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

always have, not a,ways gave

The description in the Rightmove ad lists all the work that's been done to the house.

I would move the small table and chairs from the living room into the kitchen (against the radiator?) and put a dining table into the dining room to show it's use off. Yes, get rid of the hallway photo. And yes, photos of the other bedrooms.

What others have said - can you make the sitting room into the dining room - I love the house but if I was buying I would want to knock the dining room and kitchen into one big room - easier to see as a possibility if they are clearly next to each other. Probably help if you could put a single fed into the small bedroom as otherwise people might think they can't fit one in - and if you can't then it needs to be marketed as a 3 bed. I know grey has been fashionable but it s VERY GREY - can you put up some bright curtains and buy colourful cushions to break up the grey? Also, if I am not mistaken I don't think you have a back garden? From the street looks like the garden is to the front as the house sides on to the road? Presumably this leaves you with a not very private garden? If that us the case it may put some people off - not much you can do about it other than plant trees/hedging to the road side.

It's not the fact that the school might include religious worship that puts people off, I think, more that if the school gives priority to 1) members of local churches, followed by 2) members of other denominations (as our local C of E does), then all the places will be taken up by people in those 2 categories, so even if you want to go there, there's probably no space. Which leaves you with the Ofsted rated 3 school (which, like previous poster - I wouldn't even bother to read the report.)
Surely the paint colour won't put people off - that can be so easily changed.
I suggest getting feedback from the buyer who dropped out.

You know I was looking and thought "colour" there are two bits of colour some books in one room and a yellow throw in another and THAT IS IT through the whole house - it doesn't looked lived in at all, but colour is the main thing so maybe introduce some splashes of subdued colour - grey is a good background but maybe some pale blue, or even plum or yellow is nice with the grey. At little bit more dressing

You could also introduce some natural wood elements which tend to make it feel more homey

I think the money has been spent and spent on insulation and decor in neutral grey but unfortunately this doesn't translate into visual appeal necessarily so don't have a problem with price - it seems fair for the area

In addition to knowing why the buyers pulled out, it would be interesting to know how many viewings there were and the feedback.

Hi all,

Thanks again for your feedback we are keeping it on board.

In answer to some of the questions

Why are we moving so soon - the day we completed on this house i got a job I could not refuse (being a fresh graduate) 40 miles away from this house. I've commuted for the last year and a half and I cant do it anymore.

Why our previous sellers pulled out - in short, we are a young couple and they weren't happy buying from us as we are so young. When they first came to view the house, I answered the door and they asked if I was the lodger. When I stated I was the homeowner, they refused to come in and wait for the estate agent and insisted on standing outside.

Feedback - well the couple that pulled out were only the second viewing we had. The feedback from the first was very positive but she wasn't even on the market yet & wanted a property with extensive land for animals. We have had one viewing last week since going back on and our estate agent hasn't managed to get feedback for us yet..

Previous buyers* sorry

Hi op, your house looks lovely, but i think the first picture outside lets it down. I would get two big planters for by the front door and put two buxus in there or a red robin that has been trained . I would get something like this
www.londondoor.co.uk/subcategory.php?id=12 .

Can you fit a small table in the kitchen ? Family buyers often look for this.

Good luck op .

Whoops! That's what happens when you post on the iPad whilst in the bath and don't read through the details properly! However, it doesn't alter the fact that if those 'improvements' are seen as a selling point they should be in a more prominent place in the details - as ours did, they put this info in the bullet points at the top......

I see the OP also posted about this on MSE - I don't post there, but saw a comment where someone said the house was on the market with the previous vendors from 2011 and the asking price gradually dropped from around that which the OP is asking now to 299k. The OP has also dropped the price a couple of times over a relatively short period of time (understandably - we did the same in order to secure a buyer/our dream home last year), but as potential buyers can also access all this info it might appear there is something wrong with the house as it took so long to sell last time and is on the market again so soon after the last sale.

I'm not sure if the price is right tbh - although we now live in the West Midlands (from the South originally) and I can honestly say houses do seem to stick around for much longer up here - but to me it does seem to represent relatively good value for money despite all the comments made above. I'm sure the current time of year isn't helping at all and that a few tweaks and maybe a small reduction to 340k will make a difference

If you can stomach it, I'd stay on the market until December and re-market in the new year if you aren't getting viewings. The fact people are viewing shows it isn't over priced. Those buyers were odd btw!

In terms of presentation, I think a side view from the road showing the garden over the gates and that it is private, could help. The main exterior photo gives the impression of an open front garden - like it's on a village green - to me.

Then, give the rooms clear purpose: put your current table in the kitchen and make the dining room a proper dining room with a large table, showing it as a family dining room. Move the sofa that's in that room and put it in the living room.

Lose the photo of the corridor.

Look into improving the kitchen if possible, but as long as it's clean and tidy that's the main thing.

OP, a house is such a big purchase that you don't just pull out because you aren't happy with the age of the vendors

They pulled out for some other reason. It could well have been they didn't want to pay £60k more than you SD just a year ago.

Have you carried out all the work on the house or was it done before you bought it?

The fact that the sold listing photos are different to your 'for sale' listing but the house hasn't changed since then makes it look like the work was done before you bought it- thus the increase in price seems unpalatable.

If you did all the work then the details need to explicitly state this as you can't change what comes up on sold listings.

We did ALOT of work. Every wall and ceiling in the house was covered in anagylpta wallpaper and behind that was damp. The wiring in the whole house was unsafe, the property didn't even have an earth. The plumbing was also outdated and not efficient. Since we insulated the whole house and replumbed we have gone from spending £700 in a month on heating oil to only putting £300 worth in the tank in December 2014 and having £100 worth of oil left in the tank now.

There were other cosmetic issues such as green carpets upstairs, which we have completely replaced. Yes, a buyer for this house will want to change the bathroom and kitchen (there is also plenty of scope for downstairs extension, extra bathrooms upstairs. The bathroom currently has a bath and a double shower unit in it, you could very easily put up a stud wall and create an ensuite to the main bedroom and still have a good sized family bathroom. We just felt it was better to leave buyers with a way to improve the property themselves.

Our house is currently up for sale for £40k less than what it was valued at by 4 different local estate agents. Yes, there has been a jump from what we paid for it, but its because the house was in a very bad state when we bought it and we have really improved it. I understand people may not like the grey paint that we enjoy - but the ceilings and walls are newly plastered so all it would take is them rolling a brush to a colour that they prefer. Which, IMO, is much nicer than stripping wall paper and then finding you need to replaster! I feel that once people are in the house they will see that it really is a blank canvas easy to decorate any way they please.

We are however, taking on board all comments given around staging and getting some colourful items in here this weekend and going to re-photograph. We are also going to change agents as we aren't happy with the current ones.

I think your house is beautiful. It's well decorated, lovely outside space, pretty on the outside, Your EA is not suggesting lowering the price and the fact you have had a buyer already... Seems to me it's not a price thing, I think it's a time if year thing. Maybe you could get a different picture of the front of the house that doesn't include the extension bit - that way it will look a bit different so regular right mover searchers don't discount thinking - I've already seen that one. Also I think agents get a bit lazy when they've had a property a while, I remember how blasé some were when we were house hunting. If your able to do your own viewings how about change to online EA as you will no doubt 'sell'your property best.

Personally I like the paint colour but agree the windows need to be dressed and there needs to be a table in the kitchen.

I don't think the work justifies the uplift in price - the jump does not equate to what you have done. I also agree with a pp (and my previous post) that there seems to be an issue with the house. People don't incur all the costs of surveys / legal fees etc to pull out a week before exchange because you're a young couple . Unlikely at best.

I also am a bit doubtful about your reasoning - surely you knew you were about to move into the house when you applied for a job 40 miles away? Or did you not have any choice about the relocation?

I think you would be better of dressing the current study/dining room as a sitting room/lounge and the current lounge as formal dining room/family room. Definitely a table in the kitchen even though a 2nd one in the dining/family room.

I cannot believe there are no room dimensions on the listing at all absolutely essential especially if the rooms are larger in real life than they look in the photos!

I would be wanting to know how big bed 4 is before I bothered to view!

Bedroom 4 is 3.0 x 1.86m, so will easily fit a single bed. The other bedrooms are good sized doubles.

I agree with others that the fast resale and jump in price from what you paid last will be off-putting to many. All of this information is obviously readily available online. I notice that the house was also on the market for some time prior to you purchasing it, so a lot of prospective buyers may have seen it already during that period.

I also notice, looking at the Google Street View link on the listing, that the setting for the house is much more crowded than it appears on the feature pictures, and that the house is actually very close to a road?

A pet peeve of mine personally is EA particulars that don't really give a representative view of what the property's setting like - if I'd only seen the main pictures, hadn't checked Street View, and then turned up to see the house - I suspect I would probably feel slightly disappointed/mislead?

But if you'd booked a viewing wouldn't you look at the rest of the listing - not least to be able to recognise the house when you got there?

Bedroom with black bed. Side table, lamp, rug. Needs softening.

Exterior. Nicer garden furniture

Well yes, I would. Others probably are, too. Which may be part of the reason why the op is struggling to get people to view the house in the first place?

If keen to sell quickly, the only thing for it is to drop the price - probably to around £300,000 mark?

Sorry, that was in response to wowfudge

I would consider

Deinstructing your current EA and removing the property from the market. Meanwhile.....
get a new EA with proven skills in good marketing photography to come over and take a whole new batch of photos straight away To maximise the daylight which will decline towards end November

Before getting the photos done mow the grass front and back so the photos show a really smart garden (with stripes like the posh photos in Country Life!) Plus two nice big planters by the front door with colourful winter bedding like pansies that last all winter. Not kidding a nicely appointed outside is a key enhancer, at very little extra cost.

Inside add a few vases of colourful flowers to 'lift' the greyness from those rooms !

You have a beautiful house, now it's all about marketing!

Relaunch the property back on the market in first week January, new agent with real energy and motivation to get you a quick sale! If your current EA is being so uncooperative, just ditch ASAP!!