Another why is my house not selling post

[Alldressedupnowheretogo]

I have a mid terraced house on the market in the most desirable street in St Albans. Priced at £600k which exactly fits (sold) comps and reflectsw we I spent renovating it + average valuation gain in the area since i bought it.

Must have had 30 viewings. Two offers on the first open house day at £5k below asking. Both fell through. Another FTB then offered and pulled out.

It’s all freshly decorated and staged. It’s a cottage like most in this area - disadvantages of these structures are downstairs bathroom and no hallway - but with the addition of a fully tanked basement with spare room/reception and home office. The moisture levels are the same on each floor so no damp in the basement. The doors and windows are beautifully re-done. The kitchen is De Vol.

It’s been on for three months. What do I do?

I think it’s my target market (FTBs, divorcees) not being able to get their mortgages as they all keep coming and people are offering and then pulling out.

But these are the things that maybe make it hard to sell?

Lack of parking spaces for residents (city centre issue).

Extra 300 ft of basement space not worth much?

People freak out about basements even when fully tanked?

Can’t do the loft as it’s Grade II listed.

Price??? Not sure about this one as the fallen-through offers were v close to asking.

Viewer feedback is mainly that they think basement will flood (not in flood zone) and the stairs need repainting (yes but srsly??)

Help?

Well yes but only the well off can afford to live in nice places unless they moved there fifty years ago.

But surely if the house has got to the point where offer is made, accepted, taken off the market, surveys done and sellers pull out and this happens twice, it surely can't be because they've changed their mind about a downstairs bathroom or too much furniture, given all the furniture will be going?

Are you hiding damp in the cellar as someone else pointed out and the survey has picked this up?

Well yes. If I moved my house to say Barnes it would be well over a million. Where it is it’s about £550k if I’m lucky. I’m just saying property prices are just insane. I bought twice when I was single, the first one in my twenties. There’s no way I could do that today.

I checked if you'd get anything in St Albans for £200K. There are two one-bedroom flats and one of those is a retirement flat.

I agree with this. St Albans has become too expensive and when you compare with the cost of flats in N London, which have fallen more, and then add in the very large cost of commuting, it makes no sense financially to a young couple without children. Combine that with a huge number of very similar properties at lower prices on the market currently, a number of which are being reduced, and your chances of finding an interested party at this price are lower.
The basement and tanking may be putting people off this particularly property. There is also the Grade 2 listing, which many wouldn't want to take on.
To me, it looks over priced compared to similar properties so would be interested to see the comparable properties that the OP is using.

If @Alldressedupnowheretogo is coming back to the thread, why did the previous buyers all pull out? Three is a lot of buyers to pull out in a short time period. Did they find something better? Did they not get a mortgage approved? It may be helpful to look into what happened here.

Quarter of a million is like bottom rung of the ladder nowadays. Ridiculous really.

I'm not sure they got to the survey stage did they @YellowphantGrey?
I had the impression they pulled out before this.

The 'too much furniture' comments are irrelevant in a house that has had 30 viewings, I agree.

Yes, it's bonkers. Something has gone very wrong with the whole housing market in the UK!

At least one of the houses people are looking at is not the OPs. Also, a lot more people look than comment. Someone who asked for advice on their house recently couldn’t understand why they had a spike of thousands of on-line viewings.

At least one seller is unlikely to ever get to the bottom of why they had a significant spike in viewing figures today.

Sorry, it’s not really relevant but it struck me that it will seem really odd to some unsuspecting seller.

I know st Albans very well - I think without parking is a bit of a nightmare. Where do you park in central st A as a resident?? Is there a permit system? Your target buyers will likely be drivers so I think this could be quite a biggie. I think 600k sounds about right but clearly something is amiss - are there a lot of other properties nearby for sale for similar? What’s the EA view. Good luck x

At least one seller is unlikely to ever get to the bottom of why they had a significant spike in viewing figures today.
Perhaps the estate agent will be sighing, "ah, Mumsnet..." on Monday. 🙂

I probably misread.

But yeah people are happy to view it and put offers in so there can't be much wrong in that sense so decluttering wouldn't make a difference

@Ubertomusic I also slightly disagree with posters who said it has lovely things round it- for us that was one of the issues and why we moved the second time ( luckily we rented) - it didn't really - we used to end up going into London an awful lot ( so paying for trains at the weekends too) simply because Watford and Hatfield and Welwyn aren't really that thrilling if you wanted a change and the countryside round there is nothing special either . Harpenden is nice but is only really a big village in terms of shopping/stuff to do.

I felt we were paying an awful lot for a lifestyle that didn't really suit.

As you say I suspect these days for many the numbers don't stack up- also many outer London schools are much improved and that's less of a draw too. Knock £200k off alround and put it in zones and its appeal would no doubt rocket.

I recently spoke to someone who'd sold a 2 bed flat in Cambridge and bought a 5 bed home, with grounds and a mature garden, with a tennis court, in the Midlands. And had equity left over.

I know its not a helpful comment but I wouldn't buy a property without parking

Yes it is smaller but I’m not sure people want to be in cellars & the other one was sold with planning permission presumably for an extension and maybe an upstairs bathroom?

I think your house looks a bit studenty from the pictures. It might be that people aren't viewing it and finding something else they like before they 'have' to view yours?

Remove that tablecloth, it makes the space look cramped.

I don't like the exposed brick, it looks a bit 1970's Could you paint it?

Remove the solitary stool from the breakfast bar. It screams " this house is only suitable for one person. "

Can the bed from the den go in the actual 2nd bedroom, then set the den up as a den. Whatever a den is. Do people even want a den? Maybe a home office space would be better, or a small sofa. It just looks like bedroom currently.

FTB won't be able to use any of the help or get the stamp duty off if it's 600K so maybe they're not as much of your target market as you think?

Agree. The ‘den’ looks as if it’s being used full time as a dodgy, windowless bedroom at the moment while the actual main bedroom isn’t even pictured. Maybe stage a cinema room/study? A sofa and projector and huge cool movie poster? Most houses for sale in that area look very smart without the half done jobs visible in yours so get someone in to finish them in case people are finding other properties. But obvs if the problem is the price and the valuation is coming in under, or, worse, something untoward is showing on the survey then you need to slash the price and/or fix whatever’s spooking potential buyers. Maybe have a serious chat with your estate agent?

This one's lovely, and has parking outside, bigger garden. Much better value for money

The SDLT rates are much actually much lower for FTB at present, until end of March 25. After that they would need to pay well over 10k more so that money or more might need to come off the purchase price.

You would think so but they reduced it from 575 to 500k a month ago and it still isn't under offer.

Yep, madness. My house is worth £360k- £400k. Just having a look at this area and it would be over a million quid - bloody bonkers! I can assure you i'm not living a millionaire lifestyle! A million quid here is getting you a footballer style mansion.

Genuine question - why don't people just move up north and have a better standard of living?

@rainingsnoring yep- I think it comes down to exactly the same issues- it's actually a small 'non family' cottage and only a small pool of potential buyers - and still high for a FTB or if commuting is involved

It’s also well above the limit for anyone wanting to use a LISA to help buy their first property.