Why won't my house sell

[StopSearching]

My house has been on the market for nearly two years. Recently we took it off and remarketed with new agents. No viewings. We've been so patient for two years but it's getting me down now.

I just want to move on. Nothing wrong with where we live, it's a lovely little town but we have plans and this is all that stopping us. I've stopped looking for houses to buy as they are sold before we even get viewings.

Anyone else having similar problems? It's so frustrating.

I think this is the watermarks folks are talking about.

I could see past the decor, but would say to update it, every room except the bathroom isn't going to come up far short of £50,000. I would expect the field to be built on so the aerial views are doing it no favours.

My biggest concern though is the loft conversion, I'm sorry to be blunt but it looks like a real bodge job.

3 beds in the area of a much more modern standard are on the market around £260,000. I would say you're around 50-75k over priced.

By sold prices it looks reasonable but if you look at nearby under offer properties they are significantly cheaper with huge sunny gardens and more modern inside all 0 miles-0.1 mile away?

@BigSandyBalls2015

OP if you have lived there for 20 years then surely you would have paid under £100K for it? Which means you've made a serious profit and should be able to either do a) spend a few quid and freshen it up/fix plastering/new carpets or wooden floor etc, or b) reduce the price.

27 Jul 2007 Detached, Freehold £240,000 Land Registry

Looking at the video

It’s over priced for sure. It’s very shabby in places, will need a full decorate, as I thought the shower room at the top may not be in the bedroom, but it doesn’t work, added to which you have to climb over the bed to get to the chest of drawers

Kitchen small, you would have been better knocking into the dining room to make a larger room, or into the little utility area, it’s tiny for a 4 bed home

I don't think the estate agents have done you any favours - the photos are not good, until I looked really carefully I thought there was just one loo and it is really bad not showing the bathroom as it just means that we imagine the worst! When you look at the "video" version, the bathroom looks fine.

The ceilings look low in the bedrooms though.

Eg this one: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/71884494#/

Yeah it looks so unloved. And it probably is if you want to move.

Deffo shoddy work in the loft/damp bowing plaster board, the loft shower ceiling looks grim. Downstairs ceiling looks grim. Small garden. No plants inside.

I’d be worried that if this is what you weren’t hiding, what else would a survey uncover. And the PP who showed the land is up for potential development would put me off.

I wouldn’t view, sorry, the video hasn’t done it any justice. Unless it was hugely discounted to account for the work.

[quote Oneapennytwoapenny]The kitchen is very small for a family home, although a buyer could easily knock through to make a kitchen-diner. The bedroom layout would also put me off; two bedrooms, a box room and a loft room.

I prefer this one which is under offer in the same street, and cheaper. www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/71884494#/[/quote]
This is much nicer and less money. It's gotta be price is the issue.

Also agree the first photos are rubbish, just bin off the aerial shots.

@Savethewhales

Lots of good tips and most of it would cost you less, and most you can do yourself, but without spending lots cheap tile paint for kitchen to brighten tiles up, wrap those cabinets, knock the non support wall away, if you want to try knock the wall away at the stairs if it's not supporting, put your TV there and your couch opposite, change 1 bedroom into a singlex with single bedput pale blue or pink bedding on bed, paint walls similar and there you have a home aimed at families

That is a good idea. Under the stairs is currently a larder off the kitchen. I think we could incorporate it into the living room instead, knock the kitchen through the the dining room to make it a big kitchen and put the dining table in the garden room.

I would take out all the dated cupboard in one of the bedrooms. We could possible make the 4th bedroom an ensuite to that room and keep it as a 3 bed house. However that would cost and possibly devalue the house?

Actually, OP the photos from the previous listing (they are still up on rightmove) look much better.

Just done the video tour now.

Why are the central heating pipes exposed running floor to ceing in both the kitchen and the living room in a newish build house?

Also seen the shower in the bedroom. Off putting.

@tonytiy

Would you be ok with no garage? Where do you keep all your crap?' I live in London, garages are not really important to many people. It would certainly not be a selling feature for me, neither would parking for 3 cars.

More important if you live rurally though.

i really don't get is why the only viewings when sold.

we just offered on a place and would get a bridging loan to get it. i am not putting my place in the market until i find somewhere i want to buy so in that case your estate agent wouldn't let me view

@StopSearching

Looking at the tour, WHY isn't there a picture of your bathroom at the top of the stairs? It's great! Modern, functional, spotless.

Oh gawd I hadn't even realised there was no bathroom picture. It's only been with new agents a few weeks, the old agents had the bathroom pictures on there.

I must admit, I saw that it said ensuite shower, and thought, no bathroom? So looked on the plan.

However that would cost and possibly devalue the house?

Why not just reduce the price to reflect the work that needs doing?

Yeah every seller thinks they're house is good value and not over priced, 2 years on the market says that is is I'm afraid.

I prefer this one which is under offer in the same street, and cheaper. www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/71884494#/

Yes me too, it actually looks like a home that is lived in and cared for.

I just did the video tour and think it shows up that more work needs doing. The hallway carpet is hideous (sorry) and all the wood work / finishing looks to be low quality.

I’d suggest getting it professionally decorated and sprucing it up, or dropping by £10k and marketing as a project.

I would be put off by the master bedroom in the loft away from the children .

4th bedroom isn’t big enough to be a bedroom, it’s a 3 bed house.

No pictures of the bathroom or shower room . Is there a loo in the shower room ? I always think there is something to hide if there are no pictures.

It’s generally quite small all over and rammed in next to the neighbours .
Not what I imagine when I hear ‘ 4 bed detached ‘

Drop the price and it will sell .

I live semi rurally and we have a garage (had 2 originally but 1 has been converted into a study). However no garage wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me... I’d rather have a better layout/bigger garden than a garage.
People rarely keep cars in garages now, just junk. We’ve got a loft for our junk and a shed for our garden stuff. You’ve lost your loft to the 4th bedroom and your shed is being marketed as an office, but I’m guessing the other house listed above with no garage has a loft.

I agree with you re all the bits and pieces people have in their houses. My best friend always tells me my house is too bare and I "need more knick-knacks" which just makes me shudder. It's not that I don't care, I'm very particular about my house, it's just the less there is in it the happier I am! I would rather view one like yours where I can see the bones clearly than have to imagine away a load of stuff but I accept that I'm in the minority, at least when it comes to selling a house online.

I thought the circle in the garden was a filled-in pond, which would suggest to me the house had been a family house, which I would see as a positive.

I agree the bathroom is really nice and you should show it off more.

I don't know Sherborne, but I know what people mean about the kind of house people want when they move somewhere like that - but surely a lot of them can't afford that, and have to buy something adjacent to the lifestyle, not the village cottage itself. Surely you could sell the house to someone looking for that - I like the little utility with the painted brick, and the garden, and the view (development aside.) I bet a few flowerpots would really help. I'm amazed that the outdoor/surroundings pictures are a negative, they're the first thing I look for on any ad.

But what I'm getting from this thread is that the way I look at houses is quite weird and I'm probably in big trouble if I ever have to sell one

I prefer this one which is under offer in the same street, and cheaper. www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/718844944**#/*

That's why you are not selling

Ah the other one has a shed too. So lack of garage wouldn’t be an issue.

When we were house hunting we encountered two types of sellers. ‘Motivated sellers’ as the estate agent called them, who were keen to move and prices their house realistically. These houses always sold within a few weeks.

Then there were ‘dreamers’ who priced their house very high in the hope some idiot would pay it. These houses stayed for sale for months or years, before the seller gave up trying or finally reduced the price.

Sorry to say OP that you seem to fall into the latter category.