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

It is a nice house. I don't know the area but it looks like it is by a busy road. Unless the price is lower people will buy one that isn't by a busy road. You can do up a doer-upper but you can't change the road.

Could be a lovely family home. Price will be a major factor I’d say it needs to drop to around £385 k or £390k to test the price.
The lounge could look much more open and spacious. The two non matching chairs ( especially the green one) give care home vibes, sorry.
I’d move the coffee table into the bay and put a big plant on it.

Overpriced and too much furniture, giving it a very cramped feel downstairs. Remove some furniture and reduce to 390 ( without offers over). Hope for 380.

I would:

get a better photo of the outside front so you can see what access to the drive looks like
put some plants and a picture up in the hallway - it looks a bit clinical and cold
remove one chair and the table hamper from the living room, it looks cramped
get a better photo of family bathroom showing whole room

Otherwise it’s a lovely house!

I also am massively put off by “offers over” outside of Scotland.

The bathroom is grim.

Why is the house so green? Every bloody room! Other colours are available! It would put me off as I hate green so that would be a lot of redecoration.

Aside from that, it’s a lovely house.

This doesn’t add over £100k to the value of the property.

I think it's lovely, i'd be chuffed to be able to buy that at £400k, around my way that would be £650k which I can't afford. Therefore I assume price and location - maybe there is something which is not obvious from the photos? Any neighbours with hot tubs/garden bars type issues??

Its just overpriced imo. Nothing wrong with it, but I dont think its realistically worth more than 350k in that area. I expect they will need to reduce the price to start getting in offers. The thing is its likley to fall further in value too this year.

Living room looks cramped, there's nothing you can do with room dimensions other than make sure it isn't crammed with furniture.

hallway also lacks spaciousness, the stairwell is very narrow - if that's the first impression the viewer is getting, it could be putting them off.

No garage , back garden looks quite nice but lacks any colour . House is light & airy , but for me it is in need of updating and could be described as a blank canvas and you would have a lot to do . Sorry to say I would agree with the other viewers . It doesn't instil any spark .

The house is fine, the market is crazy slow and it’s the summer. 2-3 weeks is nothing in the current market. The main take home is that they’ve had 8 viewings which is good.

You don’t drop the price after 3 weeks. The only thing they need to do is delete “offers over”.

£400k is alot for a semi. Aside from that, I think it’s a lovely house but the market is just very slow. My family member has had a property on the market for over 6 months and barely a sniff of interest. It’s beautifully maintained and in a lovely area, competitively priced, new boiler etc. But nope..:👎

I’m the sort of person who has the imagination of a gnat and so cannot see beyond how a house is already furnished, and the living room would be a problem for me - the seating makes the space appear small. Otherwise, I think the house is lovely!

It’s on an A road. It’s fundamentally a nice house and that’s probably why she has got viewers who go to see if they feel it is nice enough to outweigh the road issue. There will be a price tipping point where someone feels it is or she gets lucky and it is exactly what someone is looking at.

At the very least I’d be removing the chair in living .

Your friend needs to be patient, it's only been on for a very short time

Your friend‘s house is nice. It’s not all my style but that wouldn’t put me off. The garden is great!

i think the front could do with some bigger plants for interest.
i would move the desk into the window in the study or add a shelf with plants or something.

the hallway - remove the clock and other things from the radiator. It makes the buyer think ‚there’s no space‘. Either put one of those resistor shelves up or remove altogether.

id also take one of the big armchairs out of the living room. They make it look cramped.

cant comment on price but we are currently looking as we sold in April. Agents are ringing us and encouraging us to make offers on houses they have valued 7% more for marketing purposes. It’s not helpful to vendors or buyers!

good luck! I’d hold on a bit longer unless you are desperate to move.

Sorry that was meant to read radiator shelves

Depends where you are. Round me it would be 1.4 million+

If it was £350k there would be a lot more interest as well.

Nicely presented but not 'stunning' and I wouldn't rush to pay £400k.

I doubt it is the decor. The sitting room etc isn't to my taste but nor is it offensive and I enjoy choosing paint colours myself so would be happy to redecorate.

The unequal bedroom sizes could be an issue for families but not much you can do about that

I would reduce/rearrange the furniture to give a feeling of space e.g. in the kitchen get rid of the stool next to the dining table, pull the table out a bit (maybe turn it 90 degrees if it fits) and put one chair on each side so the table doesn't look so squished. I'm not sure what the 2 small units are between the table and the main kitchen units but get rid of those for now.

Take one of the armchairs out of the sitting room. It can go in a bedroom or in the office.

Put all toiletries in a lidded box in the bathroom.

The hallway could be made more welcoming/homely with some art on the walls or flowers on the shelf in front of the mirror.

Maybe also put some pots of flowers in the front garden to give kerb appeal. The big driveway is good but at the moment both the front garden and hallway are a bit clinical and a lot of people make decisions about a house on that very first glimpse. It was the first thought I had about my house, which has a beautiful front garden and I remember walking up the path looking at the flowers thinking "imagine coming home to this". I was then very excited to see the rest of the house. That's the feeling you want to give.

Its a beautiful home, decorated lovely except hall which is stark white with grey stair carpet but thats easily resolved. I would never choose to buy a house "offers over". It reeks of getting as much money as possible and more commission for the estate agents. Many see "offers over" and the price and think they cant afford it so dont put in a bid whereas if it was priced at say for example £430k (i dont know the area prices) many more buyers would be interested. Offer £415k buyers think they have a bargain and seller gets what they wanted in the first place. Or it could be that its overpriced for the area. The property market has slowed a lot in the last few months. But its only been two weeks. I am sure it will sell.

It’s always the price.

We tried to sell our house last year, went with the lowest of 3 valuations and although we had viewings we had no offers. Went back on the market this year at £40k less and had an asking price offer within 8hrs of the listing going on rightmove.

Where I live nothing is really selling at more than the 2021 prices, many properties less.

Saying that the photos of this house aren’t great either. Quite dark. Estate agents could do better.

This is a nicer house and layout than your friends OP. Even if area is not as nice I would consider this.

Its the price. The 2019 price was 295k. Not sure they can justify that increase with the dated decor/rooms (that wallpaper feels every noughties). Theres too much furniture in the lounge and kitchen/diner. The rooms are small. It does not feel spacious. Looking at recent sold prices i think its at least 30k over where it shd be. The offers over cheeky considering its over priced.

Ok, so to be very critical.

Hedge to the front of the house needs cutting back as it is part covering the window (easy fix)

No garage - not much you can do about this, but even if you don't use the garage for a car (I use mine for my motorbike and a garage is therefore non-negotiable), most people do want a garage for storage of eg gardening equipment, garden furniture over winter etc

Dining area in the kitchen looks too small. There's only a table for seating 4. In a house like this I'd be wanting to potentially seat at least 6, possibly 8 for family dinners.

Given the age of the house, how is the condition of the roof, have the electrics been modernised anytime recently (a full rewire is a big job and very expensive), has the boiler been serviced regularly? How old is the boiler? Are there any other larger maintenance jobs which will be due within the next couple of years.

It is very expensive for semi-detached and on a busy road and the overall floor space is not that much for a family home, especially when it's also missing a garage.

I agree with this, and the problem with knocking the kitchen wall is that you loose a lot of storage space where the cupboards used to be