PLEASE help me to sell my house!

[beanlet]

I know, it's a hideous time to try to sell a house in the first-time buyers' bracket of the market. But 18 months in, we really have to sell soon - am seriously concerned about DH's mental health with the increasing strain of our current living situation (and mine too TBH).

To cut a long story short, we have two tiny houses, bought when we were both single, the larger one (2 beds) 200+ miles from where we both work. DS was born last summer, and while smaller house is near work it is only 1 bed. It will sell in a flash (location, also SE with buoyant prices). But 2 bed house (North, terrible housing crash) has been on the market for 18 months now. We can't live in 1 bed much longer with DS now 9 mths, but can't buy a bigger house near work until we sell 2 beds, as it has all our equity in it.

I'd really welcome tips on how to sell our larger house, as we are getting to the point where neither of us can cope any more. (Please don't suggest renting either of them; we've been through every possible scenario and it won't work. Nor can either of us, let alone both, change jobs.)

Plus points.....

Really sweet 2 bed Grade II listed terraced cottage with no structural work to be done and lots of character features. 5 mins from railway station, 20 min commute to major city.

Both village schools Ofsted "outstanding"; state secondary the best in the LEA.

Sitting room and main bedroom really good size, nice woodburning stove downstairs in fireplace. As well as two bedrooms, there is a newly renovated watertight basement with storage room and small study. New part-fitted kitchen in character style.

Enclosed part-walled cottage garden, and parking.

Dead quiet and private.

Good professional rental potential (though not for us in current circs)

Minus points.....

2nd bedroom really small - single bed or child's room only. Currently unfurnished as we use it as a drying and ironing room.

Bathroom even smaller. Decor fine but a bit tired.

Kitchen is not fully fitted and has some open shelving.

No fence between our garden and neighbours, and they have right of access on the path across our garden to get to their front door. (watertight division legally so no problems on that score).

Listed building so no more room to expand the property. Loft extension a no.

Could probably do with a lick of paint and some tarting up of woodwork, etc, but currently all very tasteful colours.


We've just reduced the price for a second time, and we'd take a lower offer still, but we can't afford to take much more of a hit, or we'll never be able to buy again. (or that's what it feels like)

Any suggestions of small, relatively inexpensive things we can do to find a buyer? I'd be so grateful, as we are both getting quite desperate now.

(and if you would all be a bit un-mumsnetty and not too harsh on me..... this has been very hard for us, and getting harder as DS gets bigger.)

THANK YOU!

[Becaroooo]

Sorry to say this, but you may need to change EA and reduce the price.

Tbh, if its affecting you both so much (and I can empathise) then you will have to take a hit to sell it

We changed EA's and dropped our asking price by £20k. We got an offer at the new asking price within 3 days.

Houses are selling if they are priced right. There are houses near me (Derbyshire) that have been on the market since last Spring. They are nice houses but are not selling because they are on for too much.

I have noticed the same thing in the area where we are moving to - the houses that havent reduced their price are still on the market after 18 months -2 years.

Bear in mind you will be in a good position to offer/buy when you are able to...you will be able to make cheeky offers! We did and it was accepted!

Good luck

[CarGirl]

Def sell it as a professional couple house then, sell the lifestyle - 2nd bedroom but in a nice futon or Ikea hemnes daybed (pulls out to double) - sells it as a guest room.


What is that other bit of furniture in the sitting room - is it a desk and chair?

I think lifestyle it with fashionable but quaint character cottage stuff - whatever that is!

[MistyB]

If your market is single / couple - sell that lifestyle (this bistro set in the garden?) and remove all evidence of child!! The presence of child may unduly remind buyer that it's not a forever house!

[beanlet]

Well, we'll see how we go with the new reduction - only been done today.

[Roseflower]

I agree with bigbadharry

Forget everything else, reducing the price is the only sure-fire thing to do
Sorry.

(we reduced to, wasn't great but best thing we did as we are out of a situation we hated)

[beanlet]

This is all INCREDIBLY helpful; thank you!

[MillsAndDoom]

The house itself looks lovely - lots of wood and nice neutral colours throughout.

Oh and you mentioned outstanding schools - no mention of that in the listing - if your agent is truly working for you they should be selling every aspect of it.

[beanlet]

My sense is that if you are one of the very few first-time buyers with a big enough deposit and perfect credit record to secure a mortgage, it's actually a bit of a buyers' market, with many more houses for sale than buyers. Plus there are a lot of buyers out there who have unrealistic expectations of how far prices have fallen (even here), so were inevitably disappointed by my wee house. Not to mention everyone wanting to put in a loft extension.

It's certainly big enough for a family with one child, but I agree it's more a couple's or single's house (I bought it as a single from another single).

[MillsAndDoom]

There are no measurements on the listing (I know they are on the floorplan but some people may not look) that would make me think it was very small.

Pic 1 - tree obscuring front
Pic 2 - makes garden look like a wilderness which it obv isn't from pic 5.

[MistyB]

I would paint it too. Get someone in to do it. The £500 or so that it would cost could be worth a months mortgage while it's on the market, unsold. Think about any money you spend on it in terms of months of mortgage interest or % of your selling price you might not be loosing but getting a better offer.

No fence - we live in a terrace and the front gardens don't have proper fences between them but each one does have some sort of demarkation for example a low line of slate sticking up about 2 inches between the flower beds, 4 inch high railway sleeper. Might be worth considering if this is an issue for viewers.

Can you use mirrors creatively to create an illusion of space. I walked into a house at the weekend and looked to the left to see a floor to ceiling mirror, it gave an instant illusion of an enormous hallway and hence house. It was milliseconds before I realised but it was my first reaction rather than my first reaction being a claustraphobic one. You could do similar upstairs and in some of the rooms. No one will think the house is actually bigger but it could change the viewers initial reaction. If your colours are dark (even if period and tastful) consider whether using pale colours might be more effective in creating that illusion of space.

[MillsAndDoom]

A lot of people like to see a pic of kitchen and bathroom as these are the rooms that are expensive and inconvenient to make changes to.

[MillsAndDoom]

Beanlet - sorry this might be lots of little posts!

IMO a lot of the problem lies with your agent tbh.

[bigbadbarry]

I've just sold after 18 months on the market. Sadly, the way to do it is to reduce - we have sold for 70k less than we paid - but it became very obvious when we got the price right as we went from the occasional viewer to lots of interest and ended up with a bidding war! It helps I think that people (understandably) are reluctant to reduce and are sitting tight at their currently too-high prices - which means that those who do follow the market downwards have less competition.

[wannaBe]

What feedback are you getting from the agent?

Tbh schools arr irrelevant as at that size it's not a family home.

The reality is that it's almost impossible for first time buyers to buy at the moment because of difficulty obtaining mortgages, and the only people this house will appeal to is those wo might not be in a position to buy it.

I don't agree with the sentiment that any house will for the right price. If there aren't buyers ten te house won't sell.

[beanlet]

I'm on my phone too - irritatingly slow!

Thanks for all the comments - it's priced way below where it was at the top of the market, over 20%. Since we insisted the agents advertise it as listed we've had loads of viewings, and one person even came three times, but no bites yet. Everyone says they love it, but it's "too small".

There's no fence simply because the garden looks better without it, but we could easily put one up.

Also agree that new photos should be taken - the sitting room looks bad in that photo! New sofa perhaps - we need one anyway.

I think the best ideas are furnishing the second bedroom and making a feature of the country kitchen (and getting a photo of it in ghe brochure)

Bathroom suite is white, victorian style, blue mosaic tiles (which I hate but they're not foul, per se)

[cece]

I agree about the fence - would put me off - I wouldn't even view it.

[MillsAndDoom]

Sorry for multiple posts, on phone - happy to look at listing if you want to PM me.

[MillsAndDoom]

Oh and the kitchen - if it is character with open shelves then maybe go the whole hog and shabby chic it up with gingham, kidston and bunting?

[MillsAndDoom]

If it needs a lick of paint then it might be worth doing so - hard to tell without seeing pictures.

Seasonal flowers in planters, if you're going to spend money on it then make it stuff that you can take to your new house - nice garden furniture etc

[MillsAndDoom]

Bathroom - clean up any less than pristine grout, remove all toiletries etc and put a few nice toiletries in and some lovely co-ordinating towels.

[CarGirl]

Well IMHO picture no 1 and no 2 are a waste - you can't tell anything more from either of them!!! One is the front door with trees and the back - just lots of trees can't work out which house is yours.

Photos of the kitchen, 2nd bedroom or basement room would be much better.

Main bedroom is lovely - something in the fireplace would be a nice focal point.

The lounge - the sofa looks squished in especially with the foot stool thing and is that a desk in there - can't tell?

[MillsAndDoom]

For sure a bed in the spare room - dress it as a bedroom - show homes use small furniture and don't put wardrobes in to make bedrooms look bigger.

[LynetteScavo]

No one will be interested in the schools if you can't fit a family into the house.

Put a bed in the second bedroom...and could the basement be a bedroom?

Also the fence in the garden......why is there no fence between you and the neighbor? This would put me off a house completely.