What's wrong with our house?

[sueyandcol1]

Hi all. I'm a retired gran living in west London with DH and I would really appreciate some practical advice please.

Our house has been on the market for 4 weeks and we haven't had a single viewer. I know the price may seem high but that's about average for this area. We can't work out what's wrong with it. We know we could rip out the brown bathroom, paint all the walls white, etc, and if we haven't sold in six months then maybe that's what we'll do. But we're just wondering if there's anything obviously "wrong" that we can fix without spending too much money. We just want to get some viewers! Any practical suggestions would be most welcome...

Please see www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/44957399?betabanner_dismiss=1#8IpVgvS6tHJhxHgW.97

It’s not large for London,,,

To those (not many Tbh) saying "replace the bathroom", we sold a house with an avocado bathroom (ugh) similar size to this one. Same kind of kitchen too. We priced it low - £185k not the £210k they were fetching when done - and sold for £175 so pretty similar (proportionately) to op's figures (£800 not £900). My point bing being, buyers did not run a mile when they saw the bathroom, they knew it cheap and that was why :)

Sorry for typos, stupid phone

It the point is the buyers don't usually want the hassle of living without a bathroom for a week and being let down by builders and not to mention the dust etc

If you can replace the bathroom then you should - it will add value not decrease it

It’s not large for London

Agreed. 1000 square feet isn’t large even ‘in london’ for a 3 bed home.

£900k for an incredibly dated and small Zone 3 property in Ealing that backs on to a mainline railway?! LOL LOL LOL no.

I was thinking that, too, Duck. In our search, we'd have ruled it out as a bit too small, since our 2 up 2 down is over 800 sq ft and we need a fair bit more space. We'd hope for another toilet in a house that size, but would see a second bathroom as wasted space. Extended into the loft like the neighbouring house then, yes, a second bath or shower room would be proportionate, but not with the current proportions, as a family house.

greentulips I disagree, there's no point replacing anything. Although the house is well presented and clean it's a refurb project. Every single thing will be ripped out and I would lay money that whoever buys it will have the builders in as soon as the house completes and won't move in for another 6 months.

It's just too expensive and people will be looking at it as pretty much unmodernised I'm afraid plus 1000 sq feet is small even in London. I think most people would be looking to get to £1500 sq feet if possible so would want to factor in a loft conversion, a rear extension and to get rid of a galley kitchen to end up with the open plan kitchen living dining with a bifold doors to the garden and that doesn't come cheap.

It is not a large house but compared to the number of bedrooms there's only one bathroom.

DP looked at that and said “Why is there a coffin in the bathroom?” Other than that I actually like the interior pretty much as is. Massively overpriced, though you may yet find a greater fool.

I would need to spend about 70K getting that house how I wanted it.

It has bags of potential.

Bathroom is awful.
There is no garden!
Too much furniture crammed into all rooms - esp. pink bedroom and office
The dininig rooms is in the lounge - wtf??
It's all dated - everywhere needs new carpets and painting
And the price!!

Having the office furniture in the small bedroom makes it look tiny, and therefore a two bedroom house.
I agree with others that you need to factor in the cost of renovation and extension / loft conversion to make a true comparison to houses which have had this work done already.

I'm afraid I'm with the general consensus here, it's the price. I'm not familiar with Ealing, but I'm suspecting many buyers will be looking for proximity to the tube station. There is a glut of 3 bedroom properties available at the moment within a 1/2 mile radius of the tube so buyers can afford to be choosy.

Given the choice, I'd probably rule out any house that backs onto a train line if all other factors were equal. Which is a shame, as it looks like you have a lovely home there.

Price is sooooooo far off when both quality and quantity are compared with most recent house sold in the road.

The other house on the same road sold recently for £546/m2 - and it has also been fully and tastefully modernised to a vey high standard.

It is also a much more attractive house from the front, more private and set further back from the road with a bigger front garden and with grander, more substantial, character/architectural features. Internally it has held on to key original features.

OP is trying to sell hers for £900/m2 in an unrenovated condition.

To sell she either needs to match the £546/m2 AND either spend £100K to renovate the existing footprint or drop that cost from the price. Fiddling about replacing the bathroom suite is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

This is possibly a classic 'downsizer' scenario. OP needs to cash in her chips and needs max cash from it - but maybe held on for too long to catch the top of the market and missed it?

I would also predict that the £546/m2 will drop or erode over the medium/long term given the slow down in the market due to interest rates, brexit, economy.

OP needs to be realistic - people have so much access to data and analytics now and are v savvy and will not pay over the odds.

If I were the OP and wanted to get on with the next stage of my life and didnt want to be hanging on for the next 7 year property cycle I would be shifting this asap for whatever I could get. I would then rent and try to catch a bargain at the purchasing end in a year or two when prices may have fallen further.

I used to live in London and family still do so I am used to its prices.

Price increases couldnt continue and I for one am glad property prices are lower. There are an awful lot of the older generation sitting in these sorts of houses (I include my own parents in this) who have unrealistic expectations. Their houses tend to be dated and in one parents case a hoarders nightmare.

I think though that some PP are just not used to London prices and a house will sell for often 4-5 times what a comparable house in say middle of Wales will sell. That is just life. They sound rather jealous.

As we all know a house will sell for what someone will buy it for. If we could 2nd guess the market we would all be millionaires. I suspect having the owned the house for so long the OP wont want to rent - I wouldn't but they are almost definitely going to have to reduce quite substantially.

Of course anything that they buy will also have reduced so they are probably still Ok equity wise but when a house has NO viewings like others have said - its the price...

Ask the EA for a price to sell or realistically stay where you are and see what happens in a few years.

Looked at the pics and thought what a lovely big house it was, then looked at the room sizes and realised it's smaller than mine. That's going to be a surprise to any viewer when you finally get one, the pictures are overly stretched.

@another20 gives the £/sq foot comparison which clearly shows the OP to be super crazy unrealistic about the price and advised by a useless agent.

Its just quite mental to think your house is worth more nearly 2x as much per sq foot than this recently sold one:

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html/svr/3116;jsessionid=B8C96967B6A9DB3932466A71D979BD9F?prop=47107491&sale=5808934&country=england

5rivers - it is also the fact that the nearly x2 cost £/sq ft is not the same quality - OPs in inferior as hasn't been renovated. Quality and quantity at issue.

@another20 yes true, good point. Good point.

To do the extension. loft conversion, new kitchen, bathrooms and redecorate throughout..... £150k? £200k?

So we are really comparing (£895k+£150k)/1013sq ft = £1,031 per square foot for the OPs house with £561 per square foot of the really nice ready to move into house.

Seriously deluded.

Actually my calculations are off because you would have to allow for the increase in size but its still a massive differential.

we thought people would still want to view and then haggle over the price

In the current market accurate pricing is critical, and unlike previous years where you could be a bit optimistic and get away with it, today you're price needs to be realistic.

I read this recently in a Jackson Stops & Staff report, which describes the situation well:

^Keen to get the best price, sellers will often ask what is wrong with ‘going high’, believing that their initial guide price represents the maximum achievable and that buyers can always make an offer. Buyers, though, want the best house they can afford and will not look at anything else. If your house is in their range but doesn’t appear to offer what they think they can get for their money, they will not consider it at any price. Conversely, less wealthy buyers for whom your price is even 10% above their maximum, assume you will be insulted by a low offer, so they will not look at your house, either. Indeed, if your price is outside the thresholds set when buyers search online, they won’t even be aware that your property is on the market.

The upshot of this – with one, rare exception – is that ‘going high’ in the current market guarantees that it will take longer to sell than necessary, waste the surge of interest that properties new to the market always attract and, in the process, miss the chance of a premium.^

Sorry not rtft yet but from your pics, as a buyer it's definitely the bathroom and kitchen that would put me off if they weren't reflected in the price.
Also the pink room has a lot of white furniture that takes your eye away from the lovely size of the room.
Lastly - the garden. I would want a lawn if I was buying the property for children to live in (fairly likely)
So each thing on their own doesn't seem big, but altogether I'd probably think 'nah'
Good luck though selling is hideous.

Gorgeous house with a garden. Needs updating but looks cosmetic.
I'd reduce the price

Wow, the OP asked for practical suggestions, but seems to have received a diatribe of peoples personal views on the London property market!

If you've not had any viewings in 4 weeks, the first thing to do is ask your agent why. After all, this is what you are paying them for.

It would be interesting to understand their rational for the price given the sold price of No. 20. Do they feel the market has moved that much since the 3rd March? Zoopla (notoriously unreliable) is suggesting there has only been a 0.6% increase in that same time frame. They should be able to explain their view of the market vs. this. Do they sound credible? Do you believe what they are saying?

Ask your agent to show you the properties they feel are your competition. How does yours stack up on prices vs. condition?

How many other sales have your agent had in the recent months - is the market just stagnant at the moment?

The housing market typically cools off towards the end of the year as people start thinking about Christmas. If you're not in a rush, set your-self a hard time line to try and sell then potentially try again in the spring when the market is typically more boyant.

Another practical step is to ask other agents on their view of the price or why you might not be getting viewings.

Think about what you would accept for the property and consider an on-line estate agency. I'm guessing your on around a 1.2% commission, so you could probably save 10k by using an on-line agent.

I wouldn't bother with any interior decoration or changes. If you are worried that that's putting people off, simply take the interior photo's offline and get people through the door.