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

You don't need to revamp the whole drive, just clean it!

I live close by and until recently was looking for a house similar (not as expensive) as we had intended to send DC to RSM Prep.

I don’t think there is anything that you can do to improve your house. There’s little point in throwing more money at a house that looks good already. No serious buyer is going to avoid buying a house that fulfils their needs because a driveway needs a pressure wash. They’re more likely to look at how many cars they can fit on said driveway. On-street parking in Reigate is a problem so if you can show that you can fit two cars on the driveway that would do more to help than a pressure wash.

I don’t think you’re property is overpriced, relative to other properties in the area. However, I think £1,299,999 looks more appealing than your current asking price, even if it’s not that much less. I can’t explain the psychology of it (that's not my field), but it’s certainly a feeling/perception I have.

Good luck. Ours will be on the market soon so I’m hoping we have better luck.

They have had 18 viewings and 1 offer. A clean drive is not going to make one iota of difference.

Lovely house but I agree that the photos and listing are not doing it justice.
I cant get a feel for the rooms at all from the photos and the views out to the garden are dominated by the parasol/basketball hoop and BBQ cover, all which need to be moved.
I also agree with using your front photo but I would trim back or remove the palm at the front door.
Get the agent to take new photos on a sunny day.
Not much you can do about the bus stop etc and parking.

Agree with this. Does make me laugh when people suggest some flowers in pots to brighten up the front for example, as if that will magically conjure up a buyer.

If you drop the price, remember the Rightmove £1.25m cut off. If you’d accept that you’d be much better off pricing it at that because at the moment you won’t appear on a £1.25m search.

Just these two photos below that don’t help the sale imo
I know it’s picky but when I see the shot through the window I see multiple cars / vans parked up on your neighbours opposite
There are better ‘through the window’ shots of the view. So I’d delete the van one.

Then the front elevation is ruined by the bare trees. I’d retake now and perhaps not at the angle it’s been taken at either. Looking up imo is never as good as looking head on

It looks like a lovely show house but the biggest thing that struck me looking through the photos is I wouldn't know where I could put any of our furniture especially in the bedrooms. I can see from the floor plans there is built in storage but personally I would want to keep our furniture. It's our one indulgence and I just couldn't see how we would fit our lives into the space.

Curtains dragging on the floor would make me think that maybe the rooms were lower than standard so I would consider getting these hemmed

I'm not a fan of open plan living where you have living space joined to the kitchen. It usually makes the kitchen impractical for cooking in. Whilst the kitchen/diner/living area has a good sized foot print it doesn't looks like the kitchen is on the small side for a family kitchen. How much cupboard space is there?

Possibly not but the current photos of the outside of her house make it look a bit neglected, which could make people scroll by the first photo. Ultimately, the house isn’t selling because no one in the current market wants to pay the amount it’s on for. I suspect most viewers are finding too many little compromises they’re not willing to make at that price, ie only one reception, front steps, awkward shaped bedrooms, no 3rd floor bathroom etc

You can't move somewhere expecting neighbours not have vehicles on their own drives. It's not like the neighbours have got shit heaps parked on the road outside, these are neat tidy vehicles parked on a drive.

I think the comments about the photos are getting a bit silly, the OP isn't in charge of the photos, the estate agent is and if she got them back to take new pics, people on here would find another load of criticisms about each photo. People don't hyper analyse every photo to decide to buy a house, a scroll through gives them an idea of if it's something they want to view. People aren't worried about little elements of decor because they'll put their own stamp on it when they move in.

You can’t expect anything from your neighbours

That doesn’t mean it helps in the sale details to advertise it

Hence my advise to remove

We took our own photos
When the EA has aswell we do dictate what’s best

The EA works for OP
shes paying.

So. The client is in fact in charge of the photos, the plans and the write up. They can change delete and reorganise as they wish as long as they aren’t lying of course

But it's the OP's house and she's every right to either request the photos be retaken/be in a different order/use some of her own instead.

We were selling a large family house (a few years ago so cheaper then, but around this price point now) and our EA said the professional photographer they used only provided EIGHT photos per property. I guess that was the arrangement they had and the EA - a posh independent one - probably didn't want to pay for more. Anyway, despite this they were happy for us to supply additional photos over and above the eight...which we did. We also decided which order they should be in.

They did try saying eight was sufficient to whet the appetite of prospective purchasers, but when you've got 3500 sq ft of house with twelve rooms and a big garden, I don't think that cuts it. Anyway, the OP is the customer and the customer is allowed to dictate terms imo.

Why couldnt you keep your furniture

I agree. As long as the photos are of reasonable quality and the house has been tidied and decluttered, plus no glaring problems with the house, it's the price if it isn't selling.

That's just not true in practice though. That's why there have been so many 'why isn't my house selling' threads on here in the past 3 years, so many reductions on Rightmove in many areas and lots of estate agencies struggling. The opening price is very important. If it's far too high, people may not even bother to view as they will think that the seller is totally unrealistic. It might work in a rising, fast moving market but not in a falling one, like now.

It is true in practice. I’m not saying dropping the price doesn’t work, or that it doesn’t encourage buyers but I’m saying that “overpriced” properties sell to under ask offers without a price drop all the time.

It might be true some of the time but it is not true a lot of the time. That is why there are so many people unable to sell and reductions on Rightmove! If your theory was correct, this would not be the case.

But I'm confused as to the problem. They can't not showcase the views out the window when it's a selling point and there's nothing wrong with the neighbours cars being there, it's a bonus because a buyer can see that cars and vans won't be parked all over the road making it a hazard getting in and out of the drive.

I'm not saying she can't ask to have photos redone etc, we had ours redone for old house because frankly they hadn't used a very good camera to do it and the colour was a bit bleached but I don't think she should do it just to satisfy the nit pickers on here because she'd post it on here and people would still write long shopping lists of criticisms.

The photos are getting viewings and that's all that matters, they are pretty good photos and I think obsessing over the finest details is a bit pointless. The one thing I do hate when it comes to property photos is the use of stretch photography to make rooms, gardens and drives look longer / bigger than they are, that's the one thing I do prefer EAs not to do because it's disappointing when you turn up and things are a lot smaller than the pics make it look.

Get a photo of the front of the house done in spring when there's some greenery. It looks drab, messy and unappealing. You need to give it some 'kerb appeal'.

It's a lovely looking home, OP.

It's priced about right relative to your previous purchase price, according to Area360. But the token 2% reduction in price wouldn't have marked you out as a particularly motivated seller.

The steps are going to limit a market already limited by price and the cost of ongoing maintenance and upkeep. I'd drop the price to the next RM price level and try to get a bidding war.

It's stunning! I would make the first picture the front of the house as people have suggested after a drive jet clean.

Wall space - lots of angled walls which reduces wall space as well as chimney breast and fire places. Position of windows and the eaves on the third floor mean there's isn't the height in the rooms either. They are good sized rooms but nearly all of them have things that would mean the usable space is smaller.

Reception room - we would need to remove all of the built on cabinet for our TV unit, book case and display cabinet, I don't think all three would fit on that wall. The other two walls have reduced space because of the door and the angled wall. We have one 1.8m 2-3 seater sofa and 2 tub chairs that we would want in this room and I don't think they would fit comfortably
Second Floor
Bedroom 1: The bay window means you couldnt really put furniture there, then there is one wall with a chimney breast in and a tall radiator blocking one of the alcoves and the position of the window means there isn't much room in the other alcove. It is hard to say from the picture but given the chair comes passed the curtains a wardrobe or drawers are likely too as well. Photo 12 shows that there is no room bed side tables because of the two doors in that wall. The position of the door and the radiator make it a bit awkward on that wall too you wouldn't be able to push any furniture into the corner so you would end up with a weird gap. We have a double set of drawers which are 1.8m across as well as a wardrobe. Comparing the width of downstairs and upstairs. The walk in cupboard is about 1.5m deep and probably 2m wide and wouldn't hold both the drawers and the wardrobe

Bedroom 2 on that floor has another chimney breast in only wide enough for a single bed and the other side is shorter and the measurements and pictures look like it would be tight on the length.

Bedroom 3: fireplace makes an awkward corner. The low window close to the corner and radiator makes it less than ideal to put a desk in that corner even if you removed the book case. That leaves the wall with the door. This is the same size room as our current study and we have two desks, a set of drawers and a narrow bookcase in it.

Bedrooms 4 and 5 are in the eaves and the only walls are half usual height and there are doors to the eaves storage. Our existing wardrobes and drawers would be too tall. The bed in photo 23 is blocking one of the storage cupboards and overhanging the recess for the window.