Why can't we sell our house!

[cocomom]

Long story short we've accepted 3 different offers off 3 different people all for them to 'change their mind' in less than 72 hours.
Lowest offer being 5k under asking and highest full asking, I think this is now really affecting our chance of selling as our house has been STC on rightmove three times now only for it to pop back up a few days later

I'm amazed at the prejudice against bungalows, and the number of posters who prefer clutter. It just goes to show how different personal tastes are.

I agree that having the highest price house in an area always makes it more difficult to sell, but it sounds like this house has a far higher spec than the others in the district.

I lived in two bungalows as a child and have no prejudice against them (although where I lived bungalows always came with big grassy gardens). I agree with the poster who finds themselves rather anxious when looking at your photos (too clinical, where would all the 'stuff' go), but then I live in house with bookshelves all over the place and MN would have some sort of fit over those!

I occasionally look at bungalows because OH is disabled and it would be easier to live in one.
They are usually bloody awful and two bedroomed.

Yours is lovely. It looks like you could just move straight in with no work but still be able to make it your own.

It has THREE bedrooms fgs.

And at the risk of being boring, its 160k!

Good luck.

Please tell you have a secret 'Monica' cupboard that no one is allowed to open as all clutter will fall out.

It's beautiful, that would be snapped up in few locations I know.

Bungalow wouldn't put me off, lots have put in upper floors or extensions, if there any strict planning rules on your build if not could mention that.

Maybe add some kids toys in garden and toys baskets dotted around as some people have hard time imagining it as a family home unless it's cluttered with crap.

Good luck

If you can stick a couple of bedrooms and a shower room in a loft extension, why would you even think of moving? You seem to be in a good area, your house has been personalised to your taste and you just need a bit more space which appears to be achievable. Get a good architect in and figure out how you can make it the right size and you really do have your forever home!

I admit, I do have a secret Monica cupboard it's the walk in one in our bedroom, I have to tidy it and move stuff for viewings haha.
We don't want to extend upstairs, we like bungalows how they are all of our end are still true bungalows and not overlooked in any way, I would hate to go and stick a big ugly dorma thing on it and also upset our lovely neighbours l.

Lots of people like bungalows and they are like gold dust around our way as there are so few and particularly older people (we have loads of those around here) usually want to downsize to them.

Lack of clutter is brilliant. I don't think most people would be put off by this lovely house at all. Just keep on with it.

(I was brought up in a house with 2/3 stories and I just prefer it and we have a lot of children so like a lot of separate rooms with doors that close, no through rooms etc - just personal preference)

When houses don't sell sometimes an auction can work with a fairly high reserve price you would not go below.

Roads and areas will always have a price limit though - however much more fantastic your property is. Our road is £180k. Doesn't matter whether it needs ripping out and redoing or whether it's incredible and got Ideal Homes all over it. It's not just your house - you're buying into your neighbours (if that makes sense!)

I'm surprised you're moving though now given you've said all that. Why don't you just extend a little more to give you your forever home?

Your home is lovely, in no way is anything I've said a criticism for how it is - just why it might put some people off (if that makes sense!)

I would say that while it looks amazing, it's a very specific style and so you are stuck looking for people who either really like that style too or are happy re-decorating etc. The problem is, when a house looks new/immaculate but isn't your style, you almost begrudge having to change it whereas if it was a total mess/ a doer upper you wouldn't mind decorating it so much IYSWIM. It doesn't leave much room for other people to put their mark on it and make it their home.

Again this is just my opinion, I'm no Estate Agent

But could you get them to drop 'retired client' from description. To me it's has that same effect like looking for lively party holiday and then they mention family fun friendly.

Also I would remove photo 2, it makes it look really small. 1st photo is great it looks really spacious.

I would also drop photo of your doorway and few off sofa and sunflower.

I like picture of your kitchen where see fridge with kids pictures on and close up of cooker.

Give them enough to get attention and wanting to see more.

My niece has just brought a house, can't wait to see it in person they didn't even take photo of 3rd bed room

I think it's 3 things

1. Lack of bath - I think when buyers reflect on it and realise that they would need to put one in, in a house that looks like in walk in condition, it puts them off.

1. The back garden - the paving is not very inviting.

1. The decor - I think a lot of people looking at the house will be older and I'm not sure that the decor will necessarily appeal to all of them. Therefore I think you'll lose quite a few potential viewers who won't even come to look at it

I agree about investigating a loft extension

You say that you don't want lovely neighbours upset by a roof conversion(so you would rather move!). What happens when the new owners put a roof extension in!!! (and you have spent a fortune moving and have lost money on the resale?)

It comes across as cold and sterile - it's lovely but in a distant way. Put some warm accents in some fluffy throws make it a little more casual and pop some seating and potpkants out in the garden so it looks live s space to relax.

Potplants even!

Dress the garden!

Change Estate Agent. They're marketing it badly.

We're buyers (not in your area, sorry ) so this is an interesting thread for us - seeing the situation from the other side!

We are in our 40's but have younger kids; we've been renting a bungalow for several years now and love it, although we are definitely the youngest family by far in our street and most are retired and quite elderly! This actually suits me as a)I like a quiet life and b) bungalows - at least around here - tend to have a larger garden which is important for our kids/dog.

I looked at your advert and tried to imagine it was in our area and price-point, and personally I wouldn't view it because:

• the decor in your living space is a bit scary for me; we're more neutral/conservative-type decorators and though your home looks to be perfect and showroom-ready, all I can see is "I'd want to completely redecorate before we moved in" (not least because our furniture just wouldn't fit in as it stands) Realistically i can't afford to pay top dollar for your immaculate home and then spend thousands redecorating it all.
• on the same note: bedrooms 2 and 3 are lovely, I can totally imagine my kids in there. There seems to be a real disconnect between the decor in those bedrooms, and the living spaces.
• the back yard wouldn't suit our family (at least one kid still at the football-in-the-yard stage, and one dog). Again, I'd be thinking 'I'd need to pay someone to take up the slabs and lay turf' etc. and I wouldn't be able to afford to do this once I'd paid your asking price.
• the front yard actually wouldn't bother me - having something low-maintenance there would be fine. That said, for the purposes of adding kerb appeal during the selling process, it might be nice to have some colour there. A house around the corner from me has a similar front yard and they have very large pots of brightly coloured red flowers positioned here and there. Just having the one colour really adds a 'pop' and actually looks lovely. Wouldn't cost much and you could even take them with you...!
• I'd want to see that there was room to comfortably use the dining table (as we focus on family dining), so maybe pull it out and dress/set it as if for dinner, show it's usable? Sometimes (I've found) vendors shove tables up against walls because in reality there isn't room to actually use it. Not saying that's the case here, but when I walk around I want to imagine living there and using the space.
• although my DH would be happy with just a shower, I and my daughter firmly prefer baths. Yes, we could put a bath in your property but again - would involve redecorating the bathroom and if I've paid a top-of-the-range price for your home, I can't afford to do this.

It all comes down to personal taste, of course, and I can see that your home is just absolutely immaculate. It just wouldn't be for us and I wouldn't view it at that price, no matter how much larger or 'better' it is than others.

Not sure if this helps but I can see there's been a lot of focus on objections that retired people might have, thought a view from a 'family' shopper might help.

We've already changed EA once due to bad marketing and a few other things
I do see what everyone is saying and I do understand it isn't to everyone's taste our point of changing things is;
We put a bath in, might appeal to people but we have to live with this, we aren't a bath family at all and love our big double shower, we would be sacrificing this for a bath and pokey over bath shower for how long? Our interested potential buyers love that it doesn't have a bath and has a nice big shower. The front of the house is paved as it's a big double driveway, we have added more colour with flowers since as the pictures where taken originally in the very beginning of spring.
What if we change decor and then that isn't to everyone's taste, because let's face it just from this post alone shows how diverse things like that are, meaning we've spent money when we didn't need to and now don't like how our house looks and it still isn't selling.
Realistically selling is the best financial option for us, not extending upwards, which we would never want to do any way.
We have had lots of interest and really good offers, just very indecisive people.
Our street funnily enough isn't full of 'old people' it's a good mixture, my DD's have friends their ages here, one of our neighbours are a young couple like us, the other side are mum and son in their 70's and 50's.
My next step, I think would be an open house, but how does this work? I haven't a clue and is it to late in the game for this now? Is it not better done straight away?

WRT the bath situation, could you get a quote so that if any viewers mention the lack of bath you can tell them it would cost say £500 and be two days work to get one fitted so they know it is easily doable.

Good idea FrogFairy. Fwiw another poster had a thread on here a few weeks ago. Her house hadn't had a single viewing and was on at the price the EA had recommended. After a lot of input from MNetters, she took the house off the market, addressed the common issues that had been raised and relaunched the house at a lower asking price. There were 8 viewings the first weekend after the relaunch and she's since accepted an offer higher than the asking price.

I've stated it on your previous threads: the price is too high and the house doesn't have broad enough appeal, due to layout downstairs, décor and an unappealing back garden. If you want to sell quickly address those things.

I forgot it doesn't have a bath: if you will recoup the costs of putting a bath in, it's worth doing. For every person who isn't bothered by there being no bath there are many more who do want one.

I really don't want to offend as I know you love your house and have or in so much effort into it, but what is clear from your recent posts is

1. You are set on selling, you definitely want to move.
2. You still are thinking of this house as your home (understandably) so are reluctant to make changes that aren't your taste.

The problem is that 1&2 don't really go well together... fwiw I don't think you need to majorly redecorate, you could make it more appealing with just changing non-permanent things, but the idea of getting a quote for how much the obvious things would cost (installing a bath, turfing the garden) is a good one... then consider potentially whether reducing the price by a proportion of that cost -depending on whether you want to sell quickly or for top price?

It is immaculate but two areas would stop me lookng at it:
The colours in the sitting room - white, grey, black are very cold and it lacks a family feel. It almost feels like a self-catering apartment somewhere- with the hard tiled floors and the decor. I would get rid of the black and grey and I would try to 'soften' it. The lack of fireplace and sofa facing a bare wall doesn't help.
The outside space is bare and stark. Could you put some pots out with flowering plants in and perhaps lift a slab or two and put a couple of small trees in eg small japanese acers- you get beautiful colours and they are samll trees - you could grow them in pots actually.

I'd pop up a section of slabs in the garden and roll out some turf from B&Q it's cheap. and it would soften the garden nicely.
I love the house, we are looking for a bungalow with three bedrooms, but not in your area, that would cost a lot more around here.