My DM selling her house - should anything be happening yet?

[SpidersAreShitheads]

My DM is selling her house and for various reasons is desperate to get things moving. Unfortunately for her, she also can't afford to take a massive drop in price - although there is a little bit of wiggle room.

Her property went on the market a couple of weeks ago - so obviously it's still incredibly early days.

However, I would have thought that there would have been more interest when the property first goes on the market, dropping off the longer it stays available?

She's not had a single viewing yet.

Two people expressed an interest - one person was a builder and I think the estate agent tipped him off before it went on the market, but he found somewhere else to buy the day before he'd asked to come round. The second viewing was cancelled as the woman drove around the area and didn't like the hilly roads on the way to the local shops.

Some of the photos were a bit crap, and there was virtually no description by the estate agent. He's been around today and taken better photos, and uploaded a description which explains that the upstairs floor could potentially be self-contained accommodation.

The problem is that her property is a bit weird in terms of layout - there's an absolutely huge second bedroom which takes up almost the whole of the converted loft space, and it's lovely. But the third "bedroom" is a tiny, tiny room which also houses the boiler. If I were looking for a three-bedroom house for me and my DC, the configuration wouldn't work - and I suspect that might be the same for a lot of buyers.

It's a nice property but I am a bit concerned there has been absolutely no interest. The photos weren't amazing before, but they were passable. Certainly not enough to make people skip past.

I'm a home owner but not sold on the open market before - do things normally take a while to get moving - or is this a concerning sign? I know it's only been two weeks....but no interest in even looking?

Does anyone have any killer tips to get people in to look at the property?

One of the reasons she's so desperate is that she needs something very specific in the next house she buys which is quite rare - and there's one on the market now which fits the bill. If she doesn't get her house under offer soon, this other property will inevitably be bought by someone else, and I don't know how easily we'll find what she needs again....

I think it looks lovely, the furniture etc wouldn't put me off but I tend to go more by the floorplan and know as long as rooms are decent sizes it doesn't matter what they look like when viewing, all that stuff will be gone upon purchase. I would maybe declutter and put in storage all the little shelves and things in the smaller room but thats it.

Good luck to your mum

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=82970347&sale=91804821&country=england

This one doesn't have the loft extension but a MUCH bigger/nicer garden and went for 100k less. Is that dormer really worth 100k extra? I'm thinking for the style of house and tiny/difficult to use garden you might just be overpriced?

To add - that's on the same street and looks like the exact same house without the conversion. A great one to compare with really!

Apart from decluttering the inside, I would do a few things outside that won't cost too much.

Jet wash the Drive
Put planters under the windows.

Remove awning/leanto in the garden.
Remove metal railing and replace with wooden fence.
Get rid of the archway, looks old and no plants growing on it.
Plant some colourful bedding plants.
Put some Astroturf on the bottom seating area. I would normally suggest re-turfing as I hate Astroturf, but it's coming up to winter and it wouldn't have time to bed in.

Take your own pictures.

When it is re marketed, could your Mum put a little more information in the description, ie why I love this house, quite area etc.

Good luck, you sound like a wonderful daughter, your Mum is lucky to have you.

Can you use a friends garage or hire a storage unit to temporarily move a load of stuff out? I did that to sell once. If your is defensive just say that its just part of moving, the start of the packing up

Reasons I’d discount it:

The garden’s unusable
The third bedroom is unusable - it should be marketed as a two bed
I can’t see past the clutter
No bath

I wouldn’t entertain it for a second. Sorry to be so negative.

For me the garden would be the biggest disappointment I think.

A bungalow without a flat garden!

I suppose your mum put two beds in the roof to make a new one & restore the lost one?

If I was to live there I'd probably have it as bedtoom/dressing room or area/ensuite.

The downstairs as a guest bedroom.

So I'm sure it would work for someone, but maybe not at that price.

Yes sorry OP, it’s the sheer amount of stuff in there that would put me off. I’d click off the advert because I can’t even begin to envision what the house looks like without it. The house does need a lot of work doing to it but I think all of the clutter makes it look like there’s even more work needed than there is.

The main thing i’d start on would be:

remove all those shelves in the front room
magnets off the fridge, pans off the kitchen walls
remove over the bed table
completely declutter (remove all of furniture) in the hallway in photo 11
Tidy up bathroom eg remove towel hanging off rack & put wipes away
Pic 13 would completely put me off. Are you marketing that as a study or a bedroom? That needs decluttering and stripping back to the bare minimum as does pic 14
Would get rid of pic 15
Garden is an odd layout but pics 18 and 20 make it look messy is there any way you can tidy it up a bit?

I know you said your Mum needs the furniture there but is there any way you can remove it/move it around the house for the day whilst you’re reshooting the pics?

It's massively overpriced.

They're asking more than double what they paid for it in 2010. Why? Have they built a big extension? Doesn't look like it, tbh.

For comparison, there's a 3 bed detached house under offer very close to them that sold for 121K in 2009 and is now on the market for 200K (minus £50). It looks a bit smaller downstairs but the layout is better and it's in much better condition.

All the decluttering and new photos in the world won't change the fact that any prospective buyer can take 30 seconds to do what I just did and see how much it last sold for and what other houses are selling for.

It's a cliche to say that a house is only worth what people will pay for it, but it's a cliche for a reason.

Estate agents will often try to lure in new business by wildly over-valuing a house, then talk it down once it's on the market.

Also, is the boiler in the bedroom legal? Sorry if that's already been mentioned.

I think the issue is that you can’t tell which room is which. Hire a storage unit, put stuff in it whilst you sell and put beds in the bedrooms, make it obvious that there is a desk in study etc. Currently it looks like there’s no storage eg mop and bucket out in the open and not enough worktop space as you have the extra freestanding unit in the kitchen.

I'm looking for a bungalow at the moment and I wouldn't view your DM's because I don't want an upstairs and the yard isn't flat.

But if it is for a family I would move as much stuff out of out of the photographs as possible and put a bed in each bedroom. A little desk or table in the smallest room for an office.

I do think thought that it is the price. Every house will sell at the right price. I hope it sells soon!

Also, the description on Rightmove is an embarrassment. I know estate agents traditionally have an odd relationship to the English language but the person who wrote that is either not a native speaker or semi-literate.
Capital letters all over the fucking place for no reason at all. "a sizeable space which needs to be seen to fully appreciate." If a room's windows have a "dual aspect" they don't only have "views to the front" - the clue is in the words dual and aspect. And a "skylight with sliding patio doors" would be a deathtrap.

Doesn't make a good impression.

X get rid of creepy dolls, cuddly toys, MEERKATS, etc.
X stop taking photos of the bins in the middle of the floor
X tidy away the clutter, mops, rubbish, fridge magnets etc. (presumably this will all need sorting/packing when she moves anyway so... start early)
X the angles and lighting in the photos are terrible, as if designed to make the rooms look as dark and poky as possible.

If I was interested in it I would want to incorporate the current en suite in to bedroom 3 and add an ensuite next to the current one by the window. That makes the bedroom more oblong. That may not be possible as none of the photos show that area of the bedroom next to the ensuite. There may be a reason why the builder didn't design the upstairs like that

Lovely house in many ways, but needs a MASSIVE declutter.
New photos, relist. New estate agent? They haven't helped. All the best

Have just realised the upstairs bedroom is the large study so the window is shown

In a buoyant market houses shift.
The fact that there hasn't even been viewings suggests that the house is overpriced.
The house is cluttered with their hobby materials. It probably wouldn't matter if it was just one room, but it's in lots of places. It's distracting - the bones of the house look nice, decent flooring, good light but just lots of stuff going on!
The garden is a bit drab and seems disconnected. Huge tidy up needed and inject some colour maybe?

The clutter doesn't bother me, and I actually really like the layout. It's the sort of house I'd look for in my area.

But I absolutely would not spend nearly £300k for a house without a bath.

It’s all been said Op.
But I’d be negotiating my way out of the 10 week contract with the estate agent due to the absolutely shocking description and photos (and if this set is the better set, I dread to think what the first set looked like).

I think your plan of action sounds good, especially the stud wall.
But you’re going to need your Mum / Step-Dad to be ruthless.
4 fridge / 2 bins? Just no? Into storage it goes…..

^ oh and re the estate agent the fact the floorplan is also shit. Unless you really can’t access the kitchen internally.

I would reduce the price and leave the buyer to do work to their taste and need.The garden is not for everyone different levels are tricky.It is cluttered but that is your parents life people are commenting on and it suits them at this time in their lives.It will sell if the price is right but they may need to reduce their belongings for the move anyway so anything they do now is good.You are so busy and kind but sometimes it is impossible for one person to take on all this.New agent and reduce the price,good luck.

I quite like it but i dont have dc and i thik the garden would put families off

also the bedroom situation needs to be reolved either make a proper 3rd room or market as a 2 bed

My killer tip would be to get yourself a different estate agent.

The description is unenthusiastic and lacklustre.

The photos are incredibly amateurish and the estate agent missing something like the tin of fly spray, you mention OP, although I didn't actually notice it, is unforgiveable.

Agree with pps that some of the rooms need decluttering and tidying up, particular the bedroom, which a bit depressing tbh and would put me off.

I've recently sold my house and bought another.

When the estate agent came round to do the photos and write the description my house was spotless and I'd hidden anything that I thought they wouldn't want in the photos, things such as dog beds, and anything too personal and potentially unattractive to a potential viewer (I've done this before, so know the drill).

There were several of them in the team that came: one to take photos, one to do a video and one to write the description; I would add that this is a high street estate agent in a small market town.

The photographer still moved things around that they didn't want in the shots like the plate drainer by the sink.

I know it sounds ridiculous to be so fussy about what's in the photos, but the photos have got to pull people in immediately, because once they've looked at something and scrolled past it they're highly unlikely to revisit it with a positive frame of mind.

I looked at loads of houses to buy and some of them looked quite nice in the photos but were absolutely awful, pokey and dirty, when you saw them in the flesh.

But that doesn't matter, the point is, the photos were good enough to get me to go and look.

The estate agent your DM is using is not doing her any favours and is clearly stuck in the last century.

Selling houses is a cutthroat business, especially at the moment, and you need to have an estate agent that is up to the job. Your estate agent isn't.

There will be someone out there for whom you DM's house is perfect, or at least a base from which they can start. It just might take a while for you to find them.

However, you'll have a much better chance of finding that buyer if you have a decent estate agent to market it in the right way and with a bit of enthusiasm.

Would just add that my house sold to one of the first people to view it on the open day at a price I was hoping for but felt was perhaps a bit unrealistic.

@TokyoSushi

OK, I'm going to go for it...

Are you in a position to help? It needs a mahoosive sort out.

Front: Good parking, needs some colour/kerb appeal, put some lovely bright pots out there or similar.

Living room: Looks like a corridor with too many chairs. Remove one of the armchairs, and maybe the hifi, put a cheap rug down.

Room with all the bookcases: What is this room? Remove most of the bookcases and the picture, set it up as what it's supposed to be.

Dining room: Fine. Is there a fridge in there? Remove if possible.

Kitchen: Remove bins and stuff on top of fridges. Tidy up table, remove mops/brushes etc and everything in front of the window. Remove little cabinet in front of the washing machine to open the kitchen up.

Bathroom: Remove items from shower for photo. Remove under sink rails.

Bedroom: Tidy and dress bed. Tidy/remove items from bedside table. Remove table over bed for photo.

Office room: Remove 90% of items in this room, set up as minimalist office.

Bottom of stairs: Remove everything!

Any tidying/colour in back garden would be great.

Would it be possible to hire a storage unit for all of the excess items? Other than that I think you need a couple of hundred pounds and a weekend to make the world of difference. Is it possible to take it off the market very briefly while you make the changes and then put the 'all-new house' back on again?

I really hope that they can get sorted, sounds a difficult position, but all completely solvable with a bit of TLC. Good luck!

I agree with this. All the (craft?) stuff will need to be packed up when they move, so do some of it now. Look at other nicely presented houses and copy them. I've just bought a house, I live on my own, and I'd have considered viewing this one - I tended to look at floorplans as well as photos.

We are house viewing at the minute different area but I alway look at market listing to get a gauge in the price. There seems alot of houses at a similar price locally that wouldn't need any work whereas your mums house would need a lot of work to suit our family.

The lack of a bath puts me off but generally it's hard to get a feel for the house from the pictures.