Please help me sell my house

[NameChangeNeedsHelp]

Please help, obvious name change and posted in chat too.

Our house sale fell through 7 months ago and the house has been sat on the market since. I’ve lost my new build twice now!! And I just want an offer we have dropped 15k off the price and we can’t go much lower.

Please help me,

What do I need to change? We are having some more photos done this weekend and I need some ideas?

Here is the link

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-72932222.html

Here is a list of things I have changed which differ from the photos:

Garden:

1. Painted all the fences so they match.
2. Taken the hot tub down. Put the table out.
3. Given the decking a sand and re paint.

Lounge/dining:

1. Re painted the walls and glossed
2. Moved pictures.
3. I now have a smaller table and chairs (apparently the old one was too dark)
4. Given the rug a good clean.

Main bathroom:

Is now white.

Butterfly room:

All the junk under the bed is gone.

Master bedroom and grey room:

Moved all the stuff from under the bed.

Anything else??? I’m getting desperate now

I’ve heard from agents that people don’t like to view/buy places that've been on the market for a long time, as they assume there’s something wrong with it. Maybe change agents to come back online as a ‘new’ listing? Or take it off the market for a short while, and relaunch and list with updated photos.

The pictures don’t really flow, I’m struggling to see how the house is laid out. I also only saw three bedroom pictures listed, but it says it’s a 4 bed. A picture of the front of the building would be a massive help, I assume (probably wrongly) that the front might need some work...

It does look lovely though.

I also agree that deceptively spacious sounds negative.

The size for the family bathroom isn’t mentioned at all.

looking on street view parking seems to be a bit of an issue? That would concern me as with a 4 bed house you normally think 2 cars and maybe even 3 dependant on age of DC's so that would instantly be an issue.

The house does look lovey from the front ( other than the cars) so gets good photo of that done too

Your house looks lovely, but I don't think it is being marketed well. This is being really picky, but here is my list:

The photos don't flow - it should start with the front view of the house, entrance hall, living room (both ends, to include the dining area), kitchen, then bedrooms, bathrooms, landing etc. There are no pictures of the view of the garden from the french doors, and there seems to be a nice patio which more could be made of in photos.

DECEPTIVELY spacious!! Over and over again. All people will think is that it means it looks cramped - which other than the crap photos, I'm sure it isn't.

Living room: Glad you have removed the personalised photos. I agree with pp about the drawers looking like they can't open and therefore making it seem cramped - these should be moved up to one of the bedrooms. I think it would benefit from a photo from a different angle.

Glad you have removed the junk from under the beds; ditto for the tubes of shampoo etc from the shower, and honestly, what is going on with the towels on the toilets?

Stairgates need to be removed, along with the junk on top of fridge and kitchen cupboards. Photo of the kitchen is very unflattering angle and makes it look cramped and busy.

Some of the wallpaper wouldn't be to my taste, but I don't think it would stop me buying.

I think you need to move agents - going by the photos alone they are not working hard for you. Good luck, it looks like a nice house.

And does the agent have a fixation with stairs? Of your 11 photos, 3 are of stairs - why?

I like your house.

The square tiles especially in the entrance hall are off putting and if people don't like them they will be thinking 'that's a big job to replace those'.

I'm not diy minded but maybe you could paint them (?) , distress them and put a rug on them.

Also new carpets are a really cheap way to change a look. Could you get some sisal down, just in the hall?

Your house looks quite good but agree with other posters about their comments

Get 2 agents in competition for 1% incl vat for the one that gets sale on joint sole agency

They will be fighting each other to get the sale rather than just leaving it on their books

Floorplan makes it look like there's no door into the kitchen. From the photos it looks like the kitchen door is beside the cupboard door, but this isn't on the plan. Also the hall looks tiny and cramped on floorplan, but much better in photis. Are the scale and measurements right? I judge a lot by floorplan, so it should be a priority.

I've looked at hundreds of houses online recently and it drives me mad when the photos, plan and description don't match, so you have to guess what is actually where.

What does the front look like?

The rooms are a weird shape (and the kitchen looks very small), which would put me off if I’m honest. I would be thinking of how furniture would fit, how we’d use the space. I get there’s nothing you can do about that, but it might be limiting the pool of interested buyers.

I also think better photos, which don’t make the rooms look so small, would help.

Otherwise I think it’s a nice house! What are others around you going for? Which style/type are selling quickly (eg same style/layout as you or different)? There might be something they’re doing that you can replicate.

It is always the price.

I'm guessing there's no picture of the front of the house because the front is smaller than the back due to the house being curved. This is really misleading as viewers will likely be disappointed as soon as they pull up at the front of the house.

How many other houses do you see on right move when you still through the initial search function which doesn't show the frontage? Not many I imagine.

Personally for me it doesn't have the downstairs family space to be a 4 bed house - which may be misleading as I would expect more than a kitchen and 1 room for living area in a house marketed as 4 bedroom.

As another poster said maybe loosing a bedroom and marketing as 3 bed 2 reception may help get people through the door? Could have a lovely study on the 1st floor or snug / reading room etc

But I think realistically you know the answer - a house is worth what someone will pay at that moment in time irrespective of what an agent believes it's worth. If not budging for a number of months then it likely is overpriced.

The first photo of the yard and house is awful, the wide lense makes the house looked curved, just use a normal shot of it.

Most posters here are saying the house is lovely, with no major issues. And I agree. Why, then, is it not selling?
IMO, the buying public, like the posters here, will consider it a lovely house, with an ugly price.
OP, the honest truth is that if you want to sell you can either:
a) spend a lot of money bringing it up to a higher spec or larger size for the same price
or
b) lower the price
I very much doubt small cheap cosmetic changes or new photographs will pull the wool over buyers eyes and transform it into a more expensive house. The buying public is not as naive as that.

Not an expert but if I see a house for sale with no picture of the front I think something must be wrong with what it looks like. I would view this house (if I could see the front) as it is quite a blank canvas, perfectly nice but easy to put your own stamp on over time. I really don't like feature wallpaper walls but they are easy to replace. If you decide to take it off the market and re-launch later perhaps re-think any minor decorative matters and ensure your new agent has a brilliant photographer.

Surprised more people don't suggest doing the photos yourselves. (Have done this in the past and it worked well.) An estate agent's photographer goes round in a few minutes, whereas you can take as long as you like getting really good angles when the light is good in that part of the house, moving items that you see didn't look great in a photo and so on. It also means you can move clutter between rooms to hide it rather than having to have it all hidden all over the house at once.

Change agents.
There’s nothing wrong with your house but the pictures - and as a pp pointed out , the order they have been put on rightmove - are all wrong.

You MUST start with a picture of the front of the house.
Anybody with any real buying experience knows that - in general- that if there’s a picture ‘missing’ then it’s because the estate agent doesn’t want to put people off by showing them a below par room/ view.
You have 4 bedrooms- show pictures of them all. I would set bedroom 4 up as a study with computer, etc. This will show the versatility of the house as it is currently top heavy.
If they haven’t been very bothered about the pictures and you haven’t had good feedback plus they are sending people who have no inteneti9n of buying the house then they are not actively working on your behalf are They? Have yo7 chosen an agent that usually sells pricier houses? Make sure the agent you choose is comfortable with selling homes in your price range and that they have lots of success at it,.
There’s nothing wrong with your home - it’s lovely.
You have an agent problem, not a house problem.

House looks lovely. I think i would take it off the market for the rest of the summer and give it a rest - the market is not good now and will be less so whilst everyone is on holiday. Then get 3 different estate agents round to see what they say about prices generally in the area - ask them what they would price it at to get a sale NOW and work from there. In the meantime spruce up a bit - maybe some nice pot plants at the front door and on the terrace and make the garden look more attractive if you can - rest seems quite good to me. Choose an agent and get new photos done and try again.

The biggest problem for me would be the carpets. However, it can be easily refurbished so not sure if that is an issue. If you already made some improvements, show it and add new pictures. I also think that the current pictures make an impression that the house is small and in "grandma" style (lots of patterns, tapestries, carpets...). The photographer wasn't very good. Most properties look bigger and brighter in the pics but it is the opposite for you.

Just looked on street view, I like the idea of having the homes built in a communal way but not in reality iyswim

Parking there would get me so frustrated, I know there are houses up and down the country with only on street parking outside (or not outside) their homes

Perhaps have viewings when other people are at work so not many cars outside meaning the potential buyers can't find anywhere to park, cos bad impression before they have even got in thru the front door

I realise you can't uproot the house and move it to the middle of nowhere so people can park their cars so nothing you can do about it apart from arrange viewings etc

If they fall in love with the house they will be coming back at different times and so will see the parking for themselves

Weirdly the photo order has changed to start with bedroom

We do have parking, we have a garage and a parking space at the back of the house. I park my car out the front and the other is parked outside the garage.

Some great points thank you.

Sorry just read the blurb and seen that it says about the garage and parking

Perhaps there needs to be a photo of the garage with your own dedicated parking space indicated so that viewers don't make same mistake

If no photos of front door makes people suspicious so then they street view and think ah ha that is why they are not showing the front cos no parking

Perhaps have a photo of view from house showing garden and gate to garage so you can show off everything about your home

BTW was it an accident to show a hand towel on the toilet? or is it a style thing, cos not seen it before on house sites like rightmove

Lovely home! So cheap too but guess it's all about what costs what in that area

I'd say you need a new set of pictures taking and also a front picture plus pics of the garage and parking space for visualisation

Have you thought about changing estate agent?

Probably too expensive but I'd make the kitchen a posh lounge and the lounge diner into an open living space including kitchen as you've got water from the loo area - but it would cost a fair amount to do

I agree about the drawers in the sitting room, first thing I noticed, just highlights the lack of space. Also the pictures in general are really not good. They don’t show the rooms fully so as far as the bedrooms are concerned, for instance, it looks like there’s only room for a bed in each because you can’t see the storage. The one photo of the kitchen is awful, they must be able to improve on that (agree with clear the clutter in there too) but essentially it’s just a bad picture. Stair gate yes, get rid for photo. But the fact is, bottles in the shower and cereal on the fridge too don’t stop someone buying a house so you probably do need to review the price.

Inititial ‘knee jerk’ observations:

• photo 1 should be a shot of the house from outside - rooms aren’t nice eno Thanks to justify the deviation there. Seeing the first photo is a bedroom -?? - have they got something to hide? Just put a shot of the front/back of the house
• only one corridor shot needed - ideally without a stair gate!
• towels = remove!
• shot down stairs - just no

If you’re not getting viewings then fix the above (new EA with a flash?) maybe skip the baby picture and add a few plants but a decent photographer should make that unnecessary

If you’re getting viewing but not offers then drop the price and/or change EA

Good luck!