3 weeks, no offers - lower price?

[mudpiesfortea]

Our house has been listed for approx 3 weeks and we've only had 6 viewings and no offers. Our estate agent thinks we should lower house. Thoughts?

[Sparklycat]

Can you get rid of the dresser in your living room? It does make the room look smaller so might be a quick fix to the feedback of too small downstairs?

[Bearbehind]

I'd get the floor plan thing sorted and also get them to put Bedroom 4/ Dressing Room on the floor plan to preempt that issue.

I wouldn't change it to a 3 bed listing if you could put a bed in the 4th room.

[mudpiesfortea]

Sparkly - no, the thing is HUGE. I told DH that it would be too big for the room when we saw it (I wanted nice clean white built in shelving units ). Unfortunately it is what it is - we can't move stuff out really

[mudpiesfortea]

Bear - should we try a new agent is stick with the one we've got, bearing (no pun intended) in mind your point re: most people going online

[Bearbehind]

I strongly believe that if you have to chase your agent over silly things like the floor plan being in the wrong place on the listing then there's no hope.

I'd check your T&C's to see when you can get out of your contract with them and make plans to do so if it hasn't sold before.

[RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog]

Yours is best internally, imho OP, but character-wise from the outside I prefer the last one

Prices are truly crazy in your area. We're originally from Hampshire so know what it's like. The house we sold for 600k eight years ago is now around 900k! What strikes me with some of those linked properties (not yours OP, which is lovely) - and I know the last one is an HMO - is the lack of effort some vendors put into presenting their homes for sale when they know they'll sell fairly quickly regardless.

When we were selling our last house (Wiltshire, so a different animal), we had five valuations and priced towards the lower end as we'd already found our onward purchase. Expectations for quick sales were low in the area as it tended to be the houses at the higher end (1 million plus), first/second homes or projects that were selling and ours was a fully restored period house priced somewhere in the middle. An unhelpful neighbour told us to expect to be on the market a year

We had a couple of viewings in the first week, then interest dried up. Feedback was stupid - rooms were too dark (it was a 200+ yr old fully beamed, small-windowed house!), the garden was too big/full of trees (it was a third of an acre with orchard in the countryside!). As we wanted to move forward with our purchase we dropped the price a little at the end of the first month - against the advice of our EA, then had a flurry of viewings that resulted in three offers - one at asking price from someone that didn't even wait for her DH to see it before offering.

What I'm trying to say is if you need/want to sell quickly then a price drop sooner rather than later might make sense, but otherwise in a fast moving location like Guildford I'd hold out and wait for the right buyer to come along......

[ChishandFips33]

I like yours the best! It's a pretty house that's easy on the eye.

I would be tempted to declutter a little; items from the top of the kitchen units (gives impression storage is an issue), tidy/dress the study, removes photos from above sitting room window as it messes with eyeline, declutter dresser and remove the other unit near window, remove old plant pots from the front.

I can only see 2 bedrooms shown, no garden pics but there is a floor plan

Hold out a little longer and try with an agent who has more motivation - don't double up, it looks desperate although it may get people through the door!

[Artandco]

I would do a few things. Firstly sell it as a 3 bed property. The 4th bedroom is too small and the downstairs is too small for a full 4 bedroom house.

Make the 4th bedroom upstairs the study

Make the study downstairs labelled as snug/ playroom.

That way it gives more potential downstairs as living room is tiny for a 4 bed.

[mudpiesfortea]

We have 2 weeks notice. Have an EA coming round tomorrow and another meeting us next week. What makes a good EA? What should we be looking for? Fo tons have been in touch loads (we're interested in a house they have) but they are doing my nut - couldn't bear to list with them

[Artandco]

Oh and yes, I would want to see pictures of all the bedrooms and all the bathrooms and the garden. Plus several pictures of the living room and kitchen diner from different angles

[Bearbehind]

I think it's as simple as being comfortable with the person you are dealing with. Estate agency isn't rocket science, find a a personable efficient one and you're sorted.

When viewing properties we were shown around by some completely arrogant tossers and I wouldn't even entertain using them if we were to sell.

[RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog]

Regarding the large dresser - couldn't you rent a storage unit? We did this at our last house, not so much due to lack of storage but we had no garage (lots of ORP) and my parents house was sold leaving us with all their clutter mementoes.

Also, meant to add about the fourth bedroom/dressing room - our house had an odd layout (typical rambling rural abode!) with two attic bedrooms as well as others on the middle and ground floors. One of the attic rooms was being used as our office as we work from home. EA advised us to dress it as a bedroom as some buyers wouldn't be able to visualise it as such with desk, shelving etc in there. We had a small space between the two attic rooms we transformed into a temporary office, bought a bed on eBay, some rugs and other bits from ikea and dressed the room as a girl's bedroom with bunting etc. Our buyers had three DC and intended that to be the DD's room so it worked! After selling we stuck the furniture on eBay and recouped our expenditure.

[mudpiesfortea]

All good feedback - keep it coming! I suggested all of this to DH AND EA and they both blew me off.

It's the perfect house for a couple that want to live walking distance to town but don't have £800k. In catchment of an OFSTED outstanding infant school and easy access to A3.

I'm tempted to hire a photographer & house stager and list the thing myself!!

[mudpiesfortea]

DH would never go for moving stuff into a storage unit. I can see his face now .

Same with 'dressing room.' Plus there's no where for that stuff to go...

We have to work with what we have in that respect

[whattodoforthebest2]

IIWY I would be listing it myself, to be honest. I've done this recently and it was a doddle. I used an online agent (housenetwork) and they took the photos and managed the phone calls and all I had to do was turn up to show people around the house and then I handled the negotiations (I'm used to doing this) and got the legals underway when it was all agreed. Far, far cheaper than an EA. The EA has suggested reducing the price as that's all he/she can do to attract any prospective purchasers.

Your house is in a good location for the town, station, A3 etc (I'm not a million miles away), so I would say it's definitely worth a try.

[RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog]

Artandco I agree about wanting to see every room and from various angles.......but, some EAs seem to think this is not such a good idea or maybe they just can't be arsed?

We have dealt with a few like this.......one said it was better to not show everything in the brochure/online as some buyers would not bother viewing - better to leave them wanting to view in person - and the other used a professional photographer who took a standard eight pics at every property. Fine if you're only selling a small place with few rooms, but what happens if it's a mansion? We got over this by having the standard eight pics then the EA took a few more themselves. All of a very high standard.

Otoh, I've often seen houses on RM etc with forty or fifty pics - way too many and you just get bored looking!

[mudpiesfortea]

Whatrodo - how long did it take to sell? I love this house and think I could get across all the good points. I think I need to make sure the listing gets them through the door and then I could close the deal.

So, if in looking at the list myself option, do I hire a photographer and house stager to make it look the business?

[MaryPoppinsPenguins]

The room dimensions aren't listed on the details, which would make me assume it's all tiny!

The floor plan / garden picture issue has already been raised.

I think it's a lovely house, but agree with a previous poster about marketing the downstairs study as a playroom. We've been looking recently for a house in this price range, in the south east (not Guildford though) and the people we were competing with all wanted playrooms.

[mummytime]

I think the choice of estate agent can be essential, some are much much better selling houses in this price bracket (but personally I avoid F on ethical grounds). Multi agency ones can be great in my experience.

In this market which schools you are in catchment for can be crucial.

Yes prices an be mad.

[whattodoforthebest2]

It was all done v quickly - probably 6-8 viewings in the first 2 weeks, 3 or 4 offers and then negotiated with the FTB who had a mortgage in place. The online agent I used just did the photos and I did the room details and dimensions, they did the floor plans (I think). It was this time last year in a town a bit further up the A3 from you. We exchanged contracts about 8 weeks after putting the house on the market (bearing in mind there was no chain). There was an attempt to renegotiate after the survey, but, bearing in mind the other offers, we didn't reduce the price.

I can also recommend a legal firm in Guildford who did the (fixed price) conveyancing, if you need one.

[mummytime]

Oh I have good experience of Haart.

[whattodoforthebest2]

Do you need someone to 'stage' it? Have you got an arty/crafty friend who could give you some ideas? Or keep asking on MN? I'd be putting fresh flowers in the kitchen and pots of herbs on a windowsill for starters. Terracotta pots around with bulbs in etc.

[mummytime]

Some of those houses have a much better location. Warren Rd is a premium rd. And Merrow Park is in catchment for the most desired secondary. So in both those cases they are selling a highly desired location with a less desired house.
Do you have traffic noise?

[MrsFlorrick]

Market is odd at the moment.
A house near ours which didn't sell last year or the year before at £1.25m was put back on the market 2 weeks ago for £1.45m and went under offer in less than 3 days.

[mudpiesfortea]

Mummytime - I agree with you re: location. That's why I think our house is best suited to a couple (probably FTB, looking to start a family or with a couple of small kids) who want easy access to station/A3. Ugh, which makes me think maybe we SHOULD lower the price a bit because what FTB has £600k?!!! We certainly didn't and we only moved here 5 years ago!