No viewings - is it overpriced?

[Zeeky]

Our 4-bed detached house has been on Market for a few weeks & other than 3 viewings in the first week (one of which wasn't a serious buyer as house was way out of their budget so I think EA had persuaded them view anyway!) we've had no other interest. Had EA back earlier this week to take better photos as first lot didn't do house justice, but still no interest. House is in excellent condition - spent approx £100k on it in last 5 years doing everything to it - windows, kitchen, bathrooms, garden, driveway paving, garage doors, etc etc. It's in a good location - quiet cul de sac, good schools. So other than the price can't see why we're not getting more interest!

N'bour just put theirs on Market for £70k less than ours but theirs is a smaller house, single rather than double garage & needs some updating (kitchen, flooring, decor etc).

When we look at what is on the market in our area, our house looks so much nicer & in much better location & doesn't appear overpriced. BUT, we don't know how long all those have been hanging about on the Market!

Generally speaking, if a house is nice with nothing wrong with it yet getting no interest, is it the price?

If we were to drop the price, what sort of % should we think about?

[tyler80]

Sorry, another one that would probably go for the cheaper one. It might not be done up to the same standard as your own, but it's perfectly liveable. In this sort of climate I think people are more likely to plump for something cheaper and do it up to their own taste as budget and time allows.

I personally think their bedrooms are fairly comparable size wise too if not larger. The figures might look smaller, but they're all square/rectangular rooms with their built in cupboards as extras and they all have built in storage. I suspect if your EA is like many they have quoted the largest measurements for each room, even where the cupboards jut out into the room

[nondomesticgoddess]

We are looking at houses to buy at the moment and want to spend £500k ideally. We are not a million miles from you and my guess is that the market here is pretty similar to yours.

If I was looking at your house and the neighbour's (and if I lived closer, I definitely would be!) I would be far more interested in yours solely on the size of the 4th bedroom! We have 2 dcs and I would not want to spend over £450k and get a bedroom the size of the neighbour's.

Although our budget is £500k we would potentially be able to go up to £530kish for a house that needed nothing doing to it (ie yours).

If I was you, I'd get the EA to make the study clearer on the floorplan. I also love the idea of offering to help with the extra stamp duty cost - we would really appreciate that if it was offered to us. As somebody else said - the mortgage is not the problem - it's having the cash for the deposit, stamp duty and all the other moving costs.

I'd keep it on at that price for a while longer and see what happens in a few more weeks. Good luck!

[lalalonglegs]

I think your house is nicer but not #70k nicer.

[angel1976]

Zeeky It depends on how desperate you are to sell... It is a tough market but if the house is really all that (good schools, transport links etc), it will sell especially if you are flexible in price. The house we are in now was initially priced out of our budget but thinking we know it's a rather stagnant market, we saw it and fell in love with it. It was priced at close to £600k (we also guess it was priced that way to make sure it achieved over stamp duty), our initial offer was £525k and vendors said no. So we walked away and saw other houses. But we realised in terms of location and what the house has to offer, this was the one, so we went back and negotiated. The owners were adamant they wanted close to asking price for it because they had put in some expensive features over the years (underfloor heating in bathrooms, old-school radiators, proper floorboards, marble kitchen worktop, extension had a gorgeous glass roof etc) but our argument was that things like that do not increase the value of the house per se. For us, it was the location to good primary schools and transport links and the position of the garden (at least double the size of any other houses we saw and backs onto a stunning local park).

It took 3 months of negotiating and the vendors losing the first house they want to buy before they realised they had to meet us somewhere. So we agreed on £565k. We love the house now. It's right for us and our family. I think you've only been on the market a few weeks. Sit tight for a little longer. The house we bought we literally saw in the first week it went on the market but took a further 4 months (to negotiate the price as well as for us to get a decent offer on the house we are selling) before it went under offer to us... Good luck!

[angel1976]

And I do agree with those who say your house is nice but not £70k over... People will look at them and think they are both 4 bedrooms detached houses, whatever differences there are won't equate a £70k difference especially if you think that possibly your neighbours might take a lower offer too?

But P.S. I do LOVE your kitchen!

[mylovelymonster]

Wow Angel! Is that what you went and bought? It sounds wonderful.
There's hope for us yet!

[angel1976]

Oh gosh mylovelymonster how ARE things with you? Tell me all about it!

I have to add though that we are in London so we haven't bought a mansion or anything though it sounds like we have. Ha ha. Just a 4-bedroom terraced house... :) But we love, love, love it.

[mylovelymonster]

Angel - You have 4 beds, a terrace is always warmer in those frosty winds & the snow, you love the house and you're close to the park - in London. Sounds as though you did very well indeed!

We are still looking for more space but are suffering with a combination of London & Cambridge ripple effects!! Feeling pretty squashed. I think they are showing sides of subsiding - a bit! Staying hopeful.

Is lovely to hear a success story - many happy years in your new home!

[angel1976]

Ah... Thanks mylovelymonster. The whole process was horrible but now we are in the house, it feels so right. The re-decorating process is not going very well though. Doesn't help I am the most indecisive person in the world and it took me ages to decide on the curtains and wall colour of two rooms. And already I am suffering from 'decoration'-fatigue! Ha ha. It's not all roses here! But we are very lucky. I never want to move again though.

Chin up! You will get there... :) Keep me posted. We keep 'running' into each other on the property thread!

[Becaroooo]

I agree its a lovely house but if I was looking at both houses - I cant really see where yours has £70k more value tbh....help with Stamp Duty is a good idea.

Good luck

[JillySnooper]

I'd buy the OP's, it's just stunning.

Best of luck !

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

It is really lovely but not all to my taste and I would feel guilty changing things when a lot of money spent on it. The other house wouldn't take anywhere near the 70k gap in price to get it how I'd like it plus lower stamp duty so would definitely go for the other house . Think the stamp duty is your biggest issue.

[SybilBeddows]

I LOVE your choice of colours, OP, but the thing on the property programmes and a lot of the high-end houses you see for sale these days seems to be for horrible clinical minimalist white everywhere, so I wonder if that is what a lot of buyers want and despite it being lovely, people are thinking they would need to repaint it all.

[Becaroooo]

hmmm...there is a lot to be said for a big de-clutter and neutral redecoration prior to putting a house on the market (its what we did).

Its a bit that buyers cant see past a wall covering or carpet they dont like, but when houses cost as much as yours I suppose buyers just want to move and not have to do anything?

And yes to the minimalist thing too...horrid and clinical but it sells!

[JoJoMummy321]

Your house is gorgeous and I think it does look another class from your neighbours. I have to agree with others that it probably wouldn't take £70k to make the other house look more like yours however there is the size difference to take into consideration too. I think it could be the stamp duty that is your problem unfortunately.

One thing to consider though, if your neighbours have just gone on the market, this might mean that you end up with more viewings as people with a good budget might come and see both!

Lovely house though so I am sure if you drop the price you will sell.

[Zeeky]

I'm surprised that people pick up on the colour scheme, as I've always thought our house is pretty neutral - cream carpet, light wood floor in hallway & dining room, most rooms are cream with just a "feature wall" (i do hate that phrase!) in each room (master bedroom=purple, bedroom 3=deep blue, bathroom=burnt orange, kitchen=dark red, living & dining room=chocolate brown). But i guess if people feel they are paying top dollar, they don't want to have to spend even a penny.

We have decided that we will sit out the rest of the contract with current EA (approx 8 weeks left), and possibly drop price to £535k. If we have not sold in this time, then we will re-list with a cheapo-online EA (2 friends have used recently - only charges £1k fees instead of £10k!!) at a price of £499k. We are loathed to slash the price now and line the pockets of the EA who we feel wrongly valued the house in the first house and has given us crappy advice and basically done very little to sell our house, as most business seems to come off rightmove type websites anyway! I'm amazed that EAs can still charge the fees they do, as they really don't do very much once the property is photographed and listed on all the property websites.

[JillySnooper]

Zeeka, your house is stunning, there is NOTHING wrong with it bar bloody stupid stamp duty which should be abolished or levelled out at 1% across the board. IMHO.

[Becaroooo]

zeeky I hear you! EAs get paid a lot for doing very little IMHO. Ours only charged 1% as we used them before but I still begrudged every penny!!!

Good luck.

If you put it on at £499k, it will sell.

Good luck!

[FootballFriendSays]

Zeeky Lovely house. I'd have said your colour scheme was pretty neutral too. Friends of ours sold their house via an online site. Seems to have been pretty straightforward for them.

BTW do you think your EA will point out to all the hits the house is getting off Rightmove and 90% are from MN? :)

We offered to pay stamp duty for a house we were thinking of buying but our solicitor said it's not legal and would be a lot of hassle to sort out. Maybe she just didn't want to be bothered with the hassle, I don't know.

Angel1976 - that's a good price you got there. We have just exchanged on a house priced the same as yours. We offered a bit more and they said 'yes' straightaway. Maybe we should have gone at a lower first offer. We are in a London borough (SW).

[JillySnooper]

It's perfectly legal as we've just done it!

[FootballFriendSays]

JS - really? Isn't it in the same category as paying 'separately' for carpets, curtains etc, I thought there was some loophole that was closed. Our solicitor wasn't very dynamic in the whole house buying process, perhaps she didn't fancy the extra hassle.

[JillySnooper]

No because it doesn't affect the price paid for the property or tax paid. People pay extra for carpets to avoid stamp duty.
Who's to know who is paying the stamp duty and who cares, providing it's paid!

[angel1976]

FootballFriendSays Congrats, when is your completion date? We are also in a London borough but on the other side to you (SE). I know what you mean, it's so tricky knowing what to offer... I think they are very lucky to get what you offered them. We were at a stalemate for a while, £525k was our first offer, then £540k, then £560k (our limit really) and then we got stuck as they refused initially to reveal how much they were looking for. In the end, they said £570k as the lowest and my DH and I just said fine, we will throw in the extra £5k and meet us halfway. It was PAINFUL to get to that point! At the end of the day though, if you are intending to stay in the house for a while and it's a long-term family home, don't worry about paying a little too much for it. You are buying for your family a home first and foremost. We saw another house before that that was similarly priced (a slightly better house but I think where we bought is better positioned) and it went under offer in the first week it went on sale and it sold for close to £590k, which goes to show you just never know... :) PM me the link to your house and I will show you mine!

[FootballFriendSays]

aqngel1976 I PM-ed you. Thanks! Completion is on the 30th.

[Zeeky]

2 viewings tomorrow!!! Fingers crossed! Maybe things are starting to pick up a bit after all...