Open House this weekend - what should I do to make someone want my house??

[MadameCastafiore]

We're not going to be here - is going to be just the estate agent.

Would you prefer if you went to an open house for the sellers to be there??

Would you leave drinks out and maybe a tray of cakes?

Ideas please ladies (and gents)

this is our house.

Your house is lovely but it is a difficult market at the moment and you do have to make yours stand out above all similar sized and priced houses in the area.

I have actually been watching a phil spencer programme this week where he helps people with houses that havent sold as quick as they like, and holds open houses after a few changes have been made. The main thing he keeps telling the vendors is to clear as much personal items away as they can ( teddies, toys, reduce photos etc) just for the open day, so that every room is as clutter free and spacious as possible, make sure it is spotless (which from your photos i can see will not be an issue), and dress the rooms as buyers like to see what function each room has, so i would probably lay the table with a vase of flowers and 4 place settings as if for a dinner party etc. Apparently according to him, buyers are looking for a lifestyle aswell as a house so that is why they like to see how each room can be used so they can see themselves with that lifestyle, IYSWIM.

I think the suggestions of a PP of clearing toiletries from the bathroom and dressing it with a few towels is good, as is a FAQ leaflet where you can mention the good schools etc.

I hope this info is of use and my watching of daytime tv while recovering from an op has not been a complete waste of time

The adjoining rooms are your problem, sorry.

It is a stunner of a house, truly. It looks like it has a wonderful atmosphere, it is beautifully presented (decorated in the kind of way that makes me think 'I wish I had as much style and taste as the people who did that!') and it is well-priced for a 4 bedder.
BUT if you have not just one but 2 sets of adjoining rooms, people will not be thinking of it as a 4 bedroom house so most people won't want to pay that price for it.

I should think most people could put up with one bedroom being reached through another because they might have a use for it where it doesn't matter (children's room/study/dressing room) but not many people can live with that for 2 of their 4 bedrooms and tbh it is not that common for 2 to be like that.

I read recently that sellers tend to underestimate the negative effects of things like that because they have learnt to live with them themselves, but buyers will be not only worried about living with it, but also worried that it will make it harder for them to sell the house in future. Could this be what you are doing?

Lovely house and agree with the points made by the others about the teddy, drums and conservatory etc..

Being ultra picky would also decluter the sitting room - straighten the cushions, remove the basket thing in front of the window, pull the curtains back a bit to get more light in and tidy up the bookcase so you only have a fews things on each shelf.

Hope this helps - getting our place ready to go on the market so know the pain of decluttering well!!!

Am still reading and taking heed ladies.

The adjoining rooms have never been a problem for us but I can see that it may be for others - DS is used to DD going through his room as he has never known anu different - we don;t get the issue of kids shuoting that the other kid is in their room because there is no choice!

WIll get rid of a lot of photos and perdsonal stuff and put lots of diffuser smelly things to dot around.

Anything else???

Is there any way a future buyer could reconfigure the access? If the agent was able to say to people 'You could always move the door if you wanted more privacy...' it might help; it is such a fall-in-love-with-able house that you could well find a buyer who was willing to do that.

The adjoining rooms may be an issue for some people - BUT, I have just looked at the 'street view' - 'cause I am nosey! [hsmile] and noticed there is a bus stop just down from the house and an Indian Restaurant opposite. Obviously you can't do anything about these, but as a PP said, make sure the EA sells the positive points i.e big rooms, lovely garden etc as I think the bus stop and restaurant opposite may put people off.

That said tho, it has SO many positives - it wouldn't put me off!! [hgrin]

You could put doors where the built-in cupboards are couldn't you? You'd have to lose a bit of bedroom two but if it really bothered people, it's possible.

I used to live very close to you indeed (West Street!) and agree that the layout of your house isn't that unusual for the area and age of the house.

I totally agree that having parking is a huge bonus in the area, so I'd stress this and the handiness of the fantastic schools above all else. I'd also add into any fact sheet that the shops/library/swimming pool/nursery etc is within 5 minutes walk.

Really minor point - a tall or big bunch of flowers in the middle of the table in the middle of the room will stop the eye of the viewer seeing to the far side of the room, as the eye is drawn to the flowers, and this makes the room feel smaller. Keep the flowers to the edge of the room or really low down on the table, or put a shallow bowl of limes or lemons there instead if you want some colour on the table.

Without knowing which walls are structural its hard to say, but it does look like you could steal from the bedrooms next to the stairs to make a corridor to sort out the access. You could possibly get a builder round to give you an idea of possibilty and cost and then tell potential buyers that although it doesn't bother you atm, you have looked into it and it could be done and cost x might just swing them round.
We did this in a house we owned which had only a downstairs bathroom and it worked out there

You have a nice house, but as others have said its a difficult market and you have to be realistic if you want / need to sell.

Is your price sensible ? Obviously its a bit over the stamp duty threshold which puts some off. But its only a couple of thousand in duty, could you offer that you paid that to the potential buyer ? I have seen a number of houses where they are offering to do this.

If you have a dog. Wash him, and wash the room and keep windows open for a few days. Even if you think he doesn't smell. He will.

I have a dog myself but notice other peoples dogs smell in their homes. I went to view a footballers house the other morning. It looked lovely from the pictures but golly I had to hold my nose when we went into the kitchen !!

Agree with the comment on curtains, blinds open or roll them up to expose the maximum amount of light. And declutter, but i think this is less important in childrens bedrooms. I had a lol at all the remotes on the table !

I would stage your dresser in the kitchen a bit more. Interspace the books with the ornaments on all three shelves.

Put some lovely towels on the towel rail in the bathroom and DO NOT LET ANYONE USE THEM.

What are those ping pong balls on the kitchen table light for ?

Oh and make the conservatory more appealing as a room. Set it out with a table and put a newspaper neatly folded up on it to give the impression that you sit and leisurely read in there and its not the dog space !!

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

yes, definitely what CMOT said - get builder round. Then make sure the info is in the specs (it could say 'currently accessed through bedroom 2 but with potential to create separate access' or similar).

Beautiful downstairs and garden, and very well presented.

The front being directly on the pavement would be a small downside for me, and agree the Indian restaurant and the bus-stop would also make me apprehensive although you can put a positive spin on these.

The biggest issue would be the bedrooms. Looking at the floorplan I think it would be possible to make a hallway by taking a slice of bedroom 1 and maybe also a corner of bedroom 2. Have you had anybody quote for this to be done? Might be worth it so that if people raise this as a problem you can give them a solution and a rough costing. People generally overestimate how much these things cost, but if you could tell them it would only cost £x and be x days of work it might make them more keen.

Just realised that in the time it took me to post other people had the same idea re builder! Oh well, at least it means it wasn't a mad idea!

I am sure the access to the bedrooms could be changed although we have an acrhitect look at it and they thought it would end up that we would lose too much floor space in DS's room. Houseis listed too which makes this an issue!!

WIll send the dog to the groomers on Friday and will get the cleaner to disinfect the conservatory when she comes.

WIll go and get a few big boxes and do a clear out too - well a clear away, will take on board what you have said about flowers not being in the centre of the room and curtains and toillettries and towels.

Blimey - am off work with a virus at the moment - think I will have to do this even if I feel rubbish won't I!

Am going to get rid of lots of the books - DHs Art History ones and lots of my cookbooks I think a ns just store them away in the garage.

Will also take down a lot of the pictures well photos and the rubbish that is hanging around.

Have a man doing some work on next doors wall in our garden at the moment and don't want to go down stairs and have to talk to him and make him tea etc - especially as am in my PJs but really not much I can do upstairs - well could start getting rid of some stuff when my head stops spinning and my limbs stop aching.

hmm, if listed then different kettle of fish re changing access - you would need to apply for listed building consent which of course can take months, so worth doing if you're likely to be on market for ages but hopefully you won't be.

It doesn't seem to mention the listing on the specs, not sure if that's an oversight or deliberate?

I will mention it to DH Elderberrysyrup but we did look into it and it is almost impossible unless you put a sstairrcase from the playroom into DDs bedroom.

Have purchased throws and cushions and have moved lots of pictures into a cupboard and lots of books and bits and bobs.

Suppose other than making everywhere clean and smelling nice there is not much that I can do.

Well throws and cushions came and I made conservatory look nice and friendly (have actually used it since more than we have during the years we have been here!)

I went to Waitrose for the morning as couldn't stand being here, I get a bit arsey if people are not terribly nice about the home that I love.

Two couples came, an older couple who just want to move house, DH showed them round and he said they really seemed to like it and a younger couple (older than us but younger than the old ones IYKWIM) and they had one child so the adjoining bedrooms wouldn;t be a problem - they really liked it too apparently.

So fingers crossed will have happy news on Monday.

Thanks guys - the clearing stuff out (photos etc) and the making the conservatory a nicer room and getting rid of Big Ted really seems to have made a difference!

Ooh, good luck. I love a good before and after photo, go on, please put some after pictures up.

Hey - i've stayed in that house!!! Madame are you moving????? Did i tell you we eventually moved to SE London ........ and our daughter, you remember has started school! I was just talking about you all the other day .... hope you well .... (ps if you have forgotten we met in italy!)

brilliant, good luck!

I don't know if it has been said, but what about a fire burning I. The grate?
can you tell I live in freezing Scotland?

Make sure the EA don't rush people out, I hate that when I'm looking at houses. It's such a big purchase and big decision, and it's so hard to make a decision after seeing a house for a rushed 8 minutes. If people like it they will want to spend more time. Also I'd make sure the EAs are telling people it's listed- you don't want to have buyers back out later in the process obviously...

They were both here for about 45 minutes fussy.

Sad that they have not given any feedback today - they both seemed so interested - or so DH said!