Any ideas for what else we can do?

[greedychops]

We have been trying to sell this house for 3 years in May.

We bought it for £110,000 in 2006, and had an offer within a month of putting it on the market for £125,000 from neighbours, but that fell through unfortunately.

Since then we have had about 40 - 50 viewers, and probably 5 fairly seriously interested parties, but they either couldn't sell their own, or had personal reasons for pulling out. We reduced the offers over price with a new Estate Agent in Nov 09 to £100,000, and then last week reduced it again to offers over £87,500. Home report values it at £120,000.

There are a couple of issues with the house - nothing major, but could do with a damp proof course in the back wall, and the bathroom could be doing with re-decoration, but Estate Agents told us not to do the work, and reduce the price instead as people would prefer to choose their own bathroom etc.

Is there anything else that anyone can think of that we can and do to try and get it sold?

hi, had a quick look and personally i would probably try splashing a little emulsion around to make it look more neutral, ie creams, in the living room i would remove one of the settees and perhaps put a chair near the fire (to make the room look bigger)with a rug in the middle of the floor (neutral) and a couple of cream throws over the settee, in the kitchen i would cover the table with a neutral table cloth, with a little centre piece (a bowl of blue pot pourri).

the first thing that attracts my eye in the rooms is the bright colours and i can't envisage my things in it.

the view is absolutely beautiful and i would definitely point it out to peopl

agree the colours are very individual, suggest you tone it down a bit to make it easier for someone else to feel as if they can just move in. Is it your window with the red surround ? Now spring is here plant some colourful pots and baskets. Is the road busy, parking and privacy an issue perhaps ?

Well I love it, am jelous of your bed, the view and its character.

Who is the target buyer for this do you think?

I think it looks very nice. Two small issues - I don't think the photo of the front of the house is that great so I wouldn't want that as the lead picture. Second, I don't really understand what the photo of the view is showing, iyswim, it doesn't match up with any of the pictures of the exterior of the house.

I think for the size of the house (and the price), the rooms area really good size. Have you been with the same agent all this time? Is it time to find a new one?

Think that maybe the photos make it look brighter than it is - the kitchen does look very blue in the picture, but it's not really like that. We've never really liked the wall paper in the bedroom, so probably should paint there at least.

The red window is a neighbour, but its the back of their house and is misted glass (iykwim) so they can't actually look out of them.

The road is pretty quiet - the occasional tractor or a few sheep but it's in a quiet village that isn't a through road. It is on the street though which wouldn't appeal to everyone, but then no house is perfect I guess.

I always think if it didn't have its faults, it would be worth a lot more - just like any other house.

The sittign room needs redecorating. The kitchen tiles, table and chairs need to go and be replaced with more neutral stuff.

I think a few people are saying that it needs more redecoration than you realise.

Crossed posts. Thanks Lovemygirls .

One thing about the front - it's original door was into the dining room which is the window on the left of the picture, but at some point, someone made the front door off the close (inside the black door). A few viewers have said they would prefer a front door on the street, so we could look at getting planning for that, but probably couldn't afford to do it ourselves since we have reduced the price so much.

The view is out of the bedroom window.

We were with a local agent originally for just over a year but moved to Slater Hogg to try and get a bigger range of viewers, but still been with them for a year and a half. Just don't know who would be better than them, but I guess it might be worth a shot.

I get your point sixtiesqueen - all I was saying is that the photos make it look brighter than it is in rl.

May be you need new photos with better light. Having bright furniture and coloured walls does rather emphasise it. Have the photos been refreshed over time ? Nothing worse than having one impression and the real thing not matching.

I think its lovely(and much nicer than the horrible house I live in which have no hope of selling.)
The only criticism would be the dining set in kitchen-bit too bright and dominating things a bit. Also agree with maybe some throws on the settees but other than that I wouldnt waste money on it.

I think it looks a lovely house. Yes, houses get a bit lived in, but once you start doing stuff to make it better for selling you start to get paranoid and unable to stop (I know, we've just damp proofed, re-plastered, decorated etc) to keep a sale. Long dull story.
Certainly there is no harm in some light plain paint to clean up a room.
Your photos show it looking clean and tidy, the garden is lovely the view is stunning. I've seen some really bad places where people have no concept of presenting it. Your blue table and chairs are bright yes, but not part of the house. I can't believe people wouldn't be able to picture their own furniture there instead.
Someone will surely find it soon and it'll be the home for them.
Good luck.

Thanks pink4ever and mrshotrod - I guess we've never had a problem picturing our own stuff in houses that we've looked at, so we never felt the need to totally change the house for viewers (and as you say, it's bit hard for it not to look lived in when you live there).

Going by the responses to this, I guess some people will be able to picture their own stuff and some won't, so a lick of paint in a couple of rooms, and a change of table and chairs in the kitchen seem to be the way forward at least for now.

We might ask for some updated pictures after that.

Thanks for your help.

I opened up your link and went OMG yuke at the outside, looked at the map to see where it is and then went back and looked inside the house and really like inside...but not as you have decorated it sorry... please don't be offended.

get the agent to get ride of the outside front picture to greet people please

As another posters says neutral

Please get rid of the green in the lounge - the fireplace is amazing - I could see myself sat in that room with that fire place and the two sofas facing each other. Please also get ride of the blue in the kitchen

The outside could do with deciding what it is - is it a garden? or a patio courtyard or for growing veg? I am not sure love the 6/8 picture of the garden looking back - do you have a table and chairs to set out to let me know what you use the space for? get shoot of the empty pots and green thingy

The bedrooms lacks curtains and could be cream - which would set of the bed and make the windows a bit more normal if the curtains where full lenght -can you borrow some?

Oh and the cot in the photo - its screams its two bedroom and you need to move due to lack of space

Ok so it needs dampproofing - and a little bit of work but I could move straight in if it was all cream and then do the work on it later.

5/8 that photo is wonderful - it shows where you live and the view is great - couldn't you put that photo up to greet potential buyers?

It is not wasted money, if the house actually SELLS!

I am sorry, I dont mean to offend, but it looks really drab inside. The brown dado rail colour in the living room. Consider painting the dado rail white, and magnolia (i know I know) on the other walls. Equally in the bedrooms.

Throw out one of the settees. Add a nice little coffee table and a chair. Replace the kitchen table and chair with something that accentuates the kithcen units better. You want to downplay the blue in the tiles rather than emphasize them. Any other personal knick nack must go. Put a nice throw over the beds.

Garden table and chairs outside, and ask for new pictures, or even better, take the house to a new agent, and let THEM do the pictures after the house has been revamped.

Not offended ivykate - we didn't do a lot of the decoration but quite like most of it - everyones entitled to their own opinion so not offended that it's not to your taste. Slightly offended by your yuck comment though .

The two sofas are actually facing each other just now. The photos were taken a year ago, so some of the furniture has been shifted, but the Estate Agent can't come out every time we have a shift around, so I guess thats when you expect people can use a little imagination.

Interesting what you say about the windows in the bedroom. It's a double aspect room (if that's the right phrase) so there are proper windows at the front with cream curtains, and the ones you see in the photos are just the wee back ones, so they don't seem abnormal in the room as a whole.

The cot was in that room at the time as we had a baby under 6 months old. Now that he is bigger, he is in the second bedroom and the cot is not there.

It's interesting to see a different point of view in thinking that you'd rather have the cheaper job of painting things neutral done, and the ore expensive job of damp proofing not done. I'd much rather move to a house that doesn't need much actual work, but could use a lick of paint. Guess everyones different.

We could certainly suggest changing the first picture.

Quintessentialshadows - thanks for the advice, but unfortunately we don't have the sort of lifestyle where we can just chuck a sofa out. Changing the kitchen table and chairs is much more achievable.

Don't think we'd want to get rid of all personal knick knacks altogether. We do live in the house in between viewings, and we clear out most stuff into the shed etc when we do have viewings to reduce any clutter on surfaces etc.

Not offended ivykate - we didn't do a lot of the decoration but quite like most of it - everyones entitled to their own opinion so not offended that it's not to your taste. Slightly offended by your yuck comment though .

The two sofas are actually facing each other just now. The photos were taken a year ago, so some of the furniture has been shifted, but the Estate Agent can't come out every time we have a shift around, so I guess thats when you expect people can use a little imagination.

Interesting what you say about the windows in the bedroom. It's a double aspect room (if that's the right phrase) so there are proper windows at the front with cream curtains, and the ones you see in the photos are just the wee back ones, so they don't seem abnormal in the room as a whole.

The cot was in that room at the time as we had a baby under 6 months old. Now that he is bigger, he is in the second bedroom and the cot is not there.

It's interesting to see a different point of view in thinking that you'd rather have the cheaper job of painting things neutral done, and the ore expensive job of damp proofing not done. I'd much rather move to a house that doesn't need much actual work, but could use a lick of paint. Guess everyones different.

We could certainly suggest changing the first picture.

Quintessentialshadows - thanks for the advice, but unfortunately we don't have the sort of lifestyle where we can just chuck a sofa out. Changing the kitchen table and chairs is much more achievable.

Don't think we'd want to get rid of all personal knick knacks altogether. We do live in the house in between viewings, and we clear out most stuff into the shed etc when we do have viewings to reduce any clutter on surfaces etc.

Sorry for double post

Can you not take new photos and email them to the agent? YOu shouldn't have to but...

I decluttered dads house - 20 boxes later in the cellar and moved some furniture out for the photos to look good - not chucked away.

I am sorry about the yuke it was the shock element I was trying to get across - I judged a book by its cover and thought the house inside would also live up to the outside but instead was surprised how lovely it was inside compared to outside. That was what I was trying to get across as I may have just moved on as a real buyer and dismissed the house- i wasn't even going to look as a mner but something did take me back to be nosey, whereas a buyer might be fed up of looking and not go back as they didn't likethe look of outside - iyswim

I would rather the damp proof was done and other mayjor jobs - but a lot of people look with their eyes and buy with what they see and ca't see past someone elses decor. When I sold my last house I had one viewer complain al through the viewing about the decor. I worked with a girl who looked around 50 houses as the decor was never quite right < shrugs and wonders> people/viewers buyers are strange.

After 3 years I don't see why the agents can't be asked to do soem work - they havn't sold the place, they have asked a lot of you. Your turn to say actually you need to do some work for us to get this property sold - starting with a revamp on the photos and we will sort out the house before you coem to photograph the property so it looks stunning in the photos and gets more serious interest. Even in this market three years is a long time.

I think you have a lovely little home - potentially very charming. I think the problem is that for many who could only afford to pay £87.5k they are in the first time buyer camp and probably have very litle spare cash and most of what they do have will be swallowed up by the huge deposits demanded by banks now - having to do a damp proof course will probably have them running and screaming at the potential cost - have you provided a builder's quote for the work - I would be tempted to sort this out before selling?

Is the bathroom liveable with - I would be tempted to do it as well for the same reason as the damp proof course, cheap plain bathroom will suit most people and chuck a lick of paint around - Dulux have a light enhancing range.

Clean the outside of your property - it looks a bit grimy - upstairs around the outside has algae growing - a bit of bleach should sort that out.

I really don't think the problems are very big but I do think you are letting money drip through your fingers by selling it the way it is in the current market where buyers are cash poor.

Good luck.

The point of neutralizing the house is to make the potential buyer able to picture themselves and their furniture/belongings in the house. At the moment I would imagine they cant.

Your house has been on the market for 3 years. You have had to drop the price to way below purchase price.
You have invited opinions online. Yet most of the opinions you get are either rebuffed or explained away?

THIS is how your property is presented online. Of course you need to live between viewings, but this does not mean you cant "stage" your house better, neutralize, and move a sofa out of the way, for the PHOTOS, to try get viewers through your doors?
It is good that there is a better looking, more standard window in the bedroom, but you are not there to tell people looking at your house online this?

Imagine that the people wanting to move to your area has probably been on rigthmove a hundred times. And seen your house there. Do you think they wonder why it has not sold?

Why not make an effort, get new photos taken, and revamp how your house is presented. Maybe even with another agent, if this one has not been pushing the house enough, or with two agents.

Do you actually want to sell?

40-50 viewers suggests it wasn't so much the marketing as hte hosue when they view, sorry to be blunt. How many have been since you changed agent ? Photos over a year old need replacing no matter at what inconvenience to the agent Sounds as if it might have been allowed to languish tbh and those looking have seen it around for so long they assume there is a real problem preventing it form selling. It might appeal more to downsizing older couples or young couples with no kids if the cot , for example , didn't feature in the pics.

greedychops, I think you can see what I mean if you look at the other 2 bed houses under 125k marketed by the same agent. You can actually see the wallpaper in your bedroom peel in the photos. If I was looking to move to Banton, I would not come and view your house based on these photos.

Kitchen:
Your kitchen is lovely, really good units, I love the colour on the walls and the floor tiles. All the junk on top of the kitchen cupboards give the impression that you have not got enough room inside your cupboards. Can you box it up?

A new kitchen table and chairs you can take with you to your new house, so will not be a waste of money. Look at the lovely way the kitchens are presented in some of the other houses?

And what is that brown fabric hanging at the edge of the photos?

Garden:
When I look at your garden, I have no idea what area of the garden is yours. Is it a shared garden between you and the other houses? Or is the entire courtyard yours?
Whats with all the pots? Can you hide them away? It looks small and untidy. You want to maximize the space. The picture of your kitchen door taken from the bottom of the garden is very nice. I would love to see some garden furniture there. It gives the impression of dining out, lovely evenings of entertaining guests, sunny mornings having breakfast outdoors, it will make the house seem bigger because you have useful and pretty outdoor space right outside your kitchen. You want your viewer to look at the photos and IMAGINE "oh that is nice, bet it is lovely to eat out there on a lovely day".
And again, garden table and chairs, you can take with you. With a two bed house, it should be a table big enough for 4 people.