Why isn’t my house selling?

[slithytoveisascientist]

Please can you help?

We have been on since I think October, had only 2 viewings and one offer of £317k which was withdrawn as it was the top end of their budget - we wouldn’t have accepted anyway.

Most other houses locally seem to be moving really fast. Would appreciate guidance.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/88479571#/

The decorative stuff is mainly accessories you can take with you to make your next house a home.
Home staging is definitely a thing and if accessories can capture the imagination of a potential buyer during such a bleak time then that's got to be a good thing.
Choosing colours that colour psychologists say are "happy" and items that evoke a smile can only be a good thing, in my book. Everyone needs some cheer right now.

The house in need of a full face lift from kitchen to bathrooms, so dated all over. So probably too expensive for what it is. I don’t think buyers care about furniture as such, but to make decent bathrooms, kitchens and flooring costs a bit of money.

Magnolia/neutrals for the rooms painted bright colours.

Then dress the house - depersonalise doesn’t mean stark and empty. It needs some love! Maybe pick a colour pop to flow through the house. You need a few bits here and there to make it look homely.

And agree new estate agent, new pics. On the other hand, I think time has run out on the SDLT holiday, Brexit is starting to bite, along with the carnage Corona has caused, I think the market is going to slow down considerably unfortunately.

Good luck

Dated all over?
I think that is rather an exaggeration.
Do people in the real world update their kitchens and bathrooms every 2 or 3 years?
I hardly think so.
To my (obviously untrained) eye the bathrooms look modern, the kitchen whilst not to my own taste is perfectly fine and hardly some 1970s throwback.

@QuietFlame

Dated all over? I think that is rather an exaggeration. Do people in the real world update their kitchens and bathrooms every 2 or 3 years? I hardly think so. To my (obviously untrained) eye the bathrooms look modern, the kitchen whilst not to my own taste is perfectly fine and hardly some 1970s throwback.

Quite. The kitchen is six years old and the bathroom four. Hardly crying out for replacement.

There seem to be a huge amount of new estates near you, the convenience of a new house, being able to have kitchen, bathroom, flooring to your taste and a warranty with no nasty surprises (so many houses you move in and discover so many issues ‘hidden’ by sellers!) is worth tens of thousands to people.

This house is very similar in style to yours and 45k less www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/96032324#/
I don’t know your area but that’s quite a big premium for location

Sorry not 45k, 65k less than yours

Now that house is horrendously decorated - all that red 🤣

Spoke to I think 5 agents

The estates are largely the ‘wrong’ end of Middlewich and hugely cramped.

Regarding that house in particular there is no floor plan to check but I’d wager it is 3.5 beds as the 4th won’t fit a double

I don't think it needs much work doing.

It just needs a bit of staging. Garden needs to be a bit more inviting. Blinds in kitchen and maybe breakfast bar. Dining room as dining room, garden room as sunroom/playroom/office. Office upstairs as bedroom. Would the double bed in the lilac room fit better in the office bedroom?

I think better photos would make a huge difference with natural lighting.

the lounge is very off putting, it's really letting the house down. Paint the walls white and get rid of that awful yellowy walls. Get rid of that awful coloured coffee table, it's dragging the room down. Wallpaper is really bad ,sorry and sand down and paint the sideboard a nice neutral colour. Rest of house is lovely

The walls are white

And I know wood isn’t for everyone but I love wood and wooden furniture. It’s solid and warm and that sideboard as a history.

I’m not going to be doing some cackhanded up cycling of beautiful oak to sell a house

@slithytoveisascientist

Spoke to I think 5 agents

The estates are largely the ‘wrong’ end of Middlewich and hugely cramped.

Regarding that house in particular there is no floor plan to check but I’d wager it is 3.5 beds as the 4th won’t fit a double

I understand what you’re saying. However, the house cited by Bungle is 65k less than yours. Maybe it’s in the wrong side of town and has a fourth single. But yours has a very odd shaped fourth bedroom. I’m struggling to see that oddly shaped 4th double bedroom and the location in the same town makes your house worth 65k more.

I then looked for any houses for sale at a similar price to yours and on the same side of town and I came across this www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/68155683#/. The house is only 57.5k more than yours and the difference between your house and that one is night and day. It’s clearly a massive step up. You’re busy justifying to us why your house is worth a whopping 65k more than the ones on the other side of town. But why is this one, which is so close and not on a modern estate only worth a more modest 57.5k more than yours? It is only 0.2 miles (321 metres) away.

As for crammed in. This is my take and having a fair amount of experience with house buying. Maybe the estates on the other side of town are more crammed in. However, I presume that means newer. Dh and I own a few rentals, hence the house buying experience and i have flipped a couple of older house for profit. All the rentals we have are on modern housing estates from the mid 1980s. A couple are on the newer, more crammed estates. If anything, the newer houses were worth a premium when newish but have now levelled down to the price of those houses on the older estates. As I said, that’s despite the newer houses being more crammed in. The really crammed in builds from the past 10 years are currently still at a premium - whatever side of town, placement being largely irrelevant, even those now older houses near a cute village, golf course and so forth. And because they the houses are in a more expensive location than yours, the disparity should be higher but it is not.

My own home should be worth imo 150k more than the new builds, which are being built down the road in my village. Dh and I view it as a crammed in estate and would hate to live there, overlooked and so forth. But the asking price for a similarly sized house is only 70k less than ours was recently valued at. These have postage stamp gardens and we are sitting on 1/4 of an acre in most prestigious part of the village and in one of the most prestigious parts of the county. People seemingly don’t care about crammed estates.

Houses are only worth the price people are willing to pay and your house is only worth the price someone is willing to pay. Are you sure the estate agents aren’t just telling you what you want to hear?

*mid 80s onwards. Some are a lot newer.

When I said dated I didn’t necessarily mean that it’s old. I meant the whole feel of the house is dated. It doesn’t fit beautiful classic interior, neither it is contemporary. These kitchens maybe were popular 20 years. It might be new, but it looks old and cheap. Not talking about replacing the kitchen every 3 years, but I can’t believe someone dares to even sell these, even ikea has better kitchens than this.
However, I understand when selling no one is going to be fitting new kitchens and bathrooms, but it should reflect in the price. I saw plenty of agents saying that house is in a good decorative order with new kitchen, only to discover that the kitchen is the cheapest one possible, yet they are selling the house for a premium price. I don’t think that people can get away with this stuff easy anymore and simply have to lower the price. New generation of buyers is not that desperate anymore.

There are very definitely towns where people will pay more for smaller houses even to be in the right part of town.

I don't think you should be redecorating as such at all as there is the same risk that what you do is not to someone's taste too. Nothing in your home is way out there or horrifically nasty.

I do just feel that some of the stuff the agent suggested taking out and a rearrangement of some furniture would help. Are there items you could borrow from family or friends to dress the house . You really don't want to spend money on art or accessories that might not match or suit wherever you move to.

Save your money and your time OP. As I and some other posters have already advised on this thread, the issue if you are getting such a small number of viewings is price. No amount of primping, painting and artful arrangement of rugs, etc will make a difference. You know roughly what it's worth because you did get an offer although the sale fell through. The 4 bed house on the same street which sold for more had a kitchen diner as they'd knocked through into the adjoining room.

When we sold our last house 5 years ago all the estate agents gave the same valuation of £225-£235k. We accepted an offer of £218k but ultimately it sold for £213,500 because our buyers' sale fell through and they then accepted a lower offer from someone else and they were the only people who wanted to buy.

The current version of your house style that Jones still build has a separate living room, ie wall where your doors are and no wall between kitchen and dining room,which is probably more ‘modern ‘ or ‘less dated’😉 you aren’t going to start knocking walls down etc but a better agent might draw the attention of buyers to this?

@Wanderergirl

The house in need of a full face lift from kitchen to bathrooms, so dated all over. So probably too expensive for what it is. I don’t think buyers care about furniture as such, but to make decent bathrooms, kitchens and flooring costs a bit of money.

Yes, but if you look at how the house for sale in Wakefield has been beautifully Home Staged, here is proof that even with dodgy decor people can be sighing all over it and immediately feel at home.

Home Staging is the only way to make people see it as a home, their home- without major renovations. I made some lovely suggestions already as have others.

If I were you I would:

Put your furniture back where it works for you.
Put a fruit bowl in the and 3 pots of living herbs on the windowsill.
Put up some large artwork (even if you so them yourself from canvasses bought from The Range or Hobbeycraft in the sitting room. Perhaps one of those big clocks on the wall?
Get a big mirror for that empty wall in the hall
Lots of plants about the place and big pictures rather than little ones. No family photos on walls.
Vases of flowers. Tall lillies or one colour of roses. No chrysanthemums or gaudy mixed colours.
Folded throws on one arms of the sofas, not spread out to cover it.
Could you possibly replace the coffee table? Perhaps with a buttoned footstool table? Put a pile of large books on it, a small tray with a large 3 wick candle, a plant, another folded blanket.

You don't have to actually do these things, they're just ideas so you might be able to see what's needed to dress your house better for new photos. All accessories can be bought cheaply at Asda or The Range. Stick with one colour, steer clear of anything glittery, crushed velvet or grey.