Judge my rightmove listing please - no viewings!

[DinoNuggetsRUs]

So we put our house on the market just under 2 weeks ago. We've had 3 unsuccessful viewings but literally no other requests to come and have a look.
I've contacted my agent about this, as I was thinking we're possibly overpriced but he is adamant this is not the case.
I've mentioned the pictures are a bit naff - he's said that's not the case.
I've mentioned that maybe I should paint the bedroom wall so it's not green as it really hasn't photographed well - he's said no one is going to not buy a house because of the colour of a wall.

What do you suggest? I think my agent is wrong and all of the above needs addressing. I've looked at other houses in our area and we're not really priced much differently to them but we're not getting anyone through the door.

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Like others have mentioned, the lighting in the photos isn't well-thought out and makes the house appear dark and gloomy. We have a similar Victorian terrace in the North, and although they can be a bit dark, they'll be a time of day when they're not. You might need to do photos across different parts of the day, depending on the direction of each room, and on a day with good natural light.

I think the low garden fence leading to the banked common land makes the garden feel a little exposed. Some tall shrubs or bamboo in planters in front of the back fence would break up the starkness of the lines and provide a bit of screening, and you'll have some lovely plants to take with you when you go.

The price feels outlandish if it sold for 139k in 2020 when base rate was super low?
This is only 20k more...

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/144565847#/?channel=RES_BUY

It's a nice house decorated well.
Things in the photos that make it look too small for you:
Toys under the sofa. The ones behind look fine but the ones kicked under draw the eye.
The food trolley in the kitchen
The stuff on top of wall cupboards in the kitchen
Too many bottles in the bathroom
Laundry baskets in bedroom
Stuff behind door in bedroom
Boxes under the bed

This is all completely normal in real life btw: not a criticism of you but rather the pictures.

Things in the photos which are potentially off-putting:

The barbed wire picture: it's out of context and suggests no proper safe fence (although that shows up later)
Cat bowls
Cat tower in bedroom
The view from bedroom 2 suggests that it's at ground level, but it isn't, which makes me wonder if the kitchen is a dug out basement with a steep stair to ground level outside?
The proximity and steepness of the hill.

All of these 'concerns' are because of the photos. Definitely retake them on a bright day

And that also has an orangery 😂😂😂 but the whole downstairs looks like a hairdressers with that tiled floor

It looks dingy (sorry) but I genuinely believe that is because the photos are taken with the lights on due to the dull weather outside. Natural light is the best way to show off a house so maybe get the photos retaken once we get a bit of sun 😎

The current photos make the property look dark and uninviting. I'd retake all of the interior photos on a sunny day.

Also, remove any clutter (I'd think that the property is too small immediately).

Would it be worth cutting down the bushes in the front garden to get more light? I like the 2017 photo of the front of the house:

pic edited by MNHQ to protect OP's anonymity.

I agree with what everyone is saying. The photos look very dim. I think if you could picture it on a sunny day with out the lights on.
Also as a new buyer the turnover of the house would concern me. No one has stayed long and would make me wonder why. Is there actually a problem with causes people to not like living there. Or if is just a smaller starter house you outgrow very fast

Definitely get rid of those 3 mis-matched rugs from the lounge - show off the wooden floor underneath, will look a lot less cluttered.

My estate agent brought their own lighting tripod, a set of steps to stand on. Exterior was shot on a day that the sky was blue and the sun out. I had to move furniture and bits for her too.

I sold my house on the first day of listing it. I followed the advice of my relative who’s ans estate agent who said to have everything put away that could go away. Every tea towel etc. you want people to feel that the house will work for them, and seeing clutter on sides suggests it won’t. Commit to selling and borrow a relatives garage or rent storage and get stuff out the house.

Its often the price with these things .Maybe a small drop to say 170k or similar ? I dont know really but if there arent many buyers this is often the case

If you really want to boost interest and viewings, I would suck it up and crack out the paint before redoing the photos. The kitchen looks ten times better in the older photos with the lighter cabinets. The rule of thumb for small spaces, especially small and narrow spaces, is light and bright. The minute you introduce a dark element it emphasizes how small the room is.

I think I’d also get rid of the sort of dusty mauve(?) wall in the lounge (sorry, not sure how to describe that colour but I thought it sounded better than “muddy pink”). A viewer thinking “that wall is a blank canvas; I’ll have to decide what I want to do with it” is much more positive than them thinking “ugh, I’ll have to paint over that dusty mauve wall straight away.”

The combination of dark floor + dark rug + dark wall in the bedroom isn’t great. I think you could get away with leaving the walls if you swapped the rug out for something lighter and perhaps the bedding as well.

A bit of neutralising and decluttering plus new, brighter pictures will work wonders.

Yes, the years and years of "makeover" shows have a lot to answer for, the house I posted is overpriced as well, but they have gone to much more effort with presentation.

Is there a reason you have chosen Yopa and not a good, local estate agent? This might be putting some potential buyers off.
As you only listed a couple of weeks ago it is early days so perhaps you may get more viewers soon.
Having said that, I think you are right that it is over priced compared to others:
This is on the same road, is a semi-detached and has an extra reception room and was listed at guide price £160k.

This one has an extra bedroom and downstairs loo, is modern and was listed at 190K (only 10k more):

Looking at these, an asking price of 155/160K would seem more in keeping.

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I haven't read the thread but I'd say the door to the kitchen needs to be closed as all I can see is a washing machine right next to where I'd be sat watching tv and that's a no from me. You also need to power wash that outdoor deck area.

I think you have chosen a crap agent tbh. Are you locked in with them or could you switch? We switched agents when we similarly had no success and we had to sign an agreement that if we sold to any of the 3 people they showed around (we were given their names) then we would have to pay their fee, but the second agejt found us some lovely buyers very quickly.

Yes the photos are a bit bad. The angle of the front photo is weird - is the street too narrow to get a better shot? You need to massively declutter for thr photos - no teatowels or oven gloves on the cooker, get rid of the freestanding trolley in the kitchen. Get rid of all the stuff around the sink in the bathroom. Clutter in the photos sends the message "this hiuse has very little storage space, there's nowhere to put things away to".

Also the fact that there's no proper bed in bedroom 2 combined with the fact that there's no dimensions of individual rooms on the floorplan rings nassive alarm bells that bedroom 2 is actually too tiny to be a proper bedroom at all.

Everything about it screams out not enough space I'm afraid.

You need better photos in better lighting and with everything decluttered. Things like the basket of toiletries/clean supplies on the bathroom windowsill indicate there is no storage space in the bathroom. The trolley standing in front of the fridge in the kitchen shows there is not enough storage space in the kitchen. It would annoy me having to have a basket on display in the bathroom like that or a trolley in the kitchen because stuff can't go in the cupboards. And yes, obviously buyers should have the imagination to see the place as they would have it, but things like that are crying out "storage problem" which it is difficult to solve in such a small house. So get rid of those things and retake photos. The bedroom needs decluttering. There shouldn't be any baskets, bins, boxes or similar standing around on the floor.

The set up in the little bedroom might suggest you have a child's bed like that because it won't fit a proper full-size single. That might put people off too.

You need to get rid of any visible signs of the cat. I love cats but I do think it puts people off. They might already be thinking I'll have to recarpet everything because of the cat AND it's small AND I'd probably need to redo the kitchen to get more storage space and now it's overpriced.

Other things I would be concerned about are parking. You'd definitely need a car there looking at the location. The houses are not very wide. As soon as one family has more than one car you have a major parking problem as there's no where to park.

Also the fields behind and steepness would put me off because of run off.

I think it is possibly overpriced given all of the above.

Lovely home but the pictures are a bit rubbish. My house didn't look like my house when my photographer was done - it was Instagram worthy 😆
For the photos, remove all those boxes, trolleys and baskets of clutter.
Kids toys in living room, trolley in kitchen, bathroom side etc. Clean, clear surfaces. Shove them in the car or in another room whilst those photos are taken.
The pet bowls need hiding too. Are you a doggy house? Is there a doggy smell? We get accustomed to it - ask a brave and blunt friend or neighbour to sniff your house! Remove cat litter etc. Good luck!!!

It's the garden for me. Pull up the messy plants, cut grass and jetwash the decking and it'll look more inviting.

Bedroom 2 absolutely does not look like a real double bedroom. Looks far too small. Unless the angles are really rubbish and it’s somehow an optical illusion that it looks so small. If not, then the advert is misleading to say it’s two doubles.

Your agent also sounds lazy, uninterested and dismissive of your very real concerns.

I would maybe lose the one green wall in the bedroom as it will make the room look a wee but brighter. Also try to lose the trolley of stuff in the kitchen and basket of stuff on the bathroom window sill as it insinuates a lack of storage. Apart from those little points I think your house is great - hope you manage to seel soon!

There are issues with the lighting and time of year it’s taken, making it look bleak. However it really isn’t bad enough to put buyers off imo; you can see it’s a small cosy home. Perhaps the issue is price?

No room measurements. I always look for those straight away and your house looks beautiful (green wall is nice) but I immediately want to know how big the living room is and how big the second bedroom is.

Is the area prone to flooding at all? The catastrophes of recent years might make people think twice about buying a house at the bottom of a steep hill like that.

You've obviously taken a lot of care with it, my only comment, and it's my purely personal opinion, is that it's a bit ... brown. Brown, and dark and gloomy.