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.

Looking at the house in the link @Summertime246 put up, your price expectations are just off.

This house www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/98292104#/
is 0.2 miles from you and a 5 bed, on for £325k.

They reduced the price on 17/02/2021.

Yes that 5 bed seems good value. It’s 5 beds and a study and OP’s is really 3 beds and a study. I know it’s a semi but OP’s detached is very close to the neighbouring houses.

@Chamonixshoopshoop

Looking at the house in the link *@Summertime246* put up, your price expectations are just off.

This house www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/98292104#/
is 0.2 miles from you and a 5 bed, on for £325k.

They reduced the price on 17/02/2021.

And that house looks loved and not cracked/stained.

It really does make all the difference.

@halcyondays

Yes that 5 bed seems good value. It’s 5 beds and a study and OP’s is really 3 beds and a study. I know it’s a semi but OP’s detached is very close to the neighbouring houses.

Even though it's a semi, the 5 bed feels more detatched than the OPs house. As you have ample access and space on one side, where as the OPs house, despite being detached is in touching distance of the houses on both sides.

I don’t understand why people are saying it’s not really a 4 bed.
The box room is standard size for a third bedroom surely?

That field is going to have 800 new builds on it soon - your house will be surrounded. I'd lower the price and sell at whatever price you can get - if you wait you'll never sell it.

@StanfordPines

I don’t understand why people are saying it’s not really a 4 bed. The box room is standard size for a third bedroom surely?

No, it’s under the min legal requirement. It’s tiny, have you not looked at the video tour.

I'd echo the other comments. Tidy up where it needs to be (garden, front of house and bedrooms a new lick of paint and maybe some new bedding to make it look a bit more modern). Also the big damp spot on the ceiling can't be helping your case.

Drop the price. If you're lucky, you may get in before the stamp duty holiday ends. Also maybe change your price to "offers in the region of" as that may spark offers which you can then negotiate.

Good luck!

Don't have any advice as you've been given lots but OP, I have a large, untidy, cluttered house and need to have it ready for sale in 2.5weeks, I have 2 small kids and sick as a dog with No.3 at the moment. Please can you come round and declutter everything? you can take some of the stuff to dress your house. Win-win!

Ps I'm only a 7.5 hour drive away

PPS seriously good luck and I hope you get sold. It's a great house for a family, just need to find the right one.

You have emphasised the view when everyone locally knows that view will be built on, and I guess that and the fact that the people who want to buy in the area will wait for a new build are put offs. Lower the price.

@halcyondays

I think OP has already put it on with a new agent? But they’re not very good.

It depends on how you look at it. Yes there are too many aerial pics, but to be honest, the blurb is all lies, it goes on about the rural views, when there are several hundred houses planned for that field, and even though the op claims not to know that, the agent absolutely will have done.

In addition they claim it’s in good decorative order throughout, when it is in a state of disrepair, as can be seen on the video tour. In no way is the house in good decorative order throughout.

They are also claiming that it’s a four bed, when it’s not, it’s three. The small office space simply cannot be claimed as a bedroom.

It even says there is a large paved patio area when there is no such thing.

So they are not very good no, because it is deliberately misleading what’s been written and claimed and they will have known that. This isn’t just an over exaggeration, it is deliberately erroneous.

Clearly they can’t write “lovely rural views now, shortly to be turned to housing development” so that’s to the buyers to find out when the solicitor does the searches, but they shouldn’t be claiming it’s four bed, has a large patio, or that it’s in good decorative order, when they are looking at cracks, peeling paint, dirty carpet, damp stains, artex, potential asbestos, and ceilings looking like they are damaged.

@StanfordPines

I don’t understand why people are saying it’s not really a 4 bed. The box room is standard size for a third bedroom surely?

Minimum size for bedroom is 49 square feet so looks like the bedroom/study is just below minimum, many 3rd bedrooms are small, ours is about 56 square feet so just in.

I would advertise it as 3 bedrooms and a study/playroom/dressing room or whatever, just not a bedroom

The other house you have linked to has much better brighter photos. The house is "staged" a bit better too.
I'm sorry to say your house looks a little dull and sad at the moment and that can put some people off viewing.
The land behind would be a major issue for me if its not protected green belt land.

I wonder if this thread would have had 35 pages if we weren’t in lockdown

DH asked me what I was looking at last night ... oh a house up for sale I said .... someone we know he asked .... nope a stranger on the Internet the other side of the country 🤣🤣

He was a bit

@BigSandyBalls2015

I wonder if this thread would have had 35 pages if we weren’t in lockdown

DH asked me what I was looking at last night ... oh a house up for sale I said .... someone we know he asked .... nope a stranger on the Internet the other side of the country 🤣🤣

Haha I even showed the house to my DH, that’s how bored I am. In my defence we’re thinking of putting ours on the market and have been trying to figure out what we need to do to sell it.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/77672913#/
The original house.

It is not too bad. What about keeping it, letting it out and buying the new one? One of my children did that for their last move and it worked out fine and now has two properties.

Minimum size for bedroom is 49 square feet so looks like the bedroom/study is just below minimum, many 3rd bedrooms are small, ours is about 56 square feet so just in

Yes, it’s 42 sq foot. So nearly twenty percent below the min requirement for a single bedroom. It’s also concerning it says “max” in the specifications, which indicates it could be smaller. It certainly looks smaller in the video tour.

So it’s incorrectly listed and technically classified as uninhabitable.

When you look at the video you see every door is in shit condition, nothing seems to match and they all need to just be put in a skip. Mouldy bedroom, missing walls, huge damp patches, carpets that make your skin crawl, dodgy looking building work. Exposed pipes, layout needs changing. It’s a 2 bed plus loft and closet space, although personally I wouldn’t even consider the loft decent as a bedroom, unless a kid wanted it. Basic maintenance has not been done.

The location is crammed, characterless and soon to be a building site. Garden small and to call it in any way detached is a stretch.

You don’t seem to realise quite how many issues there are, and how many are really really fundamental. If you were asking for this price and it was in zone 2 London (where I am buying at that price for a 1 bed renovation opportunity!) it would still be a definite no from me. Because I wouldn’t want to live next to a building site and if I wanted to rent it out it would be impossible. Plus I would feel unsafe there with all the big issues.

Even if you do the clear work that needs doing, I think you really have to price it as the cheapest 2 or 3 bed in the area to have a hope. And don’t even compare it to older or character properties. You are going to sell it on price alone, to someone who is desperate to buy but on a very very limited budget, who needs a house in the area but doesn’t have options. I’m sorry but that is the plain fact from where it is located.

Could you put your house on with the other estate agent that the 5 bed semi is on with? They seem to have a better, clearer description. Your EA is overegging the field views which won’t be there for long, it’s dishonest and some of those pictures aren’t great anyway. They’ve left the perfectly good bathroom off the pics and they should have just said there was possible to extend the house if someone wanted to. Not talked about the open plan thingummy everyone wants, which actually everyone doesn’t.

The kitchen is small for a 4 bedroom house so I think you need to factor a conversion to a kitchen diner into the price. The bedrooms are also small. The street is a bit strange too and the aerial shots highlight this. The houses look very close together and look like they’ve been built as an afterthought on a bigger development. I would say it’s over priced.

So they are not very good no

The post you quote says exactly that - that the agent is “not very good”

@FamilyOfAliens

So they are not very good no

The post you quote says exactly that - that the agent is “not very good”

Well yeah I was agreeing, but the point, I failed to make, is the op might think they are very good because it’s full of bullshit. 😃

Don't present the office as a bedroom. It's too small to be a proper bedroom anyway and a home office is a real selling point at the moment.

But agree with others that the office, and actually all rooms, need dressing much better.

And I'd put a proper door on that ensuite. It is a shower in a cupboard at the moment!