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?

Ok. I’ll be brutal - the main problem is your price. The fact that there’s others on the market for more or others sold 3 months ago for more or whatever has no real relevance. If your house was worth that amount right now it would have sold.

People will not accept that there is a huge downturn in the market and instead they keep pricing houses like it was a year ago or two years ago.

Yes pressure wash the drive etc but these won’t sell the house, just make it a little more appealing.

It's somewhat sterile, especially for a family home- my mother does this to every property she goes to- pants everything white, pale carpets etc. This plan she usually sold quite quickly- but they were mostly flats for older people, it never worked so well in family home.

A 75 ft garden in London is considered large. There is simply no comparison particularly price-wise with Aberdeen.

Yes.

There was info only last week on how prices have fallen and how over the last year or more the increase in value/ percentage has been tiny.

The fact you want offers OVER £650K shows you are not willing to negotiate.
Some buyers don't want to haggle, so they will look elsewhere if they have over £650K to spend.

You need to be realistic @Dandelionkiller if you accept less, what can you afford to buy?
No doubt you are forced to sell to be nearer to work, but is a longer commute going to be any more expensive than selling with all the costs involved?

Have you run the stamp duty calculator, EA fees, legal fees, moving costs etc?

A 75ft garden in London is massive, but can also put people off. People want outdoor "rooms" not large gardens to maintain, as can be seen by the lack of actual gardening done in OP's.

75 ft is really not massive. We had 70ft in our first house and it's really not huge especially if it's also quite narrow.

In London?

I agree. We have a 60 ft garden in Blackheath of which a quarter is paved. We were delighted with the size when we upgraded from a house in Greenwich with a small outside space.

Now dh complains about the constant upkeep in terms of mowing and getting gardener in 3-4 times over the summer just to trim back the hedges. We have had tree surgeons comes in to cut down branches of the trees. It is lovely though with squirrels and birds (and foxes!) but quite a lot of work.

Dh wants to retire to a townhouse.

It wasn't London, but the OP's house is not central London either, it's quite a a long way out and as PPs have said is Kidbrooke, getting on for Eltham.

Many people now want to use a garden for a home office, especially if the house has no study or space for 2 people WFH

A 60 ft garden which is only 45 ft lawn is tiny. That's like mine and we're OAPs too and it's very easy to manage.

We too use a tree surgeon.

I live in this part of South East London and seen many houses. I would consider 75 ft to be big for a house in this price range. It is enough for a shed at the end of it, especially if it is long.

There are bigger houses with far bigger gardens but they are in a different league price-wise. Anything bigger than 75 ft would be unbalanced for the size of OP's house. I would say it is a tad too big already but a young family would get enjoyment out of it despite the upkeep.

@Dandelionkiller is getting people through the door who have obviously seen the pictures and floor plans, so nothing they're seeing should be coming as a surprise to the viewers.

I think the thing is that in person it falls into the grey area between a fixer-upper and a fully done house, but it's priced like a lower spec fully done house. It's nice, but when people actually get there and start tallying up doing a bit of work to the frontage, some work to the back garden, maybe changing the kitchen, doing the loft, changing the carpets, the stair rail, the wallpaper, it suddenly looks not great for the money.

Renovation work is super expensive at the moment, particularly in London, and people spending 650 on a house are going to fall into the group that doesn't have an extra 200,000 lying around for the works. And with the way the real estate market is going, there's no guarantee you'd earn it back in the end.

Also, I agree that offers over is off-putting.

Power to your elbow.

Us Londoners are townies. I rarely venture to the end of the garden. Only dogs, our cat and young children do that regularly. 45 ft is plenty.

Same for our neighbours.

The garden would put me off, just a lawn and brown fences. I'd plant some shrubs and trees to cover some of the fence.

But this is not Blackheath, it is Kidbrooke North. I do not disagree with you on price tbh, but this is bit like calling Brixton South Chelsea.

The tatty worn fencing is very off putting. Fencing is expensive. Plus there’s hassle getting replaced and potential neighbour disputes if it’s not in exact place or neighbour has plants growing on it (things are frosty with 2 of my neighbours opposite re climbing plants and a new replacement fence at the moment) Plus I’d wonder about neighbours if they were happy to tolerate scruffy fences are they going to be type to have a scruffy outside with a broken car or piles of rubbish. Not painting fence and letting it rot makes you wonder what other basic maintenance has been ignored.
I agree people want easily maintained outdoor space eg a nice patio and bbq area and space for a home office. OP’s just looks like it needs a lot of money spending on it.

So, haven't read the whole thread but read the responses to suggestions - I'm a little bit confused about that the advice is for. It says in the OP that you get loads of viewings but no offers... This to me would suggest that it's something to do with the fundamentals of the house that is offputting, not the photos... But then some of the following posts suggest changing the photos. If it were the photos, little details like drawers looking unevenly pushed in (not sure if that's an issue with the unit or just how they happened to be left?) and the garden seating put together haphazardly would be quick fixes. The style although fairly neutral does feel dated/to a certain taste (square decorative mirrors in the bedroom). That one picture above the extended kitchen units in the dining room is totally lost on that wall - maybe gallery style frame arrangement to spread more. Maybe even zone it as part of the kitchen by carrying through a colour from the kitchen on that wall? Changing to black hardware for door handles? (is black still everywhere?)

I get kerb appeal would apply to both photos and actual reactions to the house in a way. Agree with painting the fences to match, front and back. Changing the planters to either size of the door? Getting rid of the one on legs (or just sawing the short and painting it to match fences)? I think the reason the back garden feels odd is there's no zoning. I'm not sure what your gardeners are going to be doing but you could possibly buy a corner trellis seating unit to separate off the patio from the rest? That lawn is awful and as a person who likes spending time in the garden, this would stress me out. Also, I think another odd choice is lawn all the way to the fence. Appreciate it's a lower maintenance option but it looks weird and I'd be temped to cut a bed of some shape (probably not straight) and add some low maintenance shrubs (problem is getting these in a decent size for cheap - maybe chucking a load of Mulch down and planting smaller ones might make a suggestion of what could be there and make it feel like less work needs to be done?). This has the added bonus of making less of the lawn! Can Google low maintenance shrubs (drought tolerant if you don't think you'll be watering - this is what my whole garden is built on!). Hydrangeas could be an ok choice but given we're past summer, maybe look for some things that are evergreen also so it doesn't look awful in the autumn/winter! Chuck a load of cheap bulbs in in autumn so come spring it looks colourful!

I don't think spending on the garden will add much. It could look prettier with side planting but what young families want is a lawn to put trampolines, paddling pools, shed/wendy house, space for the children and dog to run around within line of sight from the house and an occasional space for entertaining. A lawn is perfect.

A built up garden with lots of planting and sections looks high maintenance and for a more mature owner with time to spend gardening. Young families want low maintenance gardens though I agree a perfect lawn is probably high maintenance.

With 2 ft working parents as you tend to get in this part of London, I am at peace with my scruffy lawn.

Having looked into it further it's definitely the price, it's not blackheath so doesn't have that premium, it's probably at least 30 to 40 thousand overpriced and the unwillingness to accept offers is what is putting people off. I suspect if you dropped the price by at least 25k and said you are open to offers you may get some in the region of 610 but at least that gives you a position to negotiate on. None of the houses in your area in your price range are moving, most already reduced.
You need to accept that house prices have pretty much stagnated in the last 3 or 4 years, some have dropped.
I don't think there is anything wrong with the house per say, just the price and inflexibility is putting off buyers.
Also as stated it's kidbrook and a particularly transport poor area of kidbrook. If it was the other side of the a2 you would be laughing, but you need to be realistic if you need to sell.

@Dandelionkiller I don't think you've commented on the 'offers in excess of' comments.

If you want more than £650K, what DO you want?
If you think it's worth more than £650K, put that as the asking price.

I always think 'offers in excess of' is rather cheeky but also meaningless.
It's closing negotiation and saying you will ONLY accept more than £xxx.

£1 more?
£10K more?

How much more?

It's a buyers' market at the moment.

If you aren't willing to negotiate you may lose the house you want.
Have you had an offer accepted on it and did you negotiate?

A quick look on RM shows that so many houses even genuinely in Blackheath have been on the market for months and many are showing as 'reduced'. These are the houses in the £600k - £800K range.

No OP today :(

Maybe all the posts here have driven lots of buyers her way! Hope so.

If it's not selling it's down to price, it really is as simple as that

Honestly it looks like a nice property. Nicely extended, decent garden. I’ve no experience of the area as I am midlands but if I was after a semi detached in that area I’d definitely view it.

ive had a close look at the images and things which may put me off in person:
upstairs carpet in main bedroom looks grubby - maybe replace or get a carpet cleaner to make it look fresher.

• jet wash the driveway. Makes a huge difference to curb appeal
• mow the lawn, do a bit of weeding. If patio looks dirty, het wash it.
• internally a gallie kitchen isn’t for everyone. As a buyer I’d be thinking about opening up the wall between back reception room and the kitchen so make it feel bigger and less dark. This additional cost may be a deciding factor.

perhaps your house, although extended isn’t quite what buyers want so they’d rather buy one which isn’t extended and put on their own stamp. First I’d try repainting, cleaning carpets and tidying up front and rear and see if that helps. No one expects perfection but any visible dirt can be off putting because buyers will just see that everything looks tired and needs replacing and it starts adding up.

I've only skimmed the first page of comments on this so I imagine I'm not saying anything that others haven't already said.

Looking at Rightmove, there are a LOT of properties on the market nearby. If I look at my local area, there aren't many at all and they all go quite quickly. It says to me it's a bit of an area issue for your area.

As to your house itself, I like the interior. It's a nice neutral canvas to work on. The floorplan is a little odd though - clearly you have worktops either side of your kitchen, but the floorplan makes it look like you've got a cooker floating in front of your kitchen door!

Looking at Google Streetview, the house looks nicer on there than in the EA's photos. I can see there's a bus stop right outside your house. Absolutely nothing you can do about it, but it might put some people off.

Can I ask what the pole is in your garden?? Your neighbour has one too?

On balance, while there might be a few things you can do, as have been mentioned on the first page alone in terms of garden and driveway, I think it's more of a local area issue.

P.S. Hydrangeas are great for gardens, especially when they're in bloom. If you see them wilting, water them! They're very hardy and tell you when they need watering!