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!

There is a door from the living room to the kitchen, that seems to have been missed on the floorplan, so I will ask the EA to change this

The garden is fine.

The house is lovely however I'd like to see how beds fit into the rooms;the small bedroom screams store room and not bedroom and that would put me off.

OK. Have you thought about going back to that buyer and offering him a discount.

When you ask how low to go, well, as long as you get what you paid for it you would have at least had free accommodation since 2018, so think of what you would have spent on rent in that time.

House is nicely presented and I'm impressed by your lack of clutter! The garden is awful though and would really put me off. It's not really a garden at all - just a bleak paved square with a sad circle of lawn. Like a PP I'd just look at that and think how expensive and what a PITA it would be to remove all the paving and make it into a proper garden!

Personally for me the garden is a flat no. Agree the smaller bedroom used an office is also not a great idea as it looks small and hard to work out how it could be a kids room - the rest is fine.

The description of “solid, older property” and “needs to be viewed” is code to me that there is something wrong with the property. The first picture with the roof doesn’t fill me with hope. If you’ve massively underpriced it for the area, with that description and picture of the roof then I’m thinking it’s cheap because it needs a new roof. Maybe more.

You main bedroom looks so small, especially as you’re using the third room as a dressing room. It says there isn’t enough space for two people, let alone a family.

It’s nicely presented and clutter free, especially given what looks like a lack of storage. But I think your dislike shows through the pictures. It just doesn’t look loved. There are properties that might not be to your taste but you can at least tell the owners have loved that house. There just isn’t that vibe with this house. Your garden is just a round circle of grass, it looks like it is never used (and that makes me start wondering why).

It’s hard. Our first house was bought because we needed to get on the ladder. We didn’t like the house or area. So I get it. But it just doesn’t feel like a loved house when I look at the photos.

Your disdain for your own house and area shines though!

You've lived there for six years but it looks stark and unloved from the outside with no shrubs, tubs or foliage of any sort. The brick wall between between you and your neighbour could have been covered with a hedge of some sort to give more kerb appeal. Also, as mentioned the roof tiles are a bit of an eyesore - you say the roof doesn't leak but it's not pleasing to the eye.

Your garden is a reasonable size but you seem not to have much interest in it.

And get rid of the rails of shirts on display - it screams lack of storage. No one wants to see what should be the contents of a wardrobe.

Sorry if this sounds harsh, you wanted honest opinions

The very first thing I notice is the moss/discolour on the roof
The kitchen, including the flooring looks cheap.
The fridge (?) looks too big and is obstructing the door and view.
Is that plastic grass in the back garden? I really can’t abide it. I’d rather have the whole place paved, and I don’t like the paving.
Also, it’s overlooked .

None of those would be dealbreakers and are obviously fixable (except being overlooked) but would just instantly put me off.

Other rooms are fine, inoffensive. Still not nice though.

I don’t know the area, so can’t comment

Here's what you're competing with

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/141263255#/?channel=RES_BUY

And this

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145699181#/?channel=RESBUY

Both much much bigger than your house, in a very quiet area and one of them is chain free

Definitely stage the bedrooms, as bedrooms, as someone might want to purchase to rent the rooms out. Give the house a smile - looks very nice, but painting the back fence and adding trellis to the top of the fencing to raise it, alongside some large pots / planting that you could take with you. Area is a big consideration for me and agree that the look / mix of the street could be an issue.

It looks like a good house. I would definitely stage the second bedroom as people don't always have good imaginations. I'd also invest in some large pots and evergreens or something floral to increase the kerb appeal. You need to be patient though.

I know how nerve-wracking this whole process is, I'm sorry it's not going smoothly for you!

That said, I think you need to be honest with yourself. While your property is lovely on the inside, it looks a bit worn on the outside and is in a less-than-desirable area (according to you - I don't know it at all). At the end of the day, the location can't be changed, and the structure is quite difficult to change, so a lovely interior only goes so far.

The most expensive property ever sold in your road is £205,000. EAs notoriously overvalue houses to win business - how did they justify their prices? Which comparable properties did they point to and say, "That sold for £255k, and I think yours can, too"? If they did, were those houses sold since interest rates rose and people's affordability fell?

You mention what you paid for it, but unfortunately that is totally irrelevant and has no bearing on what anyone would want to pay for it now.

You mention elsewhere you need to sell for at least £232k (I believe it was), but again, just because that's what you want doesn't mean a buyer will happen to agree.

I'm frustrated for you because the "housing ladder" has been sold as a sure thing and it's not. House prices can stagnate, or even go down. I'm afraid you're not entitled to a 35% return over six years, especially in a much higher rate environment.

What is clear is that you hate where you live. Put the price down, get it sold and find somewhere that brings you joy. You may feel like you "lost" money if you do that, but have you ever considered putting a price on the misery you feel in an unsuitable home?

Best of luck.

@MrsB94 I love your sofas where were they from?
The house looks lovely to me, and a bargain, but admittedly I don't know Evesham. You could probably make the garden a bit more inviting, but I doubt that is what is keeping people away. If you don't like the area is it that others might feel the same? It's probably a case of being patient, we had one house that fell through several times, again at a time when the market wasn't great, and we just had to wait for a proceedable buyer to come along.

Completely agree that the second bedroom with the office in needs restaging. From the picture it looks like a small office room, I'd have no idea that was actually a double bedroom from looking at it. It makes the house look small.

The first thing that springs to mind, and which I noticed immediately, is the first photo of the front of the house. It looks like the roof isn't in particularly good condition, and that would put me off straight away.

Can you fit a nice garden table and chairs and sofa in the garden? Hang some string lights?

can you fit a table in the kitchen and move the one out of the dining room? Make that the home office to free up the bedrooms?

add potted trees out the front to brighten that up?

needs a new photo face on of the front as seeing next doors car is not that appealing

Rather than mess about cleaning the roof, I'd simply add some colour in the form of trough or hanging baskets out front. Ok it's a bit early for them, but if you can find anything flowering to go outside the front it'd lift it and take the eye off next door's nice solar.
For the back, I'd also get a cheap patio set of some sort off Marketplace, slim benches with cushions or a glass table and chairs - either would make the space look bigger but show the space off nicely as somewhere to sit out, and pop some coloured pots with flowers out, just to make it look less bare. Not sure on the dimensions of this one and how it'd fit in your garden, but is only £50. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/787097113047351/
Or this one if the other is too big - I'd maybe use 3 chairs not 4 if there's not space in the garden https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1100437767740030/

The house looks fine inside. The roof potentially looks like a cause for concern in the first picture though. Perhaps the area puts others off too.

It's just over priced. You've priced it far higher than anything else in the street has sold for. Why? You say that homes are selling in your area but also that the one two doors up (which is even more over priced) has had no interest at all in 4 months! The two which another poster has linked to are also showing as reduced so they were obviously having little or no interest too. It isn't helpful to compare asking prices of other properties when none of them are actually selling. If you want to sell, you need to reduce the price, not by < 2% but by at least 10%.

This is good advice. My first house was ex-LA in a dire area. We only made £9k when we sold it, which was far less than we spent on repairs, and basically a poor return after a number of years, but it was so worth it to be living somewhere nicer and safer.

One toilet is not enough for a family with kids. So you are automatically limiting your market. As others upthread have said if you are keen to sell, price it keenly so someone eg looking for a smaller 2 bed think they are getting a huge bonus buying your place.

Our friends had terrible trouble selling as they had a paved garden and people didn't want the bother of laying grass.

@MrsB94 have you tried the original trick of having the smell of recently brewed coffee, and toast when the viewings take place? You'd be amazed how much that works. Not too strong, but a nice feint aroma of the familiar.

@MrsB94

Can I just but in to ask where you got the green sofa please?

Thank you

Also, more plants! More colour

The third bedroom is tiny to the extent that in my mind I would classify it as a 2 bed with study or nursery, so a good 2 bed basically. You say that other 3 beds in the same area are priced similarly but do they all have such small boxrooms or are some of them bigger? If some are bigger, I would choose another house over yours for that reason. You should stage the bedrooms as bedrooms and the 3rd "bedroom" as a handy office.

Apart from that I would say the house doesn't have much that is less desirable about it, though you say yourself that the area is not the best & your house is overlooked at the back so that will be putting some people off.

I don't mind the garden but then I don't like gardening. Low maintenance will appeal to some people but you still want somewhere nice to sit out on a sunny day. You could brighten it up a bit with tubs of bright flowers and nice looking table & chairs. But basically, the garden isn't the main problem it's more likely to be that it is expensive in your area for what is basically a 2 bed with additional study/nursery.