'Why isn' t my house selling?' threads

[Findahouse21]

With the buoyant market at the moment I have noticed a huge amount of these threads lately, with the rightmove listing linked, and 9/10 the OP is given a lot of valuable feedback although there are often one of two people who try to be deliberately nasty. I myself have be fitted from an anonymous view of my much loved house.

However why are these threads needed? Why are estate agents so reluctant to make even gentle suggestions about tidying/staging/decluttering?

@mklanch oh no! I get so frustrated at seeing messy houses up for sale online! that looks like it could be an amazing home.
Why can't you just put a sheet on your bed ew!

Theres a disabled walking frame/seat in the kitchen so this might be why the house isnt immaculate. A lot of people dont live in very tidy houses and cant see the mess. Agents usually do ask people to tidy and de-clutter before taking photos so perhaps they have done so!

I thought that @bilbodog, however surely the EA would have advised on presentation for the photos or at least moved some things/kept them out of shot?

What annoys me is when posters say "the bedroom is tiny" - how is that a suggestion? Is the OP supposed to build an extension off the back of that comment? It's not constructive at all.

I think it depends a lot on the EA and the seller.

Wrt EA's it's true you often get what you pay for. Cheap online estate agents typically just list your house.

Traditional EA's tend (though not always) to offer a much wider service in terms of providing the pictures, blurb, plans and advice and good ones will always do all the above to show your home to its best advantage.

That said even the best EA can't make a silk purse from a sows ear if the seller isn't open to suggestions.

It reminds me of an old House Doctor program where the house hadn't sold. No wonder. The lady had about 10 cats, 3 dogs and additional animals in the garden to the point it was like an animal boarding shelter.

The conservatory "belonged" to the cats and the dogs "had" the sitting rooms.

The wholes house was neglected and filthy and viewers couldn't even get into some of the rooms because of the animals.

HD went in and did all the appropriate cleaning/re-decoration and said she needed to re-home the pets until it sold.

Seller wouldn't agree and yes at the end of the program the update said the house was still on the market and presumably back to the state it was before the HD arrived.

That's obviously an extreme example but I also think people become so used to their own homes they stop being able to see the flaws in it. As they can live in it as is they assume other people will do the same and/or think preparing it for sale is wasted money.

It's a bit like dog smell makes me sick but often dog owners don't notice it at all....

This is a house I renovated recently - before and after using the same angle. You can see the difference furniture and floors make to a space. Yes -I removed a small part of a wall to open it up a little, but you can see how the decor makes the difference.

Meant to add, we are estate agents in Portugal. If we have a house for sale, we will often take our own decor to make the house look more interesting - sometimes they are devoid of character and need something to liven them up a bit. It is amazing how much difference it makes to enquiries (and sales) we have!

I remember the first house we went to see last time we moved.
The house looked a mess in the pictures but it was the area we wanted. When we got there the house was a complete state. I’m a cat lover but the owner fostered cats and the box room was just given over to cats. She was trying to clean when we got there but she was clearly struggling. I think as is said up thread some people are used to living in what many of us would consider a mess and they simply don’t see a problem.
We ended up buying further down the same street in the end.

On the "why isn't my house selling" threads as well as constructive advice about cleaning, tidying, doing any outstanding DIY jobs, presentation, having a floorplan and the quality of the photos, there's always someone who comes in with a long list of things they would like to see. These usually start with, "ironed, crisp white bed linen in all the bedrooms - I hate coloured duvet sets" or some such. There's usually someone who lists the things covered in the first few responses several pages in too.

I always assume it is simply another marketing angle. I also think the same (more so) of threads linking to amazing properties (you know, just out of interest). Love looking at them but so often think posters are connected to them.

I guess these threads help because apparently people rely heavily on presentation and silly details like wall colours rather than the size, layout, quality and price of properties. No wonder, given that in the UK there's no concept of objective valuation such as average price per square foot. 'Valuation' means looks at a similar recently sold house next door. It's all about creating a pretty picture, so that the people who only get to see the house for 15 minutes before buying it take the bait.

Looking *

I actually love viewing empty houses. What’s in a house is literally meaningless (actually other than a feel which can be important). But the stuff is irrelevant - it won’t be there. It’ll be my unphotogenic stuff in there !

I think it's perfectly reasonable to ask advice. The eye of an impartial viewer with honest feedback is really helpful! I'm also addicted to rightmove so I like it!!

@CaMePlaitPas

What annoys me is when posters say "the bedroom is tiny" - how is that a suggestion? Is the OP supposed to build an extension off the back of that comment? It's not constructive at all.

It's not a suggestion but it's a valid reason why a house might not be selling. If yiur master bedroom is only 12 by 8 then it's going to put off a lot of viewers who want room for a bed bigger than a standard double plus clothes storage for 2 adults.

Generally these threads have people making suggestions about de-cluttering and moving a bin or moving a car off the drive or baking bread etc.....in reality 99.9% of the time the house is not selling because the price is wrong. Estate agents may have suggested a price drop but some vendors don't want to hear that. They want the remedy to be something simple like changing a paint colour or putting up a hanging basket. Fact is a house will sell itself even in pretty grim condition if the price is right.

@JellyBelly10

Generally these threads have people making suggestions about de-cluttering and moving a bin or moving a car off the drive or baking bread etc.....in reality 99.9% of the time the house is not selling because the price is wrong. Estate agents may have suggested a price drop but some vendors don't want to hear that. They want the remedy to be something simple like changing a paint colour or putting up a hanging basket. Fact is a house will sell itself even in pretty grim condition if the price is right.

agree 100%

ive seen so many houses that have sat on the market for over a year and they haven't reduced the price. most the time its the people that brought it for really cheap, spent a fair bit doing it up (to their own taste) and now think its worth 3-4 times what they paid!

What are even worse are properties built in the 1980’s and the owner has done nothing since then and still expects their eighties time warp, with cathedral arch kitchens, Laura Ashley wallpaper borders, peach bathroom suites, artex ceilings, burgundy carpets throughout and a knackered boiler to fetch top dollar (I’m looking at you my next door neighbours in case you are reading, your house needs a hundred grand minimum to bring it up to the standard to achieve the price you want) they can’t understand why people are buying the flashy new builds instead of theirs. Houses don’t sell because of the price, always.

We sold our house last year. It was clean and organised but certainly not clutter free. The layout was weird and the bedrooms were small. Some decor was dated though not the kitchen and bathroom. We asked the estate agent if anything we should do to update it. He said not a thing. Just price it realistically which we did.
It sold in 4 weeks.

I've sold several houses over the years and always ask the EA opinion on what changes I could/should make to help sell more quickly. Every single one has said 'Nothing, it will sell really quickly' and every single one has been wrong. On one house, we had painted some quite strong colours on walls, several viewings no offers, EA still said no changes needed, we repainted with neutral beige and had an offer from the next viewing!

In my experience EA just don't offer this sort of service and I think they should. They always overprice initially then end up dropping the price within a couple of weeks . maybe I've been unlucky with my High Street agents!

the thing is ours didn't sell and all the feedback was about stuff we could do nothing about. ours sold because we accepted a lower price. with most of it i think it is about the price

The thing is that for EAs the extra commission they earn if your house sells for the asking price/top whack is not much more than if the price is discounted/negotiated down. Therefore provided your house isn't a tumbledown pit it'll sell at the right price and it makes bog all difference to the agent.

Hi, sorry I didn't respond sooner. I understand that as an EA it must be a fine line between offering constructive help and wanting to keep someone's business. But I imagine that without being too obvious it should be fairly easy to scope out those customers who are open to suggestions and those that aren't

In the US agents are pretty frank. They get a much higher commission, have to pass an exam and be licensed- it is a more respected profession because they are, generally, very professional. The whole process is much tighter than here - offers are written and binding, with times scales set up from the beginning.
Here agents seem much less proactive. Make their pay commission only and they'd smarten up quickly.
However many of the houses posted here are not messy, just not priced for the market.

Staging is much more common in the US too - the agents do it for sellers. I suspect the agent's fees are higher than here.