At our wits end!

[Bunnyfuller]

Title says it all. We've been on the market since Sept last year and apart from one good offer from a seller who hadn't sold, and who then dropped his offer another 40k below the asking price when he got an offer, that's been it.

We were with Tepilo for the first 6 months and it was horrific. Not one viewing, and testing out the platform it became apparent it didn't work reliably, and Tepilo didn't respond to phone enquiries. They also vastly over-valued and we had to drop it quite swiftly.

We then went with a tradional agent which is where the offer was from. This time we were very confident, looking at local prices, that we had it right, and had a feeling the EA was just pushing us to accept the offer which would've drastically affected our property choice moving forward.

We've been with another one 6 weeks, and we've now dropped another 25k, as the market is incredibly slow now.

Our feedback is always 'house is amazing/gorgeous/beautiful but garden too small or not enough parking. We have a large drive thru for 2 vehicles but the road is narrow and does look crowded when neighbours have visitors etc. But we cent change those!

I don't know how to put the link up but on Rightmove it's SG189NG, £399'950.

Any ideas please? Be gentle, I'm really fed up after yet another viewing with 'parking not enough'. The house is big, and looking locally it's a lot of house for the money. Thanks in advance

We've never seen more of a sellers market in the UK than what we're currently experiencing... Lending and general monetary policy is (for now) still relatively loose, house prices are at record highs and stock levels are at record lows.

Anything that is even vaguely sensibly and realistically priced WILL sell quickly and easily, it's only a slow market for houses that are over priced, despite all your assertions that it is priced accordingly and despite all your apparently positive (polite) feedback from viewers, I can assure you without any doubt or any need to even see the Rightmove link... Your house is over priced.

Parking isn't enough? Makes me think that they are just having a nosy and not really looking to buy. You have room for two cars, thats more than most houses.
BTW it's a lovely house. I don't see anything wrong.

Op, price seems very reasonable and garden is good size. It's lovely. I wouldn't even consider it though due to the car port. Could that be putting people off?

I was going to say that the downstairs seems to be quite small for a 5 bedroomed house and then I realised there was a further living area on the first floor. I suspect for some familieis that type of layout just wouldn't work.

As regards the parking although you have 2 spaces the estate is quite crowded and people wanting 5 beds may have teens who drive too and visitors - where do they actually park. Is there off street parking nearby?

Is there enough room to widely open car doors when parked on the car port?? A 5 bed house is likely to have a baby/toddler and that car port looks like a nightmare and I can't see that you can park in front of the house!?
I also don't like lounges on the same floor as the bedrooms so that would put me off.

If the clicky link is your house OP, then my thoughts are that your house does look like good value for the money and I am sure there are people out there with perhaps a larger family who would love it.

However, I wouldn't consider it as it appears to have no garage (for garden/car stuff) or loft (all the other general junk), plus we are a family of four with four cars. While the kids were younger and extra parking wasn't specifically needed, I still wouldn't have liked the narrow street which could potentially be fraught with issues with neighbours and parking wars. I can't see it onstreetview, but it looks like some of the houses at right angles to yours, have no individual driveways/garages just some communal parking. Knowing developers like to cram as many houses as possible on new developments, I would assume that no-one has enough parking and that spaces are difficult to find. Also, your house seems top heavy with bedrooms rather than living space and I have always preferred more living space to bedrooms. I am not sure I would use the lounge on the first floor much either, preferring to sit downstairs by the kitchen and the outside.

Langford is a nice area though - I have some friends there.

Nice house. Nice garden.

Photos are in a dodgy order and jump about, have them in a logical order (like front of house, then all the kitchen and dining room, then sitting room, each bedroom and bathroom then garden.)

Kinda strange layout with so much 'downstairs' taken our by the car port. People like their trad layouts even tho lots of newbuild townhouses have 1st floor sitting rooms.

I think if the sitting room had a Juliette balcony it would feel more sitting room like upstairs.

Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like we're basically stuffed . You can open car doors in the car port, and each house has 2 allocated parking spaces, the drives aren't communal so there's no battle to park. We can't change the layout, ditto the parking because were we to alter the carport we would lose the parking we have. It was originally marketed as a 4 bed but his EA said it is easily 5. We've had lots of viewings so I'm not sure the photo order is putting people off. we are cheaper than the majority of 4 bed properties in the area, so I'm at a loss as to pricing - sall looking at comparable 4 bed detached in our area we're the cheapest! So is our house so horrid we basically need to drop it to what 3 beds are going for?

I feel even worse now. Sounds like we bought a donkey and are bloody stuck :-(

There is a loft, and there is a shed (for the garden stuff).

As a buyer I'm always interested in the square footage of the whole house...I see you've listed each room, but why not the whole building? I wouldn't spend any longer trying to work that out...

Bunny your house is lovely and you haven't bought a donkey.

However, people need different things at different points in their life. For instance an older couple might not want two sets of stairs, other young families might love the 5 bedrooms, may not be gardeners and would be happy to have an easily manageable garden. I believe properties have to appeal to as large a population as possible. I just think your house appeals to a specific type of owner which might rule out the older generation, childless couples and families with older children who each have cars. Ask yourself what you loved about the house when you bought it - that's the type of family it would appeal to. I don't think there's anything wrong with the price at all.

I'm an estate agent, although not in your area so can't comment specifically on price but many years experience in different markets means I know every house has a price, it's your main variable and you use that to compensate for the complicated parking or other objections. At 399 they may say those things but at 375 (your agent should be pushing the 350 people through the door then) they won't have those complaints as it should be the best they're seeing.
It's not that the parking or garden etc is an issue, they're just the issue at your asking price.
I would depersonalise some rooms and declutter photos/cushions/flowers etc and get the photos redone as when they're taken with the lights on it makes people think the house must be dark and gives a yellow hue, they should be able to photoshop them brighter if need be.

You're not far from me. I have no idea why you're not selling, it's a nice house and a very good price, when you consider what that would get you in Hitchin

Sorry I'm no help. I hope you find a buyer soon.

We bought it with a 2 yr old and 3 yr old and managed the various child detritus car seats pushchairs 6548755 scooters and bikes and dolly pushchairs. We bought it as a young family because the space was divine and it was actually brilliant as a mummy of two teenies having the 'relaxing' living room right near their bedrooms. The garden is easy - a lawnmower and some hedge clippers will do it!

We have had several young families say they'd love it, but 2 of them weren't even on the fucking market! Property here does seem to have slowed considerably, not just ours, and everyone seems to be dropping locally, maybe things are different in London? But it just feels like it's not even worth getting our hopes up.

We're toying with the idea of putting a garage in where the shed is and into the garden a wee bit, if it doesn't go with this EA...does that sound worthwhile? Other than that I genuinely can't see what else we can practicably do to address the issues that it presents to buyers.

And thank for the 'polite' sall. Jeez :-(

Hi Ann, thank you!

Waves Hitchin way! I know - that's my point. It's a lot of house for where we are. 5 mins from river walks, 10 min drive to mainline into London. I feel like someone has it in for us!

We love Hitchin, such a lovely town. My fave combination of lots of lovely eateries, fab markets and lots of quirky shops!

Thank you, Beaver some useful advice there. I was thinking the depersonalise a bit tonight.

If we drop to 375 it's only 65k growth from 2009 when we bought it which is very out of step locally. Also it would really make moving unaffordable to us as we'd basically have to downsize considerably, or borrow a huge amount which is definitely not for us.

I think you need to re-dress the rooms a little, they're big but busy so clearing out things like the bits on the window ledges and reducing down the books - take out as much of the clutter as you can (its not clutter but it makes it harder for people to see themselves there)

The room layout is also slightly odd with the main living room upstairs, i think I'd make that downstairs room into either a full dining room with no tv but perhaps a book corner or just a living room no dining. I'd then reshuffle the bedrooms so the one with the white bedroom furniture is in the old living room and the smallest of the 5 bedrooms I would turn into a home office / guest bed. You then have 5 full bedrooms with a bedroom 6 / 2nd reception room.

The pictures also dont do the house any justice, at the very least they want to be in the correct order but I'd want them to be slightly clearer, at first glance the walk in cupboard looks like one of the bedrooms so maybe one with the ensuites in view ?

Anyway, good luck with it all, its a lovely big home so hopefully just a refresh of the pictures will get loads of interest

I'm not in Hitchin any more. Can't afford it! I misspent my youth there though.

I think you just need to wait for the right person. The layout is awkward, its too small on the ground floor for a kitchen diner living area for a large family and the photos don't help e.g. the dining table shoved up into a corner. Can you rearrange to make it look more spacious? Like you say, you can't change the layout but I think you need better photos of the downstairs.

Your house isn't horrid at all! But it is a slightly unusual layout which just means it takes longer to sell.

Can you get total square footage and room dimensions on the floor plan?

In description can you make more o go loft for storage and the shed?

*More of the loft for stiorage

I wouldn't bother with a garage. It will be very expensive.

It's a lovely house - did you decide on the price or the agent ?

Why do agents put houses on the market if the price is unachievable ?

I can certainly ask about square footage, although I've not seen it on listings for houses outside London, happy to be corrected?

I will mention the storage thing, I think that's a good point. However, viewings are t really this issue - we're getting those! It's the offer we want! The people who have said they like it, ticks all their boxes, haven't sold. The others are as I've said. I really think it's the layout and I don't honestly think that can be altered - no one wants no dining room. The comment about the table is bang on, will def move it, ditto some bits and pieces. I can't see these little tweaks being the dealbreaker tho, when there's the layout there is, I think that's more the problem. Sigh, I bloody hate this.