House has been on for sale for nearly a year with no offers. Would love some feedback and advice!

[Veebie86]

We bought our 1850s 3 bed cottage in 2021 and although we absolutely love it, we got pregnant last year trying for our second and ended up having babies 2&3 in January! We have no family too close by (my parents are an hour away) so we sadly put our house on the market in early August last year to move closer to my family for support and to have more space than what we have currently for 3 under 3. In 9 months we’ve literally had just a handful of viewings with no offers. People constantly tell us how beautiful our home is (and we honestly love it, just wish it was bigger and closer to family)! We’ve tried two EAs who have both said it’s priced right for the area and the market and we can’t afford to drop any lower anyway to avoid making a loss (we’ve done work since moving including adding a downstairs toilet). We’re honestly getting so down about it now as our babies are just getting bigger so quickly and starting to feel like we’ll be stuck here forever. Link below and if anyone has any tips or feedback I won’t take anything personally and would just appreciate the help!
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146014529#/?channel=RES_BUY

It's a beautiful house but I think the lack of floorplan and the way the photos have been taken isn't showing its full potential.

A lot of the photos have been taken too close up which makes the rooms seem cramped and it's difficult to get a feel for how big the rooms actually are.

Good luck 🤞

No floor plan = something wrong

Lovely looking house, but please look at the other properties in that price bracket, there are properties with more land and bedrooms at that price.

I think a lot of it is the market, the high interest rates are making everyone cautious.
For what it's worth, we're in a very similar situation. We have a second home that's no longer needed. Put it on the market August last year. In six months we had maybe a dozen viewings, not a single offer. Reduced price twice, reluctant to reduce further (but we may have to in the end). Changed estate agents, hoping that would help. New estate agent for two months, not even a single viewing that I'm aware of.
We have a mortgage on this house, which we still have to pay - it's interest only as the house was bought as a buy to let and the monthly payments have literally doubled in the past two years. We never anticipated to have to pay that for this long and the cost is killing us,
Hang in there; I hope some of the feedback you're getting is helping you improve the listing and sell.

its dried hops...was very classy in the 90's

This. It's the price.

I do find them odd in houses that are not in Kent 😂

I absolutely love your house OP. It's just very hard to visualise the layout.

You need to compare your house with others in the area. It's a very popular area AFAIK. It's lovely inside and I don't think that can be improved on. It does seem very expensive even for Cheadle Hulme. I think you would easily get a 4 bedroomed house in that area for the same price or a bit less. And it does seem somewhat squeezed in on that street.

I wouldn’t view anywhere without checking the Floor Plan first!
So important to know the overall size, the bedroom sizes, the layout etc
Also - you could try marketing it at £575,000 to get more people through the door and get a bidding war going.
I’d do an Open Day with a new agent and start over.

I asked a similar question a few years ago and people told me it was the price. I was adamant it wasn't. Spoiler alert: it was.

Our next door neighbour died and someone bought his rundown mirror image of ours. It was on sale for over 6 months and it was on for less than £5k more than ours. It took ages to sell and it was because of the price. It was absolutely perfect. But over priced. Ours was on for £10k more than we sold it for and once we dropped the price I was insistent was correct. We sold.

Another house I spotted was on for £600k and when it sold it was on for £380k!

Do not do this. Do not do this. Do not do this.

I don't know what is the norm of house prices in your area - but to me £600k seems expensive for a house with the front door opening straight on to the pavement. The layout appears rather odd, particularly the room with the bed on the mezzanine level, and some of the rooms look a bit cluttered. The high cistern in the bathroom would put me off too - although easily replaced.

It's cottagey inside, but looks like a Georgian era pub from the outside. Or a small hotel.

It somehow needs to look more like a home on the outside.

Maybe some plasters and some flowers? Or small bushes?

It seems a lot of money for not an awful lot of space inside. Lots of rooms, but they do appear a bit pokey in the photos.

I like the house. But would I pay £600,000 for it? Nope.

I'm sure it's probably priced right for the area, but the house just doesn't match the money for me. No Wow! factor.

Ahhh, yes!

The photos on this listing are superb!

The rooms look bright and spacious and airy!

The biggest question would be, what does your house ACTUALLY look like now? Is the yard still green? Has anything inside been damaged or discolored? How do you ACTUALLY have it staged for viewings? Because all the photos on your listing show the same furniture (baby room, same toys in the bathtub, same white couches in the orangery, same slide in the backyard) as the 2021 listing that MNers keep bringing up. So what does your house really look like? In addition to the price and floor plan issues, that could be playing a part. But yes, you can make these tweaks, and it is important to put up a floor plan so you have interest and make it clearer where the off street parking is, but this stuff about flower boxes and things… I understand it, they can be lovely if you just need to draw the eye, but a pair of £5 flower pots won’t make a difference if buyers think it’s £50K-£100K too expensive. Is your broker not showing you other guide prices in the area?

Floor plan?

Floor plan, floor plan, floor plan.

Why is the 4th photo your downstairs loo?

I presume you have recently changed estate agents as Rightmove says added in March? When I go onto the property details from 2021, when you bought, it's obviously your furniture etc but better quality photos (was that the first agent?). Is that a reasonable price increase for 3 years?

Are you a bot? There’s no dark furniture and for a cottage style property this is modern and light.

Erm absolutely a wow factor

I’m scrolling through thinking how it’s a very beautiful, very idiosyncratic home and maybe not what I was shopping for, but I’m picturing myself there. Then I get to photo 12 and see myself bonking my head on a beam when I try to sit up in bed and realize there is no point in viewing the house.

if that bedroom is not in fact tricky and there is zero risk of collision for even the clumsiest
person, you need to fix that picture. If it is tricky, you need to rearrange the room and retake the picture.

It's a period property on a private road of other individual period properties. For this one usually pays a premium.
Op: the previous listing was much better. Don't have a photo showing an open double garage next to your house if it isn't yours.
Include more detail about where the parking is (it's a big negative), mention that there has been a full refurb in the last 3 years and that the loo is all new in the listing.
Continue to market it as a period home and do not whitewash the beams.

There is no clutter at all. For a cottage it’s really light

Coming from an estate agent there’s no floor plan your also using an online agent who are notoriously terrible but again you get what you pay for. Your house will only ever be worth what people are willing to pay. Parking is mentioned but not clear as at the very bottom parking is a big deal now days . photos of kitchen also don’t make the layout clear. *Guide Price £600,000 - £635,000 not great should be offers over £600,000 or just £635,000 if people see this there just going to offer the lowest price why would they pay 635 when you’ve stated you will take 600. Early viewing is highly recommended due to the property being realistically priced this quote is odd and not needed.

Also, try to refresh the master bedroom so it doesn't look like a student bedsit; high sleeper over desk scenario. It is an imaginative way to add a home working space but is not photogenic. That room and parking are the only negatives on a beautiful home.