Why aren’t we getting viewings?

[Wattc]

House has been on the market 9 weeks and reduced twice at the advice of our EA. Only a handful of viewings and no offers. Any thoughts?

Are you looking for really honest feedback...?

The front is bland looks like a forecourt, back garden looks like it needs a fortune spent on it. All the bedrooms need presented as bedrooms not junk rooms, I’m sorry just little appealing. To me it looks unloved and unlived in.

Well the photos are rubbish. They are taken at weird angles and don't give any idea of the space and layout of each room.

Looks quite bland to me, nothing to say 'come and buy me'?

• Front looks uninviting - put out some flower troughs with plants?
• Kitchen looks cluttered - remove most stuff from worktops
• living room OK (we have the same picture!) - some brighter matching cushions wouldn't go amiss
• floorplan looks fine, nice and clear
• picture 5. Is that the main dining area? That looks woefully inadequate. You need a picture somewhere with a table set for at least 6.
• picture 8 - bed doesn't look made
• picture 9 - better an empty room than that picture

My main issues are thus
A) lack of curb appeal
B) no family dining area

It needs a really good sort out, It looked unloved, and not very, well, clean.

• The front is what is it is, but it definitely needs dressing, lots of colourful pots, things to make it look a bit prettier.
• Are there 2 kitchens?
• What's the big room with the purple cupboards?
• Declutter the kitchen worktops completely
• Very neatly make and dress the double bed with an ironed duvet cover
• Remove the next to me crib for the photos
• Remove the clothes on the open hanging rail and try to do something else with that room, it looks like a dumping ground
• Take some of the stuff out of the nursery
• Clean the bathroom to within an inch of its life, get some tile grout whitener/cleaner

Then get your photos re-taken, good luck!

Sorry to be mean but 220k for that? It needs a lick of paint and even some plants in the front garden.

I second the photos; they are shocking. The angles in the bathroom makes it look small and dingy. Get some pots in the front (I am selling and borrowed from friends just for the photos!)
Paint the fences if you can't replace, manky fences always brings a place down and your eyes are drawn to it.
Get your EA to work for the money, get them back to do. I hope you are not paying xtra for the photos? Some EA do if they are professional ones.

I agree, the photos are bad. That’s an easy fix though.

Lots of good suggestions up the thread.
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It honestly looks like a rental property. You need to declutter the mess and redress the rooms properly with furniture to show what areas they are. The garden could do with a tidy up and some colour. The sofa looks squeezed in and like there's zero room in the living room. Everything looks a bit lived in...My house also does but I'm not trying to sell.

Sorry to be harsh but seriously? If I came across it on Rightmove I wouldn't give it a second look. Looks untidy/unclean and like it needs a lot of money spending on it. New bathroom new kitchen etc (are they really silver cupboards?!). Floor plan looks messy and doesn't tally with the pictures well... garden looks overgrown and unloved and that's just the back.

Overall not a bad house. But it does not look too appealing, which is a combination of the way you are showing the rooms, and the rather awful photography. Here are my thoughts (for what they are worth).
The front needs some greenery and colour - a couple of nicely planted pots could be a start.
The kitchen - are the units two types of grey or is that a trick of the light? Looks dark? Photo taken from strange angle!
Dining table photo only focuses on table - gives impression this room is tiny and only has space for one tiny table squashed against wall...
Room with lovely dog wallpaper - why is photo focused on gym equipment. Could you stage it like a bedroom?
Utility room looks bare and underused. Maybe gym equipment can go in there?
Your bedroom - straighten bedspread! And photo is again focusing on the bed only giving the impression that the room is teeny tiny.
Bedroom with red carpet, mirror, stepladder and some clothes (and a doll wearing blue jeans and black boots?). Stepladder out. Dress it like a bedroom.
Nursery is cute but photo taken too close up / wrong angle.
Bathroom photo taken at wrong angle.
Photographer needs to zoom out or step slightly further out of the room perhaps?
Back garden is a bit bare and the rear right corner looks drab, a few inexpensive flowering shrubs should cheer it up.

Your photos are atrocious. The kitchen one is taken with lighting that makes the counter top look grubby and the cabinets reflective. There’s a picture of an exercise bike, a full clothes hanger/ladder (with something that looks like a pair of legs dangling out of it!) and a random table. Bathroom picture is basically a picture of the sink and some discolored floor.

Get the photographer back, get them to take better pictures from angles that show the size of the rooms and get anything out that isn’t appropriate for the room it’s meant to be (so no ladders in the bedrooms!).

Front could do with dressing as pp have said, I thought the pictures of the garden were the best bit.

The estate agent should have put way more effort into helping you present the house better before just telling you to drop the price twice - unless they knew they'd overpriced to begin with? It looks as if they came round to take the photos unannounced while you were out at work. Definitely do a big tidy up and ask for more photos to be taken.

It really needs a clean and declutter...

The "sunroom" is effectively just a giant utility room, isn't it? I nice room partition screen would be good to separate the utility are from the rest so it could be made into a nice big diner or extra living space.
Retake pics of living room and add some colour as pp suggested.
Layout is odd, but workable. The back room can be advertised as a play room or an office. Side addition could be marketed as a second living room /snug.

Like this it looks like it's rented and not really cared for. That's an impression I get from it, so I would immediately worry that there will be LOADS of things to sort, redo and modernise.

If I was buying, I think I'd partition the 'sun room' into a small utility and then a dining room.
I'd then call the kitchen/diner a kitchen/breakfast and put stools up against the breakfast bar (and take decent photos of it) to show you can eat around it.

For a 3 bedroom with pretensions to 5 bedrooms it is woefully lacking in downstairs space, especially eating.

I'd make it a 3 bedroom with pretensions to 4, and call the back room something like a snug or study and dress appropriately.

Picture by picture (please don't take any of this personally!)

1. Get a planter, something green to brighten the space it looks bare.

1. Declutter the worktop. Move the lot. Its a dark kitchen in an internal room and you're making it look darker still.

1. -

1. -

1. Whats with the random cleaning bottle on the table and the books? Declutter.

1. Get rid of the bike. Declutter. Can you put a bed in there for the picture to show a habitable bedroom?

1. Weird picture. Presume a corner of the sunroom? I'd take the picture looking back into it rather than at the utility bit. It looks odd and doesn't fit or match.

1. Make the bed properly.

1. Everything in that photo out. Bed to show size.

11. Can you use a grout pen and clean the grout? Remove bleach bottles etc. Bin the bath mat, it's filthy.

It looks tired scruffy at the moment. Have a massive declutter, paint and clean well.

It's an OK, house. The sort of house that might appeal if you're getting a lot of house for the money or it's the only way you can afford a house in a sought after area, but no-one's going to fall in love with it.

It could be nice, but it needs a lot doing IMO, so both of those things need to be reflected in the price. You'll know whether that's the case. If you've priced it as an "average" house of the same size in the same area, it's probably too expensive.

Downstairs bedrooms are tricky for a family, and two extra odd shaped reception rooms don't really work - emphasised by the fact you don't seem to be actually using them?

The third bedroom upstairs looks very small, so again, not great for a family. e.g. Are you hoping to move because the baby has grown out of it?

There are things you could do easily/cheaply to tidy the garden and make the front more attractive, especially in summer.

Probably though, it's just a bad time to have a house on the market. All the uncertainty with Brexit/Boris and everyone about to go on holiday.

Sorry I forgot to say - based on the current listing I’m not surprised you’ve not had much interest, but it’s easier to fix photos than a dodgy layout or being close to a main road etc.

One final point - I like to be able to see the total square footage somewhere on the floor plan.

Can you have a really good clear out ( box stuff up and put in someone else's garage while selling) , rearrange furniture ythjng isn't shoved to the edges of the rooms and get some brighter accessories in there? You don't have to buy, you can borrow. The front garden isn't very appealing is it? Could you afford to get some planters in from the garden enter? The back garden needs tidying and decluttering too. Then tell agent to take some nicer photos and you get approval of which ones to post. It's probably a decent house perfect for a family but it just isn't disallowed very appealingly

Honestly, it looks terribly bleak and unloved.

Can you clear away a lot of the clutter. Clean the windows inside & out to maximise the light.
You know your house. The time of day each room looks best. What gets sunlight? Try taking your own photos.

Pots and a bench at the front.

x-post with Fridge but very similar ideas!

The photos are terrible.

What everyone else says - the photos are awful! Did you take them or did your estate agent? If the latter, I would get rid of them and put it on the market again with a new EA. Half of them aren't even in focus!

Before new (better!) photos are taken, follow PP advice re. better presenting the house. To me, the third upstairs bedroom is too small to be called that (could barely fit a single bed!), so you need to present bedroom 2 and at least one of the downstairs rooms (the one that used to be the garage maybe?) as viable bedrooms so it appeals to a family.

I agree about the dining space too - the floorplan seems to show room for a dining table, but then the picture has a tiny table shoved against a wall - this would put me off viewing as it suggests nowhere for the family to eat.

General presentation could be improved too, e.g get rid of clutter/gym machines/stuff stored in bedrooms. Make sure beds are proerly made etc.

Curb appeal is lacking - if you really want to sell, maybe consider gravelling the front driveway and putting some plants in pots as a (relatively) quick and cheap way of making the front look less like a garage forecourt!

Good luck!

Honestly it looks quite neglected and some people will be put off my the amount of decorating and cosmetic updating which needs doing.

Saying that it looks like it's priced competitively compared to other 3 bed properties in the area. There's a 3 bed at a similar price which is more modern inside but its a terrace. Personally I'd rather buy the detached and update it myself so I think it's priced accordingly taking into account what needs doing.

But yes, have a tidy up and better photos. Some plants in pots in the front. Get rid of exercise bikes, laundry, etc.