Any suggestions to improve our Rightmove listing after 12 weeks?

[nonwonderwoman]

Feeling brave and hope fellow mumsnetters may be able to give some thoughts about my house listing on Rightmove. It went on end of Feb, right before the Iran war started and since then had about 18 viewings but only 1 offer that fell through within two weeks. We are now at week 12 and feeling a bit stuck...

Photos were taken on a sunny day in Feb, but I've asked if we can update for some sunny May photos.

Anything else that stands out that I could update / tidy / clean / remove? I know you will all say the issue is price, and we could drop it some, but I thought it was a pretty decent price to start with.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/172706036#/?channel=RES_BUY

Few properties sell at list price - which is more of an aim than a price tag - unless the market is really strong.

You’d have to go through sold prices to calculate properties that sold under ask vs price reductions to determine the relative proportions.

When you see multiple reductions that’s generally market issue - ie lack of buyers - eg right now due to the Iran effect the London market is currently 80% down. Properties are reduced but they’re still not selling because there are no buyers. In these conditions the only people who sell are those that have to.

80% down in sales volumes?

We have seen masses of reductions and people struggling to sell since late 2022 in many areas in the UK so the 'market issues' are relatively long standing now. However, you are wrong that it is a 'lack of buyers'. This 'lack of buyers' excuse seems to be the standard estate agent trope when they are struggling to justify why properties they have listed are not selling. There are plenty of buyers, they just cannot afford or don't want to pay current aspirational asking prices. The 'general market issue' is the fact that estate agents and sellers haven't realised that the market, in many areas, has fallen since 2022, due to many factors, the Iran war only being the most recent. If the same agents and sellers stopped pricing their properties as aspirational 'aims', there would be far more transactions happening. It's simple but so many don't see it.
Just to be clear, I'm not directing this at the OP's house, but making a general comment in response to @Aluna.

Fair points, but I think prices would need to drop by quite a lot for there to be almost unlimited demand, or very consistent demand, the idea that there will always be buyers gagging to purchase something is a myth IMO, similar to the "not enough houses" meme that people used to believe.

Well yeah, 2022 was the end of the Covid, low interest rate, stamp duty holiday bubble and the downturn started in late 2022 and has continued since.

Russian war, CoL + utility crisis, rising interest rates, Liz Truss debacle, now the Iran war - have all had their impact on the economy. I don’t see the market recovering for some time tho it will pick up a bit when Trump stops dicking around with Iran.

I think you’re conflating 2 different things: the fact that house prices have outstripped wage growth thus many people struggle to buy a bogstandard property particularly in the SE; and the method of property pricing.

There are many factors in properties being “over”priced (although of course that’s subjective) - over-ambitious owners, not au fait with market conditions; unscrupulous agents trying to get listings; the difficulty of knowing what precisely some properties are likely to sell for.

The job of an agent is to get the best price for their client which is the seller. House sales work much the same as EBay best offers, Vinted - you list at aspirational price and then accept the best of the offers that come in.

I’m not an agent btw.

It doesn't sound like you are failing to get views. High footfall but no offers suggests either a) the photos are misrepresenting it or b) something else not apparent in the photos becomes apparent on visiting.

I would say the vertical nature of the living probably puts a lot of people off. I live in a 3 story house and certainly the height puts people off. The reality of climbing all those stairs is not probably something that comes across instantly in the photos.

But I think the real value would have been in making it a 2 car driveway rather than redoing the inside which is what has been done since 2017 (I think it was in a good state anyway before this).

The road looks tight and with the buses there are I guess limited opportunities for on street parking. At £1.3 mill this is a place you would probably expect to be a 2 car ownership household. so lack of a 2 car driveway and limited road parking may be a significant drawback.

If you are confident it can be extended easily to 2 car (30K is a small amount compared with the total value of the house) maybe that is some thing that is worth discussing/mentioning or even maybe doing.

Iran is ongoing, they now have a toll-gate to re-build their country/army/navy, they are not going to give that up any time soon? The main factor in current pricing is years of cheap debt, without that cheap debt you can"t run a property bubble at this level.

Why would Iran back down. Trump will probably be probably advised/forced to calm down and he will bill retreat as strategic victory.

Again, conflating high house prices and marketing methods - I was referring to the latter in the post you responded to.

There’s various factors in high house prices relative to wages: one is cheap debt as you say including mortgages; another is a small island with limited housing stock and growing population; another is chronic deficiency of new housing; others are - buy to let; domestic land banking; foreign investor safe haven etc.

Your external photo is much better @nonwonderwoman definitely get them to substitute it with the other one which doesn't do your property justice,

i would also ask them to delete

Photo 7: the wine bottle, adds no value at all. All photos have to earn their place and this just doesn't.
Photo16: photo showing a commercial van over the road from you, it downgrades the look of your property.

Take a flight from London to Scotland and look out the window, it is mostly green space, we don"t have a lack of houses and immigration is going into reverse. The "Not enough land/houses too many people!" meme doesn"t work any more, no one viewing a house to buy or rent is homeless.

Can't we keep politics out of this thread about the OPs property. It's a bit rude.

You are absolutely right that property prices have outstripped wages in many parts of the country so that obviously has a greater impact when the economy struggles, people start to lose their jobs or be worried about them, the cost of essentials rises more than wages, rates rise, etc. However, that is not the point I was making. I was saying that agents are consistently over pricing properties, having not realised that prices are falling in many areas or sticking to their historic aspirational pricing. They then make the excuse to themselves that there are 'no buyers' when there are, of course, buyers around, just not at those aspirational prices. I don't agree that it is best to list at an aspirational price at all. That has never been my personal practice on ebay. I usually list at a price that tempts buyers, just as agents should be doing in a falling market.

@nonwonderwoman I grew up in the area so price wise it seems right but for me it would be the height of the rooms on the top floor, I come from a tall family and we can only usually stand up in the middle bit of rooms like that which makes them feel claustrophobic, so I wouldn't see it as a 5 bed if that makes sense, you can't change it though. I was once shown a house in Kingston that was so small my husband couldn't stand up in any of the rooms, the real estate agent was convinced it was the right house for us 😄

strange listing price. I'd change that.

if you're getting viewings, then the quality of the photos isn't an issue.

I'd say it's a slightly qwerky house - the steps up, busy road, bus stop, loft rooms - so you are just waiting for the right buyer.

I am assuming if it was on a quieter street it would be more expensive, so you're just waiting on someone prepared to make those compromises.

Redo the photo of the front? There are no leaves on the tree so looks like it’s been on the market a while? And clean up the drive way? The rest looks fine (apart from the wine pic)

As I said a couple of times there’s 2 distinct issues - high property prices on the one hand and marketing strategies on the other. EBay covers a range of pricing strategies - from aspirational, to priced for a quick sale - just like property.

It's not that agents are unaware that prices have softened/are falling - they should know better than anyone what's happening with prices. It's that if they were to 'value' or provide marketing price advice at what is an accurate level they wouldn't be instructed on very much.

Any more viewings lined up?

Yes, I know you have said that. I have also responded to those points already in the posts above.

I agree that they should know but I'm not sure they do. Lots of people seem to be posting that their agents have said that 'there are no buyers so there is no point in reducing the price' or similar. Someone has already made this comment on this thread! I understand that agents are concerned about not being given instructions if they value accurately and honestly. The problem is that some of them must be making very few sales anyway! I think that some sellers could be persuaded to sign on if the agent was to give a full and frank explanation of the market conditions.

Some might, but most sellers want to hear their house is worth more than it actually is.

They are not really sellers though, they are just time wasters or kite flyers.

Many sellers start off with daft kite flying pricing, but then after going on the journey of discovery realise that they'll have to accept reality.