Lots of viewings but no buyers

[goldenlilliesdaffodillies]

We put our house on the market 5 weeks ago in order to buy our dream house which very unexpectedly came on the market. We know the owners as used to rent it from him but he will only deal with the EA. We weren't planning on moving at all!

Our Estate Agent assured us that our house would be quickly snapped up in a couple of weeks, market in our price range was busy and appealed to many different types of people.
We have had 14 viewings in 4 weeks but no second viewings or offers. Feedback is all the same- house is lovely but too close to the road and garden too small. It is on a country road but backs straight onto fields and farmland. Garden is small but not tiny and as surrounded by farmland and country walks not a problem. Road has never been a problem for us either and isn't busy. It's a very old, pretty cottage so maybe not everyone wants lots of beams. (I don't want to link the details on here).

I don't know what to do now as obviously we can't change the road or garden size. I can feel our dream house slipping away. The EA for the house we want to buy keeps phoning us every week to see what is happening. DH says we can't put in an offer until we have an offer on ours. He won't do an Open House and EA say it isn't a good idea either. We haven't had any viewings now for a week. DH won't drop the price as then we will have to make a lower offer on the house we want to buy which may not be accepted.

The EA does the viewings for house and I wonder if we should maybe do them instead to point out the benefits etc.

Has the market gone cold? We're in the South East. Waiting for a buyer is excruciating.

Location is just everything isn't it! Is the road busy? Or is it that the house opens right into the street with no front garden?

I've lived on busy roads before and it didn't bother me, near a train line too. I got used to the noises really quickly but DH (then boyfriend) had really disturbed sleep whenever he stayed over.

When we were buying this house, he discounted any houses on main roads, and one (which I loved) where the front door came straight onto the pavement.

If your house is similar to others and the same price, but yours is less desirable location -wise, then you need to reduce price!

You can't move it further away from the road........

I wouldn't be so bothered about the road myself. I like the business. I used to live near traffic lights and my next door neighbour told me he couldn't wait to sell the house because the traffic lights bleeping were driving him INSANE and I hadn't even noticed it. Well, I had, but it hadn't annoyed me, as after I went to bed, few people were attempting to cross the road!

I'd know 5k off the price, 10 if you can afford it.

I think you're stuck with reducing the price. As you say, you can't alter the location, garden size or age of the house, and you need to recognise that only a certain set of buyers will be ok with those things - a friend is considering selling her grade 2 listed cottage next to the shop on a busy village Main Street, and is aware that there will be buyers for whom those things are complete no-nos.

"I like the business" I made myself sound like a street girl there. I meant, I like the busy -ness.

I would still buy a house on a busy road, but knowing it'd bother other people in the future, I'd want that to be reflected in the price.

We recently bought a similar house, also in the South East, and there was a feeding frenzy over it. Your problem is the price.

I also think you need to drop the price. I think you need to be realistic about this. If you’ve had 14 people come to the house but not one of them has put in an offer (even a low one) or made an appointment for a second viewing, then there is something that is putting people off when they get there. Whilst you say its not a problem (the road or a small garden), I think everyone is different and you may be used to something nice / love the house so much that you don’t see something as a disadvantage where others would.

But are you only moving if you can get the dream house (i.e. would you stay put if you couldn’t afford the dream house?) If that’s the case, then surely you need to know whether the price you can afford is likely to be accepted by the seller of the dream house? If he is going to hold out for a price that you can only afford if you get full price for your own house (and that seems unlikely), it might not work out unfortunately.

Thanks all. The road isn't busy at all (country lane) and we are set back with a small front garden and fenced all around with gates.

The house we want to buy is massively over priced (even the EA selling that has said so) so there is some bargaining to be had. Fortunately the house we want is very quirky and has been on a few weeks longer than ours.

How soon after going on the market would you reduce the price?

I forgot to add we will stay in this house if we don't get the other one.

There is also a back cottage garden surrounded by fields.

having fields out the back wont help a family looking for secure garden space for their kids - unless farmer is happy for kids to play in the fields.

Back garden is very secure (we have young children and dogs!) and the farmer is very friendly and does allow them to play there fortunately.

it clearly won't sell at the price you are asking. It has a 'but' which means it is worth less.

sorry. Drop the price and buy accordingly.

I suspect your pictures show the garden and road in a positive light so people are disappointed when they actually view the house. The SE market is very buoyant and 2 houses on our road went for sale and had multiple offers in days. When people say 'the garden is too small or the house is too close to the road' they mean it's too small for the asking price. They expect a larger garden or something set back from the road for that price.

Personally I feel that there is always a risk with a field near your house (redevelopment) and I definitely wouldn't assume that the farmer was friendly as that can change therefore I would view the house and value it with a small garden.

What's the approx price range? Do you have any houses close by for sale so that you can benchmark? How small is the garden?

The market is very buoyant. All our neighbours sold within 2 weeks or so. Your problem is the price.

I would not buy a house that is next to a main road. No matter what you say it's not going to be as quiet as a cul de sac. (Where I am now). The small garden wouldn't bother me unless it is very very small. I don't like gardening.

Is there something that is not immediately apparent about the property from the photos? Do you have photos of all the rooms / garden / front of house showing proximity to the road? I just ask because as I said before, there is something off putting, a "but" as specialsubject says, that I'm guessing isn't apparent before viewing in person.

If there is nothing you can fix about the house, eg busy road and garden size, you have it on at the wrong price.

As others have said, it's the price. The road and garden wouldn't be issues if the price were right: your current price is leading people to expect more than they actually get.

Aso, if other agent is ringing daily, they are obv. keen to sell (or EA is keen to get a commission) and you may be able to do a deal.

We live next to our village recreation park, then open countryside beyond. When we were buying, the estate agent said they have lots of problems selling houses next to fields as people assume that they'll be sold off and built on one day.

Price is always the real deal breaker. When I was an estate agent I used to tell people I could get them an offer in ten minutes at £10,000 or an office in a couple of decades at £10,000,000. Price = time.

Offer obviously, not office.

Thanks everyone. Fortunately the EA who is selling the house we want to buy has suddenly got very interested in our position as the sellers really want to sell us their house (they know us as we rented it from them years ago). Their EA has come up with various ideas and is even phoning up our EA to get things moving. He has managed to convince DH to drop the price by putting "Offers over £XXXX" rather than a definite price. He says the sellers will probably drop their price so we can afford to buy theirs. However they really need a sale ASAP.

We still need a buyer for our house so fingers crossed the much lower price will convince someone.

Good luck, golden. Hope it works out. Report back!

Hope you find a buyer and are able to secure your dream house soon golden!

I know from when we were selling our rural house in the SW last year that roads can be an issue for some buyers and will affect the price you achieve.

Having spent a fortune restoring a Georgian thatched house from a dilapidated, unmortgageable wreck, we always knew the road would hold it back and that we would have to price accordingly. Ours was on a relatively quiet A road, but although we had no front garden and the door opened straight into the kitchen, it more than compensated in other ways, including 1/3 acre rear garden backing into watercress beds, 36' kitchen and three decent reception rooms all renovated to a very high end spec.

However, houses offering all that but in backwater locations were selling for 150k+ more than our valuations!

We priced realistically as we had also found 'the one', yet despite this we only had three viewings in the first four weeks. Not wanting to lose our onward purchase we dropped the AP and subsequently had three viewings resulting in three offers. One of these was at the new AP. DH and me are convinced we could have achieved a higher price had time not been against us, but c'est la vie!

That said, your road doesn't sound too much of an issue - our three-storey house literally shook when heavy traffic sped past breaking the 30mph limit - but perhaps the garden is? Maybe a retired couple or empty nesters are more your target market.....

At the end of the day lowering your price as you've done can only be a good thing in respect of securing a buyer.....fingers crossed for you!