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

"As interest rates prior to the crash were roughly what they are now, there’s no reason to think that that alone will end the bubble"

Prices going back to 2008 prices, which I think can easily happen if rates stay up or go higher, would be "end of bubble" territory for many, for some it would be the end of their Universe, LOL.

"but this is a small island with increasing numbers of people who want to live here and pressure on existing housing stock, so the impact on house prices may not be as marked as you think."

Didnt stop mortgage applications going to near 30 year lows recently? All those cancelled applications still have a roof over their head, no one applying for a mortgage is homeless. Dont get fooled by the "supply and demand" memes, they were created mainly to lure people into long term mortgage debt.

Sadly not Kirsty & Phil, but I do run a property development company in Scotland (when I’m not on maternity leave) and have found staging really helps viewers get a feel for how the place could be as their home.

sorry my opinion doesn’t match yours, but would love to know what makes your voice the only one worth listening to.

As the financial crash wasn’t the end of the bubble - there was a value plummet followed by a quick recovery - we may well see the same pattern.

Mortgages are down because buyers are used to ultra low rates so they’re waiting to see if they come down. They won’t come down for a while and people still have to move so there will be an adjustment to the new normal.

Supply and demand on a small island is f all to do with mortgages.

Where we live people spend a good 7-10 k for staging (per month) for a house going for only a 50% chunk more than that so I would be tempted to pay a company to stage it and hopefully in the UK staging costs are lower. Where we are people over bid on asking price due to a lack of housing stock. It seems like a decent home just the pics are not inspiring.

Prices have gone up since 2018 and to make 90 k in 6 years is hardly a huge profit??If you had put 385 k in an account for 6 years it would have made more than 90 k in that time. I do not know the market in that area but for a home to be sold at 90 k more in 6 years is a modest increase in my view, so long as you can find a buyer.

unfortunately it’s slab sided and grey. There’s nothing about it to fall in love with so you’re down to dropping the price, staging it (if that works in the current market) or updating it with decent kitchen bathrooms and flooring that have a personality.

I don’t agree, I think mortgage applications are down because people can’t afford the multiples at current interest rates.

I’m not a property developer but have sold several high value properties with a better return than the OP’s in recent years. If the price is correct this can be done without expensive staging other than decluttering - and this property is empty anyway.
I appreciate that this property is not furnished but think that a thorough clean (possibly by a professional company) should be enough, provided a survey doesn’t throw up problems. Not sure if the original builder’s guarantee is still running, the OP was not the first buyer.

Pointless replacing K&B, the OP wouldn’t get the cost of these back. Carpets are fixtures and fittings, technically not part of the sale.

Egads, think my house has gone from £240 to £380 in 19 years, so that's far lower than gains others reported. Luckily I enjoyed living here, at least.

how’s it going op? any rental interest?

"Supply and demand on a small island is f all to do with mortgages"

LOL, not sure you are being serious here? If you cant afford the monthly payments it is everything to do with mortgages, the people who stepped back from their mortgage applications recently, sending applications to near 30 year lows still live somewhere, LOL, Im sure you were joking?

"As the financial crash wasn’t the end of the bubble - there was a value plummet followed by a quick recovery - we may well see the same pattern."

No, I think you are very confused here, prices shot up because rates were cut to zero, they are now RAISING rates, that is the opposite effect, prices now have to shoot down.

That`s right, but as rates are controlled by global factors outwith the control of the BOE house prices will need to fall to make the monthly payments cheaper, or very few people will be able to sell a house.

"Prices have gone up since 2018"

Nah, most people won`t get that price now, interest rates were zero then.

I mean all you have to do is look at the house price data to see the consequences of the crash.

By the same pattern I meant financial crash (and crash in house prices) followed by recovery. For sure, low interest rates helped speed the recovery, but as I said, rates prior to the crash were in line with what they are now and that did not impact the housing bubble. People are used to lower rates so right now the current rates seem dear by comparison, but people still have to buy so they will just borrow less, they will soon get used to the higher rates and life will continue.

They’re down because buyers are used to super-low rates so people are holding off buying in the hope they will decrease.

What you mean by can’t afford is - can’t afford to borrow what they would have expected to borrow a couple of years ago.

But prices prior to the crash were much lower than recent prices so the higher rates did impact the bubble, they stopped it getting too big and they eventually crashed it (until it was bailed out with the opposite of higher rates, namely Zero Rates!) But as I said before the higher rates were always circumnavigated to some extent by Liar Loans, 100%+ mortgages and self-cert, so the mug public were signing themselves up to borrow even more at higher rates! The bankers were wetting themselves with laughter in their glass towers, the only reason rates went to zero was that the bankers were suddenly in jeopardy, they needed to bail out the whole system before more people defaulted on their dodgy loans, but the public were so brainwashed about property by this time they couldn`t switch themselves off and kept bidding property up higher and higher so they could "win" some bricks, plasterboard and a roof on a field somewhere on the edge of town, they thought zero rates were the "new normal". You hit the nail on the head though at the end of your post - "People will borrow less" = Sellers will sell for less, this is exactly what society needs at this moment in time, cheap property for ordinary working people!

What you mean is - The current cost of debt means that sellers cant sell for what they could a couple of years ago, and as the whole market is based on new debt that means a big mental re-adjustment for sellers. If you can "afford" something you dont borrow money to buy it, the whole mortgage/property market is a scam designed to make things unaffordable and then lend you the money to "buy" it!

We are moving WAY off topic, OP I would de-clutter completely, then lower the price in increments (10k maybe) until people are actively seeking to view the property, no views means that you are not even on many people`s radar, get on their radar by using the price lever.

Prior to the crash prices were at an unprecedented high. They only seem lower by comparison- in 2007 people thought they couldn’t possibly go any higher. I don’t disagree that a recession is coming - house prices will fall but once recovery starts they will rise again. It would take a lot more than interest rates at current levels to burst the housing bubble.

People will borrow less = they will buy smaller properties or raise a bigger deposit don’t forget that buyers are also sellers. Sellers may sell for less during any recession but in the long term prices will recover and continue to rise imo.

There is much more to the housing market slow down than simply the cost of borrowing - col crisis is key. As I keep saying current level of interest rates didn’t impact the housing market in the run up to 2007.

The whole affording/borrowing schtick shows extraordinary naivety about the housing market. In fact all this GCSE level economics is a bit cringe tbh.

It is obvious that you are trying to do some sort of wind up and trying to get an argument going LOL, the only thing that is key is that houses cost too much debt now that rates have gone back to normal.

They only went higher because rates were brought down to zero.

I mean, the poster whose entire post history is arguing about house prices accuses me of being on a wind up? I’m done.