No offers after months on the market, are we house blind?

[Dandelionkiller]

Been on the market for a few months now, loads of viewings but no offers! I honestly can’t see the problem and I’m worried I’m house blind at this point.

this is the listing: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/88856211

i honestly don’t think it’s the price. There are unextended, unrenovated houses on for £20k less the next road over.

it’s also a fair price - we paid 550k in 2017, based on inflation it would be 750k now but that just isn’t supported by the area.

weve done lots to maintain it in that time - new boiler, washing machine, dishwasher, fridge. We replaced the laminate floors downstairs with wood. We changed the purple vinyl bathrooms to nice tile. It was meant to be our forever home so none of this was to make a profit.

bits I know are of; we’re a bus ride away from a train station, but I think this is reflected in the price. The carpets upstairs need to be replaced - this was the case when we moved in but we kept putting it off as we were planning a loft conversion.

tbe feedback has been perplexing - one viewer said we’d made the house too traditional and they would have to redo the kitchen / bathrooms to modernise, but I think they are pretty neutral?

what can I do? Is the market just a bit rubbish at the moment?

From what I know of London, that’s a good area and I’m kind of surprised you can get a 3 bed house there for that price. It’s not much more than you’d pay where I am in the provinces. Leads me to believe it’s the market. House is good.

@Dandelionkiller I love your sofa where is it from & is it comfy !

As someone else said, no amount of "planting" and "staging" will sell an overpriced house, it just doesn"t compute with the market nowadays where buyers are paying more normal mortgage debt costs.

They paid 100k less though when rates were near zero, asking for a 100k uplift doesn"t work in a more normal (although still extremely low) rates environment.

Definitely move your husbands desk and computers downstairs. Each room needs to have a clear purpose when people walk round, and many people will need a nice WFH space. And then get on Pinterest/insta for some ideas of how to bougie up your bedroom just a bit. People like the idea of their bedroom being a little slice of luxury.

The kitchen layout looks awful in the photos, but you say it's not so bad in real life - get your agent to take more photos, or switch agents (how long did you sign for?)

Still, that strange kitchen corridor would really put me off, so I'd need a big "plus" to counteract it. At this stage, dropping the price will be the easiest win. I agree the front of the property could do with some sort of "dressing", but I'm rubbish at that!

Well it seems to me the OP needs to drop her price right now to sell because from reading this thread alone it's clear as day the market is dead, there is no sign of an uplift, if anything the market peaked and is on it's way down. And all those holding out like your vendors are crowding the market and then the OP will be in a downward price spiral. So she either drops price to sell or gives up on selling and stays put.

I know you say it's not about the price but it's always about the price.

A house across the road from us went on at £600k and eventually sold for £380k after 18 months on the market. There is ALWAYS someone willing to buy ANY house at the right price. It's the difference between what you sell yours for and what you buy for that counts.

We couldn't afford to drop our price to the offer we got, until the house we wanted came back on the market and no one else wanted it. So we offered the difference we could afford and got it.

It's all part of a wider market picture.

From the photos, the banister looks grubby/chipped in places and a bit cheap. Could it be replaced or repainted? The rugs look faded and dated to me (maybe they’re antiques and I’m ignorant, but they do) and gives me the impression that some rooms are tired.

The orange rug in the bathroom isn’t to my taste at all and detracts from the rest of the room, that has nice features.

The third bedroom is small, but the bed against the window like that makes it look smaller and makes me worry about damp behind it. I’d move the bed/couch along one wall and dress the room a bit.

But one of the biggest things is the very narrow galley kitchen. I’d hate that. Its narrowness and darkness is emphasised by the airy dining extension beside it. I’m not sure what the answer to that is, but I’d have a think about whether removing some cupboards would help. It would be better as a utility IMO.

I really don’t like offers in excess of. It’s seems particularly off putting when offers at the asking price aren’t even proffered.

I don't know about prices where you are, but here's my take on it- it's lovely, nothing would put me off if the price was right. All the big things are done- extension, kitchen, bathroom, downstairs wc. The bad things that stand out are the old fashioned wooden bannister slabs and your garden is a bit scruffy and the fence looks like it needs replacing. These are easily fixed things so it shouldn't put people off. It must be the location, price or market.

It’s very neutral, too much so to make it memorable, also the kitchen is not really good enough for price imho, single oven means needs immediate replacement for me, I’d want to make the whole back open plan myself. Not very helpful but renovations are expensive so i would pass on it other properties were available without a tiny kitchen.

Could you not use the front reception room for that though? Seeing an office in the bedroom would put me off, and you have a “spare” room downstairs you could use.

Other than that, I think it’s the scruffy garden. Timing is wrong now, but I would have reseeded the lawn at least before putting on the market.

I had my house valued and the estate agent said realistically the price it sold for in 2018 is the price it would sell for now, maybe a 5% rise if we were lucky. I'm in the South East though not London- houses on my road are on the market at 2018 prices and not selling. People are disappointed that they can't get the kind of prices that were being charged in 2021/22.

The market is a bit shit at the moment. As for your house well you did say be blunt...It looks really boring to me, very safe, not much personality. I know you can inject personally when you buy but most people can't see through what it's like now.

I would add a few more details- look in a home magazine and see what you could add to give a nod to current trends. Maybe different curtains, a big rug, big plants.

Just wondering how many people actually look at the floor plans? If you didn't then you wouldn't know that there is only actually one bathroom, likewise you wouldn't realise that the downstairss loo was right next door to the kitchen,which I find a bit off putting.
Also the photo of the second recepyion room sort of appears to have a window. I'm guessing that's a large mirror on the wall? So when you arrive and find it's a completely interior room that might be a bit of a disappointment?
As a keen gardener I would think lovely blank canvas, but I guess the back garden does need staging in some way. Perhaps some screening to break it into smaller areas, some arches with rapid growing climbers, add another seating area at the far end?

The 3rd bedroom is very small, as is the kitchen. The back garden needs new fencing and quiet a bit of work, plus it looks like there is a massive tree and the neighbours don't look after their gardens. The front of the house needs work to increase curb appeal and the old side gate should be replaced. Rest of the house is neutral.

It’s lovely and right next to LAB which is an amazing school with a tiny catchment. It’s expensive but it’s Blackheath. I think the market it just slow at the moment. If we could fit in a 3 bed I’d buy it!

Agreed, hard to believe people are still posting about "pot plants" and "bidding wars", it sounds so out of touch, hard to tell who is taking the piss though?

Also the first thing they see when they walk in is the hallway and stairs, and I agree those look very dated. First impressions count - walking into our house blew us away the first time due to the feeling of space and had a lot to do with why we bought it.

Its always the price usually...if you buy cheap then can spend money on doing up the place etc, we have lots of unrealistic vendors around at present. I dont see things improving for a long time. maybe several years.

The kitchen looks small and pokey considering how much space there is in the dining area. Personally, I’d have made the kitchen bigger and had it in the dining area. That would put me off.

The garden also looks a bit shabby.

Do you have off street parking? It isn’t clear. If there is no drop kerb, I wouldn’t buy, especially in London.

The picture of the third bedroom looks absolutely tiny.

I think the house looks well presented. A bit bland, but I could oversee that and decorate it myself if I bought it.

Ouch, that is a chunky price drop for your neighbour, were they pissed off or were they just chancing it all along? You are 100% spot on though about the wider market picture, discount your price to sell, ask the person selling your next house to also drop their price, that is how the market finds it"s reality.

The prices people paid then were massively inflated by all sorts of government/BOE interventions to prop up the bubble, those prices are long gone, can"t see AB trying any daftl house price props now, the bond market will eat him for breakfast.

Are you number 24? If so look at the photos from when it was last on sale, it looked far more interesting. The kitchen layout is exactly the same but the photos look much better on the first listing. It looks more open and the garden is a selling point on the old photos.

Clean the front of house. Clean the patio and get rid of the dead flowers

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/173771939

This is fairly close by and sold despite a less traditional layout. I reckon it probably went for around £525k which gives scope to add the roof extension the other houses have and make other alterations all for a lot less than £650k. Your price is definitely ‘toppy’. I’d reduce by £25K+ and I reckon you’ll secure a sale.