Hi all, nanny Suey is back! Sorry for the delay. After such a deluge of feedback, DH and I have been very busy trying to analyse all of your comments, which have given us much to think about and which we really appreciate.
I just want to reassure you all that this is a genuine post and not something posted by a potential buyer, and it wasn't intended to get us more hits on our listing ("click bait?"), although in fact it certainly has.
Thank you all, especially those of you who were concerned I would be upset by some of the comments. Don't worry, I wasn't, although reading so many negative remarks can be depressing! Having said that, very little in the comments came as a surprise.
DH's analysis showed that most comments were related to changing the bathroom, reducing the price, changing the kitchen and updating the decor. We do not plan to do any major renovations ourselves. Three local estate agents came to look at the house last year and they all said the same - don't change anything. A buyer will always want to put their own stamp on a place, and many new bathrooms and kitchens put in by vendors end up in skips just months later.
You made relatively few comments about changing the carpets, removing some furniture and the fitted wardrobes. I really don't understand the last one. I know some people don't like pine, but what's wrong with fitted wardrobes? They hold lots of stuff!
Yes it's possible to knock down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room and extend out from the back (probably losing the deck) to make a large kitchen / dining area. It's not our style but we appreciate it would suit many people. That's what they did at number 20, which a number of PPs have mentioned. That house was originally on the market this year at £1m! But they quickly reduced and sold it at £875k. I think they were in a hurry to move and maybe got less than they wanted.
We will certainly take on board a number of ideas, which will then of course require new photos, so we may hang on for a while yet and re--launch with new photos in a few months time.
By the way, the EA we are using is the UK's longest established online EA. We thought we would try them first as a conventional EA would charge us a fee of at least £8k and, from the research we've done, they do little more than an online one. From what we understand, the days of conventional EAs having lists of people looking to buy a property are long gone.
The best bet now will be to reduce the price to a more realistic level. We set our asking price ourselves, not the online EA. We were probably over-optimistic! We started high with the hope of raising as much as we could, not only to help fund our retirement, but also to help our daughter and her family move up the property ladder in these difficult times. Before too long, we may be helping our grandchildren get on the property ladder too. We are fully aware of the difficulties faced by younger people in the property market nowadays, and every extra £10k we can get for our house could be used to help other members of the family.
Thank you all again for taking the time to comment, at all times of day and night and despite, I expect, various distractions such as the needs of your family! We really appreciate your feedback.