No viewings - please tell me what I need to change in house!

[Whywontitsell]

Desperately trying to sell a house that we've never lived in and is nowhere near where we're currently living. We move around with DH's job and have accommodation provided with that, so we bought the house 6 years ago to keep us on the ladder.

We've already dropped the price from £500k to £490k to now £475k, but there's just zero interest. It's definitely not looking its best having had (good) tenants in for the past few years - some dodgy curtains left up and some hanging off the track! So the pics definitely aren't selling it well.

We live about a 3 hour drive away but I have a week off soon. If I go through there to do some work - what would I be best to focus on? The showhome pics make it look so nice - I presume you can't add a link to these on the Rightmove ad? An empty house is just so unappealing...

I would really appreciate any advice...

House:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/143709212#/?channel=RES_BUY

Pretty house , nice corner location , neat garden, good kerb appeal. Is the garden overlooked?

Some very mean comments , the kitchen and bathrooms appear to have been looked after I am guessing you had good tenants . The other rooms look a little unloved but nothing paint, plants and pictures can't solve.

The estate agents photos don't do the rooms any favours and the integral garage means the house is a little top heavy having only two rooms downstairs.

I agree it needs a deep clean and new photos.

Does it have a lamppost to the side now ?

Apologies OP I can see you have a lamppost now. I assume it's the corner plot.
I can't believe the mean comments!

Garden isn't overlooked. We have had good tenants - it's been rented to the diplomatic service the entire time.

I hadn't noticed the new lamppost!

Be careful with that. The exemption is for the period where you can prove intention to occupy it, ie retirement or returning to home town or similar. From the moment you no longer intend to live in it, it loses the exemption. HMRC can be quite demanding and inquisitive about requiring the claimant to prove intention. Now you’ve put it on the market, it’s clear you don’t intend to live there, so the period from listing date to eventual sale may not be exempt - so if you now let it out for a few years if you can’t sell it, you won’t get main residence relief for this final period! Easy to get caught out!

That's a great point I hadn't thought of! Sticking with selling after a bit of tlc.

"I think if you root it out or ask the agent to root out for you"

@shewasrooting are you name-changing again? 😂I really think you need to let it go - it's unhealthy.

Thousands off the back of this thread, so that's pointless unless they do it for the period before this was written.

Once put a house on the market at this time of year only to get more interest (people that knew us asking if we were still selling as they/friends of theirs were looking) after we'd agree a sale. Things pick up around Easter.

Those photos are really rubbish and you need to change that agent. The photo someone posted up thread of the kitchen shows just how big a difference a decent photo can make. Sack your agent, get views on price from a couple of other agents after looking at listings to see who has floor plans and half decent photos. Dont go for the "artistic" ones you posted yourself, they are crap as you cant see anything useful and make me feel they are hiding something if that is the best they can do. Go for ones showing that the kitchen is actually a good size, the garden has a tree in it.

As a PP said - there is no point in looking at the price purchased for . Irrelevant . The only thing that matters is what the house costs compared to similar houses. And then beyond that it is what you are prepared to accept or indeed how long to wait.

As has been said so often - a house is only worth what someone will pay for it , but equally , vendors are not obliged to sell below they want . So - in the best instance there is a middle ground

I know this is only repeating what people have already said but just another opinion in the same vein.

As a PP said - there is no point in looking at the price purchased for . Irrelevant . The only thing that matters is what the house costs compared to similar houses. And then beyond that it is what you are prepared to accept or indeed how long to wait.

This.

Zoopla estimates of price are based on what price the house last achieved, regardless of the fact that two houses may be absolutely identical. There’s obviously no reason why this should be correct - Zooplah takes no account of market conditions when the house was purchased and has no knowledge of the condition of the house or if money has been spent on renovations since purchase. However prospective purchasers do look at these estimated prices and are illogically swayed by them.

Not if you have any sense. Sold prices reflect the market at the time and the situation of the buyer/seller. If the buyer needed to sell as they relocating they may accept a lower offer, if a seller really need to buy - they may pay over the odds to secure it.

You should try buying some properties.