Do I need to drop price again and when?

[crackthegg]

House went on 5 weeks ago. Several cancellations. Handful of viewings and no offers.

Dropped 10K from 230K last week.

Lots of houses being reduced in the area.
House over the road was dropped from 215K to 209K and gas say there since November.
Mine has an extension and is quite a lot bigger.
Should I drop again and by how much?

Will it look desperate if I drop again in the next week or so?

Could you paint the render white?

I think your house is lovely and nothing puts me off tbh.

Do people really not view a house because of the way someone has their furniture 🤯

Op, loads of houses in my area are currently still on the market and reducing slightly over the months. It seems to have slowed right down.

All of this. Some MNetters think they are interior designers and just live for posting crappy comments on these threads.

As a buyer, as well as location, I'm looking for two things:

1. Are there any major things that need doing and, if yes, are they reflected in the price? In your case, OP, it would be the render and the kitchen.
2. If stuff does need doing, can I live with whatever is there, until I get round to doing it? In this case, the house has a neutral decor and is well maintained, so no red flags.

I agree with moving the furniture around to dress the rooms a bit and to dismantling the trampoline but, ultimately, the issue is probably the price.

I still feel guilty about the time I viewed a house I had no interest in at all. I was very naive at the time and the agent was extremely persistent about me viewing the house whilst I was up seeing another. It didn't occur to me at the time (I was a ftb) all the time and effort it took to get a house ready for a viewing. The vendors showed us around and were literally falling over themselves to sell it to us and I walked round pretending to be interested as I didn't want to hurt their feelings. Still makes me cringe years later 🙈

I think upstairs looks ok but downstairs just looks like a big space with no particular function. Give the kitchen a bit of love with some flowers/plants then zone your spaces - dining/office/play/sitting room.
All the furniture pushed up against various walls just make it look confusing.

Everyone is different. We are currently looking to buy and we really don't care what the photos look like because we are going to view the place ourselves. So if the house meets our criteria and is around our budget then we will view.

We don't want to get involved in auctions though, so anything saying 'guide price' puts us off looking at the property specs on rightmove.

And I meant to say, your house looks lovely and if we were looking in that area we would be very interested

Thank you and I hope you find somewhere soon.

Maybe we should scrap that guide price then as it seems to put some people off.

Offers over or fixed price?

We don't want to get involved in auctions though, so anything saying 'guide price' puts us off looking at the property specs on rightmove

Good point. Both that and "offers over" (except in Scotland, where it's the norm) make me think that the sellers will be open to gazumping, so they are a red flag.

I commented on the last thread. I would move furniture around and stage it better and get the photos redone, but ultimately it’s probably the price.

We saw a house yesterday that is mid renovation (vendors are getting divorced). We viewed it because house size and location were good, and price is fair.

I think you can do a lot without spending a y money.

-put away trampoline
-move the grey sofa in the converted garage to where the wall where the current dining table is
-put the dining table in the middle of that space.
-show the converted garage as a laundry room (since you have the washing machine in there already) by moving the chest of drawers from the living room and the grey baskets from the study into that room. Possibly also the shoe rack from hallway.

• move the rug that's just outside the kitchen into the kitchen.

Feels like a faff but for a few hours of moving furniture about to help people see the space better, I'd say it was worth it

I think that the angles of some of the photos are odd. I would go through the house trying to find the best angle for each room using your phone and then when the photographer comes back (assuming the same one) go around with them shutting doors, asking to take from certain amgles. Our estate agent was quite happy to take photos from different angles and for us to move things out of sight (e.g. the shoes in the hall). It probably will be the price, but the photos are not helping.

The kitchen isn’t good at all, the units look so cheap and unappealing

This is just rude, if you've got nothing good to say then say fuck all.

The guide price always annoys me as I don’t know what the seller actually wants for the house. I much prefer a fixed price, I also hate offers over!

Put a fixed price but accept that buyers will offer less than that, there’s no max bidding anymore.

Mad not max!

Why is there a tumble dryer in the sitting room and a lovely picture accentuating the toilet directly off same room?
I agree with many PP that you need to have the photographs done again, or take your time and do them yourselves.
Shoe rack?
There’s no patio and there is astroturfing which puts me off.
Your asking price is basically peak price for that street, albeit maybe the extension and conversion make it a valid ask.

Nothing wrong with the pictures, OP - except if the house really isn't yellow then definitely get that changed as the photo colour may put people off?

It's taken three months for me to sell, I had to reduce twice.

I had three valuations in January of £280, I need a quick sale so I listed at £270. 6 weeks later after 15 viewings I had no offers, so I reduced to £260.

Handful of viewings, still no offers so then I reduced to £250. Had a flurry of viewings and one offer of £245 which I accepted.

This time last year the same houses were selling for £290/300k so there has inevitably been a housing pricing correction, which actually is much needed.

In 2021 the house was worth £225/230 so my area is still above pre-covid prices, but it's a much slower market.

I think some people are being harsh and unkind.

They need to remember that if it looked totally different from outside then it would be priced accordingly.

And just remember that everything sells for the right price!

A lot of people do drive-bys first, could you spruce the front, maybe paint the house white, some plants, see if the neighbour can't move their chair (that's staring into your drive), get rid of the wheely bin.

I think it looks alright. Pretty spacious anyway though I wouldn't like my downstairs quite so open plan. Why are the measurements only in feet though? This isn't the USA or 1950.

I think it's a nice little family home and your photos are fine. I don't think a minor cosmetic redress is going to make any difference. The photos are good enough that anyone can see past bits they would like to change or update. It's a little too expensive, that's all (about 10% is my guess). I've had a quick look at what's advertised locally and previous selling prices. I have what might be an unpopular suggestion but I think may work. Change the price to offers over £199k. That makes it very attractive comparably and may well result in a rush of interest. If you have a good agent he can then use that extra interest to get you offers over the 200k mark. It really depends on how badly you want to sell - but my feeling is if you don't make a significant price adjustment now your going to end up chasing the market down this year. I think its quite likley in 6 months or so you will be competing with new listings around you at under 200k. The cost of borrowing hasn't finished going up yet imo and that's why prices are stuttering and starting to fall. On the other hand you could pull it and wait 12 months for interest rate reductions which I think will come, just not significantly or possibly at all this year.

Wow, there's a lot of space for the money, maybe I should move to Newport!

The inside is nice, lots of potential, the outside facade doesn't look great.

I love the donkey picture!

Can you improve the outside with a hanging basket by the porch and maybe a potted plant /for it bay tree by the bit of wall by the side door? And repaint the external wall another colour if you can afford to.

Photo 14, pull the curtain over a bit to cover the wall and frame the window more.

Photo 13, lose the shoe rack

Photo 20, move the shower curtain out of view

Photo 22, lose the laundry airer

The EA doesn't give many details in the description... usually they say more eg 1.5 sink in kitchen, plumbing for dishwasher and give more of a walk through in the description.

It's unusual to have lawn right up to the patio doors so maybe description could say there is space to add a patio?

Hope this helps!

It's OP's chair, not the neighbours!

For me, it’s nothing to do with garden or staged pictures.

l woukdnt like the total open plan downstairs. Expensive to heat, nowhere to hide.

Yes. I could have added doors but I've just never felt like it's 'homely'.
It is expensive to heat like this. It's lovely and light in summer but not so great in winter.

That is my chair! 😗

Please don't Silver!!

I did a quick bit of research as if i was looking at your property to purchase. So number 53 last sold at 169k in 2019. Its currently worth between 200k and 208k and looks very similar to yours. It currently looks like your too expensive by about 10%. This is just a quick 5 mins of research that anyone interested would do. I don't mean to be harsh but the next thing I did was check the local crime statitistics and its not great reading. I really think its just your price that needs to be adjusted. The house itself is fine, as are the pictures.