Advice on selling our property?

[betsie123]

Hi all,

I was hoping to get some advice on our property, from those with families!

We have just had our buyer pull out and unfortunately have found our dream house elsewhere :( We seem to be struggling to get people through the door and I just know if people came in they would love it.

I know its a difficult time of year to sell, but I was hoping some of you could take a look at the advert on right move and let me know if theres anything that puts you off? Some honest feedback I guess!

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-54947921.html?showcase=true

Thanks

I think it looks like a lovely house overall, OP, although some rooms do look a little soulless/lacking in warmth and character which imho a period house should be oozing with......

The kitchen stands out for me as letting the house down and the one area I'd want to update. As a house that looks well finished, the kitchen doesn't scream classy or high end imho but that is an area where value can be added by the next owner

Lack of room dimensions/total sq footage (or meterage) on the floorplan would discourage me from wanting to view I'd need to know whether I could fit my extensive furniture collection and I'm still confused about the hallway comment - is the floorplan wrong or have you misunderstood Pipbin's comment about the living room being a hallway? In my experience a lot of that type of period house are long and relatively narrow, with rooms leading off each other - both our previous house (Georgian) and current house (1850s) are of that footprint/layout - with the former not even having a designated hallway, which you do have

How is the road? Is it busy/noisy? Is road noise an issue when sitting out in the garden?

Regarding the pics - when we were selling last year our EA (in rural Wiltshire) used a professional photographer and insisted that we point out any issue - however minor - that we weren't happy with before the details went live online. Any we weren't happy with they would come back to retake.

I can see the bathroom pic btw......

It needs measurements too, either in the description or on the floor plan.

I think it looks lovely, things that might put us off would be no obvious large eating space and we'd probably expect 2 bathrooms for 4 bedrooms. So pretty though!

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=37735518&sale=51620624&country=england

Your house looks slightly better in these pics. Table and chairs make the room look small and cluttered.

4 beds and no en suite or downstairs wc would be a deal breaker for me.

Garden lovely but would put me off (too big and costly to maintain).

Landing picture awful. Doesn't sell the property rather makes it feel prison like.

Your home is lovely. It looks big on the outside but rooms look small on lack of curtains, blinds at Windows make it feel clinical but that wouldn't put me off as its personal choice and decor.

We live in a 4 bed, have raised 3 kids and couldn't have contemplated only one bathroom. I'd say that's where the problems could lie.

Incidentally you bought for £65k less than you're selling for just over a year later, I doubt the value has increased that much so maybe drop the price. A house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

Born - I have to disagree. The link the OP posted has much brighter, warmer looking photos. The second link makes the place look very drab and grey.

I don't think the cooker looks tatty at all.

With character houses I think the layout can really influence whether people will view. I wouldn't view somewhere where you have to walk through rooms to access others or without a downstairs loo unless there was an obvious place to put one without mucking up room dimensions. It would help to put a table in the kitchen to show that it is big enough imo.

Downstairs loo is clearly marked in the floor plan!
I agree that the white cooker among the cabinets looks dated( it's obviously not or make or break issue, but you could get a new one and then take it with you), and the kitchen looks a bit like a walk through itself without table and chairs, you really need to put one there, it will make the kitchen so much cosier.
The garden picture looked really confusing, like it was taken from the side, rather than from the back of the garden.
Judging by the market info, the house is really cheap compared with what else is nearby, so I don't think it's the price.
Really lovely house overall :)

I'm a little bit surprised about Ofsted ratings being taken so seriously, I thought at least anyone with children at school already (or teachers in the family!!) would know that it's mostly smoke and mirrors. Ok, I would be a little bit concerned about the rating of 3, but would read the report attentively and go and look at the school, teachers and pupils and their parents first of all. In my lifetime I've rejected two primary outstanding graded schools in favour of 'good' schools(primary). By the way, both good ones were C of E as opposed to the "secular" outstanding, and had very minimal involvement of the Church, the local vicar visited and talked at Christmas and Easter, and there was a prayer in the morning assembly. The outstanding schools, like I found out later, had a massive religious agenda, and prayed three times a day (start of the day, mealtime and hometime)

Not having the pictures of all the rooms is not of putting to me at all, I'm of the "less is more" camp, don't make them feel they've seen it all and make up their mind that it's not good enough, esp if the pictures are worse than it is in real life! I do get really pissed off if there is no floor plan and I do need to know the measurements and at least approximate total square footage.

On the other hand, don't take the pictures which make rooms and outside look much bigger than they are, we are house hunting and have been caught out a few times where reality turned out to be nothing like the pictures.

I agree it's a lovely house but couple of things would make me wary. Regardless of whether the price increase is justified (I can't see that it is as you haven't really done very much to it and I wouldn't have thought it was an area where prices have risen much in a year or so) the fact that you are moving so soon would make me think there was an issue (neighbours /road noise / development planned / bad area). Also yes I think most people looking for a family house as this is will be checking Ofsted and none of the primary or secondary look good on paper. I personally think good schools now can get an "outstanding " rating or even a mix of 1s and 2s relatively easily (generalisation) so I wouldn't be going anywhere near a school with a 3, wouldn't even read the report (and I think most parents would take a similar approach). Not much you can do about that though other than drop the price so people will be swayed thinking they're getting a good deal.

Missed the downstairs loo on the floor plan. Why did your purchasers pull out OP?

Wow- I didn't realise that you'd only bought it a year ago and only paid £285k for it then.

The best photos in the world won't stop those 2 facts putting people off.

What's the justification for wanting £60k more for it now?

I know you've done work on it it but it's rare to get the costs of improvements back so quickly unless you bought the house as a doer upper.

I think, the big price increase and the fact it still needs a new kitchen will put a lot of people off.

Add to that the short time you've lived there which will make people think there's a problem and that will slow viewings right down.

It's a nice house but I would be puzzled as to price increase when it doesn't look like you've done much except take the curtains down. It looks a little soulless maybe dress the Windows,, put up curtains a small table in kitchen and those logs in the early photo look lovely can you put those in? Good luck and don't panic it's a lovely house.

This is fairly bad time of year for buying houses as most people will wait for spring when there are plenty of properties available.

I think the pictures are fine and it looks lovely.

You may find you are out of a lot of people's price range with it being 345. It you lowered it to a guide of 340 you open yourself up to people who's max is 340. That is a standard estate agent thing, you need to maximise your market.

Flowers and pots etc aren't going to make a difference. I work for an estate agent and we sell some doc rough properties and ones with no photos so I would be inclined to say it's probably the price and time of year putting people off.

Without knowing the area OP, itust almost certainly be the price. Yes there are certain things that may put off individuals, such as having to walk through lounge to access kitchen etc, if you aren't even getting viewings, then it's got to be the price.

On he whole it's a lovely house and I'd view it even though it doesn't tick all of my boxes. But where I live if you were selling that house for that price you would get your hand bitten off!

Looking on the Streetview would put me off. The side and rear of the house and lack of private garden may well put family buyers off.

I agree with what others have said. The pictures look 'cold', how about some staging without cluttering the rooms. A vase of flowers, or one or two plants?

Dress the bare table with a runner or candles. I would also expect two bathrooms/ a shower in a four bed roomed house.

Why did your buyers pull out? Some things are hard to change, then it's got to be the price. Sorry.

I think its brave of you to ask for comments like this, and hope you find them useful.

What sort of buyer are you aiming at? Not to say that someone atypical may come along and fall in love with it, but where do you think they will come from? This would influence what i emphasised in the advert and which of the all excellent advise in this thread i would go for.

The ad seems to be aiming at people who need to move fast (oh and i find capital letters really hard to read - wouldn't put me off but I'm already unconsciously having to work harder than necessary...) promising no chain, but this thread started with our buyers have pulled out and we have found our dream house. Which is it, ir are you looking to update an older ad, now that you have found somewhere?

We have bought and sold twice no that there are no school aged children. I echo what people have said upthread about schools/ no schools. We are now in a lovely village which would probably could only afford as the local schools are not great and the private ones are quite a journey by road.

The ratio of bathrooms to bedrooms would not suit us, there are only two of us but one each (ensuite and general) plus a downstairs loo was the one thing we were unwilling to compromise on.

Back to your target market, did you 'do it up' as the length of your occupation seems to indicate? Why are you moving? Unless a house has a major selling point, like good schools or amazing kerb appeal or wonderful setting, price will be the biggest driver of viewers. So you either sit it out or flex the price.

I agree about the floor plan needing dimensions and wasn't sure from the first photo whether the whole house was one unit, but then i also agree that if the location is right, anything would be viewed, so we are probably back to the price. Hope it goes well for you and that a new buyer comes along fast.

Must say the photography is high quality.

When we tried to sell we hired a professional photographer as the images taken by the estate agent were phone quality at best.

There's a lot of things out of your control, all you can really do is

Do you have any other standout points to mention, such as age of boiler, recently replaced windows, high security doors etc etc.

I often turn to Zoopla to see what prices have been achieved for similar houses nearby to benchmark.

As for marketing, being on Rightmove is the single best thing you can do to get relevant eyeballs.

You've got a table in the living rom but no obvious dining room or breakfast kitchen. You need to move the table elsewhere.

For me, the kitchen looks dated, although some photos look worse than others - and only one bathroom would mean I wouldn't look any further. It also looks very dull and grey - I'm not a big fan of grey although I gather from posts here it's very popular in the U.K. just now (I'm abroad)

It's a pretty house, nicely presented.

I'm not keen on the extension- I thought it was a pair of semis at first. Could you paint the kitchen door to match the front door so it's more unified?

The kitchen does let it down, if you have money to spend I'd do it here, paint cupboards, new worktop?

The layout wouldn't work for me, living room is a corridor and dining room is miles from kitchen. Could you style it as smaller room is cosy living room and room next to kitchen is dining room (for me it would become dining room cum playroom)?

Is the garden secure? pets and kids

For me the biggest issue is the outside and inside don't match. Outside loverly double fronted Victorian house, but the internal pictures look like a good quality new build. It looks like pretty much all of the original features have gone. As someone who would always go for period properties, I don't think I would consider yours, but I don't know how typical I am!

Huge bathroom but titchy 4th bedroom would annoy me. Dining room other end of the house to the kitchen and no indication whether kitchen is large enough to eat in (I couldn't see a photo that showed a table in there). Patio area looks uninviting in photo. It also says "no upward chain" but you want to buy your dream house..?

Personally I don't like grey and your whole house is grey but that can be redecorated quite easily so it wouldn't put me off but some might.

I'd be put off by the fact that the dining room is 2 rooms away from the kitchen so you would have to carry plates etc through the living room and hallway to get to the dining room, that would be a deal breaker. Can you make the dining room the living room then the fact that the current living room is a through room (which will put some people off) won't matter so much? I'd also lose the table in the living room, I'd immediately want to know why in a detached house of that size, you had a table and chairs in your front room.

Room sizes are essential. It also was puts me off when I can't see them. The naming of bedroom 4 as a dressing room makes it sound as if it's not really big enough as a bedroom. I think the kitchen is fine actually. The bathroom needs to show the shower like in the old pictures.

The fact that you only bought it a year ago and now want a lot more money when you have done nothing to it would massively put me off, and buyers check this stuff.

But they have done something to it, CFS - I seem to recall them saying they had rewired, replastered, insulated and of course redecorated.....

However, none of these things are obvious unless the EA points them out. Things like new kitchens, bathrooms, extensions are more obvious 'improvements' but the OP hasn't done any of these. Unfortunately they too are the things most likely to add value - although even fitting a new kitchen doesn't a,ways gave the desired effect as it may not be to every buyer's taste

I do agree though that being able to see what was paid for the house in 2014 could be a factor - and the fact that to some potential buyers the older incarnation of the property is more appealing and perhaps the trend for grey everything hasn't extended that far north?

When we sold our last house in 2014 there were no historic pics available online - just the price we'd paid in 2011. We were now asking around 150k more than that, so some potential buyers may have thought we were hoping to make a fast buck......whereas in actual fact we had extended, rewired, replumbed, replastered, added three new bathroom/shower rooms, relandscaped the 1/3 acre garden and redecorated throughout the house was an unmortgageable wreck when we bought it so we jolly well made sure our EA had all this info in the details online etc. The price we sold for was 135k more than we'd paid - a 'profit' of around 35k on top of our costs to do the work.

Photo-wise, our EA was a fan of the less is more school of thought and we only had about 8 - 10 pics on RM, Zoopla etc, but they did have more on their own brochure. They believed not putting up pics of every room was a way to entice viewers to come to see the property in the flesh, rather than being able to see it all online where they weren't getting a true feel for the flow/character that the house offered.

Again I want to add that many period houses have a similar layout and imho those that love characterful properties will not be put off by quirky layouts/rooms leading off other rooms!