Frustration - house not selling

[Bayeight]

We put our house on the market about a month ago.

We had 10 viewings in the first week. One very low offer.

Then another 2 viewings in the last few days.

All the feedback has said the house & garden are lovely.

Most people’s issue is it is on a busy main road. It is however we’ll set back with a long drive and lots of trees/hedges.

Starting to feel really crap about the whole thing. Everyone keeps saying how houses are selling in days, yet we’ve been on for a month and nothing

It’s SUCH hard work getting the house ready for the viewings, feel like I’ve spent most of the last month shouting at the kids for making a mess which is not fair on them at all.

Can’t decide if we should cut our losses and go back to trying to afford an extension. Or persevere for a bit longer and see what September brings.

Urgh. Horrible, horrible process selling houses - never again!

You’re

In the situation you’ve described I don’t think the planning permission and plans are that much of a selling point. You’ve said yourselves the house is big enough for most families - so most wouldn’t be looking to extend, most people don’t need 6 bedrooms.

@RobinPenguins

In the situation you’ve described I don’t think the planning permission and plans are that much of a selling point. You’ve said yourselves the house is big enough for most families - so most wouldn’t be looking to extend, most people don’t need 6 bedrooms.

Was just about to post something very similar

@BoredZelda

Everything priced right sells.

Wrong.

Right, properties always sell for the right price. Always.

It's the price. Does it reflect it's on the main road? I know you may have a lovely big garden but the road would out me off, especially with young kids

We moved recently so I can feel your pain OP. We have been through the process and have come out at the other side. So hold the faith, you will too.

You only need to find one buyer that falls in love with your house. I used to make sure the house was immaculate for viewings, I wouldn’t let anyone view unless they were ready to proceed.

I know how disappointing it can be. We were ready to take our house off the market, when we found our buyer. It has been worth all the hassle & stress in the end.

Good luck I hope you have some positive news soon.

And even better she's a proper cash buyer with a first time buyer for her own house

Sorry to be a pedant but if she’s a “proper cash buyer”, then that should mean she’s buying from cash/ liquid investments and doesn’t need to sell anything to fund a purchase.

Why get pp then put on market? Weird

Three houses in my very immediate area went on the market less than a week ago and all are now sale agreed.

It’s always price I’m afraid. I used to work in an estate agency and there is always a buyer at the right price.

Also check if the photos are decent. So many bad estate agent photos still out there these days when others absolutely nail it.

Sympathies, ours is on a main road and sticking a bit . We got a good offer within a couple of days but their personal circumstances meant they had trouble with the mortgage.

My consolation is that those not on the main road aren’t going either. Someone said she was surprised that ours hasn’t gone and has a friend who is looking and had been struggling. But then she said friend has decided to take summer off looking as wants a break and will start again in September which was interesting.

I’m happy to reduce but am waiting till around mid September when the schools are back.

In an ideal world we would stay. You’re absolute right to say we love it.

To explain why we got PP then went on the market…

We purchased this house as the forever house with the knowledge we would need to extend.

When we had the drawings done, just prior to submitting for PP, we had 3 builders quote to ensure we could afford what the architect had designed. Quotes were all on budget. This was end of lockdown 1ish/ July 2020.

By the time the PP had come through and we put it out for require with the intention of starting the works we were met with a very different situation.

Quote has increased by almost 100% and the builders who have quoted have long waits before they could start the work.

For us, it now makes no financial sense to extend our current house.

Our jobs have remained very stable throughout the pandemic and we have both had pay rises.

As such, it’s much ‘better value’ and more practical in terms of time scale for us to buy a 6 bedroom house.

But as I said before, the house does not need extending for the average 2.4 family. It’s in good nick and a great size - just not quite big enough for us as it is!

We’ve agonised over holding out for a few more years until building prices come down etc. But we’ve already been waiting 2yrs to do the work. It’s such a first world problem but the need for more rooms/bathrooms is starting to have quite a negative impact of family life.

Really appreciate all the advice and support - thank you. Will show my husband this thread and see if we can come to a conclusion as to how to proceed.

Thing is OP, £100k uplift over a few years sounds a lot to me. Unless all prices have gone up by that round your way. The planning permission IMHO absolutely does not add value - as you rightly say, not many people are looking for a six-bed house - and the fact that it costs £10k is neither here nor there to your potential buyer.

I agree, your buyer is someone who actually cannot afford a four-bed in your part of town - but suddenly they can afford yours because of the road. A friend was looking at flats in London and a house was in their budget - they were delighted, until they realised it was basically on the M4. They didn't buy it but someone did.

I was amused by your line about it being handy to live on the main road because you can get to places quickly. No one wants to live on a busy road. I live near the A6, a pretty busy road. Not on it tho. I live on a very quiet road about two minutes' drive away. So, near enough to be handy but not noisy. I have lived on busy roads and I am not a fan tbh. Someone will be prepared to make the compromise tho.

In my experience it is the price. It took months to sell my last house and then it was only because I dropped the price significantly. I had feedback I could do nothing about like you.

I was also told it would be snapped up. I ended up selling for less than I paid for it.

its really curious that a similar property on the same street/road went up for sale for £25k more and sold in days - yet people think its the price?

what did the other house have that yours didn't?

Get the estate agent to sort out the map issue NOW. You are attracting people who do not know that your house is on a main road.
If that was me, I wouldn't even come in for the viewing - I'd drive straight past.
I don't understand why people put up with bad agents. They are supposed to be doing a service for you, and you are paying them.

The planning permission is a detractor. If I go to see a house where the owner makes a big deal of planning permission, then I assume that the cost of building it is not worth it (which is true in your case). I am very unlikely to use your design even if I do want to extend.

The market has massively slowed in the last month. Agreed transactions in July were 22% below the long term average, compared to 92% above in June - the stamp duty holiday & now the end of it is causing all sorts of distortions. Someone buying your house, assuming they aren't a FTB, would be paying C. £13,000 more in SDLT than they would have had to in June.

Also, the problems you are having with the cost/timescales of extending would apply to anyone else, so the PP won't add as much value as you might hope.

And that SDLT will go up further after September to almost £20k in total, and I don't think anyone would have much chance of completing within a month, so it's all pointing to a much more price sensitive market.

Unless it was derelict when you bought it 100k in a few years is absolutely mental. People will know what you paid for it and think you are taking the piss.

Road is a big issue. Doesn’t matter that the house is ‘set back’ etc.

£100k added to the price over a few years, over £475k, is a lot. Planning permission to extend won’t be a plus for many people in your target market. Even those wanting a big home will be aware of the current issues with v high construction costs.

Yes it’s always the price. Anything else is just people trying to avoid the obvious.

You seem to be arguing both sides op, on one side the planning permission and architects plans are a huge benefit on the other the house doesn’t need extending for the average family.

Bottom line is if it’s overpriced it won’t sell at That level, so you can keep it on in the hope someone who doesn’t realise it’s over priced comes along, take it off or drop the price.

Quote has increased by almost 100% and the builders who have quoted have long waits before they could start the work.
Anyone thinking about buying your house will have the same issues if they fancy extending it, so your plans are worthless. We’re looking at the moment and very much ruling out properties we’d have considered a couple of years ago, where we’d need to do work to create what we want. We’re now only looking at places that have already done the loft/garden studio/extension (not all of those at once, just enough to meet our needs!), even if the decor is hideous – easy to live with ugly but enough space, vs “not big enough but we’ve got to wait ages, live through the disruption of work, and pay an absolute bomb because of materials and labour shortages just to get the size of house we need”.

I sold my house on a main road in 3 days in April. It was priced realistically, the whole house had been updated decoratively, plus it was a decent sized property in that market (1,200sq ft). We marketed at £100k what we bought it for 4 years earlier, though had spent £50k on all the works. As such, I don't think it's the road.

Based on my experience it's not the road, it's the price. Great houses on main roads need to be priced much much lower than houses on side roads as it's a huge compromise for most people. I'll never buy another house on a main road, it was awful.

@Starseeking

I sold my house on a main road in 3 days in April. It was priced realistically, the whole house had been updated decoratively, plus it was a decent sized property in that market (1,200sq ft). We marketed at £100k what we bought it for 4 years earlier, though had spent £50k on all the works. As such, I don't think it's the road.

Based on my experience it's not the road, it's the price. Great houses on main roads need to be priced much much lower than houses on side roads as it's a huge compromise for most people. I'll never buy another house on a main road, it was awful.

£100k more than what you bought it for four years ago? That's good going! Was it on an A road?

@Eorks, no it was a B road. I'm not sure what the speed limit was, but because we were between industrial estates (about 200m apart) trucks and other vehicles used to belt along at over 40mph.

The people who owned it before us had been there over 30 years, so almost the whole house needed work doing (rewiring, boiler, plastering, bathrooms etc). The only thing we didn't touch was the kitchen, as that was about 8 years old.

The whole place was immaculate by the end, move-in ready at a reasonable price, and I'm still sad to have left that lovely property (sold due to relationship breakdown).