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

I appreciate the EA advised you to remove family photos, but you have a lot of blank space on the walls. This is particularly jarring in pictures 2 and 4. Can you do a charity shop haul and see if you can find some pictures to fill these spaces and brighten the place up a bit?

I think its over priced to be honest. I'm not from the area but just from research of what looks like your house:

Zoopla has the value at £296k (usually overvalued estimate as they just track markets not condition) and you are asking £290k after 2 YEARS on the market.

How much did you reduce it by that its STILL only 6k (2%) under the high estimation valuation of asking?

If you only bought it 8 years ago for £190k, why do you think it has gone up £100,000 (52%), what is the justification for nearly doubling in price?

The photos are not the problem. Your house looks nice in them. You have had lots of viewings so the photos are very clearly not the problem.

The problem will be the price. If your husband won’t budge on that then the house won’t sell.

It looks Very good to me fir the price (but I don't know your area).

I would declutter.

I would ask the estate agent to take new and better photos.

I personally think the photographer was pretty rubbish tbh and doesn't make the most of it at all. Terrible angles and non-photos really.

It needs a complete refresh, as there's nothing wrong with your house at all!

I think it's nice. But the fifth bedroom is way too small to bother with. It'd be better to knock it through to the other one next to it, making a walk in closet or ensuite? I'm not saying you should definitely do that but you could knock those two rooms through?

It’s not really a 5 bed house. The rooms are too small. And usually a proper 5 bed house has two reception rooms. The price is too high for what it is.
Decluttering will only bring more viewings, it won’t get you an offer.

on a side note,
My name isn’t on the mortgage and deeds due to my bad credit rating.

Your name should still be on the deeds as a joint owner, seeing as how you are his wife and were when the house was bought,

You don’t need good credit to be on the deeds. You don’t need the name on the mortgage to match the deeds either.

Many women are not on the mortgage because they are SAHMs, but they damn well are on the deeds.

why it matters- he can literally disinherit you from the house if he has a Will saying so. If you joint owner, you automatically inherit his share of the house if he dies. You’re protected.

I would take it off the market completely for a few weeks, have a huge declutter and organise, a fresh coat of paint and stage the rooms to look homelier (cushions, fresh flowers), find a new EA and re market it wit new better photos, listed as a four bed with a slight price reduction.

Way too much clutter esp by the washing machine/toilet and that conservatory
perhaps a picture or two to break up the walls esp the lounge
garden looks a total disaster you could never imagine it as a relaxing place to spend sunny days nice table and chairs bit of colour

The rooms are cluttered - a mix of colours and don't sell a 'lifestyle'..

It is therefore overpriced.

You can do your own viewings but you have to be good at talking about how great the area is (some estate agents are rubbish)

BUT people like to feel like they are getting a bargain (either an 'all done move in - perfect house' or a 'cheap bargainous I can do this myself house'. your house is neither of those things. )

I’d take the house off the market until the New Year and pop it back on as a new listing, this will refresh it and put it at the top of the list.

OP please ignore everyone telling you the photos are not good enough. All they are for is to get people to view and people are viewing. Much of the advice here is ridiculous, as if putting some pictures on walls will make any difference, or removing some bottles 🙄

Your house is priced higher than people will pay for a house like that, in that location. That is your only problem.

We had lots of viewings, no offers
The listing is working, but people are being disappointed when they view. What is it about the property that doesn't live up to the promise of the listing? What is it that's turning them off the property?

You either need to adjust the listing to lower viewers expectations, or improve the property to match the promise of the listing. But if you don't know what it is that people are being disappointed by at the viewing, you don't know what target.

You should be pushing the EA for follow-up calls to viewers and feedback on why they're not making offers.

Your floor plan needs room dimensions and overall square footage. The bedrooms all seem very small. I don’t know why house builders add all these extra bathrooms and then leave such small bedrooms.

The photos need redoing and you need a major declutter, the conservatory should be your big selling point but instead it just looks like a junk room.

Think about what would impress you viewing the house. What would you like to see?
someone said get a house setter, that’s a good idea. Nice rugs, blinds, cushions and flowers inside and out. I would like the garden to look relaxing so everything gone except a nice outdoor set, same with the conservatory.Yep and clutter gone too.
You are trying to sell an idea and the lifestyle that goes with what is a lovely place.

I think I also read recently that these days conservatives can actually devalue a property? People don’t like them, think they will be cold, etc and that it will cost money to knock them down.

i do agree that reducing the price will increase the chance of it selling as someone will overlook the clutter, dated decor, etc at some point. But tackling these issues yourself would also make a difference. When I last sold a house I replaced the kitchen unit doors with new doors. Cost quite a bit, but less than a new kitchen. Really updated the look and the first viewer said it was the kitchen which sold it to them. And it looked awful before.

This. In spite of the photos, people are coming round. They're just not wanting to buy. A neat duvet cover and some pot plants won't help that.
I think, for a 5 bed detached, it's a bit small.

The problem is though if they are coming to view and seeing small rooms and lots of clutter and storage boxes everywhere it just screams 'this house is too small to accommodate 5 or 6 people', which if you are looking for a 5 bed then that's what you want. If that was the presentation photos, then what does the clutter look like on viewing when its not showhome ready for photos.
Market as a 4 bed plus nursery/study/home office.

It's not a bad house; I expected worse.

Couple of thoughts:

Photos could be improved and more logically organized.

Market bedroom 6 as a home office.

Blue, purple bedrooms likely will have to be painted. Make them more neutral.

Put a large mirror on the wall behind the kitchen table to reflect light and give some depth to the room.

As others have said, the clutter is overwhelming. Even though the buyers won't have to sort it, it burdens the mind and distracts one from looking at the bones of the house. Bathroom, utility, etc., should all be as impersonal as the photo of the kitchen is.

The conservatory, garden and utility are all just overwhelmed with stuff. Is there storage in the garage?

It is worrisome that your husband is not including you in this process.

You need a massive declutter and then new photos taken. The photos are terrible.
Can you replace the pink flower photo above the fireplace with a mirror? There isn't a window on that wall and whilst it looks bright in the photo, I can imagine it would be gloomy.
Only let the EA do the viewings and ask your estate agent to ask for specific feedback from viewings so you can work on them.

Sorry pictures 3 and 5 make it look terrible sorry maybe ask them to do more photos and clear the clutter x

Nice part of the world op.

It is far too cluttered. The effort of keeping a house super tidy when selling can be exhausting so forgive me but is as cluttered now as the photos look?

The toys in the conservatory would say “no storage” to me and it’d be a no based on that. The rest is cosmetic. Having said that, some of the ‘cosmetics’ are big things. It needs a new kitchen.

I know the village and it’s a very popular place, I have no idea why it’s not selling. Looks like a lot of house for the money to me.

Some of the decor looks a bit tired but any buyers should be able to see through that.

The conservatory looks like a bomb site. Can you get some storage?

Could you reduce a bit? Sorry if you’ve already answered this.

As good as all the de-cluttering advice is, I really don't think that's more than 1% of the problem.

It's your DH and his refusal to take on advice.

That's the battle - and none of us can fix that, I'm afraid.

Is the kitchen any bigger than in looks in the photo? Those photos to me give me nothing! The downstairs must be bigger than the pics make it seem. The washing machine/toilet photo I dont know what the EA was thinking not asking for all of that clutter to be moved. I mean, it's not things that would put me off viewing, but it would make me think its not being looked after.

Is there bad neighbours? Bad area? Severely overlooked? Loads of work to do? People are probably looking thinking the fire needs pulling out, plastering, new kitchen as a starting point.

Totally agree - conservatives can devalue a property (sorry but that made me howl)