House not getting interest

[sausagetheorangecat]

Friend’s house for sale, she’s said she’s had 8 viewers in 2-3 weeks but no interest at all. ‘Nice but not for us’ generally being said.
any advice/opinions why?
price is correct as per area (affluent) and from different estate agents.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/89691198#/?channel=RES_BUY

Lovely garden. If I was viewing, I wouldn't be keen on the narrow hallway with the stairs it looks very drab which means all I see is the narrowness. I am a colour freak and obviously that's something you change when you but and decorate but I do think some pops of colour may enliven it.

Any links?

It has colour on wallpaper and no one seems to like that either!
you can’t please everyone with decor

I do get that it needs to go for less or we put new bathroom or something in.
but the price isn’t being plucked from the sky you know?

estate agents around here are telling me it should start with a 4 in Heswall for the house/area. Yes they may be being too optimistic and I do know it’s only worth what someone will pay but I swear some of you are insinuating that I should give it away at £295 exactly as that is what I paid and what a better price that would be 🤷‍♀️

But a house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it as you say, not what an estate agent says it is.

If you want to sell then you need to keep lowering the price until someone is prepared to buy it and if you have to lower it to £295k then that is what you have to do.

You seem to think that a price rise is a built in expectation for holding a property for a few years? As others have said, decor/refurbishment usually adds very little value now.

Like other posters, I'm guessing the price is the main reason your house isn't selling @sausagetheorangecat.

It's a nice enough property with a potentially lovely garden, but there are definitely improvements to be made (mainly the dated bathroom and an injection of saturated colours for me!).

Unfortunately it's a really bad time to be on the market and where we are (south coast) the only properties selling are those that have been priced extremely realistically.

As @MustTryHarderAndHarder said, if you're determined to sell you may have to swallow the bitter pill of accepting close to what you paid. We had to do that a few years back (sold at a loss), but made up for it by buying the next house as a repossession. When we sold that one six years later in 2024 we recouped our initial outlay, plus renovation costs and a decent profit on top...so it's worth playing the long game, imo.

You were playing the game in an era of artificially suppressed interest rates though, not sure recent years buyers will ever re-coup their initial borrowing TBH. Good point about the next house possibly also having to reduce price, the only people who benefit from high house prices are the bankers/lenders.

But estate agents are a good guide. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t sell for £295k if estate agents had said you should get around £400k…there’s no way you would 😂
£380-385 maybe if no interest but you’d knock off 100k, as if!

just click on the see similar properties link and make sure you sort by price. There are 11 properties for that comparison within 1/2 mile

Damn right the EA’s are being “too optimistic” -that’s what the shit one’s do, they want as much commission as they can and want as many sellers on their books as they can.

But you aren’t getting that you are competing with many other sellers in the same area at a lower price point. Most of those ready to move in houses aren’t on a main road like your house. Your house just doesn’t stand out.

But then surely you wouldn’t ever buy a doer -upper and spend money putting brand new kitchen/bathroom/ decor throughout to then sell as same price? That’s rubbish! If doing improvements adds nothing then that’s news to me

As another poster said, they added all that stuff then sold at a loss, but they didn"t mind because the improvements improved their comfort while living there. If you are looking at a house as an "investment" as inflation, interest rates etc. return to more historical norms you will surely be disappointed, just enjoy living there!

People who were doing that seriously, to make profit, were reading the market that was going on around them, of course they couldn"t really go wrong in the biggest property bubble in history with zero rates, but you are not reading the market, you just have an idea of how much you should get for the house (guided by EA sales talk) and you are not thinking realistically about the current market.

I would if I had to move. What other choice would I have? Of course, I would rather stay put, but if I couldn't then what else could I do?

No-one wants to sell at a loss, but if no-one will buy that the price you want and you have to move, then what can you do?

There a lots of flat owners who are selling at less than they paid if they have to move.

Exactly. You can't improve a property and expect to get everything that you spent back. It is nice if you do, but you can't expect it.

Of course, you can hope that buying a doer upper and doing it up will get you more money, but there is no guarantee if the market is going down as it does seem to be at the moment.

You can't just assume that you will sell for more than you bought a house for. During the early 1990s house prices crashed. My ex bought a flat for £50k in 1988. When he sold in 1997, it was only worth £30k.

Oh yes indeed! My house I reffed before, bought in 1988 for £32k, did some work (to make it nicer to live in) sold for £32k in about 1995.

@sausagetheorangecat in some markets, doing the refurb work will indeed just keep the house at the same value. If you refurb doer uppers as a career you get in and out quickly so the market is about the same and expect a profit.

But buying a house to live in, doing some work then living there, in a falling market - no chances are you won’t recoup your spend. I don’t think people are saying you need to drop to £295; just that prices have not gone up by a third in the last six years.

Some renovations do increase the value of a home - a new kitchen or a new bathroom may increase the value up to 5-15%, depending. That hasn't been done in your case @sausagetheorangecat . Some renovations may actually decrease the value ( again depending). Garage conversions tend not to increase the vale ( again depending). You have made the downstairs - kitchen and dining room into an open plan space, which doesn't actually flow that well, the table in that area looks quite small and sits against a radiator. That 'renovation' will have reduced the number of potential buyers as it won't be to everyone's taste.

Sorry, but you asked why it isn't selling yet, and I am another one who is saying it will be the price in this current ( stagnant) market.

The issue is the building work hasn't added space, you aren't going to add value by removing a wall or converting a garage into a study. By doing these things you hopefully make the house appeal to more buyers but there is also the risk that you change the house from something that lots of people are looking for into something less people are looking for. We once viewed a house where they had knocked down the garage to build a patio area. They told us as we viewed the house they did so because "no one needs a garage, everyone we know gets a guy in for odd jobs" - that might be so for them but not us. A full sized garage was high up on our lists of "needs"

Updating decor again doesn't add value, it expected as a given and the description in the 2018 advert states "immaculate 3 bed semi" as does the current listing so I wouldn't expect an increase in value now having done the decor. If it was in that bad state of repair how come it's still got the same kitchen and bathroom?

When you aren't getting as much as you thought for a house there are some awkward questions to ask yourself -

1. Did we pay more than the market value and that's why there isn't the expected % difference between now and then?
2. Did we spend more than the house has gone up making it work for us?
3. Have we inadvertently made it less desirable?

Final point would in things hidden in the car - you mention a dog. Most of the house we viewed where the owner has a dog, you can smell them all through the house and it's off putting.

It’s lovely!

I'm curious as to where people live where 3 bed houses have 3 double bedrooms and this wouldn't be considered a 'real' 3 bed. The vast majority of housing stock round here had 2 double bedrooms and 1 single. Whether it's a Victorian, 1930s or a more modern house.

One of my friends shared a box room like that growing up.

Have you never watched homes under the hammer?

Nine times out often, the profit they made was down to a rising market and they would have made more money spending absolutely nothing and then selling. If house prices aren't rising most home improvements won't recoup their costs.

You seem to be missing the point that the renovations made make the property less attractive. Don't obsess over the 295GBP comment, but do accept that the price needs to come down if you want to sell.

Nonsense.

OP has opened up some small rooms and added internal square footage.