How to attract more viewings on our property

[Elzebelz]

We put our house on the market in November and didn't get much views at all or they were a cross sell.
We went off the market and reduced our house and extra 25k and went back on market on boxing day to encourage more people genarally interested in our property to put a offer in. We have had more viewings but feel they are not in a proceeding position. We don't want to reduce again as we are below our middle average and wouldn't be able to proceed with our dream home if we did.
We were a 3 bed house converted into a 5 bed house and good sized bedrooms. We use one room as a home office. It's a lovely area and very popular for Halloween and Christmas spirit even Easter events.
So many people are so keen to come to the estate on Halloween, Easter and Christmas for all the displays and events that are run. They are close to primary schools and high schools with a little park near the back of our house.
I have attached the link for some advice on how to get more people through the door and get us sold! We have found our dream home a really don't want to lose it and are so desperate to move closer to our children's schools as I do not drive and the travel becomes to much some times.
I found this property on the Rightmove Android app and wanted you to see it: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/154682705
Would anyone help us get our house out there and help a mumma move.?

Also as a quick fix I would consider buying a proper dining table - maybe get rid of one of your massive sofas to make room?

Also fyi but you have identifying information of your kids on that tour; including their full names and dates of birth as well as non blurred out photos of them !

OMG, redo the photos in daylight!

It will make a huge difference to them.

You've got to drop the price to be honest. The downstairs of your house is what you would get in a 2 bed house. I have a 3 bed semi and we have a lounge the same size as yours. A garden room the same size again. A large kitchen diner. A dining room which we use as an office. A downstairs loo and utility cupboard and coat cupboards in the hallway.

It really needs a conservatory to add a dining space but that would cost loads and not add any value so you might as well just lower the price.

I can only see one wardrobe in the whole house. Where do you hang all of your clothes??
Downstairs is tiny for a 5 bed. It does not appear to be a living room/dining room as it looks so small. The photos also need to be redone. The kitchen is very small, I'd be wanting twice the size for the amount of people living there. This is a three bed home with loft dressing rooms.

• I agree with pp it's too heavy but that can't be changed
• I haven't compared against other houses locally, but it would be a stretch to price it as a true five bedder because it doesn't have the reception rooms to match
• ultimately it's only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it, but there is plenty you can do to get more people through the door.

I'm not generally a fan of spending money for the sake of a sale, and certainly don't have any truck for dressing a property and hiring stuff, but in your shoes I would:

Photo 1: crop the photo to remove the neighbour's van, soften the angle so it's not taken fully front on, open a window on the first floor
2: put it much further down the order and crop out the ugly spy cam
3: take it in the daylight. Find a new home for the work desk. Rearrange the furniture to get the dining table fully pulled out showing there's space for seating and dining. Get a rug.
5: if this is the best angle, take it from normal head height not midget height. Perhaps angle slightly left so there's more kitchen and less fridge. Don't show any other pictures of the kitchen
8/9: the bed rammed against the window and the excess of furniture on the other side highlights the lack of other storage/loft. Can you remove the small drawers with the fan on, turn the tall unit through 90 degrees (will it fit?) move the bed over and then get the drawers in on the other side by the window? You need to show this room as a PROPER double. Hide the laundry basket FGS.
Don't use 19 or 20 and I'm in two minds about 12.

I'd get new photos done, you have a different lay out on the virtual tour compared to pictures and I think it looks nicer. Maybe smaller fridge in kitchen and rug in living room. I think it's a bit over priced

Oh wow, I've also just had a look at the virtual tour and didn't realise the "main" bedroom was being used for a child. No wonder the room with the double bed is so squashed.

Seriously, what grown up wants to have to climb into bed from the foot end or over another grown up. I know it's hard with DC involved but I think you need a serious declutter of kids' stuff and swap bedrooms so the house has a proper sensible grown up double bedroom.

I'm going to agree with pp about the photo of the living room, it looks so dingy it could be a basement! Where do you have your meals? Five of you have Christmas dinner on that table pushed up against the wall?
I don't know what Halloween and Christmas spirit events are, but they're not going to sell your house. Like pp I live in a 3 bed semi and we have a sitting room, a separate dining room, kitchen and study downstairs.
You're going to have to lower the price.

If it works so well as a home for a family of 5 how come you can’t even have a meal together?

The reality is you’ve made do with the space you have and have made some bad conversion choices in order to get all the kids in, but that doesn’t mean it’s actually a 5 bed property.

Someone is selling the same flat as mine across the road except they’ve used the same footprint to make 3 small bedrooms instead of 2 good doubles and all it’s done is reduce their asking price by 50k.

Ultimately it was a 3 bed house, despite the conversion looks lovely and done to a good standard. It's not 'big' enough for a family which requires 5 bedrooms and it's probably too overpriced/nice for investors who look for HMOs.

Also, a hot selling point to me is community spirit and a good Halloween area is on my search list!

100% redo the pictures in daylight - house looks so cold and unappealing with those curtain-open shots of the black outdoors!

I do agree with a lot of the other posters - the downstairs is very small and the parking would worry me for a 5-bed just having "spaces" and a car port is OK in the 3-bed on a new build estate expectations, but if I was buying a 5-bed I'd expect that to come with a private drive minimum and preferably a garage. i feel like the house could be appealing at the right price to a smaller family who were happy to use some of the first floor bedrooms as living spaces, but as it's presented it's a very niche market I think.

I agree about the space. In fact I used your living room to illustrate what my living room looks like on another thread ( I thought all publicity is good publicity Op) and mines a 2 bed. Same size.

I think marketing it as a five bed misses the target market. You want the young families with young kids who are looking at 3 beds. They won't be looking up 5 beds on their property searches.
Make a bedroom into snug tv room and downstairs into a casual dining room. Then you have a useful 4 bed.

I think the trouble is the "main" bedroom has been compromised by adding stairs and it's now an awkward shape/size to use as a main bedroom. I'm not sure there's any real main bedroom left in the house.

Make a top floor bedroom into a study or home office like others have said.

where’s the table to eat dinner?

This offers much better value, garage off road parking more recently updated and bigger rooms too. I would market it as three or 4 bedroom, reduced the price accordingly by maybe £20k and it should sell.

@AndThereSheGoes interesting you say that - I was going to suggest turning the lounge into a diner/family room with proper size table plus one sofa and TV and bookcase ( it would fit) and use the 11x9 room as a snug/TV and one sofa room - nice lamp etc

• use the 15 x9 room as a proper adult bedroom to show you can get a bed in and the other 3 bedrooms for the kids - if your H needs an office then temporarily put 2 kids in bunks in one bedroom

I also think there's more than one type of family these days. The extra rooms might be good for "every other weekend" blended families.
Not having massive downstairs space is less problematic if there's a couple with young kids most days but older kids once in a while. The 3 loos is a selling point in that case more than having communal space.

To give you an idea this below is a 4 bedder detached 3 storey to rent in corsham - so about 8 miles away from us- the layout I feel is more what someone looking at 4/5 beds will be expecting for a family - ( it's a really nice one too if anyone's after a lovely rental in a lovely town ( it's a biggish estate though)

Thing is you are really going to struggle to get anyone in that market interested - so as suggested below maybe switch the layout a bit as it seems to me many tend to want good sized family room with table and seem less bothered about a formal lounge ( personally I'm greedy and want both) although I know that's a fag moving stuff - or I think you would be better off dropping a bit and marketing as a 3 bedder with bonus loft rooms - great for wardrobes/office etc - I suspect people looking at 3 bedders might well be interested at the right price- people looking at 5 bedders won't be due to it being too top heavy

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/157006265

You realise that people viewing the virtual tour know your address and your children's names right?

@Tupster I hadn't twigged that former main room has been compromised for the stairs, but of course it has. Still, perhaps the alcove area could be a dressing/ wardrobe area?

I suspect most families - even blended - want communal space. Having a dining table that everyone can sit around is a must for most people.

When you say they aren’t proceedable, would they have offered if they were? Is there a potential that they might be in a better position soon? If so you could always holdout a bit longer.

Are they still building in the estate? If so is it possible they have decided to buy a new one? I only mention this as the local housing estate near us is still expanding and they are being sold new for less than I have seen houses come up for sale on the same estate that are being resold.