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

85 replies

dtyzer · 31/10/2013 11:16

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

OP posts:
KeemaNaanAndCurryon · 31/10/2013 16:03

Your house is lovely. I remember trying to sell mine a couple of years back. I got a few people to phone the agent asking for a house with a similar spec (3 bed semi) within the price range and they didn't even mention mine. We dropped our price by 10k, moved to another agent who did better photos and brochure and really put the effort into selling it and it was sold within 3 weeks.

No viewings says bad agent to me.

dtyzer · 31/10/2013 16:05

Hi KeemaNaanAndCurryon

Thank you for your kind comments. I think given the great response we have had on here that's what we will probably do.

OP posts:
noidles · 31/10/2013 16:12

Oh my gosh! What a small world! That is right round the corner from where I grew up.

My Mum is currently trying to sell our old house, she's already moved (she lives near the Grapes hotel). The house she's selling is a 4 bed semi, is on for £140k and hasn't had one person look round in over a year. So personally I do think the price is too high.

My Mum is in no rush, as some people are currently renting it, and she has already moved, but I would certainly be frustrated if I were in your position.

Though your house is on a much nicer road and is a lovely period property, but Mottram Old Road is busy, and does lead straight to Hattersley, so sometimes I do just think Gee Cross just isn't as desirable as it once was because of its proximity to Hattersley and to Hyde, and it's lack of transport links - the buses are awful and you have to walk at least half an hour to get a train to Manchester.

I personally love Gee Cross though!

noidles · 31/10/2013 16:14

She is also selling through Lynks, by the way, she likes the guy who she has dealt with there, but personally I think they are useless.

noidles · 31/10/2013 17:40

Sorry, realise it was a bit negative there. I think what I'm saying is your house is lovely, gorgeous and much nicer than my family home. I think there's nothing especially wrong with your property, aside from the fence issue which does make it look like more of a semi than a detached. However, I guess overall I'm saying that for the area and for the space available it is very high on price. I think you'd need to take off a good £25k.

It's hard to compare my Mum's house with yours - hers isn't a period property and it's not in the centre of the village, but obviously your house is WAY over double the price of hers for a similar space. I do always take a look at rightmove at the houses in Gee Cross and I don't see much movement in the ones upwards of £300k, so I don't know if the estate agents in Hyde just aren't working the properties as hard for their clients as they should? Or maybe people who have that kind of money just aren't considering Gee Cross anymore? I dunno. I live in London now, so my view on the property market is somewhat skewed.

snowmummy · 31/10/2013 23:44

I grew up around there and have never thought of gee cross as a desirable area as its near to Hyde. Maybe things have changed but I'd say its overpriced for the area.

LittleSiouxieSue · 01/11/2013 00:41

I did a search on Rightmove for similar priced houses within 1 mile of your village. I was surprised at the houses you could get which looked a whole lot nicer than yours based on the photos. Sorry if this sounds harsh. I agree with another poster who said there are too many photos. There are 28!!!! to wade through and a lot are not flattering and would put me off. Agree with posters regarding the front fence as you have made it look like a semi so people may not read the description. The rear garden is bare, hardly a plant in sight and the raised patio is like a fortress wall when viewed from the rest of the garden with no planting to soften its impact. Other houses for sale have lovely gardens and some have period features. The settee has been photographed with a dog blanket on it and you have a picnic basket on the floor. Some of the rooms are not photogenic and should not be included, eg the utility room and a narrow room. Not sure what it was. There are too many shots of the kitchen and the bathroom pix shows all the pipes at the back of the sink which is unsightly. If I am honest it does not look particularly inviting and I would not look at it myself I'm afraid and I do disagree with people who say it looks lovely. Therefore it is definitely overpriced.

TreaterAnita · 01/11/2013 00:45

First off it's a beautiful house, and the pictures don't put me off at all, but I'm a bit of a veteran house hunter and tend to focus on the bits that interest me. People do dismiss a house for the strangest reasons...

I think you should change agent. Last time we managed to choose really well, agent took brilliant photos (kitchen/diner was a good size anyway, but looked like an aircraft hanger with the angle he used) and we got 3 asking price offers on the first day of viewing. (We're not a million miles from you by the way, so this wasn't SE crazy market.)

Time before that, we went for the agent who seemed nicest, which he was but also hopeless. Switched to the cocky agent we weren't so sure of and he sold it in the first week.

If your house is unusual for the area, try to find the agent who has a lot of more distinctive properties for sale, rather than the one who is selling a lot of the smaller terraces.

I'd also think about getting rid of that fence if you can't get an angle which doesn't make it look like it splits the house.

And personally I wouldn't like a loo in the utility, so maybe try not to show that in the photos.

Also, if I were looking at your house, I'd be thinking of knocking straight through the back to make a big kitchen/diner/family room, as it's a shame that only your dining room benefits from the view into the garden. Obviously that's a changing tastes thing, but prospective buyers might be factoring in the cost of that. If it's a bit cheaper, and you can get people through the door, you can point out that that would be fairly easy to do. Our vendors helpfully pointed out that other people had converted their attics, which immediately made us think that we were buying a potential 4 bed rather than just a 3 bed house, which works better for us long term.

In terms of price, rather than dropping, consider offering to pay the stamp duty. Once you get into the 3% bracket it's a big sting in the tail when you're buying, and psychologically the vendor paying the stamp duty feels like you're getting something for free. When we were buying our current house, the negotiating point for me was to get the price down enough that we'd knocked the SD off the asking price.

Another option would be to say offers over £300k and see if that generates more interest. Doesn't mean you have to take an offer of £301k.

The only other thing I can think of, as others have suggested, is that being on a main road, and a degree of proximity to Hattersley, might be a stumbling block to selling at that price. Have you looked to see what other houses that have sold for that price are like?

TreaterAnita · 01/11/2013 00:55

Just noticed you have a cellar (read thread properly...) You need to shout about that. Don't need pictures as they always look terrible but if it's not a coal scuttle and it's not riddled with damp then it's a selling point as you have no other substantial storage space so far as I can tell, and people have so much stuff these days that somewhere to put the Xmas decs, bikes, etc is a must. Get agent/new agent to add it to the floor plan.

Onesleeptillwembley · 01/11/2013 01:01

It's very similar to my parents house. Lovely proportions. It looks a bit 'cold' though. Maybe it's the photography. The only downs for me are the location (main road) and the toilet in with the washer. That would definitely put me off.

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