No viewings/offers since failed open day - What would you do?

[rosemarycait96]

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/144690626#/?channel=RES_BUY

Here's our listing ^^

A fairly normal house for our village which has a lot of cottages of a similar size or bigger. The ones that are on the market all are priced £385-£450k ish.

We started on £425k with an open day as per recommendation by our EA. 3 viewings. 2 of the parties were extremely interested and gave good feedback saying it was well presented and lovely etc. But no offers.

Thought the price may be the issue, so we reduced to £415k. No offers and not even a single viewing since then.

Other houses in our village seem to sit on the market for weeks too, and our house had been on the market for a month when we bought it in early 2022 when homes were flying off the shelves in days! So I wasn't expecting a miracle. I was, however, expecting at least some viewings.

Anything we can do to help speed things along? I'm getting a little impatient now - we're viewing a lovely house tomorrow that, if we had sold already, I'd be very confident putting an offer in on. I'm thinking we could reduce to 399k to open up a new band of buyers on rightmove, but it would feel so demoralising as we'd barely make any profit then!

It's always the price, but the open staircase would put a lot of people off.

Hard to say. Gorgeous house, beautifully presented, seems like a fair price relative to others, road looks lovely, can't see any obvious no-no's. Only one other in the area has sold, so property obviously isn't in short supply. I guess you'll have to change your mindset about making a profit. Of course we all want to but it's a home too.

That’s a beautiful property. My only thought is - bedroom 3 as anything other than a study/nursery as it’s very dinky.

Also - is the garden room a property built construction (with foundations etc)? If yes could you get the floor plan redrawn to show it as a useful space?

If the house isn’t attracting viewings I’d ask another local estate agent for opinion on price and marketing strategy. An open day is a silly idea unless you have a buzzing market so you can create some tension between potential buyers (“there are twenty viewings booked for the open weekend so you’ll need to hurry to get a look in…”).

Absolutely beautiful and 200 miles away from where I'd be your buyer unfortunately for us both!

It'll be the price I'm afraid. Anything I'm about to say ref photos is fussy tbh!

If you wanted to make minor tweaks to the photos, look for a better angle of the front of the house so the overhead power lines aren't leaping out at the viewer, and change the lampshade in the nursery as the shadows it's casting are a bit much and make it look darker than it is.

A few photos don't show the rooms from a great angle (they seem to be low down and taking in a lot of ceiling), but you have a stunning home and you've dressed it impeccably for the photos tbh.

Maybe abandon the ‘profit’ idea and just try to get enough to cover your next move?

What stands out to me is that many of the rooms look fairly pokey in the photos and as there are no dimensions on the floor plan it’s impossible to tell if that’s just crap photography or if it’s all a bit dark and cramped. What’s the little wooden building in the garden?

Thank you for the replies! Apart from being proud of my house for being so pretty, its almost reassuring that it isn't anything glaringly obvious that's the issue. I suspect price, which is what it'll come down to in the end I think. Sad as we've spent around 5k+ getting a new bathroom in, gutting and renovating the garden office and replacing its roof, etc.

@MrWilyFoxIsBack We did think about the staircase - but, bluntly, we have no money to do any more renovations and need this house sale to cover our moving costs. Otherwise we'd have definitely done it.

I was also hesitant about an open day - the EA insisted the market was really picking up in our area and by a look at their stats as an agent, I felt able to trust him on that. Looks like he was wrong!

Good idea on talking to other agents though, I may just do that.

@NCForQuestions Fancy relocating? 😆

Trying to buy in a hot market (Bristol) but sell in a slow one, tough going.

Your house is lovely. Some of the photos aren’t showing the rooms at the best angle but it’s clear from all of them what size furniture they can fit and that they support a good layout. I think your answer is in the fact that other houses in the village are sitting on the market for a long time: you have to make your house significantly more attractive than any of them and ultimately the only way to do that is to make it very competitively priced. If you reduce it to a guide price of the lower end of the bracket, you may well end up with more interested buyers who will counter offer each other and push the price higher than if you’re right at the top - especially if you hold open houses and prospective buyers feel there’s a bit of pressure.

@Bristolnewcomer all the measurements are in the blurb and the sizes look pretty respectable to me! It is being marketed as a cottage, not a château.....

I think it's just the market. but I would ask for the dimensions to be added to the floorplan. I wouldn't like the open stairs, if you have kids, but that's an easy fix. The garage and shed/outbuilding should be on the floor plans, it's easy to miss them. But honestly if you want to sell, you have to reduce. I don't think anyone makes a profit nowadays

@rosemarycait96 don't suppose you'd fancy a direct house swap to Fishponds. I'm trying to move to North Somerset lol

Hate the fake grass but the house is lovely!

oh just noticed the dimensions are in the long description on Rightmove, but I guess if I didn’t spot that some other potential buyers wouldn’t either. Much easier on the floor plan. It does look a lovely house, the only other thing I can think of is the phrase boot room, I don’t really know what that means and I’m wondering if there is an alternative designation you could use?

Also echo a PP comment on staircase, looks like you’re living there with a small child, isn’t that a bit scary with no banisters?

It's nice. The bedrooms look cosy. Maybe the price too high?

Other houses in our village seem to sit on the market for weeks too, and our house had been on the market for a month when we bought it in early 2022 when homes were flying off the shelves in days!

what on earth is wrong with this village?

you are selling very quickly after buying.

that won’t look great

added to which… will be bloody expensive for you to do again so quickly

Lovely lovely house! Is the sun room not on the floor plan? I'd get that and the garden office on there asap with dimensions.

Looks nice. The only thing that would put me off, just going on the photos alone, is the appearance of what look like dog beds/blankets. I would worry about smell. Sorry, I am sure your house doesn't smell, but as a non-dog owner I find doggy houses off-putting often. DC once trod in poop in the garden on one house viewing, had to throw shoes away entirely it was that bad, so maybe I have past trauma.
In my street, which we had to go to highest-offer sealed bids bidding war on to get our house a few years ago so hot was the competition at that time, now 4-5 houses in the street have been sitting unsold for 1-2 years now. The market is dead here for family houses.

It's almost always the price. The plastic grass could put people off too (you could do something about that), the stairs from the kitchen to dining room might also put some off - can't do anything about that.

So, really it's the price.

I think it’s the price. There’s a bigger semi detached on that road (yours looks smaller and terrace), with a potential building plot included for only £15k more. There is another larger 3 bed semi with a massive garden for £115k less!! Another bigger 3 bed detached cottage from the 1840s with a large garden is £40k less.

*I think it’s the price.
no think about it

it pretty much always comes down to price

It's lovely, but isn't it illegal/against building regs to have an open staircase with no banister?

Also I didn't twig the plastic grass, but that is definite hard no for me. Not just environmentally, but I know dog owners have this so they can just hose down the dog mess. Not that I am suggesting you do this, but I would just worry about accumulated dog mess underneath it, even if I knew I'd have to rip it all up and somehow get the area re-turfed (extra expense).
Also - is there no hallway? Fine for a small terraced house, not great for a family house. Although maybe you enter through a bootroom where you can put coats and muddy shoes.

. Sad as we've spent around 5k+ getting a new bathroom in, gutting and renovating the garden office and replacing its roof, etc.

all on a property you bought in 2022? did you buy it to flip it?

Doesn’t look child friendly, that’s what would put me off! Nice though!