Selling extended house for less than purchase price: how will buyers react?

[Spotteddaisy]

Grateful for any advice please re house selling.
We are not strangers to house selling as have moved 5 times in the last 15 years, (but in the same area) We have always made a small profit on the house sales to put towards the new property.

In Autumn 2023 we moved to Dorset, 10 mins from the coast.
Detached 4 bedroom house with a plot of just under an acre. In a lovely village, good schools etc nearby. Previously lived in Hampshire.

We have extended the house by rejigging the layout and adding a big dining/family room downstairs. We've made other improvements too like insulation, adding solar panels etc.
Had a couple of estate agents out last year to value it who said to market at £850k. But we have been on the market since last June with no offers at all. We have now reduced the price by £100k and changed agents at the end of last year.

We have had a few more viewings with this agent but still no offers. Which obviously means it's the price. So we asked our agent what we can do as we're aware that properties still on the market after 9 months don't look good.

He said we should drop the price to £695k. We are not sure what to think about this (my DH is fuming)as we bought the house for more than that 2.5 years ago and have spent a substantial amount on the extension and improvements. Surely anyone who has done their homework and looked up house prices etc will see that we bought it for more then added an extension so to then list it for less just makes it look really dodgy? I don't think the market has decreased so much in less than 3 years that we would have to list our (bigger, improved) house for less than we bought it for?! I know that ultimately no one will care what we've spend on it but the fact that it's now bigger than it was must count for something?

We really aren't enjoying it here and now need to move to somewhere cheaper and to be back nearer to family. This has all been a massive costly mistake and I feel so guilty. The fact that we could end up in negative equity is just stressing me out even more. We've never made a loss on a house and ploughed all of our savings into this one. We were so full of hope when we moved here, but it's all just been awful.

As a potential buyer what would people think about a house being listed at less than it sold for not even 3 years ago, even after its been extended?

Your home is beautiful, though well out of my price bracket! However I noticed that the listing (and your posts here) don’t mention that it backs onto the village church and cemetery. Obviously there’s not much you can do about that, but I expect it could put some people off. I’d be fine about it (peaceful, probably good for nature, won’t be built on) - but others might not.

Property prices were inflated 3 years ago, especially in coastal areas. It was a consequence of lockdown.

I'm in Cornwall and in my village lots of people are stuck on the market wanting more than they paid a few years ago ( it turned out not to be living the dream I assume) I have friends who have spent £1.2 million on their house including renovations and the realistic price is now £800k and that's pushing it

I also have a house in the south east. I 'sold' it for £475k in 2017( it fell through) Now wanting to sell it and the estate agent says £475k is realistic.

Thank you. We think it is a nice house.
I dont think we've done anything to make it worse!

We are all electric here. There's no gas to this particular site. There is in the rest of the village but where the new houses are all used to be farmland about 10 years ago so maybe the plot was too big to run the gas to. Plus, we have the church and graveyard to the other side of us so that can't be dug up to run pipes etc.

The house was a worse EPC when we bought it. There were no carpets (all of upstairs was bare floorboards) anywhere and the older electric heaters cost a fortune. We have added cavity wall insulation, the solar panels, energy efficient/smart lightbulbs everywhere and better heating panels oh and an air pump that does air con and heating which is about 20x cheaper to run than the previous electric heaters.
Plus we use the 2 working fireplaces.
We're a bit annoyed about the EPC as feel we have improved the house considerably.

Did you over pay in the first place? Moving to a new area it's easy to not be fully aware how much things are worth. I would just think it was a bargain if it's a nice house in a good area at a cheap price. I assume the extension isn't really ugly? Some extensions really don't add value, one near us I would never buy because the extension is really horrible to look at even though it obviously adds extra space. Leave it until the summer to see if the nice weather brings out the buyers? Particularly since you are near the coast. If not and if you really have to sell you just have to do what you have to do.

This is the only thing that occurred to me too: how often do the church bells ring, and does the village have a campanology group? How often do funerals take place? Is the cemetery open to the public 24 hours? Thoughts like this might be enough to put people off from a viewing or offer, however much they love the house itself.

I think it’s lovely and could almost be tempted myself if it was a bit lower. It worries me though that your run of bad luck is connected to the move and the house, purely for selfish reasons on my part as we’re considering it.

I think it’s the market honestly. We have our eye on Devon and we can see the market is fairly static there too.

Yes we are next door to the church. It doesn't bother us at all as it is very quiet with lots of wildlife in the centre of the village. It's easily visible in the pictures and on the maps. It's a lovely old church that still holds the occasional wedding etc. Thankfully there are no bells though!

Actually none of the feedback we have had has mentioned the proximity to the church at all. I suppose some people might not like it but I'd hope that before even viewing they would look at the location etc and obviously not view if they were that put off by it.

If the church doesn’t have bells and is genuinely quiet, I think it would be worth mentioning this in the listing. You might be losing a lot of viewings for this reason from people who never get to the stage of giving feedback.
Talking of which, what ARE people saying post viewing?

It wouldn’t put me off at all. I’d not give it much thought, although I’d probably assume you initially overpaid. Id always be very cautious buying a house so the fact the price had been lowered wouldn’t make me more cautious.
I cant see anything wrong with the house. It’s lovely and the grounds are amazing too.
Maybe you could include some photos of the views out the windows.
The church and cemetery would be a big plus to me.
Also what about selling off some of the land?

Your house is beautiful.

To me it looks like very good value at 750k. I am used to prices in the south east but I don't know Weymouth well - is the area a bit depressed?

I think the main problem is your original agent put it on way too high at 850k. If it had been listed at 750k in the first place or even 800k I think it would have attracted a lot more interest as houses new to market get the most attention. Now it has been hanging around a while, unfortunately, which doesn't help.

Also, you reduced the price in January when you should have reduced the price by late summer 2025 when it didn't sell at 850k. January and February are bad months for house sales but now we are in Spring and the weather has improved, you may find more viewing requests start to come in.

This has turned into a longish post but my advice is to leave it on at 750k. There is no urgent need to move and I think you should achieve close to that price now it is on at the right price and at a good time of year for viewings.

You are in the same situation as my neighbours I mentioned in my previous post. They have also had a lot of bad luck and associate it with the house.

You need to break the association, a good therapist can help you do that. Otherwise you are throwing, what, £200k away? Can you really afford to do that? It's a beautiful house and your children are happy there, there must be a way to make it work without losing so much.

Just out of interest what price do you think would be suitable? I won't be offended. If people will only condiser offering if it is £50k cheaper then I guess that's what we'll have to do.

I think when we are back nearer "home" we will feel more settled and able to deal with more things like potential childcare and other things that would be made so much less stressful if we had people nearby who we could rely on for support. Feeling lonely and isolated in a new area makes everything worse I suppose.

When we bought it it was reduced by £100k over a couple of months. But I think that's because of a marriage break up and it was one guy living here on his own. Obviously it's a big house just 1 person and he was relocating for work too.

You can't actually see the extension from the front of the house as it's at the back. It's actually what most people like best as we've made what was an external stone wall into a feature in the new dining/family area. I've attached some photos.

I would expect an ensuite really for that price, but I also think the graveyard would put a lot of people off. I would take the pictures showing views of the graveyard off the details, a glimpse would be alright but it's pretty dominant in some of them, was the house a vicarage once? You probably hardly see it from downstairs, do the bedrooms have views of the graveyard?

Your house is beautiful and appears to be priced correctly atm. Can you take it off for a few months and resist mid May ?

It's a beautiful home. If you can possibly stand to id ride it out. I wouldn't want to sell for less than you have it on for. To answer your actual question listing it for less than you paid wouldnt put me off as a buyer if that's what you have to do but honestly I can see why it would hurt to do that because its a lovely property and for the area it seems a very reasonable price.

Lovely house! Ths only negative I can see is that although there are 2 additional loos there is only one bathroom which is surprising in a house with so many reception rooms etc.

Thank you.

I actually thought I'd get slated here if I posted the link but you've all been very kind with your comments.

We are 3 miles out of Weymouth so close enough but far away enough not to deal with how crazy it gets in the summer with holiday makers etc.

We have some beautiful trees that should all be in bloom and full of blossom in the next month or so; perhaps any views then will fall in love with it like we did.

Perhaps we should reduce to £725k? I guess for now we will leave it as someone wants to come back for a second viewing but thinks it's over priced. So we'll see.

Personally I am immediately suspicious if a house keeps dropping in price but I guess you never know people's circumstances.

Yes a couple of people have said about an en-suite. You could put one in though as we have a washroom next to a bedroom.

There are no direct views overlooking the church and/or graveyard. You have to look sideways out of 1 upstairs window to see anything and in the spring/summer when all the vegetation has grown you can barely see anything.

In fact one of the stipulations on the planning permission was that no windows are allowed to overlook the church/yard.
The house was only built in the late 1970's and wasn't a vicarage or anything.

We live on the SE/SW border, and honestly larger homes just aren’t selling round here. Think a lot of people are downsizing again after buying larger places around COVID etc, including many of our friends. Those that we know that are looking to go bigger are preferring to extend or buy Reno projects, or do a knock down and build (our plan). Unfortunately may be similar where you are

Its a nice house, but big detached's with lots of land are harder to sell in an uncertain market.

The first photo does the house a massive disservice. It looks like you're surrounded by new builds, when they won't feel encroaching if you're actually at human height level! I'd get this removed, or cropped to focus more on the house.

Photo 26 isn't great either. You need something to soften the front of the house, people will want something that looks pretty at that price.

I would keep it on at 750k for now but be open to offers. If the people coming for a second viewing are interested enough they will make an offer.

I think the bad times you have had since living there have maybe affected how you see the house. It is very nice indeed.

Edited to add - maybe get new photos when the garden is at its best if it hasn’t sold by then.

Why on earth haven’t you planted a bank of trees to screen those new builds?! That’d have been first on my list. But new buyer can do that i guess.
Some people, my DD for one, wouldn't consider it next to a grave yard.
The upstairs looks very small compared to downstairs but overall it’s a lovely well presented property.
What jumps out to me is that it’s a big garden next to new builds. Could you investigate getting planning permission for two or three houses on the garden to appeal to a small scale builder/developer?
Ultimately I suppose you just have to wait until the right buyer comes along and they will eventually.

It's a really nice house op. I think it's really just the market. We bought a similar house in the South West for a similar price last year and everything else we were looking at is still for sale now. We are planning to stay for at least 10 years but I have no doubt we would struggle to sell at present. Another issue I think is that if you look at what's sold in your village everything is smaller and has gone for around 500k or less. It's clearly not quite the area for people looking on larger budget.

The only thing you could potentially do is get planning draw up for a smaller house in that massive garden and then sell to a developer with pp. The original house with a small garden will still be worth quite a lot and they could whack up a new build and make money. That's what a lot of houses with enormous plots have done round here.

We actually changed the first photo so that it would show the plot and the new houses as some people turned up and then said they didn't like the new builds that were visible there.
We make sure that buyers are aware of the new houses. Although they are just beyond our boundary we've never seen anyone peering over our garden with binoculars or anything. We've also planted trees and shrubs at the top that will offer more privacy in time.

We've got some flowers in pots out the front now too.