Is anyone else having a misreable time trying to sell their house?

[Roseflower]

Our house has been on the market since June and trying to sell it - it's so depressing. Our one offer fell through and since then it just been no more offers.

Buyers (this month we have only had FTB) seem to be getting more and more unrealistic in what they expect for their money around here.

I hate everything about selling a house- the horrible estate agents, the constant calls from rival estate agents touting, the time waster people, rushing around like mad tidying up after dd for hours, giving up our plans to get ready for viewings, people saying nasty things about our family home... but worse in the uncertainity of it all.

Be good to know other people feel as down as me for some support. Or even better people who did feel like me but now things have turned out well!

florencerose - an attic is the top of a house inside a roof. a penthouse is an apartment on the top floor of a purpose built block of apartments.

Yes well, either way they have sloping ceilings...

Would agree you have to attract the penthouse type if you're going to get that price for it. Perhaps it would be worth redoing the photo's if you haven't already done so. The balcony ones are just all wrong in terms of positioning. Could the kitchen one could be taken from a different angle? At the moment it is maximising that partition, not minimising it. I would be tempted to omit the view of the front elevation altogether. A shot of a bedroom and bathroom would be good too. You need a professional photographer for this - I would find out which EA's use them. Would make a huge difference. A penthouse needs "wow" factor IMO.

i just found 'attic' somewhat condescending and i didn't think this was a contentious thread.

meanwhile agree, molly. we had option of prof photos and dh declined (one of those duh! why did i even ask him moments!)

new photos on their way for me to approve just wanted to get lots of fb before i approved them iyswim. also yeh you're right - that is what the kitchen photo does :-(

It was supposed to be condescending obv not towards you personally. The idea was to get you to think where you see fab shag pad or whatever another person comes along and sees garret with no lift
One mans bijou is another mans titchy
one mans attic is another mans penthouse.....
It's a way of pointing out that you are aiming for a small section of the market. EA are hardly known for their honesty are they?

Also just to get you to think about it you have mentioned several problems on this thread (the steps the layout/floorplan the difficulty with plants on the balcony) those thoughts will be the same for a lot of potential purchasers is there any way you can deal with them?)

Silver, I'd gussy up the front approach with some vegetation in pots, especially flanking the front door. Some tall yews, some shorter hydrangeas and azaleas perhaps, and some colourful annuals or maybe chrysanthemums as the autumn is upon us. Nothing too symmetrical. If you could lay your hands on a nice garden bench in metal or wood to place near the wall to the right of the door as you look towards the door, set at an angle with the corner of the house/wall, that would be nice too. The house looks a little unapproachable.

A wide view lens is essential for house photos.

Thanks for comments so far. Will respond properly when at work later. Don't know why only 4 photos on that site as have 19 Inc map and floor plan on rightmove so will try to link to that again.

Morning all, Silver I'll wait for your new link before I add my tuppence worth!

Silver: I agree about putting some plants out the front - square fake lead ones would be good like this

I would plant them with bronze cordylines with some autumn flowering cylamen round the outsides. (you can get the pots much cheaper than the link I've posted but that was the first one that came up).

Inside, I would ditch the Sheila-maid in the living room (makes the ceiling look lower) and get a smaller rug if you can to make the room look bigger. The kitchen looks lovely but again I don't think the photos do it justice and I would be seriously cross with my agent if they only put three photos up - to me, a small number of photos means there is something wrong with the rest of the house. And a floorplan is also good.

But if you have only had one viewing, I think that perhaps it probably is just too expensive. Have you looked on zoopla for prices of sold houses of a similar size in your area? Also - the primary school a good one? If it is, then get that added into the details.

mathanxiety

Go on with an internet estate agent if you don't have any luck with this one.

High street estate agents send round unsuitable viewers to meet their viewing quota and keep the customer happy.

PITA tidying up for a viewer who's not come because they are truly interested, IMO.

I've just noticed that flat upstairs from us is under offer. That was on the market about 2 months before us with the yellow and greens. Started off 10k above our price, then lowered to 10k below our price. Obviously buyers out there though!

I've had a look on RightMove now and think it is very odd that there are three different photos of the back of the house with garden furniture moving around. I would use the one where the furniture is on the right of the conservatory (from the perspective the photos are taken from).

I'd also only have one photo of the bedroom, not two. There is something on the ceiling in the edge of the shot in the lounge (the one with the blue walls) which looks odd. Can you get them to take another photo where that is cut out or put it more in shot (or take it down altogether?)

Other than that, think the house looks lovely so it may just be down to price I'm afraid :(

Silver, I found it too here. Not sure that link will work as it is pretty long.

I think the house looks lovely. I was looking at some of the other ones on the market near you and I agree with LB that it is really the outside, not the inside that is letting it down. In the pictures there seems to be quite a bit of tarmac and not much green, so if you are changing them it may be worth putting some lush green pots round the back as well IMO. Most of the other properties are cheaper, but they aren't as old. Old might put people off though as some see it as expensive in terms of upkeep and heating. It may well be worth asking your agent if they would do you a price bracket (eg 300 - 350) instead of an upfront price. That may encourage more people to come and look. Good luck!

Hi All, and thanks to 120 for sorting the link for me .

I agree re the front of the property looking to plain etc. It looks ok in reality as is block paved with nice stone sets, but you can't tell from the pitcures plus it needs some greenery. When we bought it the previous owners had bay trees wither side of the front door which looked great. I haven't done the same as they're epensive and i am worried about them getting stolen, but i do agree that it needs something. We do have window box type planters on the brick wall to the right of the front of the house, but they wern'e there when we took the photos.

Re the photos of back of the property,there are two showing the view from the end of the garden: one taken in feb and another recent one. i have asked the agent to take down the old one and they haven't done so yet. The other, that shows the furniture on the paved area to the right of the conservatory was taken to show the garage and just for another view of the garden. I do appreciate that we could do with some more pots and flowers in the back garden as the paved area is large (for turning the car round, and also for DS to razz around on his toy tractors etc).

Re the thing on the ceiling of the 'blue' lounge - it is the light fitting (there are two in the room). It's pretty hard to take a good picture of that room.

We added a second photo of the main bedroom to try to show the size of the room. It is a large room but as it's quite square it's hard to get a good photo. Didn't want to just take a picture of the bed! But if you think it looks odd i'll consider changing it.

In the other front room i can raise the height of the sheila maid (i had no idea they were called that!) which might help. I could take a photo without the rug too and see if that looks better.

Re the kitchen, we took several photos and that's actualy the best one. I'm not sure, but i think the fact that the rooms are fairly square makes it harder to take decent photos, as the're no way of getting back into a corner far enough to take a good one that shows the size of the room. I agree that a wide angled camera would help but i don't have and neither does the agent (i was surprised at that) - i'll see if ay of my firends do.

120 - yes the schools are good (not sure how rated by Ofsted but can check) so i'll

And i agree that we obviously need to drop the price. i would be happy to reduce to OIRO £299,950 but am having trouble persuading DH. The thing is we are not under pressure to move quikly, but want to have movd before next Sep when we have to apply for primary school. And it's in DH's nature to 'wait and see' whereas i am keen to get on with things and do what we need to do to sell the house. Am trying not to nag him but it's very hard!

Anyway, thanks for all you suggestions. I will consider them properly when at home, tart and 'green' the house up a little and then take some more pictures (again!).

sorry, just realised that the question re the schools was from Ladybiscuit not 120. And i didn't finish the sentence (meant to say yes i'll see if they're worth mentioning and , if so, get them mentioned!).

took me ages to work out what the sheila maid was. Initially I thought it was the footstool thingy. Was trying to work out why you'd want to raise it!! Got it now. I must say I'm loving this vicarious selling thread.

Silver just being nosy but why do you have a Sheila Maid in a lounge? Do you actually dry washing on it? If I was looking to buy a house I would find it rather strange and wonder why it wasn't in the kitchen or utility room. It would make me think that the kitchen/utility was too small to put one up. That might just be me though.

Hi spiralqueen. It's in the front room because it hangs over the fire so that clothes dry from the heat of the fire. We do use it, espec in winter, as DH is a farmer so has lots of overalls etc to dry. Most people in rl have commented that they like it and it is useful, tho I understand it may make the ceiling look lower.

Silver I agree with the others that the outside is rather sterile looking and unappealing. How about putting some sort of fast-growing climber up the wall, perhaps at the back - a viginia creeper or similar? It won't do much now before next spring, but even getting some sort of trellis up might make a difference. Otherwise pots would be good. Try to get something that will stay green over the winter.

Inside I think it's lovely, especially the kitchen, the bathroom and the conservatory. I do think that the blue sitting room looks a little bit dated - the dark wood with the red curtains, even though it's very nicely presented. Is that a textured wallpaper too? I have it in some rooms and I do think it puts some people off (I tend to wonder what it's hiding) That said, I bought this flat when it had padded brick-effect wallpaper all over the kitchen, so hey.

Midnight - I love it!! Those photo's are really good. What a difference a decent camera and wide angle lenses make. I think it's really nicely presented. Possibly declutter kids room but it looks a good size so wouldn't worry too much about it.

I so want to move back to Scotland and into your house Midnight. It is just the type of property dh and I love. It is beautiful and I am jealous........

Thanks Molly - yes, the lens and the fill-in flash have done wonders. I wondered about the rather busy-looking kids' room too. It is a big room, though, so when you're actually in it it looks fine, but it does look a bit messy in the picture, I agree. Hmmm. We used to have a plain red rug in there - maybe that would help.

I think this Telegraph article about making sure your home looks nice from the outside is quite good:

www.telegraph.co.uk/property/buyingsellingandmoving/8000477/The-smart-guide-to-selling-your-home.html

...it's just a shame that nobody else seems to think so fimbo. But thank you for being so nice about it.

I must say that the prospect of trying to squeeze our superking size bed into a shoe box in SE England doesn't exactly fill me with joy.