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Property/DIY

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Original poster

Critique my house please! Why aren't we getting more viewings?

72 replies

NinkyNonker · 17/10/2011 14:05

We have been on the market for about 2 months and have had only one viewing. We lowered the price a fortnight ago (we were on below agent recommendation anyway) and are now very well placed on Rightmove we think but no bites.

The Rightmove stats (click throughs etc) are very good, and apparently there have been a fair few enquiries but nothing further.

Is there anything glaringly obvious we, and the agents have missed?

We have had the house repainted (this is an old shot bizarrely) and have a sign up, but the agent has yet to retake the exterior shot...

Here

OP posts:

Original poster

NinkyNonker · 17/10/2011 16:24

You've all gone to so much effort with your responses, thank you so much. Some great ideas! My husband has already contacted the agents about new outdoor shots...

OP posts:

Kingsroadie · 17/10/2011 16:26

I would just like to add that being a pedant, I meant "given our weather not SO easy" - I didn't misspell "too"

Also agree with outdoor shot being re-done.

echt · 17/10/2011 19:39

What everyone's said except do not get rid of the tree.

Put away the umbrella and those tired pots by the side.

Mow the grass.

Put away the barbecue.

Mammonite · 17/10/2011 23:34

It looks like a lovely house and I like your style. You do just see your rooms completely differently in a photo to when you live there. Our lounge is really cosy and people always comment on it, but if you take a photo it just looks unloved, unmatching and cluttered. So unflattering!

Personally I would like to see some bit of living green thing on the front: visible plants/flowers on window sills inside maybe?

The lounge and master bedroom don't look as good as they should - the kitchen and baby's room seem to have better lighting and look a bit more coherent and warm. A small amount of tidying up and styling as suggested would just make them look so much more attractive.

Mow the garden, remove washing line and BBQ and photograph immediately before it can get messy again!

Some of the photos are not very good in terms of their composition etc, so it doesn't present things well. It's funny in my job I have to specify for technical things to be photographed, it used to be that if someone could set up the camera you knew they would take a good picture, but these days anyone can point and push. There's a difference between those very obvious wide angle shots, and someone just taking an interest in the angle and content of the picture.

Also your agent's blurb is badly spelled and in bad English - honestly what are you paying him/her for?! The opening sentence makes me cringe.

Good luck!

chipmonkey · 18/10/2011 00:21

Conservatory: Either white tablecloth or no tablecloth if the wood is nice, put the table lengthways, set it as if for dinner and take the shot from the far end of the room.

shot of parking space seems unnecessary ( btw, is that a trailer tent?)

Agree re decluttering kitchen. It actually doesn't look cluttered by my standards but I think in kitchens people seem to prefer them to look as if no-one is living there.

Your bedroom looks very nice but photo is taken from a strange angle.

I have to say, I do think professional pictures would be better. Photography doesn't appear to be your estate agent's strong point!

LoopyLoopsPussInBoots · 18/10/2011 00:24

I haven't read the other replies - but I would say:

Too much stuff in living room. Can you borrow a smaller sofa for a while?
Bedroom pic should be on wall
Nursery - could it be a bedroom for a while? Looks small without a bed
Drive - odd pic of a car.

Original poster

NinkyNonker · 18/10/2011 07:38

It is a trailer tent good spot! The agent insisted on the parking etc pic as it is such a rarity where we are, might chat to him about it again.

OP posts:

scotgirl · 18/10/2011 07:55

Both times i have moved in the last 10 years i have rented a small storage facility- well it was quite large last time due to kiddy toys, playtables etc. Wouldn't dream now of puting my house on the market without doing a massive declutter. Also if you can empty hall cupboards etc. They look massive and people think great storage. It makes it so much easier to get the house tidy for viewings and it is a lot easier to move

i wouldget lots of boxes and get the photos redone!
Worth the money imo

durhambound · 18/10/2011 09:09

If at all possible turn the nursery into a bedroom, this seem to work for us. We had a study though and turned that into a nursery.

I prefer realistic photos, nothing worse than estate agents making rooms look bigger than they actually are.

Good luck. Maybe its just not a good time to be on the market.

afussyphase · 18/10/2011 10:11

When you take new photos take them from a lower height than standing. Not sure why this is usually done, but it is - probably makes places look bigger, and often when we are inside we are sitting so maybe it feels more relaxed to look at photos from a just-above-sitting height. Also does the house have the potential for a loft conversion (and is it done in your area)? That's something we would have liked and it looks like it might be workable in your home. You need at least 2.4 m of vertical space at the highest point in the loft for it to be worthwhile. If it's possible, it would turn your home from 2bed into 3, so anyone planning another child etc might like that. Good luck with it, looks like a really lovely home!

chipmonkey · 18/10/2011 10:20

And where is she to put her baby if she changes the nursery to a bedroom?

durhambound · 18/10/2011 13:16

Maybe the cot could go into the master bedroom.

chipmonkey · 18/10/2011 13:23

But wouldn 't that make the master bedroom look smaller and more cluttered then?
I do know what you're saying, I think it is a house-selling "rule" that if you can fit a double bed in, then you should put a double bed in.

durhambound · 18/10/2011 13:38

If you are looking at houses on the internet you may dismiss anything that is showing a bedroom as a nursery more than a house clearly showing two actual bedrooms IFSWIM. They could possibly hide the shot of the cot in master bedroom, obviously if it actually would fit in there in the first place.

To be honest its a bloody minefield selling a house. We had someone look at our last house and said it was too modern. Couldn't they see that from the photos . And another couple put in an offer, then came over to measure up, spent about two hours in my house then change their mind the next day.

WillowFae · 20/10/2011 14:53

To be honest the main thing that would put me off is the fact that the bathroom is downstairs and there is nothing you can do about that.

With regard to new photos I do agree with another poster who said to remove things. We sold our house in 24 hours back in August and we totally decluttered. For the photos we shifted stuff around so that it wasn't visible in the photo. We also rented a storage unit for a couple of weeks and took things there to get it out of the way.

deviladvocate · 20/10/2011 22:57

Sorry I only saw the first five shots - these are the most important though so the lovely shot from the back of your garden should be in them, also the super bathroom. The bedrooms need dressing and better composed photos taken throughout. Definitely need to lose the drive shot!

This estate agent is not trying hard enough to sell your house!

GastroTurf · 23/10/2011 17:35

I deliberately haven't read the previous posts so as not to be influenced by others, so apologies if I'm repeating other people's comments.

I think your house is lovely!

A couple of things about the photos though: what is the wall covering next to your dining table? Is it textured wallpaper? Looks like unfinished plaster. What's the mark on the floor next to the toilet? Is your house really tiny? It's just that the rooms look small on the photos and don't EAs use some sort of photography magic normally to make them look bigger?

I think the garden is great.

Right, will read other posts now, and see whether I'm miles off!

GastroTurf · 23/10/2011 17:46

My house is really tiny, by the way, just realised that looked rather rude!

higgle · 24/10/2011 16:54

I'm a bit late to this thread but having looked at the details I'd say that unfortunately the windows, with the latice effect would be a big no for me.
The house also needs to be very keenly priced to make up for the fact that the bathroom is downstairs, again that would be a no from me. YOur kitchen and bedroom 1 look nice, the sitting room looks and is very small so you need to sort out the furniture in there to make it look bigger. The house will probably go to a single person or young couple so maybe the fact that the second room is set up as a nursery is putting them off? Garden etc. look OK to me, people always change them anyway.

sillymillyb · 24/10/2011 17:17

Just a little point re: price (I think your house looks lovely by the way!) rightmove searches in 10k increments, so pricing at £199,950 omits people who have put in a starting point of £200k in the search criteria. Also, the same applys for when you were priced at £215k - you have less people seeing you in their results than when priced at £220k and no more visibility than at £210k. Hope this makes sense - just something to consider if you play around with price in future :)

Also, might be worth asking your estate agent how many people on their database are active searches and are looking for a property like yours. Then ask them out of that number how many they have contacted and what there were responses were as to why they didn't want to view.

It may be worth getting another agent on board, which will increase your fees but ultimately gets you double the people pushing your house - and each agent will fight a bit harder for the sale as they will want the comission.

Good luck and chin up, you will find someone eventually :)

PropertyAddict · 24/10/2011 20:05

Great advice from everyone. But reading it all just made me think of a friend of mine whose photos of her house were so good that everyone who came to see it was disappointed! I just wondered about the price - certainly I'd go for £199,000. And, it could just be me, but the 'offers in excess of' always makes me worried how much the person really wants and puts me off.

higgle · 25/10/2011 18:21

NinkyNonker - I've just had a thought - presumably when you bought the house there was something about it that you really loved more than anywhere else you saw - could you try to recapture the essence of that?

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