House is getting no interest - what is going on?

[MrsB94]

Hi everyone!

Our house has been on the market since the start of February, with this estate agent we got 4 viewings and 1 offer in the first week and were SSTC.

Sadly, the sale fell through after 7 weeks and our house went back on the market with the same agent for another 3 weeks until our agreement ended. In those 3 weeks we had no interest at all despite a price reduction from £255k to £250k.

We decided to put it on with an independent agent who seemed to have houses sold within days of hitting the market. It’s been on for a week now and yet still, no interest. We have 1 viewing booked for Saturday but I believe the EA was showing them around another house, mentioned ours and he decided to view based on the EA recommendation.

What are we doing wrong? Other houses in our area are selling quickly and I feel like our house is reasonably priced and well presented. The house 2 doors up from us has been on the market since January with no interest, they reduced from £290k to £275k and still no interest (ours is better than theirs I think).

For info, we bought the house for £185k in 2018. We bought to get on the ladder and we have never liked the house or area, so we want a quick sale which is why we priced it low. 3 EA’s valued it between £260k-£275k.

https://www.christianlewisproperty.co.uk/property-details/33037568/-/evesham/west-street

Any advice is really appreciated!

thank you for your feedback.

Bedroom 1 is a normal sized bedroom, we just have a super king bed which take up the entire room, bedroom two (office) is also a double bedroom and then the third is a box room.

Maybe we should add some plants in the garden, I wish our Rose bush was blooming but it doesn't come out until later in the year!

It’s lovely inside but things that I think things that would put people off are the location (you don’t like it yourself), the overlooked, small, paved garden, and the lack of kerb appeal.

You can’t do much about the location or garden other than reduce the price. You could try to make the garden look more appealing with flowers, a seating area, lights - things you can take with you. At the moment, it looks unused, like a mini roundabout with single yellow lines 😂

The first photo of the front of the house is awful, really off putting, just paving, paving paving, like a giant car park. Your house doesn’t have much kerb appeal but next door is really ugly with the solar panels. I would try to soften the look of the house with some plants and get the photo retaken without the house next door. It might be a lovely street but the photo makes it look very bleak. It’s the first thing you see in the ad so it’s really important.

I wouldn’t buy anywhere with artificial grass as I know the soil underneath is dead and contaminated with microplastics/pfas would the whole thing would need to be dug up, removed and replaced with healthy soil. Not worth it!

Where we are has never flooded as we are technically on higher ground from the river, so that shouldn't be an issue

The garden looks small - which isn't exactly a problem but I'd see all that block paving I'd have to remove to make it into the garden I wanted and would be put off. The bedrooms all look very small as well. For £250k I'd want at least one larger bedroom. From the looks of it a double bed doesn't have space on either side?

For the garden it needs to look more....gardeny? It just looks like a driveway to me. I'd put lots of pots, have a photo with tje summerhouse dressed too.
Also, I think it needs to look more family orientated. It looks like it's only big enough for a couple but if you can make one of the bedrooms look like a bedroom instead of a walk in wardrobe. The study is fine if you have another bedroom?
It must be so hard to make people like it when you really don't

We don't flood at all, so our insurance is around £200 per year. The areas that flood are closer to the river, so I could understand being cautious there, but not my road, hmm

I'm no expert on selling houses but I think you should put your super king size bed in storage, replace it with a king size which will make the room look bigger, and put a double bed in the second bedroom. You really need to show that the house has two good size bedrooms.

I don't like the garden either but it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me, I would just rip it all out and start from scratch.

Have you checked out flood risk maps ? It might never have flooded but that doesn't mean no future risk

The bedrooms are small, but we have two doubles and one box room, the bed in the image is a super king bed so it swamps the room. Maybe I need to get more pictures taken of the bedrooms to properly show the size 😞

I’m going to sound very rude here and not super helpful as there’s nothing you can do about it, but I wouldn’t view because the front of the house — and indeed the whole street — is really ugly. I don’t like the garden either.

You’ve made the interior look lovely, which is why I hate to insult the exterior, but I think the only tool you have is price.

We have thought about changing the bed for something smaller, we bought it in our last home where we had a bigger bedroom - big mistake!

It's hard to put a double bed in the office as I WFH full time and where the bed would go, I have drawers for my work equipment.

The only thing that would definitely put me off is the overlooked garden, but many houses are overlooked and people still buy them. We viewed one that was very overlooked compared to others in the road and it still sold. Perhaps it is just the market conditions.

Thank you, I agree, the street is ugly! What would you pay for it, the lowest we could realistically go is £235k, but the EA says we're giving it away as it is!

This is our first time buying and it really is one of the most stressful times of my life!

I know this house.

I'd say it was definately the area putting people off. Same thing that put you off really.

Why did the original buyer pull out?

Maybe I'm just not reading the floor plan correctly, but how do you get from the front entrance to the dining room and kitchen? It looks like you either turn left into the living room, or go straight on up the stairs.
The floor plan shows a second door from the living room under the stairs, but there is no sign of this on the photos of the living room.
Is it just me that can't figure this out 🤔

I think like a few other have picked up on people are essentially seeing it as a 2 bed, the third bedroom need dressing as a bedroom so that people know its big enough.

Google courtyard garden ideas, OP. At the moment it looks unused and unloved. A cosy seating area and some plants would make a world of difference.

Honestly OP, I would get this thread taken down. When you are trying to sell a house for hundreds of thousands of pounds you don't want to be on record (and identifiable) saying you don't like the house or the area.

Honestly I think the answer is no one wants to buy it for the same reasons that you don’t like it.

Oh that is strange! 😂

As you know the area, what would you suggest is the best price?

We pulled out of the sale, as our buyer was not moving forward after 7 weeks.

The house is lovely but the garden would put me off. I am not keen on the design.

It is the slow market, price or location.

Put it in there for photos, and viewings. Work around it during that time. Then get rid or put in storage when you've accepted an offer.

Definitely more pictures. I looked at the size on the layout but only do that if the pictures get my interest.

For the garden some planted pots front and back would work.

For me personally it’s not big enough to be sold as a three bed.

The third bedroom is tiny, and there’s only 1 bathroom, and one small living room. You can see from your pictures that you also don’t have space in each bedroom as the small third is used as a dressing room.

It might be better sold as an actual 2 bedroom Property. Retake pictures of your room from different angle so it can be seen properly. Put a double bed in second room ( can even put tall inflatable made up properly). Then make third bedroom the official office. A decent 2 bed with home office makes far more sense. And then the living space downstairs is more in proportion.

Garden - too much paved over for me. Can you remove some brick pavement either side of trees, so they have larger natural boarders? Add wood chip.

From garden - add large planters either side from door with tall green plant in. You can take these with you when you move.