Trying to sell our property and would welcome some constructive criticism/ Feedback

[dtyzer]

Hi Everyone. I'm new on here, albeit have read previous posts from others. We are going through the dreadful period of trying to sell our property and wanted to try and obtain some additional feedback as to why we have had no viewers at all. We have had the house on the market since the start of August, thinking that we would have had at least a couple of viewings, but since going on the market we haven't had a peep.

Our house is in the middle of a village where the majority of properties are smaller terraced houses so if you were to do a property value on zoopla the average comes out pretty low in comparison to the estate agent valuations.

We had 6 estate agents see the property and went with the top end figure that we had from most of them.

I was wondering if anyone would be kind enough to give their opinion on the matter to see if there is anything more that we could possibly do to help move things along.

The property is listed here www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-27688524.html?premiumA=true

Thanks in advance

I like it a lot. Is it in a good catchment area?

Their response wasn't the best I must admit, stating that the small changes we have done wouldn't make a difference in selling the property.

Sounds like you have a completely useless estate agent. The definitely haven't shown it to it's best advantage. It is nowhere close to selling because they haven't got anyone through the door !

I would either ditch them, or put a rocket up them. Agree if they get a sale in the next 4 weeks they get and extra 1% on the fee. If they don't, you will change agents. And insist on decent photos. You need to make the estate agent earn their fee !

We did this with mum's house, and reworded the blurb, changed the photos - and it made a huge difference. We did have to lower the price - but it was a much harder house to sell than yours and in the middle of the recession.

Hi manitz

We know about the other property being near to us and bigger for the same price, however (we were told) that we are more in the centre of the village with pubs, shops being a minutes walk. We are also opposite virtually to a very sought after primary school (we have heard of people moving within Gee Cross just to get kids into the school :)

Bedroom 4 is actually a good size (just long and thin) as opposed to being a box room. Again I don't think the photo does it justice. It also doesn't held not having a good photo or measurements. If anything I would have said that the room in the middle, Bedroom 3, is more the box room as this is smaller than bedroom 4.

I agree with taking some new photos and then having them added in the right order on rightmove ie outside; then door, then hallway etc etc. They are all in a funny order at the moment and far too many duplicates.
It is a lovely house so, aside from the price (and poss a crap agent) I can't see much else that is keeping people away

firsttimemama

We have actually stated to the Estate Agents what we need price wise and if anything if it were at 300k and we got that then great. We originally thought that having it higher would at least give us the usually haggling room that everyone usually does when buying (as daft as that sounds)

cross post Oscar!

You have a lovely home.

From a selling point of view though, I agree with others who have said to remove the fence that cuts the front of the house in half. Also I would get rid of some of the less flattering photos and just have fewer photos. The ones of your son's bedroom do the room no favours.

I think you need to be firmer with your agent, or the next agent if you change. They are selling you a service, for which you will pay dearly. Therefore, if you want to use different photos, they should happily go along with that. I also think you should change agents, and take it off the market for a couple of weeks - give you time to remove that fence!

Could you arrange an open day/weekend for viewings?

I don't know the area but I'd want an en suite and a proper downstairs cloakroom for that sort of money. 4 Bedrooms with one very nice bathroom and a loo in the utility room would put me off. Otherwise the house is very nice.

Only an internal viewing can appreciate the standard and size of this property.

The kiss of death ! Talk about damning with faint praise ! It makes it sound like it looks awful from the outside, and coupled with the photo, you think - geeze - I wouldn't pay that for it no matter how big it is inside !

If it's the one I think it is (judging by the car in the drive way being the same !) - it actually looks like a really characterful, interesting and charming house in a great location. They couldn't have picked a more unflattering photo if they tried.

On streetview it also looks like a new outbuilding in the drive area ?

Would definitely benefit from a plan of the whole site.

Hi gamerchick

The toilet is actually in the utility room. It originally had a shower etc. in there but we moved the washer and dryer into that room as it was quite a large room. Again the photos don't show the room well. We have loads of cupboards in the just adding to the storage to the house (coats, hoover etc.)

Hi throckenholt

The streetview was from 2009. The outhouse was in fact a really small garage that served no real purpose bar for a dumping ground. We also could only just squeeze two cars on the drive. We had the garage and the whole driveway rebuilt with new steps leading to the front door.

If you actually look at the house on google maps from above it gives you a better idea of the layout of the land.

Hi DialMforMummy

Its a fantastic area actually. Ive been here for over 10 years and the house we want to buy is only down the road.

The place has a fantastic feel to it. Great pubs etc, and we are just below a place called Werneth Low which is fantastic for the views and dog walks.

It is down to one thing and one thing only. Price. It is obviously too high. Nothing to do with photos, or changing this or that, as you have a very nice house deed.

Unfortunately you need to accept that your house is on too high. So high that it is actually putting people off even looking at it.

Hi manitz

The cellar is in fact a half cellar (If that's what you call it) drops down to allow space for usual cellar stuff along with an additional freezer and access to the underneath of the property.

If photos were taken again I don't think it would really show its worth.

Ultimately we bought the house when sadly an old chap had died. It had been on the market for over a year mainly due to the amount of work that it needed. We saw the potential so gutted the whole thing. New walls, floors ceilings, roof, electrics, plumbing as well as landscaping the front and back. We have only been there 8 years so there is still more to do such as more planting to the garden (bit gain the photos aren't great)

I think there is a running theme here!!!! note to self, must change photos!!! :)

I would ditch the agent or introduce a second one. They've had long enough.

Centre of village location, good school within a short walk, shops, pub etc - there is no mention of any of this in the blurb.

Re price - sometimes you want to go a bit lower and get lots of people in the door and hope for a bidding war, but it sounds like it is pitched a little too high for this. Given you have had no viewings at all I would meet with a selection of alternative estate agents and discuss exactly what their marketing strategy would be to achieve your target price.
I agreed a 1% fee with my last estate agent, with a 1.5% fee if they achieved above a certain level. We sold 25k above our advertised price... which might have happened anyway but we all walked away from the deal feeling quite pleased.

Two kids - definitely an open morning to start with, board outside etc and a big push from the new agent. The neighbours will come just to be nosy anyway but some footfall is what you need.

"gutted the whole thing. New walls, floors ceilings, roof, electrics, plumbing as well as landscaping the front and back."

Again - rubbish agent. This is gold. The only mention of plumbing is the flipping mains pressure shower.

Hi oscarwilde

I think you have hit the nail on the head (as well as many others that have posted)

I don't know why I didn't do this a little while ago and ask mumsnet. The response has been fantastic, mainly for the fact that most of what has been said we already knew (Price, fence at the front etc.) and gives me a little push to think we do have a means and a way to sell the house.

Again thank you to everyone with their comments. Its much appreciated and although I may not be able to do some of things stated, it will definitely gives me a better view on where to go from here.

Remove the fence at the front. I thought it was a tiny semi-detached and wouldn't have even considered it.

Also agree that you have far too many photos. Fewer, better ones would be good.

Lovely house though!

18 months ago when we put our house on the market, an estate agent friend advised us that correctly priced houses were selling. He said that the first few weeks a property is on the market are the most important so it's important to get the price right first time. If you start high and it sits around and then you have to drop the price and then it sits around a bit more, people wonder what's wrong with it and don't go and look at it because it's been there so long.

We had valuations from 6 different agents, ranging from £295,000 to £375,000 (plainly ridiculous). We decided that as we were serious about moving, we'd rather put it up for a lower price and get it all over and done with rather than hanging around for months and perhaps get an extra £10K - or not sell at all. I wanted to minimise the length of time we had to be clean and tidy and live in a show home!

We were happy with £300K so we put it on the market for £315K (with an agent who'd valued it for £300K). Within 8 weeks we'd accepted an offer for £300K (and the agents had turned down several offers lower than that on our behalf). We've been in our new home over a year. I looked on Rightmove this morning and 2 houses we looked at are still on the market - the only thing wrong with them was the price.

So I suggest you take the house off the market, re-interview the other local agents based on the feedback received above (perhaps asking them what they'd do differently and how can they get you a sale when your existing agent hasn't) and then re-market with a different agent and a lower price.

Let us know how you get on!

I will thank you LittleRobots. I have a great idea what is now needed to hopefully kick-start things. I was just talking to a couple of people re the mumsnet forum and was surprised that there isn't anything actually on RightMove of a similar ilk to this. I know that RightMove depend on the Estate Agents that use them, however as a customer service I genuinely think that a forum would keep the Estate Agents on their toes. Within a few minutes of me posting I had already read enough to realise that maybe the advise given was maybe not the best, but that I had enough constructive criticism about what a house buyer would see. When its your own home its difficult to see the woods for the trees!

nothing you can do, but if it is OPPOSITE a primary school that will put some people off (parking problems, litter, noise - mostly the first).

so be aware that this is a downer. The map also makes you appear to be on a main road, again nothing you can do.

inside, apart from the strangely exposed toilet, it all looks fine. LOVE the bathroom!

so it is price, I'm afraid.

Too many photos. The hallway is pretty nice bit is practically the last photo. .. a good hallway will me keep looking through the photos and would endear me to the house immediately as when you go into the house is the first thing you see. Can you move the dining table to the middle of the room so it actually looks like a dining room and some of the photos is really not clear what the rooms are. If it's four bed can you stage the rooms to show them as bedrooms? I know it won't make people buy it but you need to grab attention and I was a little bored going through the photos. Your House is gorgeous though.

A couple of things that struck me as odd is that you have lovely bi-fold doors, but these aren't level with the outside - and in fact even the step doesn't run the whole width. This coupled with the odd loo in utility room setup would make me think 'what other odd things have these people done?' so although you may have spent a lot of time and money on the house I would still think it needed more spending - and maybe the price doesn't reflect that?

Hi SilasGreenback

The bifolds are actually in line with the flooring inside. We couldnt have them in line with the patio outside as this would have meant the doors being lower than the internal flooring and as such you would be able to see the void beneath the house through the glass. We are also in the motions of getting the step extended, we just had to make sure that we bought the correct brick that matches the remaining patio. All in all I don't see that as being odd just something that was unavoidable and as for the step, well Rome wasn't built in one day. We did in fact have French doors there originally hence why the step is not as wide as the bifolds.

As for the toilet in the utility I didn't realise this being a huge no no. The room isn't that large and after building the playroom for the kids (which was the utility originally) we thought that adding the washer dryer into what is essentially the downstairs toilet we would be making better use of space instead of say taking up cupboard space in the kitchen. but will take all comments on board. :)