House not selling

[Swx]

My house has been on the market for just over 5 weeks. It’s had 2 price reductions and still we’ve only had 1 viewing. Initially it was listed at 425,000 we then dropped to 399,950 after 2 weeks and now we’ve been almost 2 weeks at 369,950 with one viewing at this price but no offer.

it’s a 5 bed detached house in Ammanford. It’s fully renovated with just under half an acre of garden space.
the only down side is that it’s on a busy road. Should we reduce the price again or just wait? Estate agents advised us not to reduce twice but we feel we are more competitively priced at the moment.

thanks in advance.

Just had a look at the link, now objectively (I know it’s your home and taste is personal) these things stand out to me:

Kitchen looks really dark in the photos and quite oppressive to be in. I’m guessing the window for it is where you’ve extended and you have lost light?

The tiles in the newly renovated bathroom are very busy, almost chaotically placed . It really not very calm to look at and such a shame. It’s not to my taste and I’d have to change it. I think the other bathrooms could do with being renovated to the same standard but more neutral.

Annoying to have to go outside to get to the utility

It's telling that you have small DC and want to move to the 'house of your dreams'. This scale of house and garden would appear to be in the 'house of your dreams' bracket but the fact that it isn't feels like the road is an issue, despite what you say. It's a big, good looking house with everything you'd need, so whatever's missing for you will be missing for your target buyer. Which I suspect is location. It will sell at the right price in the right market, but by then the house you want to buy might well have been sold. I agree it'd look bad to drop the price again so swiftly but if it's over-priced and you can cope with the drop, that may be your only option. It doesn't feel like it's a matter of better photos or adding pot plants etc (though I would start with the warmer looking in interiors and the awesome garden shots rather than the chilly looking dining and kitchen bits, and the marble in your bathroom is LOT, though not worth changing obv.)

Some of the pictures don't show a window, or give the impression the window is very small. The room with the pink couch, like the window looks too small?

Floor plan it's not clear where the doors are on all but two bedrooms. Also obviously no measurements.

The tiling in one of the bathrooms is a bit strong, not to my taste. But the house does look really good in many ways.

The kitchen looks like it lacks a window in the pics.

I don't know the area at all. But maybe the rapid price drops are also ringing alam bells. Like someone might think, well, there's something wrong. Or I'll wait till they drop it again.

It is a beautiful house and I'd live in it apart from a few things:

Tiles in the bathroom are awful IMO - expensive to replace
Step out of the bathroom - bet that's a right toe stubber!
Kitchen is way too dark and too sparse - make it look lived in
Lack of railing around raised patio - easily remedied
Floorplan rubbish
Street View doesn't take to you to property - I've been up and down road but can't find it. Map doesn't take you to the property either.
General area doesn't look great. Some nice houses but majority are not.
Look how many times the property was listed by the previous owner. It took them a long time to sell before.

The market is stagnant at the moment so either take it off the market and enjoy your lovely home or you are going to have to play the long game and be patient. Either way, I suggest you get onto the Estate Agent to sort out the floorplan and the map and street view. Do not reduce the price again, though, that on the listing looks bad.

Don’t know why it’s not selling but I love it.

I think it’s a great house.

maybe it’s the road, maybe it’s the price, but I don’t know the area so I can’t comment.

Is it another floorplan door mistake that the utility isn't accessible through the house?

It's an absolute bargain to me but I wouldn't live on a busy road.

What is the market like in general there?

Lovely house. Don’t drop any further or take it off the market until next year.

Street View doesn't take to you to property - I've been up and down road but can't find it. Map doesn't take you to the property either.

Yes! Thought it was just me.

Your house is lovely but if you want some feedback then
Depends on how busy the road at front is and what the speed limit is
The drive looks small in the photo how many cars does it fit?
The rooms do looks quite small - dimensions would help
The bathroom is clean and modern but is very busy looking
The patio is surely against regs with no rails and if they have small children it would have to be done practically on the first day as it's a hazard.

It’s a lovely house. The only reason I can see for it not selling is it being right on the road. If your area is anything like where I live though, the market is dire at the moment.

Our house has been on the market for six weeks, we had two viewings in the first week and nothing since. Houses on our estate usually sell within a week or two, nine have gone up for sale since January and none have yet sold. One has reduced the asking price twice and five others have reduced too.

We went for a drive around the area we plan to move to a couple of weekends ago and at 4.50pm, 10 minutes before they closed, we drove onto a new build development to have a nosy around and I popped into the sales office to see what literature they had (mindful that they were soon closing).
They couldn’t do enough for us, reopened the show home and even took us inside available plots - we were the first and only visitors they’d had that weekend.

It’s a family home. I would constantly be worried about children and dog getting into the road so easily - it really is immediately on it. Also, the raised patio and steps would be a constant hassle trying to stop toddlers going down the steps or off the edge.

Little things would annoy me, like no doors on some rooms on floor plans and no measurements, and very similar photos next to each other. Might be enough to put me off viewing if I was also unsure about the road.
You could put potted plants around the edge of the patio to make it look less stark and detract from no railings.

No measurements on the floor plan. No total area.
2 things that annoyed me so much when I was house hunting that any house that did not have these was dismissed unless it looked so perfect for my needs I could take a punt on looking at it anyway.

Why oh why is it not standard to provide in listings?
Not complaining to you, @Swx , it's estate agents that should make sure these extremely material facts are ON THE PLAN. Having the measurements of the rooms separately isn't enough, it's such a faff to keep flipping back and forth to work out what's what.

there are 12 five bed houses on sale in "Ammanford" and you are now the 4th cheapest of them
I think you just need to wait

Although I agree with a previous comment about photos needing to show both directions of the main rooms as some look dark with small window

Making people aware you run chicken coups is necessary, but the "rear parking" is not at well illustrated bearing mind the previous comment from someone thinking you have only one (small) space for a car at the front.

Normally I click on these posts and immediately think “that is way overpriced”, or “god that house is hideous, no wonder it’s not selling” - none of those things are true in your case!

The photos are terrible (make it look poky and dark - even if it is, good photos should disguise that!) and the floor plan is terrible (no dimensions, obvious errors like no doors into bedrooms). The £70k price reduction in a month would also concern me. I’d agree with others, take if off the market, and relist in September with a new agent, new photos and an accurate floor plan.

First impression was that the house is directly on to the pavement. A closer look shows there is a fence, it's difficult to see. The kitchen looks very dark, I can see that it's been extended but it looks like an internal, windowless, kitchen. Would these photos benefit from being redone?

You’re sensibly fishing for feedback OP so my honest review is same as other PP re it’s a very lovely well kept home and maybe requires better photographing and light but…I got a jump scare with the bathroom, it made me feel quite ill with all that marbling. It’s just a very distinctive marmite decor choice to me personally. And I wouldn’t purchase for that alone and would rather keep searching because yes I could eventually save to redo it but even a few weeks of living with that would be too much for me!

On a different note, as another PP also said, sometimes the mere fact that a property has had several significant price drops in succession can perhaps also spook people?

How is the downstairs loo ventilated?

I suspect there's a lot of overlap in replies here but also a reflection of how different people have different priorities when househunting.

I have to say for me unfortunately the deal breaker would be the location on a busy road, which I know you can't change.

If that wasn't the non-stater point for me...

• Kitchen and dining room look a bit empty so it's hard to see them as homely. Maybe an appliance or two or a staged fruit bowl or something!?

• The pictures of the patio and first one of garden show them in complete shade - if they're ever in the sun I'd get photos of them then. I've always said to DH "you can bring shade into a sunny garden but you can't force sun into a shaded garden".

• Those bathroom tiles look very expensive... They are also completely not to my taste so I'd be paying twice over to then replace them. (This actually stopped us from offering on a house as they had a very swanky new black kitchen installed that the agent kept saying was only a year old and cost £20k... Which wasn't helpful as we hated it and could tell the sellers were factoring the newness of the kitchen into their asking price).

• I'm also one of those people who track prices so would be a little unnerved by the high listing and then very quick reductions twice over. If you're now in no rush I'd be inclined to take it off market and relist in a month or so.

Yes the front photos need redone, I thought it was directly onto the road I didn't see the dance or front garden or pavement. Also the whole drive needs to be in shot not cut off. The angles make it look tiny.

Agree with a lot of the other feedback; the things I liked when I was house hunting were a compass on the floor plan so I knew which ways it faced - and street view.

I’ve found yours eventually on streetview, nowhere near the pin. For others wanting to see its down the road to the south west, almost opp the little road called Gelli Wriddon.

Aha - found it, thank you! So in fact it's not a small one-car drive, it goes on behind the property and there's also space to the side of the house to park too, with that lane running down. Plus you can see the front garden set up better. So yes, the photos don't show the setting of the house very well for parking, safety purposes etc.

You seem to be competing with other properties in the area and prices are all over the place. The renovation look good, but it may not be everyone's cup of tea and they would not value the same as you.
But all in all, the market is really slow. If you don't have to sell, maybe consider stay put a bit longer and take the house off the market.

Sadly, yes, the bathroom with the marbled tiles would put me off because I would find it very difficult to live with and equally difficult to justify the cost and wastage of having to rip it all out and replace it.
I know it's minor in the scheme of things but sometimes a seemingly minor thing can tip the balance. Because it actually looks like a very lovely house apart from that.