Not getting any viewers?

[DisappointedOfNorfolk]

Our house has been on the market for two and half weeks now and we have had only two viewings so far (although the first viewers did want to offer but sadly their buyer couldn't get a mortgage and withdrew their offer so they couldn't).

We thought the first couple of weeks were supposed to be the busiest but nope!

We don't know what we're doing wrong, and wondered if anyone would be happy to check out our Rightmove ad and give us some feedback please?

Offers over, paint colours in lounge and bedroom, artex(or wallpaper?) on lounge ceiling, polycarbonate roof would all put me off.

Oh I agree tabularosa, I like detached too, but not as much as I like my big garden that is not overlooked by any houses at the back at all, just fields, and has 6 ft fences either side . True, the neighbours each side could look into the garden if they pressed their faces against their bedroom windows at the back but as they are polite people like us, they don't 😂!

These houses are well built too and the staircases are at opposite ends of the pair of semis so we hardly hear our neighbour's, except when the little lad next door has his hair washed... 😂.

I thought this was a tiny house front he front.
Then only saw two bedrooms so surprised to see it has four in the floor plan.
Looks like you’re trying to hide something from the garden pictures.
Living room is too dark and the fire place looks hidden, it needs to be highlighted as it’s a bonus!
Kitchen walls look bare - can you add some art work? And maybe a few more photos from different angles?

Apparently if a house is not selling, it's down to the three P's, which I think are Price Photos ( Position). Definitely need better photos, your house looks lovely but those photos are NOT doing your house justice. ( Why does one of the garden photos show mainly your neighbours garden?)! Would paint your dark blue Room a lighter colour if possible too

Why does one of the garden photos show mainly your neighbours garden?)!

It doesn’t. It’s all the OP’s garden.

Having posted my house OP you'll get some really helpful comments and some that are rude/weird.

I wouldn't repaint as some have suggested, I would tweak/restyle it's hard to tell at the moment with the angle of your photos I suspect you only need a few changes and decent photos.

You could also be experiencing the same as us the estate agent thinks slightly quirker houses like mine that are big but don't look it people aren't viewing as they are cautious because of Covid and houses like mine can only be appreciated by seeing it. It means it might take longer than it would do usually.

Good luck 🍀

Why not repaint? All the rooms are light coloured except the living room which is really dark with a dark sofa. It looks unloved. It doesn’t match. A pale yellow would work with a few cushions.

A quick paint job is quicker and cheaper than alternatives.

I also wouldn't be promoting that it has a septic tank - you want people through the door and to fall in love then tell them drawbacks.

Need to promote gigantic garden backing onto fields, 3 double bedrooms plus a single (is it a generous one - if so promote that).

You really don’t need to worry about paint colour. People will come and view if the house is priced fairly. It’s obviously too £, coupled with the offers over is why.

**:10daisypond

Why does one of the garden photos show mainly your neighbours garden?)!

It doesn’t. It’s all the OP’s garden.**

Pic 13?

It is all the OP's garden.
It's a fenced off veg plot at the end.

Yes you need better photos!

It's a lovely house. Things that stand out for me:

How warm is that room open to the conservatory in winter?
Pond. Instantly off-putting for buyers with young families or dogs.
Weird pic of the landing.
I'm on my phone so have no idea how big any of the rooms are because I can't read them on the floor plan. Is that triangular room even big enough for a bed?

Sitting room/conservatory both warm in have radiators, conservatory is double glazed, and there's a multi fuel stove in the sitting room too .

Picture 13 is all our garden yes, the picket fence is just around the veg garden, both side fences are 6' and the back fence is 4.5' to appreciate the view!

Yes a 3' single bed fits in the single bedroom and a chest of drawers, and it has built in shelving above the stairs for storage too .

Ok I’m going to be brutal.
Your house would appear to be in the market for a family. Straight away I’m seeing the pond and thinking that needs removing. In my mind I’m thinking £5000 (ballpark figure) for paying a professional team to remove it and make it into a lovely flagged area with good impressive seating , possibly huge modern tubs with evergreens etc. That is £5000 I would deduct from the asking price straight away. Then the garden. Is the buyer a keen gardener? If not I’m seeing the enormous task of mowing h the lawns at least every two weeks and weeding etc. Again a negative. If I’m a gardener- great but without being rude the garden is only average, it’s not great. Then I’m looking at the rubbish photos of the lounge showing far too much ceiling. The lack of photos of the other bedrooms and I’m now thinking yep- needs work. Not worth the asking price as I can buy on the next street and it’s all done for me. I won’t need to decorate etc etc.
Do the blue living room itself wouldn’t be an issue if the Photos were better and the sizes were stated etc but it’s an accumulating of all the other things. Once a buyer sets off down the thought process If It need to spend x amount rectifying that problem’ they then pick faults with other areas. I hope that makes sense. Again buyers will over look things if the price is deemed as ‘ good’.

I think it's a lovely house and although I don't like the blue walls it wouldn't put me off at all. I've just bought a house with really busy wallpaper and some sad carpets - I immediately painted over the wallpaper and replaced the sad carpets! It's what you do!!

I agree with others that the photos aren't good - you need a decent photo of every room and better ones of the garden. I would also be tempted to restyle the small 4th bedroom as a study - more useful to a lot of people than a weirdly shaped very small bedroom.

I would also re-think the price. "Offers over" would put me off far, far more than some potential re-painting. I like to have an exact figure to work from,

I don't think the pond is an issue either - people can fence it, put a metal grid over it, fill it in, whatever. If you love the house otherwise, you're not going to not buy it just because of a pond I reckon (I had a pond with young children - got a blacksmith made wrought iron grid to lay over the top that took two people to lift. You could still see the pond life and all the plants but the kids couldn't fall in!)

If the 4th Bedroom works as single show it off that it does with photos etc, so many literally only fit a bed! People can see it can be used as an office but not all offices work as a bedroom.

Your veg plot looks like the neighbours garden - can you take down the dividing fence?

Pond and septic tanks would be a no for me.

Why does the cooker not have an extractor fan?

I've had another thought OP. Get pictures of all 4 bedrooms and better pictures generally. Then do not show the pond in your pictures. By all means maybe capture the edges of it but don't focus on it. Maybe a long shot of it iyswim. Then you might get more viewers who once they like the size/location/layout of the house are more likely to overlook the decor and pond.

Highlight in the text and the photos how big the garden is (I also thought it was a small garden massively overlooked by neighbours). Literally state the size e.g. 1/3 of an acre or whatever it is.

Don't show the pond in the photos.

Get new photos done

• paint the blue wall and put a picture up or a tall plant so it's not all wall
• stage the conservatory with a pretty tea set or something rather than as a home office
• make sure the photos of the bedrooms don't make people worry about them being too small (they look tiny in the photos because of the door being jammed against the bed, and one of them taken around the corner of some kind of net curtain)

We have had new photos taken on a lovely sunny day, rearranged some rooms a bit and will go back on with the new agent in a weeks time... fingers crossed 🤞.

The new agent said not to paint the sitting room as he didn't believe it was that putting people off, he thought it was the photos that don't do the house justice.

So he has taken shots that include more of the rooms themselves (with more floors less ceilings!), and showing the beds in the rooms etc, also better pictures showing the whole garden rather than several shots that only show parts of it and are confusing, and made it look like they included next door's garden! He said they don't tend to include aerial shots unless it's for 'land' ie acres though!

The listing will include room sizes in the description, which should make it easier to refer to the floor plan and know that it is a good sized house.

We are also going to put it up for a new guide price, the agent said he would have put it on at a guide price of £280k if it was new to market, but because we are changing agent/have already been up at offers over £280k, he agreed with us that it would be better to go straight in with the new guide price of £270-£280k.

I think we'll just have to wait and see, we are not desperate to sell, the only two houses we liked in the new area both went under offer yesterday so we don't have anything we are really keen to buy yet anyway...

Well that sound sensible as the old photos were really bad. Yes the pond will put some people off and they may well knock money off to change this to be more family friendly. Good luck with the new photos.

It is a lovely house, OP, with a fantastic garden.

We got a grill fitted to our pond at our new house, quick and easy to do.

New photos, taken by an experienced photographer and include the small odd-shaped bedroom in particular because that looks like it cannot be used as a bedroom due to size and shape.

It is true that the dark blue living room could be off-putting because it looks overpowering. However, clever photo can reduce this effect so leave it be for the moment.

Your house has many great plusses so exploit them as much as you can. Best of luck.

This is going to reiterate a lot of points people have already made, but taking the pics in turn:

1: practical front. Lots of parking. Not hugely charming but it’s good enough to make me click through.

2: POND!!!! If I am a family buyer with kids the alarm bells will go off very loudly at this point.

3: kitchen looks rather spartan. Narrow and with insufficient cupboard space, and that empty wall above the cooker is charmless. It also looks dark. Imagining spending a fair proportion of my waking day in there is a depressing thought.

4: conservatory with a view of next door’s wall and an ugly garage. Not enticing.

5: nice wood fire but ARTEX CEILING! 2nd set of alarm bells ring. I’d want to get that redone which would be a pain.

6: perfectly functional and light hallway, nice

7: uh-oh. The sitting room is basically part of the conservatory! So the nice cosy room I saw in pic 5 is actually very light and draughty and has that view of the neighbour’s wall and a garage which I saw in pic 4. Oh dear all the charm has gone. And the space looks oddly used - either stage it as a completely different area or incorporate it into the sitting room with more sofas etc.

8: looks like a v cramped bedroom. Is this the master bedroom? I would be worrying it was too small. Looks like a nice view from the window but I can’t see it properly.

9: perfectly functional bedroom, is that a single bed? Is it too small for a double? Ok so now I’m thinking all the bedrooms are small and cramped.

10: bathroom looks like it will be cold.

11: nice hallway shot but the bed in the nearest room seems to be blocking the door from opening properly. So the bedrooms ARE tiny! This confirms my previous suspicion.

12-13: looks like half of this is the neighbour’s garden so it feels v overlooked (I know you’ve explained it isn’t)

14: the dreaded offputting pond again. And that picnic table isn’t very charming - I’m not really imagining family life out there in the summer. Would feel a bit like a pub garden. I like the shade awning though.

Then I would turn to the floor plan:

• confirms suspicion that conservatory is part of sitting room so you only have two downstairs rooms. With 4 bedrooms I’d want a separate space for the kids of some kind, like a casual sitting room area in the kitchen or somesuch.
• upstairs layout is SO cramped, that fourth bedroom has really been crowbarred in and it makes the upstairs corridor look as though it will be v narrow and dark.