Why have we had very little viewers?

[Rita1003]

Hi all, our house has been on the market since early March. Up until now we have only had two viewings. We received an offer which we accepted but the sale fell through because they failed to sell their own property and their own buyers were not solid.

I'm surprised we have not had more people through the door however and wondered if anyone would like to click on the link and give feedback on the photos? Or anything else on the ad which may be putting some people off. All feedback, good and bad, gratefully received.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-43387819.html

[BuggedByJake]

It hasn't got a garden then? I wouldn't bother viewing regardless of how nice the house. You might sell to a retired couple or someone without kids I suppose.
Do you have access to all that land surrounding the property? Somewhere for children to play?

[strongandlong]

I agree that if you're not getting viewings, it's probably that the price is too high. Did you have it valued by local agents?

It isn't clear to me why it's worth £50k more than this place, for example (although I don't know the area at all, of course).

[Rita1003]

Wow - so many useful comments, thank you. Many of the comments are what we suspected so it's good to know. We'll definitely make some changes.

Here are some answers to some of your questions. Regarding price: when we bought it it was for sale for £180,000. There was huge interest. The owners accepted our offer of £170,000 because we had nothing to sell, were firm buyers and they already had had an offer accepted on house. They wanted to move asap and needed a buyer quickly - therefore accepted £170,000 rather than wait for more.

Since then we have spent £15K + on the property. Major work such as taking entire walls and ceilings down - not just new carpets or decorating. I agree that the old pictures look better/warmer in many respects. On viewing the house last year it was one of those where the pictures were better than the reality. The carpets were literally stinking, cat wee etc, threadbare and so on. The house stank and needed totally stripping right back.

The bathroom had no shower - which meant major plumbing work and changing of pipe positions to put in a shower. It was not a simply bathroom refit - take one out, put new one in. Everything had to be repositioned.

The house was valued by local estate agents - we chose an average price from their valuations. The road we live on has a vast range of houses. They are all totally different in size and orientation - so it is hard to compare. We found it hard when we bought the place ourselves. Many are tiny 2 bed cottages, or gigantic detached properties. The prices vary widely. And there are many properties within 5 miles cheaper -but many of those places are dreadful areas.

We are going to try to improve the garden, agree about the shed! The back garden has access to the side which opens out to open fields at the back and open farmland. The front picture of the house we thought was dreadful - the estate agent took the picture but it was a rainy day and they could only come on that day.

We will set up the spare empty room, and reorganise the other second bedroom. Agree it does not look right at all. It's strange because the house looks much better in reality.

I've organised for a professional photographer (a good friend) to retake new photos in a few weeks time (he has done this before and their houses have sold within days for fingers crossed!). In the meantime we are going to try to improve as many of the points you have mentioned. They have been really helpful to us.

The reason we are moving is because we are no unexpectedly expecting a baby, my partner is away a lot with work and I want to be nearer to my mother. As I work in the village when we bought it was great to be near my workplace - but I will now be on maternity for a year and then part time. I'd rather be nearer my parents for help with childcare. We love the house - it actually feels very spacious and light.

The feedback from the two viewers we have had has been largely positive. The second put in an offer immediately. The first mentioned the size of the bathroom (which we can't change).

We were so exhausted by the amount of work we had done over 6 months that we tried to get it to a place where we could put it on the market for spring and before the baby arrives.

However we will now work on doing even more to make it more attractive/appealing. I also agree with the blurb/write up. Will get that changed.

Maybe I'll post the new link when we have sorted new pics and see what you all think then :-)

Thank you again.

[Rita1003]

Crystaskulls - we did not try to make the house look worse in any respect. So I am not sure why it should be a case of 'shame on' us.

We had no shower and had to install one. The carpets were 20 + years old, as were the curtains. The whole flooring had to come up - if only for hygiene reasons. We had to move our furniture (the only furniture we could/can afford) into the house we had bought. We did not have the money to buy all new furniture (in fact most of ours is second hand). We did not choose to strip out all character - but we simply had a lot less stuff than the previous owners. It takes times to be able to afford exactly what you want when you are young with a large mortgage and time to find what suits a house when you both work full time and one works away. I'd love to have more things in the house but we don't have the money.

The money we have spent has been on the 'unseen' work which was essential and messy big jobs. Plastering, plumbing, new walls etc. We also invested in a quality bathroom suite rather than throw in a cheap one - because we intended at the time to stay for a long long time.

Believe you me - filling in 200 + holes in the walls from a thousand horse brasses knock off the love for character! In fact when we view now - we literally look at how many holes are in the walls because we know the horror of trying to fill holes from someone else left after 30 years of living in the same place.

We have not changed the fabric of the house - it is just that our items, which we already owned, were more modern. And there was not much we could do about that.

[Crutchlow35]

You need a local agent. The online one you are using are poor.

[BuggedByJake]

I don't think you've removed all the character at all....it looked like an OAP'S house before & very cluttered.

[Rita1003]

Ooo and another thing - both viewers who did view said it was great because they felt there 'was nothing to do' and you could 'move straight in.' When we viewed the house last year, eventhough the pictures looked good, when we arrived at the house my first comment was, 'oh my goodness, there is so much to do.' We nearly did not buy it because of that exact reason. Right now the house is a blank canvas with heavy, dirty, expensive work already done by us.

But we've viewed lots and lots of houses - we know that you really have to go along and look because some of the best houses do not look great on the photos. However we need to get people through the door because once they are through the door they seem to really like the house. And we realise most people are not us. They see the first pics, and if they don't see exactly what they want to see within those first 5 seconds, they largely don't bother to view.

[Pannacotta]

I agree with all the above though I think the price seems fine given all the work you have done, that said I don't know the area.

The photos are poor so its good you will get them re-done, you need photos taken when it is sunny.

I think as a family house the back garden really lets it down.
I'd ditch one of the sheds, remove the conifer and plant some climbers to soften the trellis and give privacy and add some proper large plants to the raised bed (why not post on Gardening threads for advice).

I really like the way you have decorated but I think painting the door into the dining room white and the mantelpiece too would make the room seem lighter. Perhaps move the large mirror from your bedroom to above the fireplace in the dining room.
I agree about setting up the small room as a study (or nursery).

I love your bathroom floor tiles btw, are they ceramic or vinyl?

[Crutchlow35]

The house looks better now than it did. Just your photos let it down.

[eatmydust]

Ooooh... I think it's lovely. I do know Blacko and don't think you are overpriced.

Do you not have the property for sale with a local estate agent? Think that is probably the reasons for low viewings. It is a sought after area, but in rural Lancashire most people would still buy through estate agents, even if they regularly look online.

On the photos - would definately keep the one with the views, I would view your property for that alone. Think there's too many photos of the stairs though. What is going to sell your property is location.

[GlaikitFizzog]

Can I just say, I don't thunk the house looked better before y bought it, but tephe angles of the photos and the position they were taken from make the house and layout look better nd clearer.

[Rita1003]

Crutchlow35 - that's interesting. Because our online estate agent has been an utter breath of fresh air. I've never dealt with any estate agent so organised, proactive and professional. In fact 3 of our friends have used them in the last year and sold their houses quickly with them and had nothing but good things to say. Equally we have viewed lots of houses ourselves this year (and last when we were going to buy this one) and they were a nightmare. Never called back, did not pass on our questions to vendors, made us wait 3-weeks to view houses, did not turn up when we did manage to make an appointment, failed to chase us up on a property we were really interested in buying, were totally absent on Sundays and so on.

I'm not knocking them just stating hard facts from the last 18 months. In fact they said such dreadful things about their clients' properties when showing us around places that I remember thinking - god imagine if they were representing our house! Many were very rude to us - I think they thought we were younger than we are and could not afford some of the houses we viewed. This showed in their attitude to us - it was really off putting and made us feel unwelcome.

We are over the moon with our choice of online estate agent at the moment. If we need to rethink further down the line we will. We are certainly not narrow minded. We thought we would give this way a go first.

[Rommell]

Why have we had very little viewers?

Maybe your doorways are too low for the bigger viewers to get in?

Sorry. Hope you get someone soon.

[Rita1003]

Thank you Pannacotta- The bathroom tiles are ceramic. Our tiler is amazing. The tiling alone cost £1500! Again, the bathroom looks so much nicer in reality.

[Rita1003]

Hi eatmydust. Yes I know what you mean about rural Lancashire. It's something we may need to think about.

Photos of stairs is going to go. That's on our tick list to do for this weekend. :-)

[Crutchlow35]

I am pleased you have found them to be good. I can only comment with what I see online and deal with day to day.

[Pannacotta]

They look lovely. I need to have vinyl but cant find anything half as nice as those!
I think with some small changes and new photos you will sell it quickly.
And I agree re a new front door (or paint yours a nice colour) and yy to smartening up the front garden to help kerb appeal.

[Crutchlow35]

Again, the bathroom looks so much nicer in reality.


But! It should look so much nicer in your photos.

[KristinaM]

They would need to be nice for £1500!!!! That's a lot of money to spend on tiling for a bathroom in a house in this price range. If you've got the money to spend and you like the tiles, then that's your choice. But you need to understand that you won't make this money back when you sell it.

[Rita1003]

Pannacotta - The door is being painted tomorrow :-) I love gardening and usually have my gardens looking fantastic - just hard now I am very pregnant and work full time. The front garden can easily be improved - it's just finding the time.

The tiles were from Toppstiles but they weren't cheap. At all. I remember my partner's face paling when I pointed out the ones I wanted. All visitors to the house (not just viewers) comment on the bathroom floor. It's really beautiful (if it is your style). I also really like modern bathrooms but we decided to go for the Victorian look to keep the character of the house.

[Rita1003]

KristinaM - It was because the ceilings are so high in this house. The bathroom height is over 3m. We tiled to the ceiling on most walls. It may not add £1500 of value back on no - but it does look like a professional job and luxurious. Unlike many a bathroom we have viewed recently with horrific workmanship. This equally has stopped us buying houses - a bad cheap job can really put you off but look amazing on photos. Nothing worse when you view a house which looks great on photos and the finish is dreadful. Loads of tiny jobs that actually take hours and days to sort out.

[Rita1003]

The £1500 included the cost of the labour. The tiler. Nothing worse than a bad tiling job done by a none expert.

[KristinaM]

I'm sure it's lovely. I'm just saying that you are unlikely to make this money back. Viewers are not going to say " oh we will offer £5k more because the bathroom is so beautifully tiled"

[RiverTam]

well, I have no idea about the value, being a Londoner, but the main thing, to me, is that it looks minute, and dark (though that's something the agent should be able to do something about, absolutely no excuse for them to put dark photos up, I would get them to redo them because of that alone).

But the bathroom and at least one bedroom are clearly tiny as the photos has been taken at such an odd angle. The dining room looks pretty small as well, as the table in it is a small square one, suggesting there isn't room for a bigger table (can 4 people really eat around that table?).

There are no measurements on the floorplan, again a suggestion that it's very small. That would be a big red flag for me.

If it's small, it's small, that's fine. But you need to get your agent to step up, they are tasking with selling your house, not just sticking some substandard photos on their website and then wait for people to come calling - they should be actively selling it. Mail drops, arrange an open house, that kind of thing. But get them to redo the photos asap.

Give them a deadline. New pics on the website within a week. Then - if you don't get more viewings within a fortnight, say, then you move to another agent. Don't tie yourself in either, say you want a rolling contract - that should put the pressure on.

I once owned a flat about a caff. Nothing I could do about it, it was there. 2nd agent I got in I told I never wanted to hear 'oh, we love it, but it's above a caff' as a reason for not getting an offer. They sold it 4 times (bad chain karma).

[Alkemi]

Hello - the location looks beautiful. And your house has rooms which appear in the photos to be lovely, but the random shots of the stairwell are odd. It is the mixed quality of the images that is slightly disconcerting. I agree with previous posters - why have an image of an empty room with nothing that gives a sense of scale or what the room is for, except to prove that it exists? The outside shots of the garden need to be done more sympathetically if possible so that it looks more usable as family chill out space.. The message the photos of landscape / views give is that there is little outside space that belongs to the property so the scenery is compensating for that. Definitely think the kitchen looks too small in the photos in proportion to the rest of the house but the biggest concern for me as a prospective buyer would be that your home is leasehold, but there is no info about that, like how many years are remaining, ground rent etc.