for £245000, it only took a couple of weeks after dropping the price.

Just to add - our house was lovely (in my opinion) but the main things putting people off were proximity to a busy road, 2 miles from nearest bus stop and the fact it was a listed building.

The girls currently walk a couple hundred metres up the road to the bus stop but it's dark at 7.15am. I collect them from school 5 miles away as there's only one bus every hour and they miss it to come home by about 3 minutes.

I completely agree it's Brownhills but postcode and address is Lichfield. Lichfield council are bastards for allowing anything "because of the green belt" grr

Get new pics of the inside and put it on at £390K see what offers you get!? Better than £325K x

Bury a statue of st Joseph in the garden upside down
Drop the price.
Good luck!

3luckystars what on Earth?

I know you have seen a house you like but I just remembered something. The other thing to consider is those schemes where building companies like Barratt etc buy your home if you buy one of theres. You don't need to be buying a new build property from them, you could be buying a house where the previous owners were buying a new build.
One of my neighbours sold to a builder this way not because the houses here are hard to sell, but so that the sale date was linked to the date his new build would be ready. (I think he was concerned that if timescales slipped and the new house wasn't ready in time, it'd be a pain if he had to leave the old house.)

ontheedgeofthenight hadn't thought of that. Might be worth a look

We had a lovely house with a large private garden that took us 18 months to sell. Our problem was that we were too close to the local airport. We had plenty of viewings and everyone loved the house but they all moaned about the location.

Finally, we found a buyer who wanted a location convenient for the airport and was happy to pay the (now slightly reduced) asking price.

If you’re willing to hold on, I’m sure your buyer will eventually turn up.

You paid £400k, is it likely you'll not get that? Perhaps you'll need to lose money to sell.

Well definitely not get 400 for it although the offer we had was 410 but then the wife decided she didn't like the barn, not knowing what it was going to end up like. Totally understandable