No viewings at all?

[ThatUniqueCat]

We've been on the market for just over 2 weeks, and have had absolutely nothing - no viewings, no requests to view, apparently no interest whatsoever. I'm pretty sure the EA hates us now, as I've followed up repeatedly and asked to make some changes to the listing. EA keeps saying it's a difficult market, which we could understand, but we expected at least a little bit of interest!

We told the EA we wanted to sell quickly as we've found a property we would like, and we've priced at the lowest valuation we were given (£265k) and £15k under the exact same house, which is for sale next door. The last one for sale on our street, an end terrace (ours is mid), was up for £315k and we think sold (they changed the sign, nothing on RM yet) about a month ago.

Is the market just atrocious, or should we be expecting our EA to do more? I'm becoming unglued, I just want to be able to proceed with the property we've found! I know the photos aren't ideal - it was a drab day, and I've since touched up the paint throughout so there aren't any more swatches/patches - but the EA says they feel the photos represent the property well and wouldn't advise changing anything else for now.

The listing in question:
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/157713758#/?channel=RES_BUY

Aww thank you! I'm not sure I know what the pricing is here either anymore!

Where does the dining table go? And sofas? You need to put the living room back in.

For me the price is great but I don't know the area, it does look like it has no living room or dining room, the usable worktop space in the kitchen is very small, garden too small. If you use the biggest room on the middle floor as a sitting room the other bedrooms are not very big, you also don't seem to have much storage, I can't see where I would put my clothes and shoes let alone stuff, especially with DC that's an issue. Also the outside looks like it might have some character and whilst I do like your colours/decoration there are no real features, whereas the outside is made to look older.

Aww thank you! I'm glad we're not trying to buy in London - it's much more reasonable up norf!

You've asked what's wrong and you've been told time and time again - there's no living space. Or at least viewers can't envisage one because it's not dressed as such. You need to do that asap and then have new photos taken. So what if the EA has advised not to do new photos, you're the client, you tell them what to do not the other way round. The idea upthread of dressing the downstairs as a proper dining area and the upstairs front as the proper sitting room is a great one.

I think if I had small children I would be put off the property due to the location and the parking. Can you enter your property through the garden from the parking area, or do you have to go down the alley to the front entrance? It says private parking, but it looks like that would be numbered spaces in a shared car park which could mean hassle over who parks in which space.

If I had older children I would be put off by the lack of shared living space.

Looking at the "similar properties" list at the bottom you can get a larger semi-detached house with a bigger garden for £50,000 less in a nearby location.

We've swapped the study and the front bedroom around from the way they were when we bought, but the original floor plan has the front bedroom on the first floor as a lounge.

As others have already asked....where is the parking? Also, 2 weeks is not very long at all. Especially not in February. Things usually begin to perk up in March.

To a potential buyer, it looks like it would need a lot of work to brighten it up and make it feel more homely. The garden furniture and slabs could do with a power wash, and something needs done with the grass.

There's nothing that makes the house stand out that would make you stop to look over the listing. The biggest thing is, it just doesn't feel inviting.

How you change this without painting, shifting things about or adding little accents here and there, I'm not sure.

I like your decor, it's attractive and also stylish. What I am ambivalent about is that it is totally open-plan downstairs, though the sitting room (?) upstairs is a nice room. Also the garden is a bit boring. A better photo of the garden, with the grass cut maybe and a couple of pots of something (I know, it's winter) would help it no end.
Looking at the area I think it must be competively priced and you say you took the lowest valuation. In consolation, it can take a couple of weeks for a property to be noticed but I see no reason why you should not, once noticed, have a quick sale.

My first glance opinion:

Which house is it? That's not clear from first photo.

Why is there a photo of the back of an exterior door?

Why are there paint swatches on the wall in that photo? That says unfinished to me.

The photo of the garden makes it look deeply gloomy.

There is no lounge.

Dress the family room to be a lounge with a couple of sofas and cosy things.

If I was buying a house that size I'd want a kitchen/family room and a lounge though.

Buyers have no vision - I think it looks oddly furnished and laid out - for example, the one room with a proper sofa in it is obviously on the top floor with the rest of the living space on the ground floor. You need to rearrange all your furniture so that the house, which is very narrow and not particularly big, looks like it works as a home. It obviously works for you and I'm not trying to be critical (honest!) but the way it's currently laid out is bonkers. Get some proper furniture in to the kitchen/diner, change one of the bedrooms on floor one to a proper living room and redistribute the rest of the bedroom furniture accordingly. No need to repaint. Your estate agents sound terrible btw - really poor advice imho! Good luck

Where's the living room??

There's that odd church pew thing in the kitchen and then what looks like a teenagers TV room upstairs. Where's the room where everyone gathers, where you go with you have guests over, where you put your Christmas tree, where everybody watches the Champions League Final or whatever, where's that room?

Nobody in their right mind would be put off dirty paving slabs.

Probably need to make that clear on the spec.

Your house is gorgeous, it must be the market - it’s VERY slow still.

It looks very cluttered both in terms of stuff and pictures on walls etc. also the clothes on display in two of the bedrooms makes me think there's not enough storage. The colour wouldn't put me off though.

Need to go back to this and update plans and pics accordingly. Your pic of the 1st floor ro makes it look like a room without purpose. Sort of office/snug/craft room/dumping ground.

The listing has one main living space, yet the room doesn't have a dining table or sofa in it, so currently looks like a family couldn't actually live in it as the main living space.

Firstly, your EA sounds pretty lazy and dismissive. How long are you tied in to exclusivity with them? I’d be insisting on new photographs, and also an update to the floor plan that shows which of the upstairs rooms is a ‘living room / bedroom’

You should also have a photograph of your private parking.

For me it looks a bit bland. Always have a big bowl of fruit, fresh flowers and flowering plants and never have your pets on show. Lots of people don’t like cats and seeing them on top of surfaces is just a big no no.

Lovely house and a good price. The only issues I can see are:
-There is no photo of the parking situation as far as I can see
-Townhouse location is niche, might always take a bit longer
I don't think the paint colours are a deal-breaker, they are tasteful

It's honestly not as loud as one would expect - you generally can't hear people unless they're directly outside the front door and you have the windows open! I'm incredibly noise-sensitive and it doesn't bother me at all. We're in a market town where (generally) the closer to the high street the more attractive a property is, so I would expect people to be comfortable with/interested in that if they're looking in the area.

There are plenty of things we would expect folks might find offputting, but it's still surprising to us that there haven't been any viewings! I agree on the garden space, though - we have an allotment to supplement it, and the one we have our eye on has a paddock in addition to a decent bit of garden so I'm already keeping an eye out for a rescue donkey ...