House not selling? Any thoughts?

[cheekymonk]

Please be gentle but would appreciate some feedback. Due to move into rented home on Sat, current house is on market and has been for 4 weeks. It's first time selling and we chose cheapest estate agents. We do all viewings, there have been about 12. One 2nd viewing last week. EA has dropped price already by 2.5k when we hadn't fully agreed to it. So we are questioning whether to go with another EA. Also need to add to the mix we have rubbish carpets and paintwork is very amateur but we can't afford to and are reluctant to spend more money in it. Is it early days or should we get it on market with someone else quickly,? Dh new employer is paying rent whilst we have duplicate costs. Thank you

It is a very nice house - remniscent of my first!

Remove one of the sofas in the sitting room and also the coffee table to the left of the fireplace. Put down a plain, neutral rug (charity shop purchase?) to conceal the sitting room carpet. Don't have anything hanging over the bath. Remove the shower curtain during viewings. Put as much as you can in the shed, cupboards or the car or even ask someone if you can put it in their house or shed during viewings. Have one item on the mantelpiece.

Tidy the shelves in the dining room or, if at all possible, ship them out for viewings (difficult I know). Again, one item on the mantelpiece.

If there is any space at all in the cupboards, put away as many of the items as is possible from kitchen surfaces. Take down the poster in the kitchen. No tea towels hanging from the oven door.

Do you have a loft where you could store items?

Get a new EA and ask him/her to make more of local facilities - station, buses, shops, things to see (many in Portsmouth e.g. The Victory), lovely countryside a short drive away, more on the quality of local schools (name them if they are good).

Blue/lilac are cold colours - could you bear to paint the sitting room walls?

Good luck!

Just had 3rd viewing today from 2ndviewings mum!! also first time buyer who said house was good for price! Fingers crossed!

We are now on new house and despite promising viewings no offers yet. Feedback is that whole house needs reprinting on magnolia (but we have done this apart from dining room) new carpets moving kitchen sockets by job re grouting kitchen and bathroom and new fuse box. This comes to 3,400 money we haven't got. Am talking to new ea today as current one is just so negative and makes us feel we have the worst one on the world!

You need to stage this house. Only one bed in the dc room, remove a sofa, the bookshelf, any large pieces of furniture from the bedroom, remove all the toys and clear the kitchen.

The overfurnished rooms make this house look smaller than it really is.

If those rooms have changed since then, your agent needs to update them.

Your agent sounds rubbish!

They are hissy! New one going round tomorrow!

Who the hell are U-Moove? They sound so tin pot!

Is your new agent a more established one? Which was the agent that sold the others in your area? Are the new agents taking the pictures, or are they getting them done professionally?

My clients are pretty much all EA, all over the uk, but not one of them is in that area sadly :( otherwise i'd have got a proper brochure done for you!

I noticed the headboard looked stained too - could just be the material is ruffled up but still needs looking at.

dining room terribly cluttered. make that much more minimal. a 2bed house is really looking at a couple market so it has to look like something they can imagine living in. Could you rearrange children's beds? if you aren't living there then take one out or something? makes that room look very small. are they full size beds? they don't look it and that can be deceptive for people, they will notice if they aren't full size and then the room seems even smaller.

bathroom - get a lidded box/basket thing to put all the toiletries in.

definitely get new photos done and put up.

oh and just looked back at the lounge carpet - yep it looks stained. you can try carpet shampoo on it and see if it is helps or turn the rug round the other way to cover it.

price I expect is good - certainly 2 beds where we are in dorset are over £200,000.

I don't see why people are expected to make the house completely magnolia or cream, I mean yes not outrageous but come on, people can manage to paint it themselves surely. I know yes magnolia is easier when you move in, it goes with everything, saves them doing it, makes it easier to picture stuff and so on but surely people aren't completely incapable? (or perhaps others haven't had to spend as long renting in their lives as we have so we are just more adaptable)

I don't see the need for painting in magnolia. The decor looks fine to me, but house needs staging, and serious decluttering.

Your agent should be advising you on this sort of stuff. The house is not being presented at its best, so change agents!

It's the sort of house that has a wide appeal: the location looks great on the map, near parks/ schools etc, but could appeal to singles or childless couples too.

A lovely house, great price, popular location. I used to work in an estate agency and, despite all the guff about "putting my own mark on" the houses that sold quickest were always the ones with the best staging. It's superficial, but first impressions seem to count for a lot.

I'd get quotes for laying a wood floor too, if you don't have wood floors already. Just present the viewers with the quotes.

I don't think it's about being perfect however people don't want to feel they re going to have to drop 10k as soon as they move in to get it up yo code.

I suggest getting a sneaky peak at other houses on the market for a similar price in your area when we were looking we were amazed that even people on the same road wanting similar prices when the houses were not of similar standard

You could sort the DINING ROOM.
TBH it looks like a junk room- full of toys, pushchairs, odds and sods- and the dining table looks like an after thought.

As others have said- tidy the bookcase- get books standing up the right way.

The bathroom shower curtain looks grubby even if tis not - any chance of spending £100 on a glass screen? And getting all the stuff off the toilet cistern?

I might paint over that BLUE bedroom- it's a bit ' in your face' and makes the room look smaller.

There is no need to re-grout but you could clean up what there is already and put in new stuff like really nice towels and bath mats etc for viewings.

In the bathroom, take toothbrushes etc off the windowsill- looks cluttered. Get a nice glass/ pot to put them in. You've got some space under the basis where you might be able to fit a storage basket for shower stuff etc.

The kitchen looks cluttered too- take the radio off the worktop and hide it away- makes the kitchen look as if there is no work top space.

In the lounge, take away all the cards etc off the mantelpiece and maybe just have 1 nice pot plant or some fresh flowers for each viewing?

Think about ditching the rugs which don't seem to co ordinate with the rest of the furnishings? Or buying some new cheap ones- Argos or Wilkos?

One thing I would say (I have done about 100 house viewings in the last few years as we moved a couple of times) is that your original post seems to be saying you have been there for all the viewings?

I always personally found this a little off-putting. You don't feel as free to comment with your DH as you go round and you feel a little watched (even if you aren't). Actually taking viewers round to each room is a huge no-no but I assume you haven't done that.

De-clutter, splash some paint about and make yourself scarce on viewing days. Vendors sometimes think they are better than EAs at showing their house but they are more emotionally invested and (viewers think they are) more precious.

Is your house still on the market OP?
It's not showing on Right Move and I can't find New House estate agents listed?

Link from first page still works for me

The link works but if you go to RM and do a search for that price and Portsmouth it's not there.

OP said she had changed to a different agent so wondered if the link was old and the new one had not put it on RM because she said she had redecorated so i was looking for the new pics.

Ah- got it now- £10K higher than price shown here- but still all the old pics.

OP- why are the new pics with the new colours etc not there? You need to get on to the agents and get new pics showing.

Bloody useless estate agents! Just checked pics and they are a mix if original ones ones after we magnoliad and a couple after we moved out! I am furious! New ea going round today so can sort it all out.

Yes we did viewings as time went on I let viewers do own thing but I was very uncomfortable with it but eas kept saying good thing...

House is empty now couldn't leave furniture as needed it...

New agent is Bernard's they have sold other houses in same road

That is bad advice from the EA on being there for viewings. Odd as when we have been selling they have always said to push off out of the way.

One day with new EA have had an offer!

9 months ago 1a, in your road, a beautifully refurbished 2 bed house sold for £131,000. Yours looked a bit pricey by comparison but glad you have an offer.

One day? Well done.