Why would a property not sell in this market?

[Redcart21]

We have found a house in a location we like and has lots of potential for us to renovate over the years. It is quite run down and needs renovating throughout but it’s been on the market all year. Houses in this area get snapped up in a day. I asked the EA of any searches or surveys had been done and if they revealed anything and they said no offers have been made yet. It’s is chain free. The house has been reduced by £50k and it’s not overly priced for the area anymore (although would be more reasonable about £25k cheaper). Other houses in the area that need renovating sell quickly too. What could I be missing? I’m worried to put in an offer because it’s been sat around so long and may have something wrong with it that I’ve not noticed?

I'd guess it's the price, and now the fact that it's been on the market for so long. When we'd been house hunting for a while I started to get quite jaded and wouldn't even bother seeing anything that wasn't new to the market as I just assumed if it had been on a while it must have some kind of issue.

Our house which we bought last year had been on the market for over a year, it needed loads of work and the vendors weren't willing to negotiate. My husband saw it's potential and we were downsizing so we "went for it". 12 months after moving in and 6 months into a huge renovation/extension, we know we have made a great choice plus twice we've been met people who looked at the house when it was on the market but couldn't work out how to improve it. I know I'm really fortunate that we had the budget and my husband had the vision.
In answer to your question, many people look at houses at the top of their budget and just don't have, especially with current building costs, the money to make major changes so unless a house is 95% right, they reject it.

Check the garden for Japanese Knotweed. Could be that?

Could be a number of things but don’t be afraid to knock on a few doors and ask about the house and the area. Most people don’t mind.

You’ll get a feel for the place.

[quote Redcart21]@TyrionsNextWife if I asked the EA if there are any of these known issues, are they legally obliged to tell me the truth or can they just lie? It will be frustrating paying for a survey to reveal issues as obviously there’s something deterring people with this house. Maybe it is the renovation work but other similar properties get snapped up. Maybe it’s not worth it…[/quote]
Estate agents will tell you what they think you want to hear, however if you ask them a direct question they are obliged to tell the truth!

Could be a number of things but don’t be afraid to knock on a few doors and ask about the house and the area. Most people don’t mind.

Good idea. I once did some door knocking re: a house that hadn't sold for a year. Turns out its a high radon area and the neighbour said that the buyer might have problems selling.

Don't know how true that is though because I looked at a radon map of the UK and its everywhere.

But handy info to look into if I'd decided to go ahead.

Also, visit the property at different times. We looked at a property on a Tuesday morning and put an offer in straight away because it was an absolute dream. The seller rejected so we went back to assess whether to put a higher offer in.

That time the neighbours were in. Weed smoking slobs who came outside to stare at us, and there music was blaring at an aggressive level. Could literally feel the road vibrating under my feet with the beat.

Lucky escape.

Like PP pointed out I wonder if fixer uppers have become less popular. We saw an amazing property in our dream location, however it needed gutted, extended, everything done, house and garden. We estimated the costs and knew it would be more but the main thing was we knew it would take us years to make it habitable. Unless you have links to tradespeople it is really hard and expensive to get reliable work done.

It still sold at a closing date within a week but we didn't offer. A few years ago we probably would have.

Sometimes it's because a house has been on th market for so long and people tend to look at the most recent ones and don't check the older ones on right move

A house near us has been on the market for about 1 year.
They are on about their 4th estate agent.
Turns out the reason it has not sold is because, twice it nearly did, but twice the people buying had to pull out, because they couldnt get the finance.

Did you stage it?

I bought a house that had been on and off for nearly a year.

I think it was the works needed as there was a floor price the seller wouldn’t sell below due to what he wanted to buy and the fact he’d stay instead and the survey made you faint ( 30-40k) - I think people backed out at this point so far we’re £25k down. I think we did well though as we offered oct 2020 and worse houses on the street came and went for more now including the works. We just had all the carpets ripped out before we moved our stuff in!

It could be the house for you - but our house works for us as we’re not very house proud and have no children so we can literally have a room that has no plaster for 6 months that we don’t use whilst we wait for the building trade!

Wait for the building trade, as in wait until you can get a builder?
Or as in, wait for prices for work done, to come down?
Or wait for supplies?