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

You need to be clear what market you are trying to appeal to and stage accordingly - it’s not many childless couples who are in the market for a larger house like yours. It will be young couples with small children coming up the ladder a bit from their first flat or having saved up to buy while renting. This market will be looking for usable downstairs space where they can relax, play, cook and eat together

Putting a dining table in the place where a dining table usually goes isn't staging. It's just showing the rooms for what their intended purpose is. That you live differently in it is fine, but if you want hundreds of thousands of £ off other people you need to at least be able to show that a basic family sized dining table can fit in a dining area.

I don't think that staging is the problem exactly, it's the lack of photos (on yours) showing what the rooms would be like to live in. You might take some better photos yourselves and send them to the agent because I don't think their photographer knows how to show the rooms off properly. Rearrange the furniture a bit if necessary to show where you'd watch telly, where you'd eat dinner etc.

I like the colours and decor in the bedrooms but it seems very top heavy, there are lots of bedrooms but no living space. Where's the kitchen table, and the sofa and television? In a house you expect to be able to sit down! I'd stage and photograph that room again.

Well done for posting a link for feedback. Next door seems very bland.

This one seems to be the same but has an actual lounge in one of the bedrooms.
3 bedroom town house for sale in Dickinson Walk, BEVERLEY, HU17
You really need to demonstrate more living space.

That one went on a year ago is it still for sale?

As others have said, a lot of buyers lack imagination. You need to present your house as somewhere people would aspire to live in, not somewhere that will probably be OK once they've made some changes.

You may be someone who can see past cosmetic/minor layout issues, but many people just can't (I was told this by an estate agent once and I've come to agree with him).

Oooh this one looks much cosier. The living areas in the kitchen and 1st floor living room look much more inviting.

Apart from the cheap kitchen, wallpaper, and gigantic TV in the relatively small living room, I prefer this one.

But again this agent has listed it as a 4 bed when it's clearly set up as a 3 bed. Estate agents are pricks.

I remember viewing a house that was listed as a 4 bed, I asked where the 4th bedroom was, he said we were standing in it - it was a landing at the top of the stairs that led into a bedroom. I asked him "and where would the bed go exactly?", he clearly couldn't answer me. Utter time waster, I'd never have viewed it if it'd been advertised as the 3 bed it actually was.

Obviously these houses do have the potential to be 4 beds if you sacrifice living space though!

It's not even lack of imagination though- the average family home buyer isn't going to want to haul their arse up two flights of stairs to watch an episode of The Chase, and currently there is no sofa or dining table in any rooms on the ground or first floors. That's way beyond expecting the buyer to use their imagination. Might as well empty the whole building.

I think the colour scheme is bold. Other than that, looking at other sold prices & current for sale options within a mile, someone with a £265k budget could get a detached with drive & garage / semi with drive.
Is your property in a premium area? I can see others priced similarly. I know in the past others have sold for more but maybe the market has dipped. The EA should be advising you on a strategy though, and should have stats on time to sell, average viewings etc.

It's charming and I love the high street location.

Grey kitchen is a big turnoff as is the bold colour choice elsewhere. I'd at least lighten up the kitchen. Stage the sitting area.

Market as 3 beds plus home office.

You need some vertical interest in the garden. Can you borrow a patio table with umbrella and place it at the far end to draw the eye?

Ex estate agent here (but down south).

It’s a townhouse so put the right furniture in the right rooms!!!!!

The kitchen / diner needs to have a dining table and chairs in it not a church pew.

One of the first floor bedrooms needs to actually be a lounge (as you’d expect in a town house). You have a sofa in one of the bedrooms - get it down, make it a living room with a TV in it. The mustard room is, I think, the room you need to do it in. Keep the bookshelves, maybe move the desk down to the kitchen diner.

The bedrooms all need a bed in them.

The decor is absolutely fine.

You literally just need to rejig furniture, define the purpose of each room and think about how other people would use the space not how you use it. You have a three bedroom house with a kitchen diner and separate living room. You are trying to sell it as four bedrooms with no living space the way you have furnished it and the floor plans and photos show. Unfortunately most buyers are a bit blinded by what is in front of them and will immediately discount it without actually using their imagination.

Townhouses aren’t everyone’s first choice of property style, but if you have one it needs to look like one!

There is nothing soft and comfortable about your house. People need to imagine relaxing in the house after a hard day at work, there is nothing relaxing about your living area. You may be happy sat on a church pew but most people need to see a sofa and cushions.

I don’t think the second photo is doing you any favours. Having only that very hard looking bench in what is supposed to be a living room area looks very sparse - the empty space would have me wondering whether the room was just too small to function as a proper family room.

@RatherBeOnVacation absolutely correct , agree with every point - it doesn't matter if 1st floor lounge is a tiny snug lounge- it needs one- also as kitchen is pretty roomy, needs dining table and ideally a sofa and coffee table, bookcase etc - so people can see it's a flexible use of space and also state where parking 'is' - it's a dealbreaker for most. I think decor is lovely- your layout is putting people off op- it's lovely house

Despite my user name I hate the cat in so many pictures. In particular the kitchen side. I always think cats on work surfaces are grubby, it would make me worry the house is a dirty and not well kept.

I like the decor but wouldn't view due to the open plan kitchen.living room.

It doesn't look like you use it as a living area either so much of the downstairs looks wasted space. I'd dress it with comfy chairs etc.

The real deal breaker is I'd be worried about nighttime noise with it being on a commercial street but there isn't much you can do about that

From the garden photo, it looks as if there is an industrial estate over the back, which might put off some people.

Exactly this!

OK a few things

I have looked at the house next door, the downstairs room is a big selling point and looks lovely and cozy with a view onto the garden, a sofa, tv and a dining table, also a desk and another chair - a proper entertaining kitchen marketed as an open plan living kitchen. Yours has a weird pew in it and looks very uninviting, also nowhere to eat except staring at a wall and is marketed as kitchen/family room which is not good.

Next door's listing says 'up to 4 bedrooms', yours says 3. As they do have a living room downstairs they can say this! Your EA needs to change this.

They have also left the room sizes off the floor plan, the house is very very narrow and if I saw a 8 foot 11 inch wide house I would not rush to view it! I think your agents have the sizes wrong as the top floor says it's 9 foot 1 and ground 8 foot 11, next door says 12 foot 9, is it really identical? I would measure it all yourself

If I were you I would

• Move the sofa from top floor downstairs and bring the tv down
• Get a nice rug and a dining table for that room, a couple of plants and something for the walls. Make it look inviting. Doesn't have to cost much!
• Dress the tv room as the bedroom it is
• Hire a couple of sofas to make the middle floor living room look comfortable and inviting, currently I can't see what use it is as the chairs look uncomfortable, the bureau/ desk inadequate

It looks just like a kitchen and bedrooms. No sign of a dining room or lounge. Where do you watch Tv and relax etc.

If only because they're not grey!

I love your colour choices and the styling but I wouldn't buy a house with no separate living room on the same level as the kitchen. are allthe houses in the row like that?

FOUR DOUBLE BEDROOMS???? Not if they are the same size as yours. If they are getting viewings it is arguably through misrepresentation.
They've fitted in a dining table and 4 chairs which is good. You could do that.
And they have tidied up the back garden (with that horrible plastic grass) and claim to have a DOUBLE GARAGE which is hopefully bigger than a box room... but it is a garage rather than a parking space which would add value.
I prefer yours, anyway.

I think that the layout won't suit a lot of people.

To me it's more of a 2 bed plus study.

Loo on every floor has got to be a plus though!