Anything you did to speed up selling your house?

[UninspiringUserName]

I know I'm far from alone in this situation so I thought I'd pick your collective brains. Was there anything you've done that you think really helped sell your house?

So far we've been on the market for a month and had 8 viewings but no second viewings and no offers. There's been no negative feedback other than a couple of viewers not liking the village churchyard which backs onto our garden (some love it, some hate it). For others, the play area outside the front won't be ideal, but so far, all the viewers have had young children except one, so it's been seen as a positive but appreciate it's not for everyone.

We've decluttered, we have vases of fresh flowers all over the place and I don't think there's anything that people could object to but are we missing anything? Any tips you can think of to entice buyers to view or snap it up?

Link is here:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-56864241.html

Any advice gratefully received...

It was valued higher than asking by two EAs before we reduced it. Negative feedback only referred to low beams (was v old).

I just knew that I wanted to move and reduced it based on six months rent at £2k a month alone tbh. I would have moved and left it empty for DD to start the new school year in her new school.

There is sweet FA going on in the property market around here. We put our property on the market in May and there were only another two houses in the village for sale at the time -- now there are at least a dozen more - and nothing is moving at all.
We've had lots of online views of the ad but only two actual viewings.
A friend's sister put hers on the market at about the same time in a village about 7 miles away and has had no interest whatsoever - nada. They even held an open day and nobody came ..
It's very dispiritng but we are resigned to the fact that little is going to happen - people are not moving around here unless they absolutely have to -- it's too uncertain. So we shall just wait it out. (until April 2019 and possibly longer!)

If you are getting viewings then the price isn't putting people off. It's a lovely house and very well-presented. I'd wait until half term is out of the way and give it another weekend them have a chat with the EA about what you can do.

We had lots of viewings, no offers until I lowered the price.

Could be the price similar sold in 2017 for 305. You are asking for 20k more than that one, id feel as a buyer that maybe you were overpriced by comparison with a gap so big that an offer similar to that would be too cheeky...

So I'd put your house in my watched list and wait for a reduction

Only my perspective - there might be a reason there is a 20k difference that needs highlighting

I think this is a very strange patchy market.

I put mine on in April and took it off early August after just 1 viewing.

The agent said I needed to drop the price, friends & nighbours told me the marketing was poor.

I have now sold off market, to a cash buyer at 11% below my April price.

However, the problem now is that there is very little on the market in my price range and if there is, those properties are often very overpriced. The houses that are on at a realistic price are attracting multiple offers and selling in days.

I have spoken to several agents about what is going on in the market and all have mentioned the number of agents overvaluing just to get the listing. That is setting up unrealistic expectations for some sellers and causing frustration when their price expectations are not met.

One agent today told me that practice is leading to some sellers then withdrawing from the market, blaming Brexit.

I think if you are keen to sell you must spend time understanding the competition in your area and price accordingly.

There's no picture of the hallway either. If I was buying a house then I would want pictures of every room.

I would have lifestyle information available. For instance you are selling a family home so I think people would want to know about schools. Looking at the school performance tables, although your local secondary is judged outstanding, I see the progress and attainment is below average ( only 17% of pupils achieve a good pass in GCSE English and maths and 18% are absent persistently) and your local primary has below average progress for some aspects, especially for boys. This would put many families off.

No second viewings says price is a bit high to me, and the problem is not in the listing.

Being really picky, my only worries from the listing is that there might not be enough kitchen units - you can only see kitchen units crammed into the middle of the fisheye which doesn't help. Another photo of the kitchen closer to the units, showing there is worktop & storage space, might be better. I'm another who would like to see pics of the study/utility to understand how that would work. It's a big room. But it's in move in condition so I'd have thought it'll just come down to price.

My house is 22. We bought 2.5 yrs ago and just sold. Turns out it wasn’t signed off by builders and council 🙄🙄🙄🙄

It is much nicer than the one we sold, and a huge amount nicer than the one we bought. We bought our house for the layout, because it fulfilled our requirements.
You haven't had it on for long. Ours took 3 months to sell (March 2017) and we did reduce the price.
Only comment is Study/utility room? Our utility room doubles as the dog's bedroom!

Be the end of the chain.

Tell your agent that you will go into rented accommodation to make it easy for a buyer to complete on your house.

This may be attractive to viewers.

I agree with a pp that the actual kitchen section looks really small, as far as I can see from the photos and the plan. The kitchen units and table seem to be squeezed into one section of the kitchen/diner with lots of room left for a sofa in the other section.

If that's the case, I'd be thinking about the cost of replacing the kitchen sooner than I might want.

You need to reduce the price. It's that simple.

I thought the house looks lovely. Weird photo single of the bathroom but that’s not something to put anyone off. I agree with someone who earlier said perhaps a photo of the garden when it’s not half in the shade (although that is actually good for little ones out playing). My own garden is like that but photos when we bought it was showing full sun. Now just bring picky - why no coffee tables?

Everything is best and tidy. No work needs doing other than what someone may want to do to put their own stamp on it. It’s perfect move in condition. If I were Looking in your area and that was my budget, it’s a house I would seriously consider. Lovely house.

Oh man I know this doesn't help, but this is the exact house I'm looking for! It would be absolutely perfect except in the wrong part of the country!

The sofa in the little bedroom makes it look cramped and small. Can it be relocated? Otherwise it’s lovely OP

Thank you all so much for your comments, all really helpful, thank you. We're getting the write up re-written to bring in more info on the house, its decor, locations (schools, etc) and lose the 'sell quick' comment as it clearly hasn't! We'll see if that helps. EA suggested giving it a couple more weeks before reducing, so we're mulling that over now.

In terms of 2017 prices, I'm not sure which house it would have been at £305. On our road, there's a lot of 4-bed detached houses but ours is the only one of its type so it could be that the house wasn't that comparable (some are considerably smaller). I'll look into it though.

In terms of the kitchen - yep, good points. It's a big room but small kitchen, if that makes sense. It's been fine for us - and we're a family of five - but I'm ready for a BIG kitchen now!

Great point about the sofa in one of the girls' rooms Johnny, we'll see if we can move that this weekend.

And Choice, fancy relocating? Leicestershire is lovely!

I wouldn’t change anything OP. I don’t get how people can’t see past the sofa in the bedroom etc. I have bought houses that looked dreadful but I could see past it and imagine the home I would turn it into.

I do think the kitchen looks a bit light on units/worktops, that is the only negative for me, but with a slight price reduction someone could sort that out easily enough.

The marketing talk is dreadful - this is undoubtedly the home for you etc. Though would find that more irritating than offputting. It does give the impression of arrogance in the marketing talk though. Just a description would be better.

I don't think there's much you can do easily other than reduce price. I find it a bit neutral and would redo kitchen but neither of those would put me off if price was right. It maybe best not to have kitchen as first photo. For me what would sell it is its large with a lovely big garden for kids to play in and they also have a playground out the front. Maybe plus lots of bathrooms though would have mixed feelings about that as person who cleans them!

theboxofdelights but the problem is people can’t see past silly things such as the sofa. That’s the only reason I’ve suggested it.

We dropped the price 10%. If you've had no offers, it's because of the price.

@UninspiringUserName I'm sure it is! Unfortunately tied to current area for a number of reasons!

But I think your house is fab and viewers are fools if they're not snapping it up