House on the market, no enquiries

[Ayekat9]

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone else is in the same boat.
I've put my house on the market, reasonably priced, refurbished but I've had no enquiries. We've got really good numbers of clicks on right move, like an 8% click rate, nearly 200 page views a day but wrve had nothing.
Our agent has said people are waiting for the budget tomorrow? Is that right?
I've reduced once and still nothing.
I've found my dream house and I'm worried I will lose it if we don't get an offer soon.

It’s a lovely house.

Is there a fireplace behind the TV in the playroom? If so, I would try to get a photo showing that.

As PP have said, the only downsides to the property are things you can’t easily change, such as only one shower room and small back yard.

I don’t think there’s really much more you could do so fingers crossed for you.

I hope so, I'm a very impatient person, I just automatically assume everyone hates it, it's been very reassuring.

Ill have some more patience.
I also, don't want to sell to an investor. Maybe houses around are more suited for investors where this is for families.

Thank you all for your feedback. I completely understand your comments about the bathroom and garden. A few have made some comments about decluttering and the playroom that I will try and do something about after the holidays. I really appreciate your comments x

What a lovely house! It can only be the price because the photos make it look very nice.

I fell for the “list of buyers” spiel too. I think many of us have, so don’t kick yourself.

You have a lovely home! I would give it a bit of time. It took us 3 months to sell our house last year.

Thank you for posting the link @Ayekat9.

It's a lovely period house with a decent amount of space, nicely presented, although I agree re: moving the coats/shoes etc!

For me, the downsides would be lack of ground floor toilet (or second toilet anywhere) and the small, rather bleak rear garden.

I'm used to reconfiguring houses so would understand a second toilet could be fitted in somewhere (under the stairs?), but not everyone will. I'd probably get a plan drawn out to show how/where this could be done and leave it out for viewings.

You obviously can't enlarge the garden, but currently it's not selling a lifestyle - other than showing the table/chairs - so I'd try adding some colour in the form of large potted plants you can take to your next house.

I have no idea about the price as I'm not familiar with the Liverpool market, but if you're not getting any viewings it's usually the price. But....

Regarding the timing - we put our last (very rural, detached period) house on the market in November 2023 and had no viewings till January 2024. We didn't drop the price at all in that time, but in the third week of Jan we suddenly had a small flurry of viewings booked.

However, it took a 25k price drop and a further four months to get any asking price offers (we had a low ball one, 100k below asking in the Jan), one of which we accepted. The market has obviously changed a lot since then and very many properties are stagnating despite multiple price drops.

Please, just be patient. The right buyer will come along. I think the price reflects the situation with the garden and no downstairs loo.
I suppose you could hide some of the stuff, but it's not a messy or dirty house and most of us understand about children's shoes and toys!
There's always advice on here about towels, cushions and duvet covers - ignore it! It's the market, hold tight.

Your house looks lovely. Being very picky, I would like a dining table somewhere and hide some of the cuddly toys (at least for photos). I also feel there are actually too many pictures, of the living room particularly. Another bathroom would obviously help too. A lot of the houses for sale round about seem to be HMO so maybe it's not seen as a family area?

Thank you, yes I will try and do something about that when the kids go back to school.
I know what you mean about there being so many pics, I did think that, and I did think they don't seem like they are in the right order 🫨
I think these areas of Liverpool are very HMO heavy but the council is trying to crack down.
The family homes rarely come up for sale. My direct neighbours have been here between 40-50 years. It's definitely just assumed to be a less desirable area though, a lot of my family tried to talk me out of moving here, but I'm just in a nice little bubble of the park.
I suppose you can't really get that across though if people has assumptions about an area.

I would think that's reflected in the price though? I live in Yorkshire and in my town it would be very hard to get such a nice big house with a beautiful kitchen for that price. You could only get a flat. So it's going to appeal to someone.

Yeah, here in Liverpool we are quite lucky with our price ranges, but there are some places that are very very expensive. A girl can dream 😴💭
But yes, I think for the size of the house and it's condition, I think it's fair. Maybe it would be overpriced if it didn't have the brand new kitchen, but I don't want to just let it go.
It's such a hard thing because I love this house so much.

Someone else will love it. A family who will make it their home.
Why are you moving?.

I hope so! I'm so sentimental with things, I'd be so upset if it was converted to a HMO, although the HMO nearby has really lovely tenants who I get along with well.

We are moving because we have more kids than we planned when we bought this house and we will probably have one more at some point so just trying to solve that issue before we come to it.
My husband is also from abroad and his sister is doing her medical degree at the moment and she might move to the UK to do further training once she passes, so she could live with us, which would be nice for me because we are very close.

Technically we don't have to move so it's not like I'm soo desperate, but ive just fallen in love with this other house! X

It's a lovely house, but the area might be seen as a bit 'gritty' (I was at Anfield at the weekend) and maybe more HMO than family, which perhaps means that your pool of buyers is a bit smaller than a house just in a traditional family area. Hang on for a bit longer but maybe consider selling to a developer if you really want to move quickly.

I would agree with you, I always tell my husband it's amazing the difference at literally the end of our street. We always tease each other that we live off the infamous Sheil Road. But our little area is very family heavy with the odd HMO scattered around. But it's easy to say this area is nice despite its postcode, it's how do you communicate that to people who don't know what this section is like. 😅

That sounds lovely! I hope it works out for you. When we were first married we lived in a gritty area with a rough reputation, but everyone was lovely and friendly and we rarely saw trouble. We had such a nice house, and I still miss it!

Thanks for the reply. Its difficult to not want all of your money back and possibly treat it as wanting a return on your investment.

I suppose the estate agent is the professional here. Have an honest conversation and ask what price it needs to be to be sold in a short timescale. This will be the honest answer rather than the pitch they give to get you to use their services.

We sold a house last year. I had a realistic figure in mind £190k. The estate agents ranged from £210 to £250k. It went up for £240km messed around for 6 months then sold for £190k. If i had stuck it out it would still be for sale now.

When we sold our house, I wrote a little summary about how long we had lived there and what was good about it. Maybe you could do that @Ayekat9 ? Lots of agents do that now. Something like ‘we have lived here for xyz and hadn’t planned to move as our neighbours are lovely and there’s a real sense of community here, great transport links, close to the park, but due to a change in circumstance we need more bedrooms’ or something?

Is that correct that you bought for 153k in 2021 at the peak of the market? Prices have dropped since then and I know you have refurbished but viewers will be weighing all that up. The EPC is 55 which is the lowest of the D range so virtually an E. No bath in a family house could be tricky.

We actually agreed a sale before the prices went up, our old house had solar panels and it took us about 7 months to complete. We were very lucky that the sellers didn't up the price once the market went up. Liverpool is still rising but not as quick as it was.

That's a good idea, I'll suggest it tomorrow to my agent. X

Liverpool is a great city, plenty of people will be looking for a great home like yours!

You need to trust the agents, especially the one you engaged who told you not to drop your price. Based on what you posted on here I was able to find your house. It’s a lovely townhouse. You are talented at renovating. Why I would not buy this house

• no garden, but your yard is very neat, nice, usable
• only one shower room, in a four bed, absolute no no no
• no downstairs toilet, I might have lived with that if there was an extra one upstairs

why I would buy it

• very nice townhouse
• brand new, and lovely, kitchen
• clever utility area
• great proportions to all rooms
• decent sized bedrooms, master in particular
• a lot of love and money went into restoration
• high ceilings
• tastefully redecorated

I’ve no clue about the location. Do not try and buy the other house until you are certain of a sale, the signs are not good in the UK market

As a potential buyer I’d put a loo under the stairs, an en-suite into the upstairs small front bedroom, (plus study area maybe or walk in wardrobe) and thereby making it a very nice 3 bed. There is nothing to fix the lack of garden. I suppose that is reflected in the price.

Advice, take all the toys out of the kids room, I assume it’s the 2nd reception, I’d make it into a dining room to sell. You’ve no dining table anywhere ! Ask your auctioneer if he thinks this would help. It’s really the only thing you can do.

But they also aren't selling??

Don't get carried away either, you need to wait before you do anything further, but 0 viewings isn't great either. It's not just a waiting game in this market..if you don't eventually price it right, it might never sell.