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?

sorry, I’m struggling to keep up with the messages! Yes majority of viewing during those awful road works and the temp traffic lights were on the intersection of our road and Shooter’s Hill - interesting, would you mind sharing where you found the schedule of upcoming works, I’ll mention to our agents.

The two things that stick out for me, if plenty of viewings but no offers, is the 3rd bedroom really is tiny, the photo makes it look a bit bigger than it is and its only from checking the dimensions I noticed how tiny it actually is, and I only checked those because we’re also currently house hunting so I always check, lots of people don’t or just go based off of photos!

And as others have said- the kitchen, it is long & narrow which would put me off and there are a few houses up at the 610/620 mark without that issue.

I’m not sure its as easy to say ah well this one is extended/renovated so worth more than the next street over which isn’t because buying a house isn’t just about buying what there is but is also about the potential and how the space works. I’d far rather pay 600-610 for a house with a layout I love, space we need which maybe needs new kitchen/bathroom/flooring than pay 650 for a house that okay looks nice but just wouldn’t work for our family.

I would love to move my husbands insane desk out of our bedroom 😂but he insists he needs all three monitors!

I love that the garden is mostly a blank canvas. Our current garden is full of the previous owners’ shrubs, which would mostly not have been my choice, but I’d feel guilty ripping them out.

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

No seller ever does.

By, on, I assume you mean they're currently advertised as for sale?

If so, this is such a common mistake that home owners do.

Your house is NOT worth what other houses are simply listed for. Those houses haven't sold yet, and even if they are listed under 'Sold Subject to Contract', the deal still hasn't completed.

Many, many houses are over valued by different estate agents all trying to romance their customers into listing with them, so if you price your house like theirs, you too will have to wait a long time and probably have to reduce before selling.

You need to go on GOV.UK, and find out how much similar houses have actually completed for in the last 6 months to a year. Rightmove has a similar function, but be careful you don't get it mixed up with the 'sold subject to contract' listings. Also, even though it has its downsides, the gov website allows you to download and sort that data with excel which will give you a much more honest picture than any estate agent will.

Also, please read this, which I wrote a while ago -

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/property/5406571-why-isnt-my-house-selling-is-this-you

All this - ie it’s a 2 bed and needs better pictures with the exterior dressed a bit more - but also the market. There is so much uncertainty under this government. Many people who buy in London are probably facing job insecurity and many are waiting to see/hear what Burnham’s Circus will bring. If you can possibly wait a year, I’d take it off and remarked next spring (family houses sell better then as people want to offer/complete in time for the new school year) and the markets/industry will have settled down after this week’s shenanigans.

I’ve just sold a very similar period property, similar dimensions. I took out all the desks as it made it feel cluttered, tidied the garden, added some flowers (colour!!) and it sold after sitting for 3 months. 10 below asking.

good luck!

As always, the price is too high if it's not shifting.

A fairly nondescript house overall.

• The rear extension is really nice *The front garden area doesn't look very welcoming.
• The kitchen area looks oppressive. Get rid of the high fridge and any wall units there to let some light in.
• Looks to be in good decorative order
• The photos are very obviously exaggerating the length of some rooms

Many people can't visualise how somewhere could look different, so maybe make the back garden more of a feature.

I'm in west London, so don't know the market intimately where you are, but I would say things are just generally slow, and yours seems well priced to me.

If something is missing it's really that your fantastic back garden should be a feature, but just falls flat. I'd get someone in to give some advice on how you can spruce it up inexpensively - basically the outdoor equivalent of staging. With this weather, I'd think making it feel almost like an extension of the house would be a great selling point.

Good luck - hope things happen soon.

If it's not selling, it's too priced too high.

Thank you, I’ll note these! Walking distance to the lido was a plus for us, but we’re swimmers and appreciate it’s a bit niche for most people

To repeat what others have said, the outside looks very unloved. The front, which should have 'kerb appeal' is dull with stained driveway and no colour. The green fences would look better dark brown, dark grey or black, with both sides matching. The back garden needs a good tidy up, stain the fences all the same colour, jet-wash the patio, get rid of the tatty table and chairs and maybe spruce up the outdoor sofas with some throws and cushions. It looks cheerless and uninviting as it is.

Inside looks ok. The upstairs carpet could perhaps benefit from professional cleaning. The other thing that stood out to me was the textured wallpaper in the hall and stairs. Lots of people will be put off by the thought of re-doing that.

The bedroom with the office furniture in - can you take that office furniture out of there? Also, that big unit next to it (is it air con or a dehumidifyer?) needs taking out.

The link works for me?

we need to move to make the commute for a new job and new school work - both were great opportunities so couldn’t turn them down on the basis of the house, but it means there is some pressure to sell

Unfortunately KFH don’t have the best reputation in the area either - they almost always overprice, so much so that I often scroll past houses advertised by them.

Purely based on price per square meter in 2017 (guessing that's when the offer was made or home was priced) versus today (restricted number of sales), the price should be around £650K but that takes no account of any major improvements you may have made.

Good luck

Yes my daughters room fits a chest of drawers next to the door,I actually took it out ab donated it to make more space 😣but I can try and find a cheap one to add back in

It’s a really tough market, try not to loose hope. I agree about the kerb appeal, not only in the front garden, but also the wallpaper in the hallway (I always wonder what’s lurking beneath textured wallpaper. I also wonder if it’s worth swapping the seating in your sitting room and snug - the sofa looks quite big, and I wonder if it might make the sitting room feel a bit small irl. Some of the large rugs you have downstairs could do a good job of hiding the carpets upstairs if people have commented on them, Re the back garden, I think just keep it tidy and then it’s a a blank canvas for someone else; keep the lawn short, jet wash any patio/furniture, and if you can muster the enthusiasm, paint the fence. It all looks really tidy and well cared for though - Good luck!

It's the price I think. The 3rd bedroom is really small and more like a study so I would maybe price it closer to a 2 bedder than a 3. The kitchen is also small and not ideal.

We sold recently, took us 5 weeks. We intially listed at 10k over our targeted price, expecting to negotiate down. But we only got 2 viewers and both made low ball offers. We then lowered the listing price by 40k, which was 30k lower than our targeted price, but this got lots more viewers in and we sold at our target price.

I'm always curious as to where people live when they say "that's not really a third bedroom". A huge amount of the 3 bed housing stock in this country will have a similarly sized 3rd bedroom. You'd have to be living under a rock to be surprised by that age of house to have a small 3rd bedroom.

I sold a semi ain a different London borough with a galley kitchen last year. Nobody seemed too worried about the kitchen--they planned on knocking through, in most cases, though I notice the people who bought, 15 months ago, haven't done this yet.

It also had a small study-style bedroom in it, which could take a bed, though sold with a desk in it.

(And it had a 1970s loft extension that was built according to planning and fire regulations at the time, with the paperwork to prove it, but obviously didn't have building regs certification because it didn't exist in 1976.)

None of these things are the kiss of death. We dropped the price, yes.

The kitchen/dining room would put me off - you could have had that as open plan with a breakfast bar/island. If I had to choose between an unextended/unrefurbished property and one that had changes made I'd go for the one with the original layout and extend to my wishes/requirements.

I think your house looks fine. Some possible suggestions - Can you re-jig the house so that one of either of the downstairs living rooms becomes an office? That way the desk can move out of the bedroom. Also, is it possible to extend the worktop into the dining room as a peninsula bar seating area? That way the galley flows better into the dining room?

Funny enough I came on here to do a post very similar to yours , but I won’t now as I’m just looking at the answers here.

I’m in the same boat. I’m of the opinion It’s the dire condition of the market right now.
My situation is I put my house on the market end of feb to catch the early spring buyers. It sold mid March , but they have just pulled out now giving no reason 😭 My house is nice like yours , much cheaper than yours as we aren’t in London, we are on the south coast and in an Edwardian terrace . We were told to put ours on for 300k back in Feb but decided on 290k as we wanted it to sell,, went to 280k after a month as nothing much was happening and accepted an offer of 275k a week later . Lower than we hoped but think they got a good deal . It’s now been back on since the buyers pulled out almost 3 weeks ago. One viewing from someone just browsing . We dropped to 270K a week ago on the estate agents advice and still absolutely no interest .
The buyers just aren’t out there . I’m questioning my house too , asking everyone and anyone are there ways I can improve it and make it more sellable.
It just seems there’s no buyers out there to actually buy and the few there are are buying the best , most immaculate bargain to be had . It’s a buyers market . We are thinking of going with another estate agent but I know ours is with one of the better ones. One little tip there’s a guy who dies a weekly you tube and live review of the market , he’s been on tv and gives the best advice , I can’t remember his name but if you search for Five fact Friday on you tube you’ll get his posts . He’s mentioned London has been hit particularly hard with houses not selling atm

Thank you, I agree, perhaps because I’m not a gardener I can’t appreciate the missed opportunity with the garden - cause we’ve lived in the city most of our lives, we’ll just instinctively go to Greenwich park// Blackheath for outdoor time rather than sit in our garden but it does sound silly when I type it