Lots of viewings but no offers

[lottielou02]

Hi,

I've had my house on the market since August and have had lots of viewings but no offers as of yet. I dropped the price by £5k at the beginning of the year already to account for the fact I don't have central heating, and am offering to have it fitted depending on offers, but I'm not sure what I should do now. The general comments have been positive, that people like the house but they have found another they prefer. I would really appreciate any comments anyone has...

The link is www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34862005.html

Thanks!

Lottie

Get rid of all of the wheelie bins from outside.

Get rid of everything from under the beds and on top of wardrobes. Shows you have no storage.

The white goods in the kitchen are badly placed. It looks like you need to walk round them to get into the next room.

Get rid of the teddies, dolls house etc in the lounge.

Get new photos taken. Looks a nice bright property though.

I don't know your area. How quick are properties going under offer?

Can you move the arm chair to under the window, to avoid blocking the front door?

wow that is cheap. I'd try and have the pictures in a logical order , ie front/lounge/kitchen as if someone were viewing. Do you really walk in onto side of sofa ? It is all very neutral and perhaps lacking a little warmth - splashes of coloured accessories, pictures and plants perhaps. Are the pictures recent or from last summer , may be worth an update to refresh.

Thank you so much for your replies, its great to get other peoples take on it, lots of ideas I've not heard before. I'll definitely try rearranging furniture in the lounge and kitchen, and try and move some of my storage things! Great ideas thank you, and I will try moving the dolls house out the lounge. Hopefully the EA will take new photos then, with the bins out the way.

I don't think things are moving especially fast here, unless they are projects etc. But a lot of others seem quite pricey!

Thank you so much again!

I agree with Greg, but I would also say it might be overpriced, when you have this in the same street for the same price but with C/H.

I think the furniture is bizarrely arranged, e.g. you open the front door and are faced with the end of the sofa. Could you move it a bit forward, so the back of the sofa forms a kind of corridor and makes the living room seem cosier? It looks empty and soulless in the picture.

Bedrooms - can you turn the beds so the headboards are against the wall rather than one side of the bed? Not great to climb over someone to get in and out of bed.

Front garden - I realise this is your only garden but do you really eat out there? Seems too public and odd, might be more attractive with nice plants.

Bathroom nice - squeeze to get to the sink but too expensive to rearrange.

Kitchen bland again.

Are you living in this house? Lack of warmth I think - blank wall above fireplace, blank walls in kitchen, bedrooms. What about some nice pictures or mirrors that you can take with you? and twigs and pebbly shit

The pictures on the website are completely out of order and illogical. Ring your agent and ask them to be re-arranged.
Picture 10, of thew house comes first, surely
Picture 2 and 3, of the kitchen are the same, so silly to have 2. Then go to lounge. (you've got bedroom, lounge, bedroom- crazy) .then bathroom (important to some). then bedrooms.

I hadn't really thought about the order of the pictures - good point. Yes, we had the sofa there to try and help us stop the cat escaping, but will definitely try and move it! And I can try and add a little more colour no problem.

Its difficult with the pricing, the one down the road is a developer who bought it very cheap, and put it on to match my price. I think if I lower the price, he will too.

When we came to view our current place, it was very bare. It had furniture, but the bare minimum. 1 sofa in a huge living room, a tv and dining table, the master bedroom the double bed and 1 bedside table, the childrens bedroom, just the beds, no toys. There was no clutter, no pictures, nothing that wasn't absolute necessary in each room and made it much easier to picture my things in here.
For that reason, I prefer the pictures of the house that Leopard posted.
Also, I'd like to see a better picture of the outside of your house. Possibly taken from across the street and from a better angle.
Your house is lovely, but I'd try to move out everything that wasn't bare essential to the room.
I know others have said about it looking bland and needs some colour, but for me, I like it bare so i can see how and where I'd add my own stamp iyswim.

I don't know anything about the area, but there are so many houses for sale in a very small area. Both this and this are the same price. The first looks nicer, has CH and a more enclosed garden which looks usable. The second has 3 bedrooms, all on the same floor, a back garden and CH, it might be a bit close to a main road. I think you are lucky to be getting viewings.

I'm no help at all but I knew exactly where your house was before I saw the address. ExH's grandmother lived just round the corner. I love those houses but I always feel sad that so many are bought by landlords for student accomodation.

I love the table & chairs & the pots outside.

If you compare the rightmove ads for your house and the one refurbished by the developer:

From the search results:

Yours is terraced, theirs is end of terrace.

Yours says "Great dining kitchen for entertaining.."

The other says "William H Brown are delighted to offer for sale this two double bedroom mid terrace property, which has been fully refurbished and is situated in a popular and convenient location, with access to local amenities and commuter transport links. An internal inspection is a must to fully appreciate."

Yours has a picure of the kitchen diner as the cover photo, which is a little underwhelming as it's key selling feature.

Theirs is a photo of the front of the house - I find this more normal, I tend to wonder what is being hidden if it isn't used as the first picture.

On the individual listing yours mentions back to back and over 4 floors. I know this is true for both houses, but the other doesn't mention it. I am not sure if it would be better not to mention it as it may put off viewers, but arguably they would be timewasters if they didn't realise and were put off.

I would remove "ideal starter home" from your listing as it is really up to purchasers what they want it for, you don't need to narrow down the people it is "ideal" for. It would be an ideal buy-to-let, second home or downsizing after the end of a relationship home too.

I think its really hard striking the balance between the blank canvas that some people like, but others don't, and keeping the house looking friendly and homely, and still having everything around to still be living there (the house Leopard posted has no one living there as it is a property developer). And its really interesting seeing how there are contrasting opinions. Thank you again to everyone for their help. I will have to think how to declutter but add some warmer touches at the same time maybe.

Grockle - I know, Im sad to be selling and have considered renting my house out instead. My road seems to have less students over the years and is lovely and quiet so I really like it. Thank you for the positive comments about the garden. I think its nice to make the most of what there is, and like being out there.

Breatheslowly, many thanks for your comments - this is really helpful. Up until now I have just gone with what the EA has said, but will ask them to update the details. Totally agree about the starter home comment and I was gutted when they changed the details so the kitchen line was the only description - it felt like they couldn't be bothered spending the time writing anything. Many thanks!

Lottie, it looks to me like it might be over-priced, unless property prices in Leeds/Burley are rising, unlike other parts of W. Yorks... Precious sales on your street

I agree with flow4. Did you buy it for £83k in 2011? What have you done to it since? If you have done things to it to to improve it, then it should have a "tastefully redecorated in neutral tones throughout in the last two years by the current owners" or similar. Also I think I would remove the "basement" from the kitchen diner description and possibly include a photo of the kitchen showing the window as it looks quite bright.

The agent is there to work for you. I don't know how long you have been with the agent, but you could consider moving to another agent. Alternatively rewrite the details and instruct the agent to change them. We insisted on being able to veto and reword the details for our last house and it was well worth it.

I bought it off my parents, so bought it very cheap, as it was all I could afford, so it does worry me now when people see this. I have decorated, and fitted the bathroom since.

Yes its lovely and bright in the kitchen, I will get them to remove basement, good plan. I am starting to wonder about changing agents. Talking to other people though and no one seems to have anything positive to say about any of them!

I'm not sure it is so important to change the photos if you are getting lots of viewings as they clearly aren't putting people off coming. But once people actually get to the house something is putting them off. I would go for a bug declutter personally.

Ah Yes a bug declutter, and maybe even a big declutter too!

I just mean get rid of the dolls house and whatever it is by the front door near the sofa so it feels even more spacious. And maybe just go for doing the central heating if you are offering.to do it anyway.

Yes, I wondered about that too. It has been so cold for so long this winter that people might find the lack of heating really off-putting. Is your house warm or chilly to walk into? I think if it's chilly, you'll lose buyers.

If you can afford to do the heating the you should go for it as you can use it until you sell too. It is a bit of a shame that you didn't buy for more with your parents giving you the difference. However the redeveloped one also looks a bit over priced as the cost of the work done plus a reasonable profit margin wouldn't account for the difference. What % of advertised sales price do things actually sell for and what were you hoping to get?

I think you need a new EA!!
And to drop the price.

Put in central heating and make the sitting room look more homely. In perspective I know that the big 30s semis are struggling to go for more that £150k in Upper Armley and they have nice gardens and garages and are still v close to central Leeds so you might be a teeny bit overpriced.

Your house looks lovely and well presented.

Two things would put me off coming to view/buying if I did view, the lack of a back garden (an assumption based on the fact that you have a table and chairs at the front) and the door opening straight into the living room.

Practical things you can do -

living room: move the table by the door, put a large mirror on the fireplace, can one of the sofas go under the window and make the room look larger? Looking at the floor plan, can the TV not go in the space next to the wall separating the stairs?

In picture 7, can you temporarily move the boxes under the bed as it makes me think there is not enough storage space.