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?

We have established that this house is definitely not much of a walk to a bus stop!

I think you should change the description to 1.5 bathrooms, and 2 beds plus a box room. A more accurate description will mean people aren't disappointed when they look around.

It's a nice house and not bad a price for London. Your street seems quiet too?
It's a funny old market at the moment, this won't help.

The garden to me is the only thing that needs a bit of TLC going by the photo's.
Have you considered asking the EA to hold an open day? We did it for a property in Leeds after having a few months of no viewings. It created a bidding war (which we put a stop to instantly) and it sold on the back of that day.

Good luck, hope sells soon!

It's a nice house. I'd do the following-

• make sure it comes up when you search for a 2 bed. A lot of people will see this as 2 bed + office.
• You might consider dressing the small bedroom as an office with this in mind.
• I wouldn't spend a lot of money changing anything- that would be money in the bin.
• "Offers in excess" puts people off. Don't say it if you don't mean it.
• If you are in a rush to sell then you will need to drop the price. Prices in London are down and comparing your price to theirs on the market doesn't give you much guidance as they haven't sold yet either. Would suggest chatting with your agent about actual sold prices.

That's a hell of a lot of money for a two bed house with an office
Suit someone working from home I suppose.
You have it done up beautiful,so it's definitely not that
I just didn't see it as a three bed ..so maybe others don't either

Things you could add to the description:
-Proximity to Charlton Lido and Hornfair Park
-Transport links to North Greenwich, Woolwich, Canary Wharf (via the SL4).
-Schools - Kidbrooke Park Primary and Thomas Tallis
-Blackheath Standard shops
-Charlton Park

I like it. But for me, it's more like 2.5 bedrooms, the third is tiny, and the garden looks messy and unloved. I think that kind of house at that price would have been snapped up not that long ago, so it shows the market has really slowed down.

Your home actually looks better on Google Streetview than it does in the photos that have been taken to sell it, so it would be worth assessing that. I agree with the comments about the kitchen - it's not sociable at all, especially compared to the dining space?! Not sure what the goal was there and I personally find it a negative agaisnt the house, but could be corrected fairly easily with an investment from the new owners. I also agree about it not being a 3-bed 2-bath - it's a 2-bed with a study/nursery, family bathroom and a downstairs WC. I would say spruce it up, get new pics done, new description written x

I've lived in an identical house and had to move as the noise through the wall from next door was unbearable. We could hear every word of every TV show and hear the woman snoring and speaking on the phone. It wasn't even a noisy family, just a quiet middle aged lady on her own.

Perhaps it was a one off, but perhaps other people have had the same experience. I wouldn't view another house like it ever.

Hi Op We have moved a dozen or so times but not for the last 7 years and not likely to as we have found our lovely home beside the sea.
Power wash professionally the driveway, the professionals have better than DIY. We have had our drive completed twice in 5 years and affect was quite dramatic.
Think that the bedroom carpets could do with a clean or replacement.
Paint back and front fence panels and make sure that they are straight and upright.
Cut the grass and few colourful plant pots would help back and front.
Maybe change the agent or get a second or third opinion.
Good luck.

The interiors are lovely. I don’t think a galley kitchen is a dealbreaker in London.

It was clear to me that it’s a bed in your daughter’s room but I wonder if you could add or rejig any other furniture in the room so that there’s a chest of drawers in the photo as well, to make the room look more usable?

I agree you need to jet wash the front drive, you also need to clean the windows and possibly the roof. I’d get hanging baskets either side of the front door or move your two matching pots there - the layout of them looks like a bit of an afterthought. Once you’ve spruced the front up, get the agent to take another photo and make that the first photo on the listing rather than the dining room.

I'm sorry OP, it's the price. The market is going through a correction at the moment. Comparing what you paid in 2017 to inflation doesn't work.

My friend is selling at the moment in a desirable area with an outstanding school catchment - she paid £520k in 2023 and has spent nearly £40k on improvements. She marketed at £550K on the agent's advice, had to drop the price to £535k, accepted an offer at £535k but the buyer's mortgage survey has only valued the property at £500k. Every house she is viewing for her onward purchase has the same story - buyers who stubbornly won't accept the correction in the market and only accept realistic offers when they realise that they need to lowball their onward purchase.

You can faff around all you like with planters and cushions if it makes you feel like you're doing something constructive but it will be the price.

Not silly at all. She's right- the point she is making is that there is a price at which every house will sell, unless that house actually has a negative value.

Of course it makes sense to present your house well and make sure the listing is accurate and helpful etc, but ultimately price is the key factor. Sometimes people can suggest changes that make a real difference but a lot of suggestions on threads like this one are ultimately just displacement activity- why not spend a few months jetwashing your patio while you wait around hoping for the market to pick up and meet the valuation? If the seller is happy to hang around then fine. If not, it's usually better to drop the price than spend time and money making changes that won't move the dial either way.

This is really minor, but the photos are in a strange order so it's hard to tell which room is where without flicking back and forward to the floor plan. It starts with a reception room as the main photo, then I'm assuming the lounge then off to a bedroom, then a small photo of a bathroom then out in to the garden and then back to a different view of the kitchen. Maybe it's just me but I would find it easier to get an idea of space and layout if the photos had some sort of order to them

I think overall it looks very nice. The only thing that would put me off would be the narrow kitchen. It ia a difficult market in a lot of areas.

It is silly .. ANY house will sell for £1! Putting a more realistic ‘will your house sell for £x’ may be better .. but not £1. That’s no comparison at all. Of course I’m going to snap up a £650,000 house for £1. I can sell it for £100,000, make a huge profit and the buyer also makes huge money on it.

PS I used to live around the corner. I'm so pleased that LAB is now outstanding, because when I lived there it was Blackheath Bluecoat and it was very much not

Remove the gaming stuff from your bedroom and put them in the office. It just implies to me that your home lacks a proper space to have a gaming station or workspace.
This, to me, would be a lot more important than an "unusable" tiny third bedroom. Esp if you are to appeal to young professionals or older people.

Buy some cheap perennials and make a nice flower border? Even potted olive trees and salix trees will look better and you can take them with you.
Refresh the fences with a lick of paint, nothing bright though. Dark brown is classic.

Has your agent just removed it from Rightmove? The link doesn't work for me?

Ah I’ve just seen the bus stop is right outside. I’m sorry that would completely put me off. I live on a main road now but it’s a steady stream of traffic which then becomes background noise rather than stop start of loud buses, people queueing, litter dropped etc.

With this in mind, plus the small third bedroom I think you should expect to drop the price.

If you are getting viewers through the doors, something is putting them off once in. Who is doing your viewings? Do the agents know the area well? Are they able to really sell it to buyers?

Also don’t forget we are into summer holidays now so expect a stall in the market until autumn.

What is your reason for selling @@Dandelionkiller?

Nor me!

I saw this too! It was definitely working a few minutes ago and now pooof! It's gone.
Maybe the agent made them sign something to say it wouldn't be advertised elsewhere 🤔

Small box room. Galkey kitchen.
Are negatives.

Rear garden bare by fences plant some shrub borders?

It’s a nicely presented house, OP.

I managed to sell a tricky house and buy another last year. I viewed quite a few properties, lots of which needed various amounts of work from full renovation to only a tiny bit of cosmetic. I was open to all of it as long as the bones of the house fitted my needs.

One thing that put me off massively was ‘offers over’. That made me think that the sellers were going to be awful to deal with and bad if there was anything unexpected in the survey.

As it was, the house I bought I ended up paying a little over asking price for it in the end, so it’s not like I was trying to push the price down.

What I think made the house I bought popular and the ones I looked at and didn’t offer on (and which stayed on the market for ages) was that it was easy to imagine living there. It was clean, decluttered, but also had some splashes of colour, nice throws, stylish lampshades etc. It was aimed at people in their 30s/40s.

Who are you targeting? Families? Young professionals? Retired couples? What are the demographics of those people coming through the door? What little touches will help them imagine living there happily?

For me it would be the kitchen area. You could have made a utility accessible from the hall adding a door just after the loo and a walk in pantry in the dining area side. This would cost to change it. Gas pipes can be extended.

The cooking area is just too tucked away and you could have easily had room for the dining kitchen at the back. Move the table over to the side where the sideboard currently is and the kitchen would be in the other part. Whoever designed this layout really missed a trick.

It is a beautifully presented house.