Feedback from house viewing - AIBU?

[Pointypointything]

Recently put our house on the market and not had a huge amount of interest - in fact had only our second viewing this morning. We knew they weren't keen as they were here less than 5 minutes. But I'm a bit bemused by the feedback. Which was that location, price and condition were poor. We asked for specifics and were told that it needs a new kitchen and driveway and that they didn't like the position on the street.

First off, the position is clear from the advert and street view. Secondly, the kitchen is 5 years old, and I was under the impression that most people look to change the kitchen in a new house at some point anyway. It's in good condition, estate agent described it as modern (although I guess they are only ever going to be positive to get you on their books?) It's in full working order, no cupboard doors hanging off or scuffed or anything like that. No-one selling a house is going to put a new kitchen in are they? Same for driveway really?

I obviously need to toughen up a bit, as everyone has their own ideas of what they want, particularly in a kitchen I guess. And the driveway could do with being re tarmacked but it's not got big holes or anything, and again I thought the general wisdom was not to spend money on things like that when you're selling?

It just stung a bit to hear they felt the condition of the house was poor, and the examples they gave I'm just like . I feel like they maybe have massively unrealistic expectations if they are expecting everything to be immaculately finished to their taste already, but then I'm doubting myself and wondering if actually no, we should make our house like a new build show home?

Realistically (obviously depending on the size of the house) if you need a new kitchen you’re looking at around £15k. New driveway about £10k. And it’s major hassle and disruption and stress. Ok if you’re handy at diy you can do the kitchen more cheaply but then it’s time.

so you’re price needs to reflect the fact that work needs doing. If you have an online agent presumably they haven’t seen the house

Perhaps you could add the age of the kitchen to the wording so people know exactly what they are getting. Personally I wouldn't consider a 5 year old kitchen to be past it, but I suppose some people's definition of 'modern' is brand new.

The problem with feedback is that it asks people to put into words why they don’t want to buy your house, when there may not be a reason, just a “feel”. Try not to take it too personally, if you house is clean and tidy and in reasonable repair, not overstuffed or personalised with statement decor then you’ll find a buyer at the right price.

Speaking as someone with industry experience who has recently moved house using a high street EA, I also agree online agents are not the best, it’s worth paying a higher percentage for a better service.

as PP has said - people might view with no intention of ever buying your house.

People might view to see what they could do to a similar house somewhere else - first time buyers can view hinders of houses over a number of years before they are ready to jump.

an online estate agent won’t be as good at weeding out viewers who aren’t ready to buy.

to get the serious buyers you need to get the price right

Viewing feedback is useless 9 times out of 10. Our house was on the market for months and you have to depersonalise it or you’ll just carry on getting upset. To be honest, I don’t really know why agents do it, we didn’t ask them for it, and they would insist on telling us the same old shit we couldn’t do anything about. Eventually we sold when we’d reduced the price enough to the point someone would pay and that’s the only real thing you can do much about.

Stuff like needing a new kitchen is about taste and just ignorable. I viewed houses with brand new kitchens I hated and falling apart old kitchens I would have lived with. It’s certainly not worth considering dropping your price for that reason after one bit of feedback.

Ultimately though what matters is getting people through the door and making offers. Make the listing as good as it can possibly be of course but being realistic about price is key. Many of our friends were astonished at how low the price for our house was but after umpteen viewings and no offers, it clearly wasn’t worth more in the market and we had to accept that to get it sold. It may mean your onward budget is lower but you may also find that prices are dropping there too.

Don't worry about the feedback. You'll get a lot of idiots and time wasters

My favourite was somebody that said they were looking for a house with the garage attached to the house

On the floor plan and in the photos you could see that our garage is not joined directly to the house

Just to add that agents totally fuel people viewing houses they’ll never buy. In-person ones will convince you that you’ll love somewhere even when they know it doesn’t meet your needs - we once got persuaded to view a house that absolutely wasn’t right for us on basic practical grounds before it went on the market (no listing/photos available but we were assured it was perfect) involving a poor owner racing back from work to hand over keys at short notice, because the agents knew we were about to offer on somewhere else. One look at the outside and we knew it wasn’t for us and I’ve always felt bad for that poor owner and what they must have thought of us.

Online agents send out lists of properties ‘that meet your requirement’ based on some very weird algorithms! I assume some people view these properties without realising how bullshit they are. Or because they see Phil and Kirsty advising people that they should always view and not rely on the online listing - which is sometimes good advice and other times a massive time wasting exercise for all concerned.

Feedback in all these circumstances is just useless.

It's a bit annoying complain about location , presumably they knew where the house is ???
Also it's usually always down to price.

Make sure your house is presentable in the online photos if you are continuing with the online EA - and the same for the viewings. This may mean putting clutter in storage while you sell. Make sure you have matching bedding and fluffy towels in the bathroom. Pale walls give a sense of space so a lick of paint might be useful. A flowering plant on a table and full fruit bowl can make a place look good. If you have already done that, as others have said you may need to think over the price.

Tbh, if you've only had 2 viewings in a month your price is likely just too high to even be worth a look with a view to putting in an offer. You might also need some better photos/go with a proper agent, and have a serious declutter for photos. Do you have a floor plan - that's an absolute must too?

I've just bought and pretty much anything that was online agency only was never in contention - it would make me question the quality of anything they've done in the house if they want to cheap-skate on the selling. I was also concerned they'd go with online conveyancers and the whole thing would be a nightmare.

Re criticisms- as it's so few viewings you really can't take too much to heart. I don't think they were unreasonable - a lot of people try to view houses that have a lot of compromises for them but might just be good enough in other areas to get them over the line. I've just bought the 'wrong style house' for me - if I'd decided against and they asked for feedback I would have said 'I was looking for an older property' - which would have been true but I could well imagine the vendor thinking I was wasting their time in viewing as it's only 15 years old! I offered on about 5 out of the 15 houses I saw, all over the asking price, so was a serious buyer - but on those rejects, the reject reasons would have been obvious at the start (too small, too much work needed, bad parking...) - just I was hoping other things would allow me to say yes.

Maybe get some real agents round afresh for some guidance and quotes.

I had someone look round our three story town house. Their insightful feedback was:

"It's too tall".

😁😁😁

My house o sone a couple years ago was on a busy street. There was no disguising it - it was the main route to the town. If it was on a side street or would have cost a lot more.
So what was the main feedback? 'The street is too busy'. I had one couple cine back three times. The street was as busy the third as first time (I had this with another property with north facing garden - I told the agent that no matter how many times the prospective buyers came back it wasn't going to change orientation)!
People have to think if something to say - these were only the second viewers too. Try not and take it personally.
And I ripped out a brand new kitchen as it was maroon coloured and I was knocking down a wall to enlarge it.

You can a lot about light if you look online. Where the light comes from, just check orientation on the likes of Google Earth or Bing- they give you a North, and if you use the aerial view and streetview you can check the orientation of the rooms (and whether there are big trees or other buildings). I need a North-facing upstairs room for work, so when we have moved house, I start by ruling out any properties that don't have one, as house agents don't know that sort of thing and don't care about buyer's specs anyway. I use the same tools to work out things like garden size (there are usually cars in aerial pics to use for a rough scale)
Going back to the OP's first post, re dated kitchens, etc. unless there are no photos of them online, surely you know that before you view.
Our driveway is much worse than the OP's (breaking up, holes, the lot, though not as bad as the roads round here of course 😏but we're not doing it till all the other work on the house is done) and it really does make the house look lousy in spite of all the money we have spent on the rest of it. 😬We're going to have to have a full dig-out, but just a thought- you can get paint for tarmac. Someone on our last street did theirs, it looked like new, but they said the paint cost a bomb. Might be worth looking into, though, if the OP's drive becomes an issue with buyers.

I think @Ellicent has given really good advice.
If you have only had 2 viewings in a month, your price is too high. People don't want to waste their time viewing if the price is far higher than market value.
Secondly, there is the online agent which can put some potential buyers off and makes you look cheap.
If you need/ really want to sell, you need to drop the price to market/ below market level in order to get some interest and negotiate money off your onward purchase if you think it is overpriced. That house doesn't appear to be selling either so that might tell you something.

Honestly we had some ridiculous feedback. Just ignore it.

Ours were:

Too far from station
Didn't like the downstairs bathroom
Didn't like the kitchen (10 months old)
Garden was too small
Didn't like 3 windows in main bedroom
No driveway

These were all clear on the particulars! People are strange.

These days people are becoming totally idiotic about kitchens. Some people seem to feel the 'need' to change their kitchens every few years just because fashion has changed- which is the defintion of having more money than sense. First it was sofas, buy cheap without thought, get bored with the colour, throw away, buy another, rather than choose well, choose quality, save up if need be, but only have to buy once- cheaper in the long run. Now it's entire kitchens. A kitchen may need replacing if it is 30 years old or more, though some older than that are fine, or if it is knackered for other reasons, like rough handling, hideously inefficient layout ( though this can often be changed by just moving things around and refitting) or of such poor quality the hinges are falling off. Otherwise it's an 'I want a new one' job. My take is- by all means change one if you can afford it, and have the money to burn, but don't argue yourself or others in the household into it by saying you 'need' one. It's an abuse of language apart from anything else. And for heavens' sake, if you do have the money, design it carefully and pick a classic design you really love in materials which will wear well and be 'renovate-able', not a fashion fad style other people or magazines or makeover programmes tell you you 'should' have, and buy for quality, so you don't end up doing it again in a few more years.

This normally happens when estate agents pressurise people into viewing. Especially for higher priced properties that vendors have high hopes for. They just end up targeting wrong buyers when price is too high, hence the feedback like that.

Example being, I’m looking for hall/ground floor flats, but EAs constantly pressuring me to view basement/garden flats (which aren’t selling for that money by the way). Some people advertising those want same money that hall level flats cost. So if I give it a chance and view it, because I was sold by ea that it’s amazing, I will come out and say - it’s a basement flat, no thank you. I expect hall flat for this money.

I wouldn't say a 5 year old kitchen is past it, but would factor in replacing the kitchen if the existing kitchen wasn't neutral/simple to spruce up.

Like others it's probably about price. If it's on the high side then you might not be falling into your target buyer's search category, but the people hunting in the bracket you're on for are looking for a bigger/more finished house.

This! To think a 5 year old kitchen 'needs' replacing is nuts. Talk about over consumption, how wasteful and spoilt. Unless you've been attacking it with a hammer or something!

I meant the viewers are spoiled OP, not you obvs.

I have a friend that sold a probate property back in 2014 - before it went to market, the property was completely refurbished throughout to the tune of £50k. He had an offer for 30k under the asking price because the person making the offer did not like the brand new kitchen and would have to rip it out…..

Long story short, it went to best and final offers and sold for £20k above asking price as was in a desirable area.

I really wouldn’t take the feedback personally- a house sale is a business transaction and just because the taste isn’t someones… you will no doubt have someone who will walk in and love the place. I would wait a few more weeks before you consider reducing.

@Pointypointything Many people seem to be looking for the perfect house. I just sold a neat enough house which needed a new kitchen and bathroom. I knew it would not make top price so we reduced it to reflect the work needed. It took 15 viewings but it sold. To the first viewer who came back!

However, you haven’t dealt with the curb appeal. I would do up the tarmac! Make the first impression count. You cannot do much about the location and you don’t need to alter the kitchen. However curb appeal is an issue. You should spend money on some things! Make sure you present it well and price realistically. Mortgages are going up so buyers will be discerning.

Thanks everyone. I've had to laugh at some of the ridiculous feedback some of you have had (although appreciate it would have been frustrating rather than funny at the time)!

I think it's a very good point about the price perhaps attracting people who are at the top of their budget and therefore wanting perfection. The thing is, we aren't desperate to sell. We do ultimately need a house with bigger bedrooms, and have planning permission to extend. Having difficulty finding a reputable builder for the job so we thought moving might be easier (!) So may go back to the original extension plan. At least that way the house will be exactly what we want. If we can't get a builder in the next few months we'll have a rethink on price. But there has only been one house we've seen that meets our requirements so I'm certainly not in a rush.

Sorry but currently if you are listing your house at a higher valuation it has to be in immaculate condition. I'm currently looking for a new home and can look past perhaps the slightly wrong area but if I step inside and the flow doesn't work and the house looks tired or dated I will rule it out. If you are asking for insanely inflated prices I expect the kitchen and bathrooms to be immaculate with a well landscaped front or back garden.