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Help me sell my house!

48 replies

Melindaaa · 17/10/2011 14:21

We have found a house we would like to put an offer in on, but can't proceed until ours sells.

Could someone have a look at our details and tell us what to improve? General feedback seems to be that the bedrooms are too small (four doubles), that the road is too busy at the bottom of the garden, and that here is no versatility to the rooms.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-31543672.html

OP posts:
wideawakenurse · 17/10/2011 17:10

Agree you need an injection of colour, and some objects to lift the house. Although to be honest, those curtains are maybe a tad too colourful!

In the kitchen, move the toaster and kettle to the other side. Something like this too, with a matching coloured tea towel. On the amazon link they have linked to other matching stuff.

Dinning room and living room: needs flowers on the table. Re somes picture, dont spend a fortune, just something that is not offensive!! I have found you a link here on the Next website where they have co-ordinated the accessories for you, so you could tie in the pictures with the cushions etc.

I'd get rid of the picture of the office, as its really easy to assume its a bedroom. I'd think about painting the paneling white though.

Re the price. I'd think you will still limit yourself with a fixed price. I'd get it on for £250, and see what happens. If that is a good price for your area then you'll soon get a few offers and hopefully you will be able to get a price very near to that.

Good luck.

DelGirl · 17/10/2011 18:31

try THE RANGE near matalan for canvas pics. POOLE ROAD (i think)

ElderberrySyrup · 17/10/2011 18:34

If you have set the price right at 249 950 it might be ok for it to be fixed, but it's a big if. The most important thing to do is to see what the sold prices are in the area for similar properties - Zoopla is a good site for this - you have probably already done this. (Some people seem to set their price according to everyone else's asking prices, which is of course fraught with danger given that right now asking prices are going up while actual selling prices are going down.)

I personally would probably not have a fixed price, and wait and see what the market says, but if you absolutely can't afford to move unless you get the price you want, it makes more sense.

Mandy21 · 17/10/2011 19:17

I think you need to make more of the downstairs in the photos - to be honest, the living space looks small for a 4 bedroomed house. You need photos of the whole of the dining / living room (to show its a very big room) and a photo of the conservatory too to demonstrate that it is in fact a reception room. For 4 bedrooms, even if the lounge was a very big room, I'd be looking for a second reception room so I'd want to think I'd get that with the conservatory. It looks very nice but completely bland (have you got something against pictures on the wall ;-0??). If you put some touches / colour into it and get the photos re-done, it would look much better.

I don't think the price is too much of an issue to be honest - I think most buyers when looking at a property anywhere between £250k and £275k will automatically presume that you'll accept an offer at £250k or less. Your agent is giving you poor advice though so I'd definitely consider changing.

RunforFun · 18/10/2011 12:37

Like wahwah says squat down on your knees to take the photos.

The photos are currently uninspiring.

Melindaaa · 19/10/2011 15:50

All tips duly noted, thanks everyone.

Have started putting your advice into practice. We have added flowers to the dining table, flowers in the hall, and a bowl of fruit and a family photo in the kitchen.

New curtains and cushions with a bit of colour should be arriving in the next day or two, along with a pretty canvas art for above the sofa. We have removed the footstool from the front room, centralised the sofa, and added a big leafy plant. We have also added one of the babies' cute mamas and papas toy rockers to the room to liven it up a bit.

We have moved one of the wooden dressers from the front room upstairs, in place of the computer desk in the main bedroom.

We have had two viewings today, and another booked for this evening, and another booked for Saturday. Fingers crossed!

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Melindaaa · 19/10/2011 15:54

FimBoooo, the patio area you mention outside the back door isn't dangerous as such, but it is fairly ugly. We have had a quote of £4000 to deck it all to make it level, and put a fence and gates on it. This is next on our to-do list if all else fails, however you can understand why it's not on our priority list.

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FimBOOOOOO · 21/10/2011 17:14

Ah see it comes back to the photos again, that area to me looked as though it was raised. But now having seen what you have said and gone back to examine (!) the photo I realise it's not. No, I wouldn't bother doing anything with it, but I would try to maybe have the photograph taken from where the gates are to just show the lawn and the homeoffice. Good luck

Melindaaa · 29/10/2011 18:22

Not sure if it was all your tips that helped, but we have sold subject to contract! Yay!

We got pretty close to the price we wanted after the buyer came in ridiculously low the first few times, but I suppose she had to try.

We, in turn nmade a crazy offer on a house priced at offers in excess of £235,000. Can't believe it was accepted, but I made it fairly clear that it was my only offer and if it was rejected then I had another house I'd peruse.

So, hopefully we will be on the move soon. It will be lovely to go from one bathroom/toilet to four toilets, a family bathroom and two en suites. I'm already designing the new kitchen!

OP posts:
DelGirl · 30/10/2011 09:47

Smile where are you moving to?

leeloo1 · 30/10/2011 12:49

Congratulations! That's fantastic news! Shows a bit of staging can pay off. Grin

Wow - all those bathrooms. I hope you're stocking up on Domestos now. Wink

Melindaaa · 30/10/2011 14:54

We are moving to Sturminster Newton, DelGirl. If you look on Rightmove, it's the 5/6 bedroom house on Honeymead Lane.

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DelGirl · 30/10/2011 18:15

lovely, good prices too. I'd quite like to move that way too if I come back to the uk, good luck Smile

tawse57 · 30/10/2011 22:23

Come on Melindaaa, after all the support on here go on, tell us, what cheeky offer did you make and get accepted?

Melindaaa · 31/10/2011 06:19

I feel a bit embarrassed to say, because I really do love the house and it will make a perfect home for us (we have 6 children, 5 still living at home). There really is another house we would have offered on, but it wasn't nearly as big or flexible as this one.

We plan to knock the kitchen through to the dining room and make it one big kitchen/diner/family room. The front room downstairs will become the children's play room/games room/etc. and the second front room on the first floor will be our official lounge. I also want the wall between the kitchen door and the dining room door knocked down so there are no doors, just a really big gap and make that room the focus of our family life.

We are going to dig up the shrubs at the front and put down large shingle, and the garden will be initially decked with a shingly area for the dog and no grass, just pot plants and maybe a small flowerbed where we can throw our seeds of wild flowers. We aren't gardeners, obviously! In the long term we will probably get a full length conservatory put up but won't be able to afford that for a few years.

Any way, here is the link to the house www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-17197755.html?premiumA=true and we offered £223,500. my husband and I initially agreed to go in even lower (he wanted £220,000) but I felt bad even making an offer like that.

I still feel that what will be, will be. There is a bit of a chain this end, of I think four/five people so it could all go wrong. If it does, I still adore the house I live in and we will stay here.

OP posts:
Annanymous · 01/11/2011 03:38

Melindaaa well congratulations, but to be honest it's not really a "crazy offer" that you made. It's less then £12k which is less than 5%.

Melindaaa · 01/11/2011 07:19

It was on the market at offers over £235,000 so presumably they were initially looking for more than that? We are happy anyway, just hope the sellers aren't too out of pocket.

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Annanymous · 01/11/2011 07:43

Well you can find out how much they paid for it here (not that that makes a difference). Rightmove house prices

Melindaaa · 01/11/2011 08:10

Thanks, can't believe I hadn't seen that part of the Right Move website before. Seems they paid £250,000 for it, 5 years ago.

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FimBOOOOOO · 03/11/2011 11:33

I live in a detached house not that unlike the one you are moving to (congrats btw!) and we paid 285 nearly 5 years ago. We would be lucky to get 240 for it now, so I think your vendors have done not too badly. Lots of luck with the move.

Melindaaa · 03/11/2011 12:09

Well, as with most house moves, it has all gone pear shaped this end.

Despite the mortgage company verbally confirming that changing the mortgage to a new property would be possible, because my husband has only been self employed since March, we are unable to get a mortgage on a different property until he has at least one full year of accounts prepared.

I am really disappointed. I can't believe we got such a great price for ours, actually need a LOWER mortgage, and our income is actually HIGHER than it has ever been and we can't do anything.

Why can't the mortgage company look at our figures and treat us as individuals instead of a blanket 'no'. So frustrating.

OP posts:
FimBOOOOOO · 03/11/2011 17:43

Could you not try a financial advisor?

Becaroooo · 04/11/2011 09:19

Try a broker asap

London and Country are good

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