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Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

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Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Property/DIY

If your house hadn't sold in a year surely you wouldn't put the price UP!

79 replies

StripeyKnickersSpottySocks · 14/08/2007 12:24

My mum's been trying to sell her house for over a year. Is now with the 3rd estate agent, all agents say its on for the right price and looking at other houses it seems to be priced ok. She did knock 15k off the price about 5months ago but has only had 1 person come to see it in the last 6months.

She's now reading about how much house prices have increased in the last year and thinks she ought to put the price up. Am I missing something, 'cos I think she's barmy.

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tatt · 15/08/2007 07:41

margoandjerry Don't know what prices are like around there but it's a nice house. Bit too much blue around but it's obviously well looked after and nicely presented so I suspect the agents have put a highish price on it for the area. The only drawback I can see is ensuite looks tiny, really can't see how you'd use that space. Do they have a breadmaker to have nice smells wafting around?

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Bibis · 15/08/2007 08:11

Margoandjerry

What is with all the arty photos on the details?? They are selling a house ffs not putting on an exhibition, imho i think it is pretentious shite and if there were two identical houses for sale i would buy the one that didn't have that shite marketing crap as i wouldn't want my money going to the tossers who thought that up (ie agents).

Sorry but you did ask

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LIZS · 15/08/2007 08:18

m and j , very nice but I'd say too many photos not showing the actual rooms off ! Round our way houses between about 600 and 900 are proving slow to move, perhaps that is the same there.

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margoandjerry · 15/08/2007 09:05

bibis, I agree but initially Foxtons only put a few photos on and then they only managed one viewing in about eight weeks so they came round again and went barmy with the camera! Despite all their promises, they have actually been crap so when their term is up she's shifting again to a third agent.

Tatt, that's a good point about the en suite. It's actually normal size but as you point out, it looks like you wouldn't be able to squeeze past the basin on the plan!

I'll tell me old mum. She will be amazed that her house is being discussed on the interweb!

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MrsDoolittle · 15/08/2007 16:48

Foxtons have an appalling reputation though, don't they?

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NKF · 16/08/2007 12:42

I don't believe it's details like tiling that are putting off viewers. If the estate agents are halfway decent, they should be able to get people through the door.

August is not a good time true but it's been on the market for a year. She should take it off the market for a bit (it's tired now), and when she's ready put it on with another agent and try to be realistic about what it might fetch. If you want to sell a house fast, it has to look like a bargain.

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themoon66 · 16/08/2007 12:54

I know North Hykeham well and I'd say it's well overpriced TBH.

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LilianGish · 16/08/2007 13:11

I think you mum's house looks great SKSS (much better than many horrors you see when househunting), but the fact is it's not a love-at-first-sight kind of house IYSWIM and for that reason I think it is probably the price that is putting people off. Had exactly the same problem with my MIL a few years ago when she was trying to sell her house for over a year (not in as good nick as your mum's I must say and also with a slightly problematic garden ie big family house, virtually no garden). Eventually she saw sense, dropped the price and it was snapped up. Can see how your mum might be reluctant to do this if she and your dad need to buy two properties out of the proceeds, but the fact remains people are only prepared to pay what they are prepared to pay.

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Crotchety · 16/08/2007 13:24

Definitely the garden for me SKSS. When we were looking to move a few years ago with 2 small children the estate agents kept showing us houses with tiny gardens and a lot of the reason we wanted to move was so that the boys could play outside without having to be taken to a park or whatever.

Unless it was on at a bargain price I don't think we would have bought your mother's house as we wouldn't have wanted to have to do a major garden project straight away. (It would have looked major to me as a non-gardener at the time.)

And I think other posters are right that an older couple are probably not likely to be looking for what is essentially a family house - they are more likely to be the ones trying to get shot of theirs.

I reckon persuade her to get the grass and see what happens?

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hatwoman · 16/08/2007 13:33

I have to agree with everyone else - the garden would make it an instant non-view for me. as an interim measure could you take the photo of the garden off and see if that gets more people through the door.

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VirtualStranger · 16/08/2007 13:36

People are primarily driven by the price ime. From the pictures the house doesn't look newly decorated. The kitchen looks tired and dark and the red carpet dominates the sitting room. I would say the angle of the photo of the sitting room makes it look long and thin

I would suggest getting better photos and updating the house. if she is refusing to do this, the price needs reducing - any house will sell at the right price.

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hatwoman · 16/08/2007 13:39

M and J - that house is fab - but is it the corner plot that's putting people off? I know there's nothing you can do about that but maybe it knocks a bit off the price compared to the same house on a different plot. It would put me off.

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WendyWeber · 16/08/2007 13:49

I agree about the garden needing grass, and also that only one upstairs bathroom in a house that size just isn't enough any more - even if an older couple with no resident children would be interested in the house, they still like multiple bathrooms these days!

Maybe the downstairs utility/shower room should be described just as a shower room, plumbed for washer; and as somebody said, if she was prepared to drop £15K on the asking price at one point, it would surely be worth spending less than that to put in an en-suite.

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Kewcumber · 16/08/2007 14:43

rule of thumb I was given by an ex (in property development) was that if you are not getting any viewings your price is too high, if you are getting viewings but no offers then its the house that is a problem.

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NKF · 16/08/2007 15:46

£15k isn't enough of a drop. It's what - about 5%. People expect that just for the asking. Also house viewers think in terms of price points. At £330k, her house will probably be offered to everyone looking between about £325k and £350k. They've shown no interset so the estate agent has to wait for more buyers in that price range to appear. For a price drop to be effective, she would probably have to go below £325k and then it would be offered to a new batch of buyers. Also estate agents are only human and they get bored with properties that have sat on the books for months.

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Kewcumber · 16/08/2007 15:52

also if she is changing estate agents she needs to ask the new ones what she should change and listen to them. Bet they say it needs at least some grass

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margoandjerry · 16/08/2007 15:52

hatwoman, yes that's the only feedback we've had that makes any sense - that it's the corner plot. The thin bit of the house is on a biggish road - though the front door and garden and main bit of the house are on a quiet road, with sports fields at the back so really very quiet.

Of course there's nothing we can do about that. And if the house was half way down the road it would be worth £1.2mil...

Plus you never, ever get disturbed by the road. It's actually very quiet. More likely to be disturbed by the sound of college students playing cricket on the sports field. But you wouldn't know that till you lived here.

It's very depressing.

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Kewcumber · 16/08/2007 16:00

StripeyKnickersSpottySocks - just looked at your mums details properly - that really is a huge expanse of gravel! She really is mad if she doesn;t take up even a section and grass it - just to show that it could easily be a lawn and put garden furniture ion the remianing bit of the gravelled area.

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Kewcumber · 16/08/2007 16:02

M&J teddington is nice and the price doesn;t seem too unreasonable. But summer months are often quiet. Why doesn;t she take it off until Spet when the kids are back in school and people start looking again tehn move to another agent again so it "new" . Has she tried Snellers? i think they sold my mums in Teddington.

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hippipotami · 16/08/2007 17:32

SKSS - Your mums' house looks great. However, the garden would put me off. It is not the fact that it is easy to lay lawn/turf, but the fact that the gravel needs removing.
That is an awful lot of gravel to rake up, put in wheelbarrow and then put where??
Also, people who have small gardens tend to gravel them, so as it is hard to get an impression of garden size from the website pic, people see the gravel and assume 'mediteranean courtyard garden'.

Do not let her put the price up, however, persuade her to turf the garden and perhaps change kitchen and living room flooring.

Margo - love your parents house, but I think you will find in that price bracket things move slowly. Plus the fact it appears to be on a corner of some busy-ish roads? But as long as the price reflects the road, it should sell with an other agent am sure!

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hatwoman · 16/08/2007 17:40

thinking about it m and j - you're right about the price - I was staggered when I looked - it's certainly of the quality and style that would normally be 7 figures round here (I live quite close). Someone will come along willing to accept the road for the huge benefits (did that ourselves with our first house) and if you can get people through the door to appreciate the playing fields etc I'm sure it'll go

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aloha · 16/08/2007 18:03

When I saw mrs doolittles link to the other house I could see instantly why your mum's house hasn't sold, I'm afraid, Stripey.
The other house is beautiful and in move-in condition. The gravel garden is awful. It would completely put me off. And the red carpet and carpet in teh kitchen are also offputting. YOu can't really imagine yourself in there. The lounge looks a bit OAP home, I'm afraid, with the carpet and the dado rail thing.
The Teddington house is beautiful.

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aloha · 16/08/2007 18:05

Also agree need new estate agent and more pix. One decent trick is to get a local estate agent which normally handles much more expensive properties so your house seems a huge bargain in comparison.

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fedupwasherwoman · 17/08/2007 11:21

Aloha,

SKSS said her mum's house is near the Cathedral in Lincoln and that properties there usually attract a premium, as they say on the TV, "Location,Location, Location are the 3 most important factors in house prices".

The other property is in a residential suburb on the other side of the city, different amenities/schools/shops etc.

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MrsWeasley · 17/08/2007 11:29

I know a family who did this but not because it had been on the market a while. In their case they had people around and several seemed interested and so they decided to ask more of it becuase they could they then pulled out on a first time (cash) buyer to put it back on the market a few weeks later for an even higher price.

Not the nicest of families I have ever had the misfortune to sit next to in church!

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