Help me sell my house please!

[movingoverseas]

It's been on the market since early January. About 7 viewings so far, turned down an offer about two weeks in, and no viewings this month at all. Right Move report shows that the number of hits is still consistent with previous weeks. It's an immaculate detached new build in a gated development with extensive gardens, three storey, 4 bed, 3 ensuite bathrooms, garage. The photographer did a fantastic job and it was presented like a show home.

It's pricey, but we are in the suburbs of west London and it's actually £50k below what Zoopla say it is worth. We have asked the agent to recontact the person who made the offer a few months back, but they didn't engage. My husband is already overseas, I'm joining him in August and we really want to sell the house before then. We have a relatively small mortgage, about 30% LTV.

Other than reduce the price, what else can we do? There are 10 detached houses with 4+ bedrooms within a mile and ours is the second cheapest. Thank you!

Townhouses in my area are hard to sell. They are the only ones that stick.

The gated community would also put me off.

I agree with what Clarazafara said. Definitely take the table out of the kitchen, and don't have the dining table shoved up against the wall.

I think that the basic problem is that the majority of people are now wanting an open plan kitchen/eating/living area, and your house has a very tiny kitchen that is quite closed off from the rest of the ground floor.

If knocking down walls isn't an option 😱, then I think that you should try at least moving around the furniture in the dining room to try to make it more appealing.

FAR too much money

Almost a million for that? I'd find a nice detached property in the Home Counties for less money. You'd save 200-300k.

I'd agree with others here:

A) New builds simply aren't as attractive to London buyers as period properties - they're seen as characterless with small rooms and no better build quality. You're competing with a Georgian villa - no contest.

B) When people think 'detached', they're thinking of sweeping drives, expansive lawns...

C) The west London market is slow due to Brexit.

D) The decor is really bland. It looks like a rental or a hotel, not a family home. That accentuates the 'new build' factor mentioned above.

E) When buying a new build house, people expect an open-plan kitchen-diner with a large island and bifold doors onto the garden - this doesn't have one.

F) In a family home, having a living room on a different floor to the kitchen-diner is a disadvantage with young kids...

In short, you probably need to be flexible on price for a quick sale.

not what i expect for a million. realistically that is what is is a million pound house.

décor doesn't say million pound although most that are really looking can see past that.
carpeting throughout is a real turn off...if a family of 5 lived there the beige carpet would be ruined in a flash.
not sure what you want to deal with other than planters your only option is to reduce the price.

I agree with others I would want more kitchen for that money. And I feel the garden is very overlooked. I have a terraced and my garden is a lot more private. Is there any way to fix that?
Good luck xx

I really like it OP. But agree with many posts, I wouldn’t buy it because the kitchen is too small for the calibre of house.

Good luck, it only takes one person to like it.

It is a nice house and immaculate in appearance but there are a few issues that would put me off.

It's detached, but barely. It looks like a terrace and is so, so close to the other houses that it may as well be a terrace so far as I'd be concerned if I was looking. People wanting a new build free-standing detached house would probably having something much more detached-looking in mind.

The kitchen looks very small, especially with that table, and the garden looks tiny (it wouldn't matter that there are landscaped public spaces, I would want a little more private garden).

For those reasons I think people would feel it was just too much money.

Also, having to pay an annual service fee for a property I had a freehold on would really irritate me, regardless off how low it was. I think some people are also just put off by the whole gated community thing in general (my dh doesn't really like them, for example) so they wouldn't consider the property unless it was priced very competitively.

Those red ceiling light shades aren’t making the best of the living room. They seem too small and the colour makes them stick out.

Something bigger and more airy like this may work better in the room and make it feel more spacious

m.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-harmony-ribbon-pendant-large/natural/p231686158

If it’s not selling then price is definitely an issue. Don’t pay any attention to the Zoopla valuation, it can be way way off.

I have to agree with others about the kitchen. Nearly a million for a house with a galley kitchen?!

I'm afraid the London market is terrible at the moment.

I'm in the process of buying a house in SW London. Paying £1.15m for a house marketed at £1.25m. Was on the market for £1.4m 12m ago.

I'm afraid it's all about price. We had to drop our current house a fair amount too and ours isn't near the £1m mark which is the price point most affected.

I’d remove the first picture, the wall to the kitchen looks odd and makes it smaller. Agree with getting rid of kitchen table too. Can you see if any other angle would make the kitchen look bigger (there is no sink in shot so I assume the kitchen has more than the photo shows?)

Oh ignore me on the kitchen photo angle I missed picture 5. Remove the table though :)

I don't think Zoopla valuations have caught up with the actual slow down in London. We've recently been looking at properties not far from you and it is obvious many people are not selling because they can't get the price they want.
No chance you could rent it out for a while?
The new academy opening near you this year will help so might be worth waiting a year people will then want to live there to get in to the school

Op. Just seen you could sell for 860. I'd put it on for 875 and then see what happens. I suspect it's still over priced, I'm sorry. But you never know. Also if I am wrong, you'll start a bidding war, it will sell at its value. You need to get them in the door and offering.

Good luck. I do think it's lovely. Sure it has its drawbacks but most houses have, I'm sure if everyone posted pics of their homes you'd see that.

The garden is so tiny! I would not view for that alone.

For all those people saying that it's "barely" detached.
Detached IS detached. Every time someone complains on MN about their noisy neighbours, they are told "go and live in a detached house"
We lived in a barely detached Victorian house (literally 6 inches between) and we never heard a peep from them.

Totally different from being a semi or a terrace.

I know the area well and I think it's price and the layout of the house.

I think lots of people prefer traditional 30s style houses and there are buckets of them in Isleworth and a better price point. I had a town house with a similar layout in the past, it was really hard to sell as we kept getting feedback about the layout but it was in an area with lots of traditional housing stock which made it hard to compare and a bit of an acquired taste.

I also wouldn't touch a management company again with a barge pole - it's like having another council tax.

Sorry op not very helpful

And what is that window between the bathroom and bedroom all about? I prefer my privacy in the bathroom.

The kitchen puts me off, but because there doesn’t seem to be much work surface. Can you hide the microwave? The table highlights how small it is because it doesn’t seat enough people. Prob better to take out and show the dining table next door better in the kitchen photo instead.

I agree with Pp that the garden looks completely unused, can you get some comfy looking patio furniture, and then some pots to make it look a bit loved?

Also agree, that while the whole house is beautiful, it’s too bare. I know you’re meant to depersonalise but it’s too boring going through the photos as it looks like a show home, and not a loved family home. Books, flowers, pictures on the walls.

Everything under offer or sold in you price range is larger old houses people can make big changes to, to suit them. Your house needs no work, which means no one can look to make money, or extend, or change the kitchen etc. Any new build under ten years old would have me assuming the owners hate the neighborhood or the build quality was shoddy. Make sure the agent tells buyers why you're moving, and wait until nearer summer for families trying for your catchment?

You can’t change the layout - and presumably it works for you - but there are some things that need sorting.

• table out of the kitchen
• dress the dining room as a dining room
• get some less ‘budget’ pieces; when someone buys a house they want to buy into the lifestyle. At the moment this is a bit too blank canvas and Ikea.
• paint the shed a different colour or put some plant pots in the garden.
• paint one wall in each bedroom a colour. People looking at new(ish) builds want a modern interior but not a bland one.

And lastly, I am sorry, but you need to drop the price. I would go for £875. Good luck.