Why no offers on our house?

[RobEmily]

We’ve been on the market for a month, which I know isn’t long on today’s market, but we’ve had 15 viewings and no offers.

Our property was originally valued at £850-£875k by 3 agents. We put it on for £850k. We dropped it to offers in excess of £800k on Monday. We have told the agent from the outset that we are very open to offers.

Our house has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, open plan kitchen/diner, 2-3 reception rooms, utility, garden and large drive plus small garage. Very well located for excellent schools, high street and train station. The house could probably do with decorating / new carpets but kitchen and bathrooms all done in last four years.

There have been quite a few similar properties to ours on the market but all sold, one a three bed on a much busier road which is 400 sq st smaller than ours, but much better finish, which was on for £850k and sold.

Another very similar decorative order to ours, went on same day, slightly smaller and I think a worse location sold when it was on for offers over £875k.

Everything else up our road sells very quickly, the 2 most recent sales were on for £750k but they were 3 beds and 600-700 sq ft smaller than ours as we have done big extensions.

We are getting very little meaningful feedback from the agent - they just say the people liked it but want to keep looking.

One person has mentioned they wanted it to be in a better decorative order, but we are open to negotiation / offers so I figured people would just want to decorate to their taste… should we be taking it off the market and decorating ourselves?

For recent viewings I’ve also tried to declutter more, we have 2 small children so I’ve now started removing some of the toys from their rooms and downstairs to do this.

The viewings by the agent typically take 10-15mins (I can see on the ring doorbell). They always book them one after another, 15 mins apart. Some viewings are under 10 mins. I don’t even think you could look around the whole house never mind go in the garden and garage in under 10mins!

We are viewing lots of properties currently and typically take 20-30mins in all of them. The only one an agent rushed us round in 15mins because they had another viewing booked we left hating.

Am I being impatient or should I be considering changing agents?

Kitchens and bathrooms are all less than 4 years old, definitely don’t think they need doing

There are very few houses coming onto the market in our area at a mid-high price point so if I was looking, unless I was in a rush, I might be waiting for the market to improve so I could have more properties to compare - if that makes sense?

Where is your price point in your area? Is £800k a typical family home price or is it above or below average?

But yes, post a link!

There’s nothing controversial or suspicious that in aware of and I’ve lived there 10 years

Typical family home

10-15 mins for a 4 bed is a very quick viewing.

If the EA is booking them every 15 mins are they rushing people round?

When we moved we went to see a gorgeous house, but the estate agent was horrendous. Barely gave a second to look before he was chivvying us along to the next room. It felt like they were rushing us to hide issues. They were in for a year with that agent, went on with a different agent and sold in a couple of more the.

Post a link OP you’ll get very good advice

I don’t know the sold price, just asking price, but we haven’t had offers, they clearly had offers they would accept, we’re not even getting low offers

Can you think of any differences regarding the ones that have sold?

My house is exactly the same as lots on the road but I specifically wanted certain things that made my house more attractive over the others eg I wanted the garden aspect, I wanted one part of the road as it's quieter, not near another road so no glare of car headlights when they turn, my garden and attached ones all have mature trees which helps with privacy.

Are you using any air fresheners? I went to see a place once with plug in air fresheners and couldn't hang around in there. What is the downstairs layout right now? Also what sort of dated furniture do you have- could you get throws cushions or rugs to make it more welcoming?

Although a kitchen and bathroom may be relatively new, if the style wasn’t what I liked, I’d be pricing up replacements and discounting it from the asking price.

Op £20k work for you and your builder husband is probably £40 - £50k work for somebody who needs to employ a builder to do the work. I probably is the price.

If its a family home lots of people with young children can't be bothered to do work also might not have the cash available.

Recently had our house valued for remortgage and I was chatting to the surveyor. He said houses which are done and finished are snapped up.

I only need to look on Rightmove to see that the houses that need work are hanging around. That is very different to a few years ago.

Property developer here. The market is depressed across the country due to Labour reform of stamp duty, landlords leaving the BTL market and cost of living impacting mortgage affordability etc. Go on rightmove and do a search of properties with similar specifications to yours. Click the filter box marked sold stc and see what sells, and for what price/ internal condition. You can never decorate to suit the tastes of everyone, and remember estate agents will give you the negative feedback to demoralise you as part of the attempt to get you to reduce the price. They want their sale commission and that often means accepting a lower offer than the seller had hoped for. I recently told an estate agent to go away and not come back until he had sold all rival properties in the road where one of my developments is. They want to get you on their books with a signed contract, but once they have that they will go to work with all the negative feedback (like a script). If you are going to have a makeover, aim for good quality white paint throughout. It may look sterile, but it offers a canvas for a buyer and also makes your place look bigger and brighter. But I would start by looking at what is selling, and at what price and in what condition. No point throwing a ton of money at a house when the problem might just be a very slow market atm.

You can find sold prices here - https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices.html
But only around 6 months after they've sold will it appear.

@NeedSleepNow said what I was thinking. I did the same thing last year (cheaper house, different locality) by putting all the crap in storage and "dressing" each room carefully. I got all the advice I needed on the internet.

I think you should be brave a post a link.

without seeing it it sounds like it would be worth taking it off the market and doing all the jobs you listed. I think if you’re selling a ‘done’ home it’s probably best for it be in good decorative order and have the best layout. A lot of viewers do lack vision or just want to do zero work for a while.

Another one saying post a link. Re dining room / playroom - can you swap them round by physically moving furniture across, so the dining room is nearest the kitchen?

Then it’s a question of waiting for the right person and probably the uncertainty of “ offers over” .

At that price point without open plan you better be in zone 1/2 London.

In the area I live (not in the South East) that's a typical price for a 4-bedroom semi.

I'd be surprised if you can get a 4-bedroom house for that in Zone 1 or 2 London but maybe so?!

That’s what I don’t get. We didn’t decorate as thought people would do that but we haven’t even had offers.

I understand not wanting to post a link but could you screen shot some of the pictures and post them?

Sorry I phrased it wrong, my husband said £20k for someone else to do it. But that’s why we have dropped the price

I'd be surprised if you can get a 4-bedroom house for that in Zone 1 or 2 London but maybe so?!

Plumstead you would & definitely in plenty of z3. London prices have softened, flats have struggled since Brexit tbh. It probably hasn't filtered out yet. Reduced wfh & commuting is ££££ will also have an impact.

@RobEmily I would also think about who your potential buyers are. Is it families who need to be close to transport & schools? Downsizers etc

Part of the issue is you don’t know what things are actually selling for unless you are checking the land registry. You can see the asking price and track how long they are on the market but without knowing the final price achieved you can be sucked in to thinking the advertised sale price is being achieved.

A friend just sold her house, they had a series.of open houses and had about 50 people, no offers. Then out of the blue had a request for a second viewing and was offered over the asking price. It's a difficult market