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

I think it's lovely! The garden is nice too. I don't know about the price as I don't know the area.

Redo the photos, all room look small and cramped, move the fridge to garage for photos and veiwings, empty washing machine, reduce the price by 25k. Use a wooden trellis and pots to increase kerb appeal. Kitchen would put me off as needs an update. I would take that off my offer straight away

It looks really nice to me. I haven't read all the replies but my two pennies worth is that the sitting area in the kitchen/diner looks really small. So you think, is there a lounge? And then the only picture I see of that shows just a small sofa and a door so it gives the impression that there's no good-sized comfortable relaxing room/space. Also the fridge as mentioned.

It's a really nice house, but it's evident from the photos that you need more space.
People need to feel the size would be right for them.
You need to take out as much as possible. The coats, fridge, drawers, anything that's not nailed down! Declutter every room and the garden.

Storage away from home or put in the garage or boot of your car. It's just until you move, so you can manage with less.
I think it'll sell, but the market is slow at the moment.

Not read all posts so sorry if i have repeated

The front looks a bit boring (Sorry), paint the fence and tame the lavender. Add some planters or pots to give it some colour. Have a drive round your estate and see what other have done for inspiration.

Remove what you don't use all the time from the kitchen counters. You can put the toaster away and the bread bin and move the microwave to where the bread bin is now - if there is a plug? The more free space the better, can you put air fryer/coffee machine in a cupboard and just get them out when you need them?

The fridge - would this go in the cupboard you walk through to the downstairs loo? Or on the opposite wall behind the door? Can you move the coats and shoe to somewhere else? I would be inclined to make that area just a dining area - with a larger table and 6 chairs

The bed looks like it back to front and the curtain bit should be a headboard - are you able to turn it round - it looks odd, how do you see the TV on the wall over the curtain bit?

The lounge you face away from the window - I would move the furniture around so couch is on the blue or white wall to maximise space

2nd bedroom, again can you move that bed onto the wall to the right so there is space down both sides of the bed?

The office in the 3rd bedroom - is this used as an office? Or could you condense it down to one desk and put a small single bed in there?

Love the colours and the back garden is bright and inviting

That's a beautiful home I would love to live there with my family if I could afford it

The price is too high.

Have you got feedback from your agent on all the viewings?

If I were you, and I didn’t want to accept the £360k if it’s still on the table, I’d change agent, get much better photos taken, do as pp suggested re the fridge, and get a price for replacing the lawn with real turf and tell the agent so they can tell potential buyers. I’d drop the price to £375k at the absolute most and check in with my agent frequently about how things were going.

This will sound harsh but you really need to stop thinking about what’s ‘wrong’ with your viewers/potential buyers, and focus on what you can control if you want to sell.

I live in a similar 70's estate and the 3 bed detached houses have restricted appeal. They are too small for a modern family buyer who aspire to a study, utility and en suite, and the young professionals prefer the period terraces or semis in a less suburban setting which have often been done up with trendy decor.

There is often a good supply of 4 bed detached houses on these type of estates to compete with so the original 3 beds sit at a funny price point with a limited pool of buyers, such as those willing to trade space for detached, downsizers, or buy with scope to extend in future. So your price doesn't compare favourably to the one you linked above for £435k which has an en suite, larger bedrooms, a partial garage conversion (office?) and more scope to extend.

And move the coat rack out of your dining room!

Also nothing on that street has sold for anywhere near that price. The one that’s similar size to yours (albeit in need of updating) sold for 307k in 2023. I’d drop the price or maybe see if the one who offered 360 will come up to 365.

That property is 114 sqm compared to your 79 sqm. That's 145% of the size of yours or nearly half the size again. It's also fully detached, has a much better more spacious and useful layout and is aesthetically a lot more pleasing from that outside than yours. You can't put your house in the same price band as this one - it needs to be priced much lower. If we were to assume that this house is correctly priced at £425k, then I would think your house would need to be priced no higher than £350-£375k (with an expectation of an offer in the £340-£360 range).

I think the problem is you think your house is broadly in the same range as this one that you linked to. It's not. Yours is a (albeit very nice) small first home, this one is a spacious family home and a rung on the ladder above yours.

This all sounds very sensible to me. Also, I think the garage should be added onto the floor plan.

The only two things that stood out to me looking through the photos were the fridge and the astroturf. As you say, there isn't anywhere else for the fridge to go, so I would struggle to like the house as it is a focal point of the room.

I really like the garden, other than the astro. It wouldn't stop me buying a house though - it's not a big patch to re-turf with some real grass. It's a nice secluded garden, though from the map, it looks like it's north facing? That will unfortunately put some people off even though there's bugger all you can do about it!

I don't know your area but my SIL is wanting to move at the moment and there is hardly anything moving. Her neighbours have been trying to sell their house for the best part of a year now.

Hopefully things will pick up in the new year for you.

(P.S. LOVE your cat wall in the lounge - do they use it? My fear would be installing something then the cats saying "WTF do you think that is? I ain't going near that!")

Oh my. I thought mine was small and it’s 86 sqm. Yeah serious think about price needed.

It looks about £100k more than the closest comparable sold house. I do think that is the biggest issue

Overall it is very nicely presented, for me really think you should find somewhere to keep coats etc, apart from that what you've suggested doing to it sounds good and hopefully it will sell in the new year.

We live in the south east. For £400K you’d get a bigger three bed than yours. Might be a town house, but still.

Everyone has mentioned the fridge, there’s not much kerb appeal at the front and the blue sky has been photoshopped, because the ground is wet.

The square footage is quite small for a three bed.

Maybe declutter abit and can you do anything to the front of the house / front garden to make it a bit more appealing?

Your house is beautiful though and lovely so I think it’s more to do with the market right now and maybe price. Mortgages have gone up etc

@ElaborateCushion yes they do - they love it! The garden is east facing so the sum moves from one corner to the other during the day. Astro is because we have a dog that loves digging and we thought it looked neater.

@ThePandoricaOpens what's the deal with whether or not it can be extended? You've said it definitely can't, but the listing practically starts off with "potential for extending"!

I haven’t read all the comments, only all yours @ThePandoricaOpens

So I’m probably repeating others but for me it’s a lovely house apart from 2 things. The fridge/freezer looks wrong and really emphasises that the kitchen is too small so I would try to place that somewhere else, if possible.
Also, astroturf is no longer fashionable and most people prefer real grass to plastic so that may be putting some potential buyers off.

Mainly it’s the price (as always). Personably I would reduce to the next Rightmove band of 375k. If that is too low you will get multiple people interested. Lowering to 385k is probably not enough of a difference to attract new interest, imo.

@HollopingHooligans you could 'convert' the garage and you could also do a single story extension to the front like a few other houses in the street. But tbh I don't think that would give us the added space that we need.

Price is high, garden and rooms look quite small. Do a little more decluttering and see if the fridge can go anywhere else.

Without looking at the area - location is a huge factor on desirability - proximity to noise from busy roads, factories - amount of traffic on a nearby road or traffic to an industrial estate or school pick-up/drop off traffic. Proximity to a school maybe a positive for some looking to get inot a catchment area for a nice school and maybe a negative for a poorer rated school. How close is it to a high school - that can also be a positive or a negative depending on the needs of the buyers.

Do you like the area - is it right for job commutes for you, schools, shopping, etc? Have you considered staying and building an extension? Have you looked around the area to see what the owners of similar properties in the area have done?

Personally an utility to get the washing machine behind a closed door is one of my absolute essentials but I know that isn't possible with a lot of properties. If you upsize - how many years will your children(?) be at home - are you expecting them to head of to uni for instance?

Otherwise - your place looks quite nice IMHO.

Do you really want a bigger garden - it's more to maintain. If you want to grow your own produce you can try and get an allotment - sometimes there's a waiting list though.

I guess it's too expensive. But apart from that - firstly the fridge, obviously - coupled with the different flooring, that makes this whole area look weird and cramped. (Even though your kitchen is very nice).

There are too many functions in this space - I'd get rid of that little sofa and telly and have a bigger dining table, not jammed up against the wall. So it looks like a generous kitchen/diner. And get rid of the coat hooks etc too.

Your sitting room looks nice, though the windows look out onto parking? Might put some people off. Garden - as everyone's said, the astroturf is an issue, maybe some people won't mind. And I think there's too much garden furniture, again, it makes it look small.

The bed with the headboard at the foot makes the room look tiny, I'd turn that around pronto. Take the shelf off the wall if you have to. And I'd move the other bed round, get rid of some of that furniture if you can.

Kerb appeal is missing too, it looks quite bare. Maybe you can put some of the pots from the back garden under the windows in the front?

It's a nice house so it must be the price.

Bedroom 3 is small - is emptying it a possibility? Or emptying it as much as possible anyway even if just for photos