House still on market over 2 years later

[lonelysadfedup]

Hi our house has been up for sale for 2 years and 3 months. We had lots of viewings, no offers. My husband then reduced the price this year, more viewings and still no offers.
My name isn’t on the mortgage and deeds due to my bad credit rating.

mortgage in principle ran out ages ago so we don’t know how much my husband would be able to get a mortgage for and how much a month it would be. We have equity in this house. 22 year mortgage with 14 years left.

I’ve made different suggestions to my husband such as listing it as a 4 bed rather than a five with the bedrooms not been big. I’ve suggested decluttering to see if that helps. I’ve suggested going with a different estate agent and lowering the price. Then today I’ve tried to talk to him about it. Mentioned lowering the price and he just dismissed it.

im fed up of it all now and it’s not fair on our children. I’m now at a lost as what to do

The photos are terrible. That’s your biggest problem. Most people can’t see past that.

OP does your husband know you're thinking or thought of divorcing him?
If not, your house link will identify you to people local to you and on here.

Your house is nice from the front.

One too many bathrooms taking up space upstairs so, a bit of wasted space.

Your house is messy and boring looking. However, that shouldn't affect anyone interested in it.

It's a lovely house, but the photos definitely need to be redone. It's a curious mix because the conservatory and utility area are very cluttered to the point where it is difficult to imagine how one could live in it oneself. However, the living room is so bare that it looks unlived in and unloved. I would take it off the market for two or three months and take the opportunity to declutter in those areas and make the living room more welcoming with a more personal touch. I would also think about repainting the feature wall as it looks a little dated. In fact, this might be a good opportunity to redecorate other areas of the house that are looking a bit tired. After this, it will be ready for new photos and l think it will then sell very quickly. It is basically a very nice family home.

I suspect your husband might be sabotaging sales because he doesn’t want to move.

But the house is too cluttered. Even the beds aren’t made properly, which is such a simple thing to do. I’d worry that owners who didn’t tidy or make beds, were not doing carrying out decent levels of maintenance etc

Declutter, even if it’s just literally for the photos. Make the beds. Put a rug in the living room

I live near Horbury. I wouldn't pay £290k for Crofton. Sorry

Can I ask how old the gas heating is?

I had a similar gas fire removed along with the back boiler, a new boiler in the kitchen, and new radiators. The type of gas system with the fire and back boiler is very expensive to run (I'm using about half the amount of gas I used to) and will soon be obsolete when it comes to getting parts.

I wouldn't buy a house with your kind of heating system.

Just remember ..: EVERYTHING sells at the right price!

If you're getting viewings then the photos can't be the issue!

@lonelysadfedup The price seems reasonable compared to what seems to be on offer elsewhere in the area and your decor while not the standard “neutral” to help with selling, is absolutely nothing bold or shocking either.

So I can only think it must be all the clutter -perfectly normal for many of us in our own homes, but unfortunately not expected to be on display when viewing a house a for sale (with perhaps the exception of young children’s bedrooms). As with most modern builds, the rooms in your house are on the smaller side. Room sizes can be hard to visualise, even with measurements - but when you get through the door and see stuff everywhere it makes it obvious, and makes viewers think that the rooms are too small to live with.

If your husband refuses to help you declutter, could you afford to rent a storage locker? Then put everything that hasn’t been used in the last 3 months or so in it. Sometimes psychologically this can be much easier than throwing things away. Okay you are porting much of the “sorting out stuff” problems to further down the line- but at least it should get your house sold. Every square inch counts and people are going to struggle to imagine themselves and their things in many of the rooms at the moment.

Having a declutterred, clean and pleasant smelling etc home is much more important than “staging” - but yes, if you wanted to go all out, then things like a single bed in the 5th bedroom (even if the bed covers are covering one of those full height blow up beds!) makes buyers visualise it is actually just big enough to be used as a bedroom too. Your extra “bedroom” is what sets you apart from some of your competitors and at the moment it’s just a slightly cluttered study. Equally can your dining room actually fit a dining table (there’s no picture of that room?) - having a breakfast kitchen is great, but again having a choice of two separate eating spaces makes you different from other houses.

Hope your family can all pull together to get it sold soon 🤞

They obviously can since she's had loads of viewings. There's no issue attracting people via the listing, it seems. It's after viewing that there's a problem.

Edited to add: I'd say it's the price and maybe it needs marketing towards a different buyer who doesn't need 5 full bedrooms.

So many typical MN responses.

• Loads criticising the listing photos - why? it's working and getting viewings, no point wasting time on photos. The house is the disappointment when people see it. No point addressing the photos on their own.
• Declutter - most people will see through/past this if the location/property are otherwise ok. It won't be clutter that's mean that plenty of views isn't turning into a single offer. There's no point addressing clutter as an issue on its own.
• Bathroom/kitchen update - seriously? it's cheaper to drop £10-15k off the asking than it is to spend £10-15k on the property.
• "Not sure how it compares locally" - there's literally a button on Rightmove to show what else is in the area in the same price bracket - See Similar Properties.

@lonelysadfedup the problem is that there's a tonne of 4-5 bed properties for sale within 10 miles and yours does not stand out positively. Amongst the 5 bed properties it's at the bottom end. The bedrooms are all on the small side, to the point that overall it doesn't compare favourably with most of a glut of 4 bed properties in the area sitting not-selling in the £270-280k range.

What I suspect is happening is that the listing is working, you're getting the views. But when people get there they realise just how small the three smaller bedrooms are in reality. It doesn't help that either the listing is wrong, the drawing is a mile out of scale, or one of the bedrooms is a tardis, because the given dimensions look overly generous for at least one of the larger bedrooms (it's not measured to the door, by any chance?).

Take it off the market. Re-dress the smallest bedroom as a WFH office. Refresh the listing and re-do the photos to distinguish it from the old listing. Check the measurements and make sure they're the effective bedroom dimensions not the longest you can stretch the measure to.. Re-list as a 4-bed plus the office so it's now playing at the top of the 4-bed listings rather than looking like it's facing relegation from the 5-bed tier.

This is what you're up against, there are lots of them, and a lot of these have been listed for a long time and are showing reductions in asking price:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=POSTCODE%5E944712&minBedrooms=4&maxPrice=325000&minPrice=260000&radius=10.0&sortType=1&index=120&propertyTypes=&mustHave=&dontShow=&furnishTypes=&keywords=

Edited to add: I'd say it's the price and maybe it needs marketing towards a different buyer who doesn't need 5 full bedrooms.

I do suspect this is a major problem.

When we needed 3 bed - we needed 3 bedrooms ones you could get a single beds in - so many listed as 3 bed didn't have that and estate agents trilling at us that we could use it as a dressing room or an office were just annoying. Had same with 4 beds we needed 4 bedrooms. An office would be a nice extra but we needed the number of bedrooms we were looking at to put people in beds in.

We'd look at any potential ones in budget but when it was clear the last bedroom wasn't going to fit a single bed we weren't interested. I'm surprised this hasn't come up in EA feedback though.

Mine didn't. Not doing their job then.

We need Ann Maurice back as the house doctor!

Seriously OP I suspect the EA could be using your property to upsell other ones on their books. I had this happen. Showed me “stale” properties which had been on their books for ages and then took me to the newer listings in better condition, location and price.

I am suspicious that your dh has rejected offers and not told you. Does he really want to move? Does he know or suspect how unhappy you are in the marriage?

This.

You need to sort your marriage out before you can move forward with selling your house. Forget the house for now. I’d be tempted to ring the estate agent behind your DH‘s back today and get it taken off the market and then pick a time this week to sit down with him and discuss your marriage.

Once you resolve that, then try putting it back on, with another agent, as a 4 bed and with better pictures!

I suspect there is a massive backstory here.

But ultimately it does not sound like you are on the same page, and your husband may be proceeding unwillingly.

The solution is to sort out between you what you are going to do then do it. Not have one party reluctantly dragged into the process and potentially dragging their heels over it.

I suspect if the husband were to post he might put some interesting extra information on the situation.

Hi the boiler is 5 years old. It’s a combi boiler, we replaced the old one

I'm assuming the old one wasn't a back boiler either anyway, not in a house the age of yours!