Handhold? our buyers just pulled out on exchange day :-(

[MissCherryCakeyBun]

just had a call from the agents and our buyers have pulled out.... I feel sick 😥
we were due to exchange today and we have already moved into our new house so have been playing a juggling act to cover everything and now this.
7 months since we went on the market and everything was fine and this just out of the blue. The female buyer (Married couple) has decided she isn't sure about the neighbors.

if I put up a link could you have a look and see what we could do to make it more appealing?

Worth noting its now totally empty of furniture in the house so those photos are a bit different and we have asked for new Garden photos to be taken showing it in the summer

We don't have the funds to dress the house with furniture and we had all the walls repainted and the carpets cleaned after we moved so its all fresh....Its also more expensive than others locally due to new wiring/heating floors etc. in the last 5 years and the very large home office/studio in the garden

I have some nice pots with plants and flowers to go by the front door for more curb appeal too.

sorry for the rambling post just needed to vent
Original Listing.... check notes above about changes :-)

Bastards. ☹️

I'm so sorry.

Oh this sounds so good. And if people are buying and keeping it for longer that would translate into stable areas too, with owners and long term renters having more ‘ownership’ of an area instead of just thinking ‘well I’ll sell up next year so I don’t care’.

The more you’ve written the more I’m thinking we in the UK REALLY need to overhaul things.

Here we go again. Another one of these threads where someone is trying to sell their house, and people are suggesting new soft furnishings, flowers on the table etc.

What nonsense, buyers can see past all that. If it’s a decent house at the right price it will sell. If it’s not then no amount of new soft furnishings is going to help.

It's so horrible when people do this. They have had months to consider it but leave it until exchange day. I'd cut the lawn short. Trim around the edges of the lawn. Also it looks like there are splodges on carpet in your sitting room. I'm assuming it's just the way it has been vacuumed. I'd re-vacuum it for photos so it all lies in one direction. A couple of pots of colourful plants by the front door and maybe hanging baskets too. You can take them with you.

@MeAgainAndAgain I think that the political party who completely reforms the way houses are bought in this country, will find it's a huge vote winner.

It’s very outdated so the price will have to be lowered. It needs every room doing up

Was the concern really about the neighbours? They went far down the road financially for this to happen unless your neighbours are a nightmare?

I'm betting it's the price. To sell quickly you'll have to drop it and get your EA to market it aggressively. Did you have any other offers the EA can go back to?

All these comments, I think it’s a great property, so much space and gives so many options.
I’d love a big garden, someone will see the fantastic potential and fingers crossed snap it up.
If I could pack work up and move I’d be that person.

I really like the floor in the bathroom though.

Ehrm no, not many suggested that at all actually!?

Quite a few that I can see.

Some but most people haven’t said that would be the solution in this case. But I agree that it usually comes up, and that it is something most people would see through. I’d prefer a house empty, but would like to see photos of how the owners arranged furniture etc for possible ideas.

I have a friend that styles homes for a real estate agent and she does it really well though I have to say..

OP couldn’t and shouldn’t say anything about the neighbour’s here for many, many reasons. 😅

I wouldn't pay a premium just because you refurbed/rewired. Its normal for a house to have working wiring.

I'd expected a reduced price for a house with wiring that needed replacing but if you are expecting a premium but you may be expecting too much.

Many sympathies, OP. It is natural to look for how this could have been avoided, but you will probably never know. Our neighbours just had their buyer pull out because of "the animals next door" - we have two little indoor cats who never go out!

Your house looks very nice and I'm surprised at some comments - one pp said that the whole house needed gutting! I don't know what her standards are - I've never in my life bought or lived anywhere that was perfect - but don't let it get to you.

Talk to your estate agent. In the end, it is usually price.

I’d have thought the room to extend was a big selling point.

How crappy.

We recently sold a relatives house, that had been on the market without offers for a few months. Like yours, it was in good nick, with new windows & electrics, but had slightly tired decor (woodchip) and a kitchen a bit like yours OP.

We painted all the walls & ceilings white so it was clean & fresh and removed the furniture which was dated.

I then bought cheaply from range/home bargains etc; £120 worth of new door mats, decorative soap dispensers for the kitchen & bathrooms, arranged new towels on the side of the bath and added candles and fake plants. We also put some canvas pictures & a mirror up on the walls.
None of which made the kitchen or main carpet any less beige. But it did make the house look more loved

Could you try some tricks like that so that viewers feel welcome and at home? Ours sold on the next viewing, so it was money well spent.

Not when you can buy a three-bed with better decor within half a mile for a few thousand more...

I love the confidence just from looking on rightmove. There may well be a very good reason that one is cheaper.

I doubt it - with prices at that level putting significant money into an extension is likely to actually cost you more than the value you add.

I’m sorry this happened, and I hope you take these comments well/

it looks dated, I was surprised When you had written it had been through a full returb.

the bathrooms look old, the kitchen tiles make it look like it is also old, the outside needs a power wash as the hard standing is filthy and the decor in the bedrooms looks very dated also, paint and curtains, the office type furniture and the home office needs a good clean up and all the maps removed, redecorated.

as such, price is a major issue here, as you’re looking at it and thinking it’s a fully renovated house where as that’s really not what others see.

I agree - there can be multiple reasons why a property on one street is worth more than a property on another. Roads are not all the same in terms of desirability plus some houses that look similar at first glance actually have differences that make a difference to the price they can achieve. Square footage can make a difference or whether the rooms have good proportions or whether a house is positioned well on the street or has a south/west facing garden, for example.

That one has no scope for extending for instance, which would impact on the value. Having an upstairs bathroom is also much more valuable than a downstairs one. Just because you like the decoration in one doesn’t make it more valuable than one where it’s not decorated to your taste.

I’m so sorry op, this is always my biggest fear whenever we move, I can’t imagine how stressful this must be.

if I’m being brutally honest with you op, this house really is a ‘project’ in its current condition, so I would firstly reduce the price substantially to attract people that are interested in a project. If you want the easiest and quickest option and aren't able to invest in carrying out any work at the moment.

if you can afford to invest some time and money init to make it sell quicker and look more appealing (but probably still for a lower price) I would:

-paint the front fence to the right, the wall to the left and the (pink?) fencing at the back the same colour preferably a dark one to contrast with the gravel and really frame the house
-in the living room I’d paint the whole room white and repaint the ceiling as it looks quite grubby
-the kitchen is dated and someone would be likely to want to replace it anyway so for sale purposes I’d either paint the cabinets or I’d get a professional, to neutralise it a little and so the new buyers have a nice ‘fresh’ kitchen that they can replace when they can instead of ‘omg this needs to be done asap’ (some buyers are very in imaginative!)
-the utility really needs a lot of work and looks quite unloved, I would for the cheapest approach, sort the door and box in the electrical wires (you can buy these easily and cheaply on amazon) and it needs a fresh coat of paint, and take the mop etc out. Also paint the cupboard to the left white to match the others.
-move the wardrobe in the blue room back
-take out furniture in the office room and repaint the walls
-leave the bathroom as it is
-paint the walls on the downstairs loo white (leave the wall paper as it’s lovely)
-tidy and jet wash garden (looks like a lovely sunny garden!!)
-the garden office I’d want to knock down - it’s not the most attractive looking building and I would imagine it’s quite expensive to heat in winter. If however you would like it to be an ‘asset’ I would potentially repaint all the walls and buy some nice office furniture of gumtree and pop a plant or something in there to make it look a lot more desirable

hope any of these suggestions help op, and wishing you lots of luck with a speedy stress free sale :-)

A two-bed with room to spend tens of thousands on an extension to make it a three bed is more valuable than a three-bed? OK.