Not much interest in our house, thoughts please!

[Vicki1990]

Hi everyone,

Could do with some advice. We put our house on the market just under 3 weeks ago, whilst we appreciate this isn’t a long time we thought we would’ve had a lot more interest than we’ve had!

We live in a very sought after village, house prices here are on the increase and the market does seem slow. There is no other property like ours in the village, were a 2 bed with beautiful views and we’ve only had 2 viewings! One was the nosy neighbour, naturally. One was a couple looking to relocate to be closer to their daughter in the village, they loved the property and seemed really keen, they’ve left us great feedback but nothing since! They have got a property on the market though.

We have reserved a new build which is almost ready so we are under pressure to get sold!

Please let me know your thoughts!

Perhaps the asking price is too high for a 2 bedroom property. How much are similar newbuilds in the area?

Right, the orange pine furniture needs addressing, the rest of the house is channelling the ‘grey vibe’ and the bedrooms are clinging to the 1990’s with the pine. Paint it all in a neutral colour but certainly not grey and get some lovely bed linen.

I would take if off with purple bricks whilst you do the remedial work and go on the market with a high street estate agent who sells the most in your area at a reasonable price or you will be sat on the market this time next year.

I think it's lovely. Even if you don't like grey, it only needs a lock of paint FFS!

Must be down to price (or supply and demand)?

lick .

The other issue is that Shropshire has many quite appealing villages within commuting distance of Shrewsbury, so potential buyers are likely to have plenty of other options. What are local schools like?

Personally I think it's because you've got it listed with Purplebricks. We live in a very desirable part of the country and houses with Purplebricks just take longer to sell.

Find a good local and reputable EA. People do matter and people sell to people. You're not to know if they have people looking locally - Purplebricks wouldn't know that.

I think the house is lovely! You need a better EA. Good luck.

I don’t know the area so can’t comment on the price.

The garden looks soulless and bare, needs some furniture and planting. A gate into the park would be wonderful, if you have permission to do so.

Inside, it’s very sterile. Looks like nobody lives there and it’s been left empty, which would concern me as a potential buyer. The shot of the garden from upstairs makes the garden look really small. You can’t tell that’s a park, looks like fields. The front looks very impersonal too.

All in all, as a prospective buyer it just wouldn’t look homely to me - I couldn’t see myself living there.

And yes I would have quality concerns about PurpleBricks - if I was buying I would generally tend to ignore them.

Thanks everyone! Yes our garden does have pots, this comes down to the fact we were going to rent it out, therefore needed something manageable for our tenants. There are small flowerbeds at the top as we love gardening but know many tenants do not!
The pine furniture is not our favourite but again these were hand me downs, we can’t afford a nice new set of furniture unfortunately this will come in time once we are in our new home. Appreciate it doesn’t look great but also think people should look past the furniture we have?
Thanks for all the advice, we are off to buy some coloured cushions, pictures etc and re spruce the place the best we can for the time being.
We’ve spoken to a local agent, had no idea of peoples experience of PB, in our experience our local PB agent has been better than our local estate agents but appreciate not everyone will have had this so taking your advice on that!
As for the price, I think we need to drop it, need to convince hubby as he doesn’t think so! Some new build 2 beds 3/4 miles away sold for £185,000 so he doesn’t think we’re outpriced
Really really appreciate all your comments and feedback, taking them all into consideration and will let you know how we get on!

Sorry also forgot to add, with the kitchen we did have different pictures that had cook books etc, and personality but we had a lot of feedback on MSE that it was too cluttered therefore so storage space, so removed all of that! Also been advised no personal items, pictures of us etc as it looks like our home then and not a buyers home.
Can I ask everyone’s thoughts on this? Some people like to see the personality, but some people don’t so not entirely sure what to do there!

I think a local estate agent would be far better than PB
Essentially it always comes down to price

Mm...I thought the whole point of selling a house was to present it as a blank canvas. So neutral (which it is), uncluttered (which it is) and clean and tidy (which it most definitely is).

Not sure what the issue is. I like the idea of a gate to the fields, but that's easy enough for a buyer to do.

Friend’s relative tried Purple Bricks then went to local agent and sold quite quickly. If you’re found to do anything to the kitchen personally I would go for a coloured blind then a couple of storage canisters in same colour or a fruit bowl and a small plant on window sill.

I don’t think furniture should make a difference really but maybe an argument that in a small space something lighter would work better? Don’t underestimate how much difference painting it can make .

Its lovely OP

I particularly love your lounge/living room .

New builds sell at a premium but yours isn’t a new build do you need to knock the premium off!

*so

I doubt if cosmetic tweaks will make much difference to viewings, it is almost certainly an issue of price and location.

Re your last I would do as Wow suggests - put the odd plant or le cruset out but very minimally. When we were selling we stripped out tonnes but then put in a few plants and, I think, an ornament or two. The plants only lived long enough for us to clinch the sale!! And as I mentioned before, I'd put a small table in.

Ok thank you, we’re thinking of re painting the grey bedroom too. I love the dark wall, but that’s just my taste. I’m in two minds whether to change it as if we don’t sell we will be staying here for a while so would like it decorated to my taste!
Never realised how stressful selling a house was we have only rented before so put our stamp on our own house as it were, looking back we probably shouldn’t have done it!

Ex EA here, your problem is Purplebricks a lot of people won’t view properties listed with them.

It’s a combination of price and estate agent. Mostly price. You can do some work painting (could paint the dated orange pine too), but if you’re overpriced by £10-15k people still won’t view.

With the kitchen, when I first looked at the link the estate agent must have been half way through editing the photos and the cluttered and uncluttered photos were both there. The uncluttered are better, but now you need to style it. The suggestions before of a Le Creuset pot etc make sense.

Would agree with not using purple bricks. We didn’t view any houses on pb as all looked over priced.

And looking at sold prices in your area yours is over priced.

I like the decor especially if you add in a bit of colour with accessories.

The only reason I wouldn't buy is the loo at the back - with such a lovely garden I'd want double doors into it. [I know new houses have to have a downstairs loo these days but some developers stick them into funny places]

Looks really small, the garden is tiny, the bedrooms are small doubles, i like the bathroom, living room is dull and kitchen is small, i wouldn't pay anything over 150k for it as it does look like an average estate house.

To be fair though i wouldn't ever buy a 2 bedroom house i would have to have at least 3 beds even if i didn't need it.

Looking at the Rightmove floor plan, what strikes me is the lack of a kitchen table - and the amount of space taken up by the understairs cupboard and downstairs loo. I think modern houses overdo it on the bathroom front usually anyway but having a downstairs loo and no space for a table is particularly egregious!