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

OK, the things that would put me off...

• the bus stop right outside. I too have a bus stop and it's a PITA - people standing in front of your drive; throwing their rubbish in your garden; buses pulling up when you're either trying to leave or pull on to your drive
• the open plan kitchen/living room
• the giant tall radiator in one of the bedrooms, taking up most of one wall
• no opaque glass in the main bathroom
• there seem to be several velux windows in the back extension - can next doors loft extension see into your property?
• two schools on the road and the parking issues that creates
• The office room appears to have a window facing the neighbours window, so lack of privacy
• How would you fit a window covering to the top front bedroom with the apex window?

Its a beautiful house and garden, but for £1.3m there's several things that would have me doubting the purchase, sorry.

That front picture just doesn't sell it to me. The trees look funny.

Inside is absolutely lovely

What others have said…the front. Even in your pic I’d still be tempted to cut back the trees on either side. And take it when the sun is in the right place to light up the front of the house?

Inside looks great.
The front/ first photo:
Pressure wash the drive like people have said.
Significantly open up the area around the front door.
Cut back the tree on the other side too. Make it all look lovely and open.
Don't have a car parked on the drive when the photo is taken (in the original I had assumed it fitted 2 cars, with a car parked on it the drive suddenly looks much smaller).
Good luck.

The front picture is doing the most damage - I saw it, saw the price, and laughed. The one you took is nicer, but obviously it doesn't resolve the issue of the front stairs or the 1 parking spot.

Other things:

• Both bedrooms on the top floor have limited head height with apex ceilings, which is a compromise for the price
• no top floor bathroom
• level change in the garden too

Your other photos are really nice.

It’s blooming gorgeous. It’s the price I guess. 🤷‍♀️

I echo slide 17 (for me 16-18 weren’t the best - big windows to look at lots of houses - although I believe it is the distant hills that are the focus?). Maybe views out the windows now there are leaves on the trees might give a better perspective?

It only has one parking space to the front and the listing says 2? Most would need 2 at least.
Pp showed a listing with a similar house that sold for around ~ 100k less last year. I personally prefer that house although I think its smaller. I think that one also took a fair while to sell though as the market is crap.
Its a lot of money to ask for as with most houses asking for over 1.2M, things are slow.

The higher the value, the longer on the market. You just need to be patient, there are fewer buyers looking in that price range.

@nonwonderwoman People who live in cheaper areas do think £1.3m gets you everything. I live in an area where it’s not going to. Buyers will be trading off certain minuses for your house with almost certainly minus points for others. Buses, in a built up area, are fairly standard. I’ve never seen these as a minus but the busier road might be. However you cannot change that so I’d get better sequence of top quality pictures and sell the garden because it’s pretty good when compared with a modern house.

What is the green colour in the bedroom OP, Im looking for the same colour

I'm with everyone else who's said your photo of the front is better than the EA's, although it needs to be one without a car parked there.

It's a lovely house, nicely presented inside but the driveway needs a jet wash and the back garden isn't selling an aspirational lifestyle to match the interior, imo.

I imagine that apart from the current state of the market having a detrimental effect on the higher end of the market (nothing near us over £1m is selling), there's a couple of other factors you can do nothing about....

Firstly, the bus stop - years ago we owned a detached with bus stop outside. Not only did we get less viewings than a neighbouring house without the bus stop, but had to take a (small) hit on the price despite ours being recently renovated whilst theirs was not.

Secondly, the external steps. Again we have experience of this! Our last house was a converted mill with an undercroft beneath the raised ground floor, as a result of which there were ten stone steps leading through the front garden to the door. Our EA warned us that it would deter some buyers when we sold in 2024 and they were right. No-one viewed who had babies/young DC and our only older viewer - who was initially extremely interested/had a second viewing - eventually decided not to offer because of the access issues.

Your pool of buyers will undoubtedly be reduced, but as you've already had a reasonable number of viewings (we only had around eight over six months for the mill) and an offer, it's obviously not putting everyone off! I wonder if the fact that the ground floor overall seems disproportionately small for a five bed house when they see it in real life, is the stumbling block? Could a buyer convert the basement rooms to habitable space - eg, a cinema room, or are the ceilings too low?

The last time it sold, for about 300k less, interest rates were around 0.5%, the price just doesn"t work with higher rates and rate hikes expected, sorry.

It's a beautiful house but I agree with several others about the bus stop and steps to the front door being factors that will put off a lot of buyers. The front photo isn't great but that doesn't seem to have stopped people from viewing.
Are you able to link to the comparables you used when deciding on this price?

I would think that 1.25 would be about right based on these. Having said that, you have listed at a bad time, when the market is falling as a result of the Iran war and the rise in interest rates, general economic weakness so people will be struggling to afford more expensive properties and more anxious in general.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/details/4ea91fb7-edde-4a74-ac08-0d47331a7796.

and 8 Belmont Road (better, quieter road, less modern decor)-for some reason, I can't seem to link.

It's beautiful. I think the thing that would put me off buying it, however, is the steps to the front. Especially if I was viewing it as a home I'd want to grow old in.
I think the steps may also put off people with babies and young children, or those considering starting a family.
But inside I think it's lovely 😍

I think it's a beautiful house but if I was spending that much I would want more garden.

The trees so close to the house would put me off, especially the one right in front of the door.

And having previously lived in a house with steps to the front door, never again!

It is a lovely house and you have presented beautifully. I agree jet wash drive, tidy up foliage, particularly the tree covering the front door. Town Houses are often more difficult to sell, as they are not suitable for every buyer due to stairs etc. it is a really difficult market atm, interest rates predicted to be on the rise etc. Good luck I hope you get a buyer soon.

The work that's been done on the house has been done really well and it looks nice. In an ideal world, I'd want a toilet on the top floor. Appreciate you wouldn't want the hassle of putting one in, but is there room - if so, this is something the agent could get across, that there's room above the bathroom so pipework would be easy.

Obviously the photos were taken in February, but if you could get the front one taken again - can't tell if a pressure wash would help brighten the drive up. Maybe a couple of plant pots. For me a bus stop right in front of house would be a big 'no' - not sure whether that's worth cutting out of the photo, to at least get or two extra people inside.

Beautiful home OP. I can only think it’s maybe the price?
A bus stop outside isn’t great either, but not much you can do about that.

I can't comment on price as I don't know the area etc but the inside is very lovely. The picture of the front is nowhere near as nice as what's inside (or out the back) so I think that could be putting people off. I would jet wash and tidy the front as much as possible, get some beautiful spring blooms and take a picture on a sunny day (next weekend is meant to be nice).

It’s a beautiful house and I don’t think the problem is your listing. It’s just an expensive house and there are fewer people in the world that can afford a house at that price point. That and the state of the world it’s just a really shit time to try and move.

I feel for you OP, my house has been on the market since the end of March. About 8 viewings but no offers. We have just reduced the price yesterday and have two more viewings lined up but it is galling because an identical house sold for £30k more than our new price last year.

If we can’t sell at this price I think we will have to try again later in the year/next year. We can’t afford the sort of house we want if we go much lower and I’m only really up for moving if we can get a significant upgrade.

The next house will likely also be reducing their price in this environment? Surely interest rate hikes are nailed on now, isn"t this what the bond market is signalling?

Not by enough! There are a lot of stubborn people who want what they think they should have got 2 years ago!