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Original poster

Advice on our house listing please

93 replies

LancsRose75 · 05/04/2021 18:30

Hi all, I’m looking for advice from the MN property experts on our house listing please.

It’s been on the market since beginning of March.

We never actually wanted to move, we loved the house and had long term plans for it, my my husband got offered a job we couldn’t say no to so had to move. We are now no longer in the country.

The feedback we have had is it’s too expensive. We listed it at the agents recommended price which we thought was a bit ambitious and dropped it £15k almost straight away. We are reluctant to drop it again, but are still being told it’s too expensive and needs too much work doing. It’s £45k more than we paid in 2016

We’ve done So much to the house since we moved in, every rooms had new flooring, levelled out uneven floors, new internal doors, added a bathroom, opened up the loft and had it boarded, new plumbing and heating, extra powerful boiler, new kitchen... I have added the link from when we bought it and there is a very good reason there are no kitchen pictures, it was so bad we actually went without one for 4 months rather than attempt to use it.

The biggest job that needs doing is new windows and doors. There is nothing wrong with the windows other that they look old. We weren’t planning on replacing them until we had the money to renovate and extend the back of the house. I asked my husband to paint the front door, I stupidly assumed he’d just give it a coat of its original colour but he decided to paint it blue, although our plan was to do this colour eventually, it looks completely out of place the way it is now 🤦‍♀️

There are a couple of areas not covered by the agents, I’ve added pictures. I also hate the green in the agents pictures, it looks nothing like the actual colour.

Location wise, the house is on a main road but in a very sought after area, it’s a couple hundred yards from an outstanding primary school. The council actually block the road so parents don’t block resident parking so that’s not an issue, it’s with in walking distance to the township, other outstanding schools in the area, train within walking distance, within walking distance to a holiday village with lots of facilities...

Here is the link and the link to what it looked like when we bought it.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/103572305#/

Original listing

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=37356456&sale=87986772&country=england

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My husband is going to go back in a few weeks to check in the house and do some jobs. The garden will be over grown with weeds by now so he will sort those out and anything else he can.

OP posts:

toto23 · 05/04/2021 21:40

The living room looks tiny compared to the previous listing,

The kitchen would look a lot more appealing painted white/cream.

Persipan · 05/04/2021 21:43

I think where a property is leasehold it's always helpful if the listing includes basic details of the lease length, any charges etc. You've explained that they aren't really an issue, but I funny see those details on the info so people may be put off if they're anticipating worse arrangements.

Bluntness100 · 05/04/2021 21:48

Op, you can keep it on over priced for As long as you wish, but it’s fairly pointless to be honest. You need to decide if you wish to sell or not, if so you need to realistically price. I think you over paid for it originally. That’s your issue. You’re comparing to a price that was higher than the property was worth,

Original poster

LancsRose75 · 05/04/2021 22:04

@Bluntness100

I don’t think we over paid at all. The house next door with exactly the same lay out was bought for £24k more than what we paid 10years earlier.

OP posts:

Original poster

LancsRose75 · 05/04/2021 22:08

@Persipan

Thanks I will have a word with the agent about that. Anyone local would know the lease would be held by the church which is only a couple hundred yards away. But your right people who aren’t local won’t know that.

OP posts:

WobbliHead3000 · 05/04/2021 22:18

I think you need new pictures, preferably with some staging furniture.
The agent did a very poor job... I actually prefer some of the ‘before’ images as they’re less confusing and better quality.

Bluntness100 · 05/04/2021 22:22

I don’t think we over paid at all. The house next door with exactly the same lay out was bought for £24k more than what we paid 10years earlier

Ok but logically you understand, when you take the emotion out of it, that if you’d paid the right price when you bought it, you’d not be significantly over priced now? Right,,,

skeggycaggy · 05/04/2021 22:23

@paddingtonbearsmarmalade

Old leasehold houses are quite common in the north west, certainly not something most people who know the area would be put off by.

Yep, I remember moving up from London and asking the agent all sorts of questions about the leasehold & he was totally bemused - utterly standard for the area we were buying in. Our ground rent is £2 a year.

Bobbots · 05/04/2021 22:30

You can’t compare like for like on prices because you have reduced it from. 4 bed to a 3 bed even if it does now feel more spacious. On paper it was worth more before than it is now.

And I agree with a pp who says that some pictures look worse than before, I’m sorry to say OP it really doesn’t scream “recently done up and had a lot of money spent on it”. Yes the kitchen units look fairly new although the big holes where appliances were balance that out and make it look run down rather than recently done. But everywhere else looks like it needs at least cosmetic updating. And the garden is really off putting, I prefer it before.

If you drop it to £160k then you can probably sell it without needing to do anything though. Just depends how much you want to get for it.

Thatwentbadly · 05/04/2021 22:35

Both the front and back garden in the new listing look very neglected and the fake grass look like it’s of very poor quality. People are especially interested in outside space at the moment.

GreyhoundG1rl · 05/04/2021 22:36

Not meaning to be rude, op, but the after pictures really don't look that much better than the before pictures...
A 33% increase is pie in the sky.

friendlycat · 05/04/2021 22:37

The thing is your feedback is that it’s too expensive even after the price reduction. Looking more closely at it I can see that the price is an issue in comparison to some others on the market. Then factor in windows which you recognise yourself, the price is even more of an issue. Plus you are asking for a big price increase in a small amount of time without finishing off the house to a high standard and presenting it in an attractive way with furniture etc. Your feedback is also telling you it needs work doing and it does. Plus you’ve taken away a bedroom. Plus the market was high late 2015 so you presumably bought high etc.

You really do need to listen to the feedback which is telling you the price is too high. It’s early days if it’s only been on the market a month but your potential buyers are giving you clear feedback on price and these are the people viewing similar properties within your area and can judge fairly accurately the market. If it’s just a one off person commenting sometimes that can be ignored as people sometimes claim price when that’s their budget, but numerous comments stating the same clearly indicate the price is too high especially taking into account the further work required.

Thatwentbadly · 05/04/2021 22:37

Lots of people want an extra bedroom for working from home now too. So reducing the number of bedroom, even if it was very small will have an impact on the price.

IstandwithJackieWeaver · 05/04/2021 22:41

It's going to be down to price. Unfortunately no one can see what the kitchen was like when you bought it as it's not shown. I noticed it was a four bed and is now a three bed - that will impact on what you will get. Unfortunately you don't always get back what you put in with a house. If there are unseen things you have done it could be worth getting the agent to state what has been done, but I think you need to modify your expectations.

BackforGood · 05/04/2021 22:41

I agree with paddingtonbearsmarmalade about not wanting to pay top dollar for a house that has recently been done to someone else's tastes.

So, personally I am a carpet fan. Now I realise that isn't fashionable at the moment, but I'm looking at the pictures, thinking "that flooring is all new.... vendors are trying to recoup what they have spent on it, but I would still have to be paying out to carpet the house after payng top price for the house" ...... and "Why are there no wall units in the kitchen?" ........ I am totally on board with the fact we all have different tastes, but buyers are only going to pay out what you have paid for things if they are in the style of what they would have chosen. Otherwise they are thinking "well, that has to be changed" as they go around, and factoring those costs into any likely offer.

Then you can't really compare the prices when you bought a 4 bed house and are now selling a 3 bed house.

Handsoffstrikesagain · 05/04/2021 22:42

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

FangsForTheMemory · 05/04/2021 22:43

I think the interior is lovely, but I wouldn't consider a house with a paved over back yard. When I was house-hunting recently, I ended up buying in a village rather than a town because so many town houses had concrete gardens.

Comefromaway · 05/04/2021 23:23

That third bedroom looks tiny. It’s a beautiful house and the fact you’ve added an en suite is great but to me it’s a 2 bed with a box room/study.

I live in the north west and it is overpriced I’m afraid.

denverRegina · 05/04/2021 23:34

The problem you've got here is that some pps are talking utter rubbish because they've obviously no knowledge of the area. This for example can be ignored,

"Op, you can keep it on over priced for As long as you wish, but it’s fairly pointless to be honest. You need to decide if you wish to sell or not, if so you need to realistically price. I think you over paid for it originally. That’s your issue. You’re comparing to a price that was higher than the property was worth,"

GreyhoundG1rl · 05/04/2021 23:40

But op has had feedback from potential buyers telling her just that, denver. You telling her it's not true won't get the house sold??

FuckYouCorona · 05/04/2021 23:59

I agree, its price. How can you justify an increase of a third of the price in less than 5 years? Its a beautiful house & considering what you get where I live, its a bargain, but based on the area you're in the figures don't add up.

You're on a main road, near to a bypass & all the noise & pollution that no doubt brings, plus you have no parking whatsoever. All of these things will put buyers off. In all honesty, if you're not prepared to price it to sell then your best bet is to keep it & rent it out. I actually think renting it is the best way to go anyway.

LolaButt · 06/04/2021 00:03

The picture of your sitting room with your furniture in, definitely looks better than the empty room one.

Original poster

LancsRose75 · 06/04/2021 01:15

@FuckYouCorona

Firstly, love the name haha

There is no noise at all from the bypass, to be honest I didn’t even think about it and how close we were to it.

We have a garage for parking, but would usually use the street. We had 2 cars are there was never any difficulties parking. It could be an issue at school times but the council put a stop to parents using the side street so residents don’t have problems parking anymore. What you can’t see from the pictures is there is also access behind our garage for the neighbours to park, some have garages, some have parking spaces.

But I do appreciate yours and everyone else’s comments and will talk to my DH about what to do. We might just rent it out for now as all though I’m impatient we don’t necessarily need to sell straight away then we can reassess later.

OP posts:

Original poster

LancsRose75 · 06/04/2021 01:16

@LolaButt

The picture of your sitting room with your furniture in, definitely looks better than the empty room one.

Thanks, I said that to the agent, but “deferred” to their expertise.

OP posts:

Saltyslug · 06/04/2021 03:06

Pink room and kitchen need to be repainted light neutral colour.

Stickers in bedroom and bathroom need to be removed

Not sure how to remedy the fake grass issue and rubbish concrete patio underneath. Get rid of both?

Bedroom at front - carpet needs replacing with something cream or wood?

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