Ok guys, I want my house sold!

[Happyclownjuggling]

I love this house but am relocating from Northumberland to Derbyshire for work with 2 toddlers so need to sell. Mucked about by first buyers (pulled out 2d before exchange). Back on market since Jan and lots of viewings with positive feedback but no offers - lots of viewers not yet proceedable. Dropped asking price another £20k to £200k, local and national estate agents on it - any further suggestions?
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52704819.html

The house itself is lovely but what are local amenities like? It’s a family house and personally I wouldn’t buy a family house without having shops, buses etc on the doorstep.
It also looks from one photo as though there’s another property next door, albeit detached. If I wanted total isolation (ie no convenient shop, bus, school) then I wouldn’t want neighbours. If you’re going to have the inconvenience of having to get in your car to drive to any amenities then you may as well have total seclusion.

Ooh near me x I love the house!

Your house would cost 500k where I live!!
Only problem I picked up on is no picture of the master bedroom? The only pictures of bedrooms seem to be single ones?

I suspect it’s always a bit trickier to sell a rural property, so you need to sell the lifestyle.

The blurb by “GetAnOffer” is shocking, like some weird tabloid article “Katie Price was SHOCKED and DISGUSTED by reports that her husband had an AFFAIR with a FAMILY FRIEND.”

Fire them OP. Lovely house though, if I didn’t work in central London I’d be planning to move there and buy three ponies.

Hexham itself is very desirable and has lots of amenities but this is quite a way out of Hexham. If it was closer to town it would be at least double the price. It's a gorgeous area but probably quite a niche buyer.
The photos wouldn't put me off viewing but the one with all of the 'sandbags' - is that a biomass boiler and pellets? It might make buyers think twice about the pain of heating the place.

@fearfultrill this area isn’t really that near Hexham though - you could say that’s the nearest main station, but it’s miles away from it really - about an hour - and you couldn’t use that as a selling point!

Looks lovely, but I agree with the points someone else has made about land. As someone who would want an equestrian property, I wouldn't buy this unless it has land (renting locally would be too much of a risk; I'd want to know my horses' turnout was secure). I really don't think this is a particularly unusual view about horsey people looking to buy equestrian properties so may put some people off. Of course you would get some who would rent a nearby field, so as neither listing mentions land I would suggest mentioning "possibility to rent X acres nearby" if that applies, to perhaps get people to at least ring up and inquire further.

The photo with all the cars outside makes me wonder about riding as well - if there's any off-road hacking, mention it. (That photo also makes it look like parking would be an issue if you had visitors...).

If I weren't horsey, the stables would be an inconvenience and a cost to demolish.

I think knowing who your market actually is and targeting them specifically with ideas about how this property will work for them will help (but without the RANDOM capitals in the PROPERTY description as that's REALLY quite OFF-PUTTING). If you're targeting both equestrian and non-equestrian buyers, then explain how it could work for both as at the moment it doesn't really work for either.

Lovely, lovely house though - best of luck.

Could the stable blocks be converted to a home office unit, maybe? That would open it up to non-horsey buyers looking for additional work-from-home space.

Agree with comments about dialling down the 'quick sale' drama a little - it just adds unnecessary queries in buyers' minds from the off.

It's a lovely house - apart from the lack of photos, I wouldn't say there's anything inherently wrong with the images. Not perfect in some respects (random ordering of photos/little bit of clutter), but there's nothing stopping people buying there.

The living spaces, outside space and location are probably more of an issue preventing people from buying.

My house is about 15m squared smaller (3 bed), but I have a lounge, separate hallway, dining room and a kitchen that could be a kitchen diner, giving me two living spaces. Two large spaces would actually be less useful to me - especially in a 4 bed. I either wouldn't buy or would factor in building work. If you left the ad as 4 bed, but called one a bed/study, that might help, to be honest.

Outside - the garden part of the garden seems dominated by the stables. As PP have said - it either looks like not very much to a horsey person who'll want to know about land, or a non-horsey person will want to take it down. Do you ride from there? Are there hacks? Do you have a nearby field?

Location - Beautiful. But remote. It's just a waiting game to find someone who does want that. My parents' neighbours (6 miles from nearest village) took over 18 months to sell.

To do? I'd be inclined to say follow the advice above, but be prepared to wait it out a bit anyway.

Thanks guys, much appreciated. Yes, it has stables, no owned land but farmer next door happy to rent land out. Sand bags not flood risk but biomass boiler for green energy (and £750 per quarter government payment to cover heating costs on rhi initiative). 2 'good' primaries, 1 middle school in bellingham, school bus service to all from including secondaries in hexham.
Option to add garage, conservatory and extra bedroom/bathroom space or convert stables. Option to have as holiday let-5mins drive from kielder reservoir (27 miles of walks, bridle, cycle ways plus 20mins from hadrians wall and peel crag climbing). 2 great pubs an easy cycle or Kitchen cream and light green at present with wooden floorboards.
Have passed on thread to both estate agents and suggested they redo their ads and I'll sole agency with the best new version.
Will post them up for your advice when picking!
Please continue with feedback, positive and constructive (constructive is useful, positive just makes me happy in a stressful situation! )

Apologies for typos/grammar - 2 and 3 yr old assisting!

The EPC looks a bit scary but is that typical of the area and type of house?

Have you tried posting on your local FaceBook and Gumtree?

You need agents that will work hard for you because, lovely as it is, a rural property is only ever going to attract buyers who are really committed to living there eg with local links or fully sold on the idea of a place in the country. The weather we've had in the NE this winter is probably more than enough to give all but the most determined of the latter sudden and literal cold feet!

Estate agent - if you're reading - please put 5.47m etc, not 5m 47cm etc. Second version is pointlessly harder to read as a string of numbers.

Reorder the photos to how you would walk through the house. Outside, lounge, kitchen. Bed, bed, bed, bed, bathroom. Garden, views, outbuildings.

(Why estate agents don't always do that I have no idea. It is such a simple concept.)

It is a lovely house. I would remove most if not all of the over eager spiel about wanting a quick sale. It would be useful to mention how near local amenities/services are in relation to the location.

Is that a payment to you or from you?

Your bathroom is putting me off. I can't tell that there is a shower, only from reading the description. Also, the mirrored tiles fill me with dread when I think about cleaning that bathroom.

Market it as equestrian potential and get it on Horse and Hound.

Does it have 2 different addresses with the different agents? I think the photos need redoing and you need a photo of every room.

I love the house but straight away i wanted to know where i could turn out. If it was nearer i would defo be viewing!

While 20 photos is far better than 8, photos that show your furniture and not the dimensions of the rooms are not. You need professional real estate wide lens photos that will show off all of your rooms. YY to reordering the photos so you get an idea of flow through the house.

You need to take all the measures that NewBalls suggests, plus take your washing out of your dryer and remove the bunting with children's names. Remove the stuffed animals too.

Plus all the clarifications about the farmer, field rental and stables, and any other pertinent horsey info, the holiday rental potential and location, the biomass boiler/heating system and rebate.

I really love the house. It has so much character.

It is always down to price. Anything will sell at the right price.

Get the estate agent to include a floor plan (and remove the link with the photos that have all the stuff in them).

A floor plan is always helpful for better idea of home rooms connect/doors/windows etc