Why is my house not selling?!

[ThePandoricaOpens]

We've had our house on the market since September and have only had one offer - 40k under asking price! We're thinking we may have to drop the price in the new year, but houses are so expensive around here that we may not be able to afford what we want if we do. We're looking to 'upgrade' to a 4 bed with a bigger garden and will have to add a further 160-200k to our sale price! Feedback so far has been - garden is too small and bedrooms are too small (wich is why we want to move). We want a new build (?!) We feel like people are just wasting our time! https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/152025230?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=buying&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

@BlackChunkyBoots thank you! Good idea to brighten the garden up a bit. Prices are so high round here! We understand that we wouldn't get full asking price, but would consider offers!

@ClementineChurchill yes there is a seperate shower - not sure why the EA didn't photograph it There's also a downstairs loo

It's because of the price op.
The rooms and garden by itself are not very spacious for the price...

TBF you'd need to spend at least 25k IMO to get that house up to standard.

The good news being that if you did you'd end up with a place about 300 sqr ft bigger than the OPs.

Did you actually look at that listing?!! It’d probably cost you at least 50k to bring it up to the standard of the OP’s house.

I think it’s lovely but I think people are being extremely cautious at the moment.

I agree with others about the fridge and the coats in the dining room. It looks like you have a hall, can't the coats go in there? However what would put me off the most is the plastic grass in the garden. Even if I liked the house I'd have to factor in the costs of removal, new topsoil and turf. Unless I absolutely loved the house I wouldn't bother, and I'd make a low offer to take those costs into account.

Fridge
Corner bath (though that would be livable-with for a while)
Astroturf
Too much stuff

It’s not THAT small but it definitely looks it, and will do to in-person viewers too. You need to remove at least half of what you’ve got in there, and definitely do something about the fridge. It just ruins that space (sorry — don’t want to be rude) and I can’t at first glance see an easy fix, so would be thinking in terms of replacing the whole kitchen.

Get the agents to redo the blurb too. I was amused by the ‘behoofs’ but did not find their obsession with local supermarkets made the property seem more attractive.

The house is really nicely presented, just don't think you need to declutter at all. Garden looks really nice. Few things that stood out to me - the fridge is a big problem, it needs to go against the opposite wall. Change the pic with the coats in it, no one wants coats in the dining room. When you see the floor plan you realise they are actually close to the front door but that's not clear from the photo. The second bedroom looks really small but isn't really on the floor plan, I think you need to rearrange furniture or change the photo angle. Green bedroom is nice but the thing sticking up from the end of the bed is a problem, makes the room look smaller. Bathroom - no photo of shower so looks like it's only a bath. I would also have a photo of w.c. so it's clear there's 1.5 bathrooms. Living room is nice, need another photo from a different angle. No photo of hall or stairs. Small bedroom doesn't have a bed, this is always an issue if you're trying to say its a 3 bed. Pic from front isn't great, too much concrete, not enough house. Your estate agents haven't done a great job with pics! Don't know area so not sure about price but does sound a lot for 2/3 bed house. Hope this helps!

Op. Too small means too small for the price you want. A house can’t be valued based on how much you need for the next purchase, but on what the house itself is worth , how much you need or would like is not relevant to that.

it is over priced. You should have accepted the 40 k under one.

@NobleWashedLinen the area isn't as nice - it's right by a pub, a row of shops and takeaways which can be rather noisy. It also looks like it needs a substantial amount of work doing to it. We are on the edge of the estate, a short walk into the town centre and it's a lot quieter.

Heavens, don’t replace the whole kitchen 😭

The house is fine. The price is wrong.

@NotApplePie thank you! I have tried to explain why it's a lot cheaper!

I don’t know the area but from a look on Rightmove there are a fair few SSTC at well under £400k which are the same size or bigger, and not in noticeably poor condition. I’d consider waiting til the first week of January and then dropping to £375k so you fall into the next Rightmove price bracket and see whether that attracts attention. Better to have more offers and then bid up from there if you’re lucky. What’s the max you can afford to drop by and still be able to buy the kind of house you want?

I just searched houses in your area and the only other 2 link detached 3 beds are £350-£360k, 3 bed semi's range from £250-325. I'm sorry to say that your price expectations seem high.

I absolutely love the colours.

This is exactly what I thought. If I see plastic grass it is almost discounted for these reasons. It would have to be a spectacular house to make me consider the required work worthwhile

If you’ve had 20 viewings then that suggests people are finding something that’s not evident from the ad when they arrive in person. Is the street scruffy? Any problem neighbours? Anything in the house that’s not in the pictures?

It is small isn't it - coats etc. almost on top of the table and chairs. The bedrooms are especially small - the 3rd bedroom you have had to turn into an office and one double bedroom has the bed blocking the radiator it's such a small room.
Can you put a single bed in that room instead of the double ?

Is that a cat scratching post that you have fixed to the wall ? instead of it being freestanding ?

Just looking at the pics again. It seems that you’ve got a back door from the garage to the garden. Couldn’t you make that a window and convert the garage into a laundry room and a study? You could knock through from the kitchen and then have one small room on either side of the new doorway.

It’s always the price. If in 3 months the only offer you have had is for £360k, then that is what it is worth. If accepting that means you can’t afford the house you want, then you’ll just have to stay I’m afraid.

Also the reason you want to move is to get bigger bedrooms and garden, yet you want a new build? New builds are notorious for having small rooms and gardens.

I feel awful critising your home, but for me.....I don't like the 2 different colour flooring in the kitchen/dining room - it looks a bit like you have knocked a wall out but not made the room into one. The fridge in the middle compounds this - could the fridge go in a corner the dining room and the table more in the middle of the room? Also really not a fan of the plastic grass, so I would definitely be thinking about the cost to replace that if I was going to buy.

Is there anyway you can make the bedrooms look bigger? Do you need the double in the second room? Could you stage it with a single and then get take down the double bed with the big end bit on?

I'd also take down the cat bits from the living room wall, to make it feel less busy (and so buyers aren't thinking about what might be left behind when you take them down to move).

No it simply suggests that having seen the house, and compared to other similar ones in the area, they don’t think it’s worth anywhere near the price being asked.

@Doris86 no we don't want a new build - that's the feedback people are giving, so I don't know why they're bothering to look at ours! You can't really compare our house to the price of others when you don't know the area - this house is at the back of us and 25k more. Personally I don't think it's as nice as ours. Yes it has a slightly bigger garden and a conservatory, but I don't think that is 25k more? Also we're not expecting to get full asking price! https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/155099891?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=buying&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

Just to be clear, my comment about replacing the kitchen was in my persona as a potential buyer. I don’t recommend that the OP does so, but do recommend she finds a solution for the fridge.

The key words being ‘having seen the house’. I don’t think all 20 viewers were time wasters who just go see houses they can’t afford for fun. So the price and the pics didn’t put them off (they may have put off many more potential buyers who didn’t view, of course). So the question is, what did 19 out of those 20 viewers see when they got to the house which put them off AFTER knowing the price and seeing the pics?