Trying to sell - totally fed up!

[Gabity]

We have had our house on the market now for 7 months. We are desperate to move. DH bought the house 3 years ago on a whim just before we met. We are now married complete with baby and dog. We are looking to move to the country side beside my parents and are so fed up waiting.

Please please, can you have a look at link to house and tell me what you think? Be brutal and honest. We will do/change anything if you think it will make a difference?

Had 4 viewers in 7 months and not a sniff of an offer. Obviously can't do anything about the area, its not great, but is okay. Quiet and excellent schools/parks/shops/train station close by.

As you can see we are now 20k below home report value and really can't afford to go any lower.

our house

[PiggyMad]

I think maybe the outside needs sprucing up a bit - decking could do with painting/creosoting and maybe some flowers or plantpots in front of the house. Don't know why, but I find the hose pipe quite off-putting!
Also looks like you have hangers for hanging baskets so maybe put a couple up.
(Master?) bedroom needs something either on the wall or on top of that chest of drawers as it looks a bit studenty at the minute because of colour/furniture/bareness (sorry!).
Not sure if others will agree - and feel free to ignore, but as ftb (your target market?)it is definitely first impressions with kerb-appeal that turns me on or off!

[Jeremyess]

The outside lets it down, is that a picture of the back of the house? No picture of the front? Inside looks fine, if the houses on the street are uniform I know it is hard to do too much outside incase it ends up looking odd. I did view a house that was an ex-council and they had added a porch area to the front and smartened it up a bit with a new fence.

[LaurieFairyonthetreeEatsCake]

If you have a 'council' standard issue front door then get rid of it, it's one of the first thing people look for.

Cover the (sorry) not great looking table in the dining room with a cloth. Put some grey towels in the towel rack in the bathroom - the blue really stands out as not matching.

The master bedroom looks very bland, I'd put a striking throw on the bed, jazz up the curtains, put all your potions in a box as it looks scruffy, a picture in the bedroom.

I can't believe how cheap it is for a 3-bed house - 85k how bad is the area? have others sold for that price?

It's a really good house for the money.

[Guacamole]

I see nothing wrong with the interior at all, but agree with other posters the photograph of the outside is not the best. At 85k I would say wow what a bargain, but I'm from down South and don't know what property goes for in your area.
IMO I'd consider changing estate agents, with only 4 viewings I dont think they're working very hard for you, they should be pushing harder for you.

[Gabity]

Thanks all!

Points so far-

Garden - we did paint the fence and put of plant pots in the summer, should have updated the photos I suppose, will be re-doing it in the better weather and take some new photos.

Master bedroom - We repainted it just for selling the house, too bland? Will do all the things you suggest before re-photographing.

Front of house - is worse than back! only two windows as the stairs run up the front. Terrible, but all the houses round here are the same.

Last house to sell was just before we put ours on the market, at the end of our street for 108k. Don't know what is going on? We started at offers around £115k.

Front door and windows would be on our list to do if we were staying, but I so hope we are not. I have never lived in the town and I hate it. I'm a living with only 1 neighbour is 1 too many type person. Or its what i'm used to at least. Having said that, the area really isn't that bad. Quiet, no trouble and nice people.

We phone the estate agent every week or so. Sometime more if there is something on the market that we are looking at. She seems lovely and says she is doing everything she can for us. Her suggestion is always just to bring the price down. We have reached our limit with that now, to have a decent deposit on the type of property we are looking at we cannot sell for less than 85k. It cost us nearly 2k in estate agent fees (inc home report) to put it on the market, we would change if we thought it was worth it. Realistically what more can they do?

[Gabity]

oh and we have got a beautiful new dining room table since then. Really need to update photos.

Would you expect an estate agent to come and do that again for free?

[Fortress]

Can you paint the whole of the outside back and front White? Looks like next door has? The colour is off putting for me...
I hope you get an offer soon, I know what it's like being desperate to move!

[Gabity]

No, every house in our street is the same. There are rooms between the houses that go over alleys ways, if you know what I mean? (I hadn't seen anything like it before) and they are clad in white pvc. House would really stand out and not in a good way if different I think.

Am really starting to resent DH for us still living here and bringing up DD here. Rationally I know that it is not his fault, he thought at the time he was doing the right thing buying it and didn't know that we were going to come along. He is originally from the area and his family are here, he didn't know any different from town living until he spent a couple of weeks at my Mums. He is now as desperate as me to move and its upsetting him knowing that i'm not happy.

[minibmw2010]

I think I would do some serious tidying up at the back (if that's the only exterior picture that is going up). Paint the decking and get some hanging baskets up as soon as possible, even if they are only full of greenery to get some colour there.

[minibmw2010]

Plus the house next door appears to have white cladding on it, so you could paint the back white and it wouldn't look bad?

[ninedragons]

I would move the chests of drawers out of the bedroom for a new photo - they make it look a little bit cramped because they're in the foreground.

Is that a car seat on the nursery floor? In general, I find rooms decorated for young children a big turn-off when I am looking at houses. They make me think aha, your kids are three or four and either the local schools are shit or the house is too small and you are having to move somewhere bigger. I'd get rid of the decals and so forth and make it a bit more neutral if you can.

I'm nit-picking now, but if you can get some really cheaply, I would change the kitchen drawer pulls and cupboard knobs from brass to brushed nickel or silver. The brass looks a teeny tiny bit 1980s. You may consider painting the black tiles white or re-tiling the splashback with plain white tiles for the same reason.

[ninedragons]

Forgot to say, the photos look a bit like it's your furniture up for sale - they don't really show the features of the building. Photos that included the windows or gave you a sense of the layout would be better.

[Fiddledee]

Can't you rent it out and take the equity to buy a new house?

[lalalonglegs]

I'd change estate agencies for a start - 4 viewings in 7 months is not great. Ask your new agents to be very frank about what they feel you should do to the house to sell it _ is it price or appearance or do you have neighbours that look anti-social (not a lot you can do about that). According to Zoopla, a house on your road sold for 110k last summer so you seem to be offering a real bargain. If you can afford it, offer a personal reward to whichever estate agent clinches a deal within 8 weeks (a few hundred quid).

I would get photos of the front of the house plus floorplans so that people can see that it is a conventional layout. I don't wish to sound rude at all, but it is a very reasonably-priced house and I'm not sure people can expect too much for that price so while sprucing up the outside may help, I'm not convinced that is the root of your problem. It's not as if there appears to be anything wrong with it - are you competing with lots of other houses on the same estate that are up for sale?

[Fortress]

I think you should definitely get the EA round again and take more recent photos!
The angles of the photos might not be quite right at the mo.... For instance it looks like the washing machine is a feature of the kitchen Iyswim? The living room come diner does look very bland and soulless....(sorry) I don't think you can go wrong with White Walls they go better with brown leather, then soften the leather with more feminine cushions.... Sofa in the nursery looks out of place and cramped and I don't like the vertical blinds at all. Do you have any pleasant views/outlooks? Definitely get a new photo of the back of the house if you've already spruced it up. Also I agree with the other comment about the hose pipe. Good luck!

[Fortress]

Make your EA work really hard. Ours is currently on the market, been on since beginning of November we got our first offer this morning but had we not I'd have given them two more weeks and changed EA. I think they become complacent otherwise!

[Gabity]

You are all so helpful! Should have done this before we put house up!!

Went into estate agent at the start of October and put our cards on the table. I was nearly in tears, so she has a pretty good idea just how desperate we are. She said there was nothing more we could do except reduce the price which we did.

There are 4 houses within 3 streets here up for sale. I would say ours is the best - highest survey value but lowest asking price, we have our own parking space and drive, we have the third bedroom that they dont and an office downstairs.

Nothing pleasant about any of the outlooks i'm afraid. I can't imagine what possessed DH to buy it in the first place really

Neighbours are great and all the houses in the street are well kept so no problems there.

Where do we find the money to change estate agents? We prob could find it if it was going to work. Realistically is this the best option?

Thank you all so much for your imput!

[Fiddledee]

Why do you have to find the money to change estate agents? you only pay them when you complete on a house so you owe your current estate agents nothing

[Gabity]

Cost us just under £2k to put the house on the market? Marketing fee and home report? Is that not normal?

[Jeremyess]

I know that the system works differently in Scotland, does the EA still get a cut when you sell?

[lalalonglegs]

Blimey, I didn't realise it worked like that in Scotland. Not a great deal of incentive for them to muchis there? How much is the marketing fee? Presumably the home report is transferable?

If the marketing fee is enormous, is the agency part of a chain? If so, speak to or write to the head of the region making the points above (nice street, lowest price of the other houses on market for more space) and ask for his/her advice.

If it's not part of a chain, ask to speak to MD and point out that you don't feel you are getting value for money. Ask to see your file to find out what they have been doing to market your house (it might be worth getting a friend to ring branch saying they are looking for a 3-bed house in roughly your area and see if the agent points them in your direction).

[Gabity]

Yes, still have to pay final %age, can't remember what it is, not a lot.

It is a very big chain, do you really think a letter to the head of the region would work?

The estate agent has been trying, in November it was the 'property of the week' in the local rag. Half page spread and very complimentary, and not one viewing since.

Fab idea about getting a friend to phone, why didn't I think of that?!

Can't remember the breakdown of costs exactly, think it was about 400 for the home report (which only lasts 3 months, so if someone is interested we will need to get it reviewed) and about 1200 marketing.

The home report is perfect by the way, all 1's, no problems what so ever.

[lalalonglegs]

Well, I guess it's only worth writing if you think that they haven't been working very hard. If they can pull the property of the week promotion out of the bag, then it does undermine that.

To be honest, I am stumped. I don't think the photos are great but certainly not anything that would put people off; the price seems remarkably low. Have you considered putting it in an auction - as you are prepared to take a hit on the price anyway, you won't be any worse off and it might open it up to buy-to-let landlords who may not be particularly looking in your area but will sniff a bargain. Alternatively, try some free listing websites such as tepilo and see if you get any interest from them?

Sorry, feel frustrated for you.

[Gabity]

Thanks lala have registered with Tepilo and will create a better profile tomorrow when I have time.

Auction is an interesting idea? Presumably you can set a reserve? Any idea how it works? Fees etc?

[nymphadora]

Is there any chance of taking some furniture out of the bedroom? It looks on the small side in the picture as its taking over the picture.