Housing Market

[CleoAndDuck]

We've had our house on the market for 9 weeks and not had any offers and a handful of viewings, all but one seemed to want a much bigger house than we have (we have 3 bed and they want 4-5).
Our selling journey didn’t go off on the right foot when the agent failed to carry out the marketing plan we agreed.
Now we’re thinking of moving agents, is anyone else struggling with selling?
We’re in a prime location in walking distance to a main hospital

it all goes on right move op
in terms of getting viewings… agents are almost irrelevant

it will be price
i wouldn’t bother moving agents
id lower price
especially now people can see on for 9 weeks

they wanted 4-5

and yet thought they’d look at a 3 bedroom

most odd

Sounds like maybe the feedback people was giving the EAs wasn’t honest as it doesn’t make sense to view a 3 bed house when you want 4-5? Sometimes people are embarrassed to say ‘it’s overpriced’ or ‘it smells funny’ so just say something to the agent to get them off their back? Maybe ask an honest friend to give you feedback on anything that might be off-putting (or post a listing here if you’re feeling strong!)

>in walking distance to a main hospital

Is that attractive?

If it has an A&E department with ambulances and a ton of traffic, it would put me off. In fact I go out of my way to avoid homes anywhere near or on the approaching roads to hospitals.

It does make a difference to move agents, not least because it brings your listing back to top of Rightmove. Also what are the photos and floorplan like?

I'm guessing it would be good location for anyone who works at the hospital

It’s not in a main road to the hospital, it’s a dead end road within a 10 minute walk there but we have a lot of people that work at the hospital that want to live in walking distance. In all honesty I’ve never really heard any sirens unless it’s been in our road specifically

🙈 we’ve lowered it twice, was hoping not to lower it a third time. We’re roughly £20k less than the neighbouring houses for sale.
We’ve had communication issues with our agent, they turn up late to viewings, they are the main reasons we want to switch

We’ve only noticed that it’s the viewings we do instead of the agent, when we ask what are you looking for they say it. My husband did one today, he asked what kind of house are you looking for and they replied ideally a 4 bed, he apologised and said we only have a 3 bed 😔 I don’t know if maybe the agents are throwing our house in as a wild card, we have an outdoor office which I think they might suggest to people could be a bedroom 🤷🏻‍♀️
There is an online scoring matrix the viewers complete anonymously and our decor and location is 4/5, price 5/5. I guess you can’t trust anything anyone says

how many viewings have you actually had op?

Unfortunately, people know that others don't react well to honest feedback and therefore save themselves any possible hassle by not giving it.

I once gave some honest feedback about a project - delivered as expected. The reaction I got was apoplectic. Everyone else had told them that their projects were above and beyond expectations. It's just not worth the hassle.

They turn up late to viewings?? Definitely switch to a new agent though you may also need to reduce the price again as it’s true that everyone sees everything on Rightmove anyway.

I have been less than frank about feedback to estate agents. I never outright lied, but just didn't go into much detail. I don't want to hear any sales pitches from them or get into any long discussions.

11 viewings, 1 offer, 1 viewing shortlisted us but eventually picked one with a slightly larger kitchen

How low was the offer?

why did your husband apologise?

They rocked up for a viewing without reading the particulars

Ah in fairness we’re ideally looking for a four bed but we’d look at a 3 bed with an office as one bedroom will have to be an office anyway so maybe that’s why they’re coming?

I find feedback really hard, a lot of the time my feedback is not anything that can be changed, it’s just not for me. We thought we didn’t mind a seperate kitchen but having viewed a few, we now realise we want open plans I’m sure some vendors would be like ‘well she could see it wasn’t open plan on the floor plan’ but I needed to see a couple of houses to realise that. I find it hard to know what to say. We did see how a house yesterday that absolutely stunk of damp, I didn’t give that as my reason haha.

11 viewings and “all bar one” have been looking for 4/5 bedrooms? 😕

11 viewings or 8?

It was 11, I forgot about the initial 3 we had before we went ‘live’.
The two we showed around ourselves mentioned more bedrooms and the others have just fed back with wanting something ‘bigger’ which as others have said could just be people giving vague feedback.

and the “all bar one” have actually been looking for a 4-5 bedroom property is a mistake too

Sometimes when people talk about wanting something bigger it is a way of saying they think a place feels cluttered or dark. Could that be true in your case? Is there furniture you could put into storage to help make it feel more spacious?

Also I know the agent you mean as we’ve been searching in an area they cover a bit further south from you and I tend to think their photos are weird and found them hard to get hold of for viewings….

To the million staff that work there most definitely lol I set my rightmove search to <3miles to the hosp as I'm lazy and want to cycle in quickly. There's tons of houses nearby but not on the main roads, I'm 1.2miles away from mine, can't say I've ever heard an ambulance as its a back side street

it will be…. price