Selling home: Tips to attract viewers?

[Tau]

We want to sell our house. It's been on the market for about a month now, and we've only had one viewing. I guess we should drop the price, but we can't go to low or we won't be able to afford another decent home!
There is another house for sale around the corner, very similar to ours and a bit nicer inside, but not on such a nice spot, but it's on for less than ours and hasn't sold in a year! Soooo.. I'm a tad worried there.
Our house is lovely (in my opinion) as is the location. It's advertised on rightmove.
Any ideas how we can get more viewers?
First, of course, is to lower the price. But what else?

Quite agree with everyone else, the photos would put me off viewing unless I was desperate. You need about half the number of pics and those done need to be much better - professional quality with good use of light.

I chose my estate agent based on their online pictures - it really does get people through the door if the pics are good. A good real estate photographer will also dress (or undress) the room a bit to show off the rooms to best advantage. This might involve moving some plants to make the rooms look lighter and bigger, unplugging appliances and hiding cords, etc. One friend had the photographer move one of the cots out of her children's bedroom to show the room off to the best advantage. You're paying your estate agent a large sum, make them earn it.

The other thing is to make the house as spartan as you can - about half of our flat is in storage waiting for us to move. Inconvenient, but we had a good offer within a few days (admittedly in the south east, but I think our dressing of the house really helped, we had more than 20 viewings in the first few days.

Oh dear, it seems the pictures are not doing well at all. Good, we will contact the agent and have pictures retaken. I will also de-clutter the kitchen for the photo, and move some of my plants out of the sitting room.

Heading to ikea won't work though.... there are no things like that over here. It'll have to be poundland.
Although I shudder at the idea of buying new bedding and curtains ... I just got rid of loads!

And yeah, we have been told that the thing in the back is an Anderson shelter. I'm not convinced, but unsure what else it would be... it's amazing for storage though!

If I don't see a bathroom photo I usually presume it needs completely updating? You could try taking your own photos and send them to estate agent, the address of estate agents is miles away, just wondered if that affects the service you get?

The man who took the pics just ran about, rushing, and took pics in a few seconds. In the sitting room pic my partner was on the sofa, so he wanted to get up and get out of the picture, but the photographer told him to stay seated, and that he'd just take a picture without my partner on it - which meant without the sofa too. I thought that was a bit odd, but assumed he knew what he was doing. Apparently he wasn't?

Is this the one that hasn't sold for a year?

I purposely used an estate agent that was on the next street so I could pop in anytime. The photos they took were fab, so good I wondered why I was selling.

I didn't declutter as much as I should have done.

I did take down my washing line.

Ilikebirds, yes, that is the one. Any ideas why that wouldn't sell? It looks tidier and better done up than ours, doesn't it? It should sell, really?

The estate agent we are with is an online one. We have had a few local ones over, and one quite impressed me but not my partner. One was a bit of an idiot, so he was out of the question immediately. The others seemed okay, but we have heard negative things about them, that they are not trying and such.

Washing lines down - yes.. that would help too!

Dunelm Mill?
TK Mazz/Home sense?

I live 1.5 hours from Ikea. We make a day of it

Pictures are awful.

Your kitchen looks cluttered & I think there are far too many house plants around the place - especially the ones on windowsills that block the light.

Picture 13 just shows a bed with a not amazing cover on it?? Why??

I think you need to move quite a few of the plants, declutter & get some new pictures taken. And I don't think you need as many pics as are in that spec.

I only have a few pictures. Kitchen, ensuite, dining room, living room. Front of house, garden, and one of the view from the front. The kitchen looks great but wish i had moved a couple things such as the bin.

It'll be more likely ebay. I am not a proper woman; I resent shopping.
We don't have a car so I'd have to carry all the bedding and curtains on the train with me.

I have some blue-and-white striped bedding though, wouldn't that be good enough?

You need to declutter everywhere. Clear surfaces in the kitchen, plants off the windowsill. We sold our house a couple of years ago and I went round with the agent taking stuff off the surfaces for the photos and putting it back after . It really will make a huge difference to the photos

Every time we had a viewing I hid all the stuff on the surfaces in the kitchen and bathroom.

hope you get some interest soon.

Cornwall is a great place to live but from Penzance to the closest Ikea in Bristol is probably about 4/4.5 hrs

Agree with comments re pictures. They don't show the rooms as spacious and airy, lighting is patchy and focus on odd angles. Take the washing line down and remove any clutter/furniture as EA takes them so there is a clear line of sight in each picture. Beddings should be ironed and fresh ! Flowers and a tidy front are a must. Sometimes fewer, more enticing pictures will attract more viewings than a host of odd ones.

I agree with the others, the photos are really gloomy and don't show your house in a good light.

When I'm looking at houses I get to the kitchen and if that looks bad I don't bother looking any further, as the kitchen is the most expensive room to put right. I'd concentrate your efforts more on that room than the others.

Your house looks cold and uncomfortable. Try and make it look a bit more cosy and welcoming. Look at great interiors online for inspiration. You can do loads with a beautiful set of curtains, paint, cushions and flowers. Simplicity is key I think.

first, proof-read the description and rewrite it totally, rather than using the monkey that appears to have written it.

Blunders include:
'a white modern-looking' ...what? 'does not a door'. 'comprising of', 'nice' (never use that word, meaningless!). Left and right depend on which way you are facing, and are not relevant. Remove comment about unlockable outbuilding, just refer to it as a covered space.

'well worth viewing to see the potential' - implies your house needs a rework. It looks clean and freshly decorated to me but most people won't read past the first sentence.

location - too much babble, cut that right down.

the photos: taken mostly in sun which is good, but I agree too much of the outside. One photo is there twice! Given that estate agents usually use wide-angle lenses which make rooms look bigger - the terrible photos make your rooms look really small.

Kitchen surfaces should be bare for the photo, and it looks like you don't have a cooker. Also remove all the hanging stuff which says 'not enough storage'

boxes under desks also shout 'not enough storage'. Third bedroom looks really cluttered, get rid of those boxes. Hang your curtains properly and pull bed covers really straight.

a clothes peg is the main feature of one garden photo. Get the line down and get a photo that doesn't show quite as much of the lawn.

try that - and then you may have to look at a lower price.

good luck - it looks a nice house being shown at a real disadvantage.

Make sure the new photographer uses a wide angle lens or you are doomed. They made our tiny cottage look huge on the photos. The photographer also moved our crap kids stuff so it looked better.

IRONING my bedding?? . Lol! Honestly, that didn't even occur to me.
We shall talk to the estate agent, declutter, tidy and see if the estate agent has a proper photographer - otherwise we'll have to take the pictures ourselves.

By the way - what did you think of the written description? It was total rubbish at first, so I wrote an email to the estate agent with suggestions of some things he could put in it, and he just copied full paragraphs of my long-winded, rambling, disorganized email and pasted them over/in the original description.

Now it's time to go to bed. Thanks for all the ideas. I'll visit this thread again tomorrow - so if you have more input, please let me know!

you'll see what I thought of the description!

it's got better??? Wow.

you are paying these clowns. At the moment you are being ripped off.

the written descriptions is duff Oh dear...I would seriously consider re listing with a better agent.

Oww, I missed your post, specialsubject. Yeah, some of the 'monkey-write' is what the estate agent copy/pasted from my email with suggestions (not the language errors though). My partner thought it was fine -still thinks so- but obviously I was right to be horrified! I'll write a proper sales pitch; perhaps the estate agent will give me a job!
Taking pictures will be a problem if a wide-angle lens is necessary; we don't have that. So the estate agent will have to do better and send us a proper photographer.

I think that if I refer them to this thread they may be quite willing to do better... AND give me that pitch-writing job. Thinking about it, I also know a great photographer who could use a job....

Now I do have to go to bed, really!

I meant iron them for photos ! They are only useful to get people in the door , then you have to show off the house itself. Or get a cover you bring out only for viewings . I always amazes me how messy the beds are shown on TV property programmes, and washing up , toys , garden stuff etc.

Apart from agreeing with everyone else: what exactly are you getting for the £££££s you will pay the estate agent if you ever sell? You aren't getting good photos. You aren't getting any viewings so they clearly aren't marketing it correctly (or alternatively they should be telling you loud and clear that the price is definitely wrong). You aren't getting a coherently written description. If you take your own pictures, and re-write the description, you might as well just sell it privately.

You don't go into Sainsbury's and expect to pop out the back, harvest your own corn, grind it into flour and then make a loaf of bread with it, before paying £10 for the privilege of buying the loaf!

I can't believe that no one has mentioned that the predominant feature of picture 11 appears to be A SNAKE! That would seriously have put my DH off viewing somewhere when we were buying. Even a fake snake.

Picture 4 - unnecessary.

Picture 19 - just looks like you are really cramped between your neighbours. Unnecessary photo.

And totally agree that you just need to remove as much as possible to make it look less cluttered and like you are bursting out of the seams. Message given = this house is far too small and we don't have enough room for everything.

It does look like a decent house if you are feeling like looking past the awful pictures and description...