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?

Are you opposite a pub?

Or BNP head quarters ?

Is there a property development given the go ahead right behind you?

Are you next to or near a noisy road/railway?

Neighbour's house obvious shit hole/drug den?

Permit only parking with massive speed bumps?

Massive tree right outside?
Just thinking of things which would put me off a property within 10 mins of arriving.

1000% people moving for the schools. We are directly between two of the top state seniors in the country and one of the top state primaries. I def know who the buyer is - all the viewers have been pretty much the same.

Only thing I can think is they cut the trees down opposite so now you can see the petrol station around the corner which annoyed us when they did it

No and we don’t smoke, no pets - can’t think smell is an issue

Extremely frustrating OP but I agree with so many posters that market is slow.
I was fortunate to have sold over 6 months ago. When I visited my estate agent recently, they confirmed that properties in my previous estate haven't even attracted one single viewing.

..... could this be it?

Could this be the the thing which is making the difference between similar properties to yours in the area selling and yours not?

I mean if so it's sad cos it's out of your control - but if it is the answer at least you know and can stop stressing about making changes to your perfectly good house!

I just feel that that 10 min turn around seems so short. It's something putting people off as they arrive or shortly after. Before getting into the house almost.

🙄 for a 4 bed house?!

Thinking about the petrol station - may be concerns about traffic/people noise, traffic using your road to get to it a lot, open late at night so folks wandering about late?

Conversely could be seen as being really handy ! 🍦🍺🥟🥨🫒🥤

Mention it and make it a selling point ?!

The last time we moved the EA said not to bother about the worn stair carpet and old wallpaper in the hallway. We took this advice, house wouldn't sell so we got a cheap plain carpet and painted the hallway. It attracted more viewers and sold shortly thereafter.
But we put the house on the market in November and it's probably the worst time of year to try selling.
It eventually sold in the following spring.
Good luck @RobEmily

Not really as playroom has built in units for storage

Could this be part of the problem? What are they like?

There's nothing worse than viewing a house where xyz has clearly been done recently - but you hate it.

For me, any bright glossy uber-modern kitchens with shiny tiled floors I hate - I think they're cold and soulless BUT it's a popular look and I see it everywhere. Same with grey or light coloured work tops. In fact, the dreaded 'grey-out' full stop.

I totally skip houses where this is the case because I couldn't live with kitchens or bathrooms I hated - but even if I could afford it, I couldn't bear the waste of ripping out an expensive four year old kitchen either. I'd rather just leave it.

Ah now I feel stupid for dropping the price to offers over - the EA suggested as soon as we had the first viewings booked and I said I was open to offers

What's the garden like, OP? Does it appear larger on the listing and/or is it particularly overlooked? These would be issues for me.

Hard to say without a Rightmove link. But it's the wrong time of the year, people generally start buying in spring. People are worried about the upcoming budget too.

I think people are waiting to see if RR does anything with SDLT in end of November budget. A month is not that long. Also many people wouldn't want to be thinking of moving until after Xmas and New Year.

It's not you, it's the market. I live in a great area, in a catchment for great state schools. Very little here is moving. Everyone is sitting tight for the budget, then of course it's Christmas. Depending on what RR does, it will get better in the spring (or desperately worse).

This thread is a bit pointless, a bit like asking on style and beauty does this outfit suit me? and just posting a description of the outfit, the very least you can do OP is post the floor plan.

Are you insane? Zone 1 in London?

Have you ever been to London? Have you looked on rightmove in zone 1? Clearly not. Millions. Millions they are.

I did a recent thread that was surprising to me - plenty of times changing agents actually works (and since you’re not getting feedback yours don’t sound very engaged).
Some pp changed agents and got higher offers.

Why do you need to move op? What is "wrong" for you maybe wrong for others? Or are you moving location completely?

My husband wants somewhere more rural

Maybe add that. "Superb house current owners very happy but relocating " "current owners love the xxx and xxx but relocating to new area "

If other similar houses are selling I really think that you need to get the agents to give you more meaningful feedback. If they don't do that you should go to another agent and ask their opinion.

Agreed. Also there are more houses on the market at the moment and more new housing developments. This is in stark contrast to a couple of years ago where housing was scarce and properties were being snapped up. Plus, at that kind of pricing, you aren’t going to have as much interest as say a property of between 200-500k anyway, which is no reflection on you or your home, just on people’s earnings. That said, it might not hurt to put the feelers out on other people’s experiences with the estate agent you are with. It sounds promising as you are getting viewings and, as some posters have said a month isn’t that long. I would expect it to take longer for a high value property like yours to sell, unfortunately, especially in the current market.

Impossible to tell without looking at the listing.

Chances are it’s 99% price and 1% looming Budget