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 don’t know the area or the local prices, but just looking at the house, this is the impression it made on me :
No kerb appeal - try some potted plants?
Surrounded by other very similar houses, very close
Kitchen and dining room dark, kitchen small, feels poky and uninviting - would be better knocked through
Top bedroom appears poorly finished - possibly needs some filler and paint
Damp stains on shower ceiling
Garden small and looks unloved, with horrible back fence - lawn needs cutting and something planted along the fence, and the empty plant pots moved. Chairs and table would at least suggest it’s worth sitting in!
It DOES look like a rental, and very uninviting - a few coloured cushions, rugs, pictures on the wall.
From the back, the extensions are quite boxy and featureless, do not enhance the house
This is all very subjective, but the main things that turn me off a house are lack of light and damp stains

“...can smell the dampness from that shower in the loft conversion!
Honestly, it's not damp”

Yes, it’s condensation damp. See pics in your walkthrough. Tiny little fan and AGAIN a fluorescent tube? You realise that just amplifies every imperfection?

Make that into a walk in closet or rip it all out and put in some closets and you have a huge sought after feature in the otherwise pokey bedroom.

Also water TANK? I’m adding £4,000 to put in a new small efficient boiler just reading that.

Being REALLY harsh here so apologies, but am trying to find the bad points. It's a pretty unattractive 70s house; the kitchen is small and narrow; I hate your sofas and although I know they don't come with they house, they spoil the look for me; there's only one bathroom upstairs and the master suite on the second floor doesn't have an en suite, which takes away the advantage of having the private space. Also, it's rural but in a bleak kind of way - it backs into fields which look a bit barren and creepy.

I'd like to see the garden shed room as well. It could be a great bonus which other homes don't have.

I also think the conservatory is a wasted space and you need to present it as a more functional space eg play room

You say this is a patio? Nobody is going to see this as a patio. It's in the middle of the grass with no path leading to it. It looked to me like some sort of access to ?sewer? or something. Is that bitumen? On the video it looks to be quite broken up.

If it's a patio, you're going to have to demonstrate that in the photos. A table and chairs on it. Otherwise, it will continue to be off-putting. Even if it looks like you use it as a patio, I think a lot of people would be looking at it and trying to work out how much it would cost to dig it out.

It isn’t the house it’s those fields that are all too likely to become a massive noisy new build site backing on to the garden.

I know your area very well, and Your on Ridgeway.
That for locals is a problem, it is the hmm side of town.
You have nothing to make your house stand out from the other's and it just looks unloved out the front, I think they have striped it back so much inside it just doesn't look as good as it should.
The outside pictures and the garden do nothing for your home.
I'd redress and redo all the photo's.
Pick a colour scheme and run with it through the house.
Add some plants to the front, and dress it up.

Yes it looks like it’s been written by a teenager.

Re the shorty capitals

Shouty

I think there are some points you can change, and some you can’t.

The garden looks pretty small
One of the bedrooms is pretty titchy
Not everyone likes an old new build
Potential development on the field is also out of your control

The aerial shots really emphasise how close the buildings are together
The photos are a bit drab
The field looks like a grotty mud bath rather than painting a lovely bucolic scene

Your decor is pretty dated, and it’s more than a “quick lick of paint and a couple of scatter cushions” job given the issues other posters have highlighted
You’re limited on bathrooms for a 4 bed (especially the choice of loo or shower upstairs)
The kitchen is a bit small

What I don’t know is your local housing market and whether it would be better to chuck a not-insignificant amount at the things you can change and hope it can overcome the things you can’t, or just really drop the price accordingly.

Personally I’d just drop the price and move on with my life, but I’m lazy and wouldn’t fancy the upheaval! Good luck

So it's in the hmmmm end of the town.

I think that is the answer. If you could get a 3-4 bed on the right side of town for the same money then you need to knock off 10-15k

The house is fine but IMO it lacks kerb appeal - the front looks so bare. Personally I really don’t like totally paved front gardens - I’d remove some slabs and plant something up against the house, and add a narrow bed around part of the edge, and fill it with plants. IMO that would make a huge difference.

I havent rtft so may be repeating but for what it's worth here are my thoughts.

Kerb appeal: can you use some pots etc to define which area at the front is yours? I would be imagining the neighbours kids/cars encroaching onto my space

Garden: I thought your patio was a sunken trampoline, maybe add a little patio set of table and a few chairs (something cheap from B&M but not white plastic)

Kitchen: looks very small

Utility: could maybe do with a lick of paint

Furntiure: some rooms have white big bits of furniture (wardrobe in one of the bedrooms, sideboard in the conservatory) it makes the rooms look smaller.

Fields: I would be thinking abiut what was getting built next, a supermarket, more houses. Quite off putting.

Price: no idea as you would get a lot more for that where I am but the house is only worth what people will pay for it and I imagine people are factoring in a new kitchen and full redecoration when they are deciding what they are willing to pay.

When we were selling our home we ensured that every room looked freshly decorated, we dressed the rooms. We paid a plasterer to tidy up a ceiling.
We bought a few cushions. Changed some door handles.
You also have a random door at the top of your stairs that serves no purpose, I assume.
Your kitchen is not very inspiring tbh.
And one of the bedrooms has noticeable marks on the ceiling.
You need to make your home stand out.
Look at pics online of rooms and see what you can do.
It's mostly a bit of graft and about £500 that's needed.

The very first thing that struck me is that the whole estate looks like a warren of houses and the back looks like prime building estate in a couple of years so anyone buying will be trapped in the middle of a giant housing estate.
I wouldn't buy it for that one reason.
Also it's tired, there is artex - I bought a house with artex which I am having skimmed over one room at a time because I hate the stuff, nobody wants artex anymore as it is baff. Each room costs at least £200 to skim and there are a lot of rooms.
I'd just look and think nope I can't be bothered with all of that unless they knocked £50k off, I live not far away in Somerset and there are so many lovely houses at that price everywhere that have been complety renovated and are surrounded by lovely countryside.
I'm not being mean, just telling you what I am looking for as a buyer.

The tiny kitchen and sloping ceiling above the bed would really put me off. Not a lot you can do about them though!

Yes the write-up - so bad - ditch the all-caps; add paragraphs to the blurb. With that write-up, and the poor quality of the photos, and their lack of advice to make the house more sellable/presentable....I'm not sure about these estate agents OP.

Knock £20k off the asking price. Or spend a decent amount making it much more attractive inside and out. New decor (inc. skimmed walls) and tasteful furnishings. Plus modern styled garden and front. It looks dated, like a granny lived in it & young families aren't after that vibe. If they have to spend extra making it nice, it's costly and factored in.

I would probably get rid of the first two photos, start with the third one. Some observations on other pictures:

• I would move the chair that's super close to the TV
• The bedrooms look a bit too stripped back

I would say it has to be the price though. Nothing in the pictures looks insurmountable, the garden size is a negative for the type of house it is.

Honestly small garden which is over emphasised with all the photos of the fields at the back. The kitchen looks small too.... perhaps you need better pictures at a different angle
For the kitchen.

I think the access is a real difficulty - it's very tight, shared access? Where can guests park? I wouldn't view as it seems too cramped.

I agree photo 1 looks very busy, it's unclear which house is yours.

The pics are fine but the virtual tour is doing you no favours whatsoever, you should definitely get it taken down as the house seems in need of a lot of TLC. Hall carpet, doors and kitchen need replacing. I think stains on the ceiling will make people wonder about leaks etc.

In your position I'd take it off for a couple of months. It's been on so long it's a "turkey" by now. Then either go back on at a cheaper price, or repaint in white and replace that hall carpet. Oh and put a big mirror above the fireplace and on the main dining room wall.

Good luck!

I like it. The virtual tour makes it look like a project though, it needs quite a lot spending on it (£20k at least for cosmetic purposes) is this reflected in the price?

Photos are quite poor. The house is so close to your neighbours. You need some better photos. Get a better agent. It does look a bit too expensive for the size, it just looks too small in all the pictures.

Agree for me it’s no bathroom photo, I wouldn’t bother clicking on the tour to see it. Kitchen/diner layout is quite old fashioned, knock it though if you can. Need to see the ensuite shower and most people these days are looking for a toilet. I thought the circle in the garden was also hiding something. Need more garden photos.