Help! Does anyone know someone who is looking to buy a lovely house in Suffolk? Or give helpful advice?

[Suffolkmouse]

We are trying to sell our lovely home in Suffolk. We went on the market in Feb and had an offer quite quickly which we accepted. The sale fell through due to covid ( someone in the chain was furloughed and needed to complete quickly which our buyer was worried about doing as they thought there would be another lockdown and they would've been stuck between houses). Since then, we are just not getting many viewings. We are a 3 bed semi detached stables conversion on historic parkland with amazing views. It feels like being in the midst of the countryside but is walking distance to Saxmundham which has a train station and a Waitrose as well as drs/dentists/schools/libraries etc. We are also mains everything so no oil tank or sewerage system to contend with! We are going to switch estate agents as we don't feel ours is proactive enough. Is anyone looking to move to Suffolk? Otherwise, how about constructive advice please? Thankyou.

If you do everything on that list, it should be an amazing listing. Or at least do the property justice. Make sure the description isn’t too wordy, maybe even some bullet points.

Gosh, OP, your agents are really rubbish. Exactly as JoJo says, if I were looking to buy I'd assume from the photos that your lawn out at the back was the only garden - but you have half an acre! And a double garage!

The pictures are really not great. Not bothering to show the staircase is just crazy. They need a swift boot up the backside, really. They're not making the effort for you.

Tbh the fact that these three properties are all for sale at the same time would get me wondering what was going on.

This is exactly what my husband said - he does the house hunting for us as he's epic at it and I get bored looking at mansions 😁 We're not looking in Suffolk, but we don't really explore anything around here that has more than a house or two for sale very close by, as it tends to mean that they've sold the garages/land behind/whatever to build a new street of houses.

Although the list you've got is pretty great and I think it'll massively improve the listing. I hope you sell soon!

Your agent is so FUCKING USELESS

I had to read the whole damn thing to find out you've got an orchard and a hen garden!!

If you've half an acre it should be in the title - you can definitely take a better picture of that hen house - I'd paint it if you've any paint lying around

And yes to pictures of hens - and describe the trees - Apple/pear/cherry ???

I think you need a map of the whole plot showing how your part fits into it and relates to the other half of the building and other properties, as well as the land. This is common for small holdings and equestrian properties.

Rainbowshine thankyou, that's a great idea! I will dig out the stuff from our survey which has plans/borders etc

Your house is beautiful and I would defintely recommend Potters Estate Agent. They're based in Woodbridge but sell all over Suffolk. They sold our (very average house) in February in just over a week for more than list price and we're now buying through them and their service is fantastic for buyers too!

alohavic70 I will have a look at them, thankyou. Was the house you sold in Woodbridge?

Yes, in Woodbridge. I was amazed that it sold so quickly for more than we expected. They're a relatively new agency, but the service is excellent and their rates were far less than the other agencies we talked to. Also there was no tie-in, so there was really nothing to lose!

So we've had a busy few days. I made a list of all your suggestions and have followed them all as best as I could time and cost allowing. Trip to garden centre, planted lots of tubs in courtyard and made more of a feature of the front door with small tree either side. Tidied away washing line and staged the back garden with cushions on the outside furniture, parasol up, plant, lantern, wine and glasses on table. Decluttered kitchen better and fresh flowers on table. New ( enthusiastic and positive) estate agent took LOTS of photos of EVERYWHERE including staircase, study, bathrooms, double garage, chickens and plan of the area showing our garden borders. Phew! Keep your fingers crossed for me and I will keep you posted. Thankyou all very much again for your contributions! 🙂

Flynn999 John Lewis! 🙂

Wow. What a fab house! I'd love to buy it if I lived anywhere near there (which I don't) or were a lot richer (which I'm not).

garlictwist thankyou! 🙂

Well Done OP 👌

Lots of luck.

It's such a fantastic house, I'm sure the new photos will do it justice.

No advice, sorry, but I've just saved your kitchen to my 'How I want our new kitchen diner to look' mood board... and DH came up and admired it over my shoulder. Obviously you're getting something right!

FlamedToACrisp thankyou very much! That's so kind of you.🤗

It's lovely.

I think one thing you could do is specify whether it is leasehold or freehold. Service charge makes me think LH ?

Whatthewhatnow thankyou. It's freehold so yes we should point that out.

We are now back on with a new agent. I'm not sure how to send the link but here's a screenshot of it on Rightmove. What do you think please? Does it look better?

ive just stumbled across you listing on my rightmove search. your new agent has done a fantastic job. all the rooms look bigger and the gardens look fantastic. im sure it will sell fast

mklanch thankyou. I hope so! You can't see in the photos but there's even the wine bottle and glasses on the outside table as advised on previous posts and the courtyard has been planted up a lot more. It wasn't a great weather day when the photos were taken but I didn't want to delay putting it back on the market. It's so sunny and bright today though! Hopefully we will get some viewings now. 🤞

The new listing is much better. I think putting the price up is a bizarre move. Local property searchers will notice that and also think it’s a bizarre move.

I'm not sure what the map/plan is supposed to be showing as it's totally illegible, it's not even been flattened out and scanned properly! It appears to be a red line plan related to planning permission or similar. Perhaps it's showing the 19 acres of parkland?

Really what you need is a plan clearly highlighting the property, the land/garden belonging to the property and the area of land that is accessible via the service charge.

Climbingallthetrees , yes I can understand that but the previous price was offers over ( and we got an offer we were happy with but sale fell through -covid/furlough associated ). A lot of the feedback from MN was that offers over would put people off even considering it and what did offers over actually mean? They would prefer a definite price. The recent valuations were also lot more. We've put a price that is still below the valuations. 2 of the neighbours on the same development have just sold with asking prices over £100k more, one a 3 bed detached, 1 4 bed midterrace. I think most buyers want to negotiate and feel they have got something off the price. We are happy to negotiate. If we put the same price as previous but just removed offers over, then people would still expect further money off and the house is worth a lot more. I think the main thing we wanted to achieve was to get more interest in actually viewing the house as you have to really see it to appreciate it.