Why is this house not selling? Constructive criticism needed

[shtu]

Matt_N said:

Pretty much nailed it.

And it's definitely too expensive.

Sadly, the principle that they have to get as much as possible for it "to move on" is in fact what's holding them right there.

The worst part is, they risk being stuck until the market rises around them to that level, by which time they find they can't afford their next home because it's risen in price too.

Feel free to quote,

"
Bung £200 each to a gardener, decorator and a self-store place, retake the photos and stop dreaming on the price, nobody will pay that anytime soon.

The house itself isn't -bad-, but the advert and presentation is terrible and no buyer has the imagination to see beyond the clutter and dated wallpaper. Why should they? There are other sellers preparing their homes for sale -so that they don't have to use imagination-.
"

I think the OP's right, she doesn't actually want to sell.

[TA14]

shtu said:

The worst part is, she risks being stuck until the market rises around her to that level, by which time she'll find that she can't afford her next home because it's risen in price too.

and her house is even more difficult to sell having been on the market for so long.

[5potTurbo]

Matt_N said:

It would definitely benefit from a minor tidy up and some better pictures, they are afterall the only thing people will base their first impression on when scanning through Rightmove and the like, just like when you're looking for a new car.

Pic 1 - Exterior shot - probably not the best time of year to re-take a photo but makesure the grass is cut and tidy, hedge and the tree are trimmed. It needs to be from a better angle to show the whole of the front of the house but also include the front garden etc.

Pic 2- Kitchen - looks smart and presentable to me, just cluttered. Give it a good scrub including the hob and inside the oven, ditch all the clutter and take photo from a better angle.

Pic 3 - Sitting / dining room - very messy layout, trying too hard to be too many rooms. Could the furniture be moved around, perhaps the dining table could go out in the extension room? Then re-jig the TV position and sofas to make it a more inviting and cosy room. At the moment it looks like some random chairs with a TV on one wall that wouldn't be viewable from the main sofa with a dining table thrown in the mix.

Pic 4 - extension - again de-clutter, why is there a random chair on one wall? Move the dining table out here and make it more presentable, emphasis the inside / outside connection.

Pic 5 - bathroom - get rid of all the towels and those horrible pink bacteria collectors on the floor. Nobody likes them.

Pic 6 - bedroom - ditch the pink wall, paint it magnolia. Get all that junk off the top of the wardrobes, clean neutral bedding. Sorted.

Pic 7 - master bedroom - jeez. Paint the walls, over the wallpaper to save time, new neutral carpet if the budget allows. Clean neutral bedding and de-clutter, this would improve it x100.

Pic 8/9/10 - ditch as many pots and planters as possible and de-weed the patio and borders, makes the garden seem bigger and less cluttered by doing so. The roof felt on the shed looks ragged, it's less than £20 a roll, replace it if you can. Re-paint the shed to match the other one and the fence / gates. Get the trees trimmed, as nice as trees are, they look a bit big for the garden at the moment and could be encroaching into the feeling of space.

A couple of days work and a few hundred quid would make that house many times more presentable but I'd still say the price is high too.

This.

TBH, given the number of propery programmes on TV nowadays, I'm surprised people need to ask.
Mind you, I'd watch anything with Amanda Lamb hosting ..... .... Err, anywhooo, I digress....
NEUTRALISE the place: decor, bedding, tidy and clean up clutter.

[SilverSixer]

Would the thread northerners care to see what £200k gets you in central Reading, next to the railway and within easy reach of the town's finest drugs and prostitution suppliers?

Do not view whilst eating:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...

[KTF]

threadlock said:

Fastpedeller said:

I really can't understand the potential buyers who say things like "bed linen looks old fashioned" and similar. Surely only things which are being left in the sale are of importance?

I totally agree, but when we tried to sell our first house with some "imaginative" paintwork in our bedroom we didn't get any offers for 9 months. It wasn't an offensive colour scheme but it wasn't to everybody's taste. Within a month of painting over it we had our first offer through.
Many buyers sadly have no imagination and will judge a house based on the impression given by the existing owner's tastes rather than seeing the house's potential.

Exactly. Who cares about the furniture that they have in there at the moment. You arent buying that anyway.

A few thoughts on the first house (granted personal preference):

• It has bigger rooms than house two.
• Garden looks nice.

Things that put me off:

• Price compared to (smaller) other property that appears more modern.
• The layout of straight in the front door to the kitchen.
• Bed 3 is a funny shape.
• Dining room has stairs in it.
• The extension hasnt been integrated very well - it still has the old exterior window in the dividing wall.
• Bathroom needs updating.
• The extension is shown as the 'lounge' but in reality its a random room used as a study/playroom/whatever.

[TA14]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Hand in membership card on way out

[KTF]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

The extension is on the back. The streetview link is not the house for sale - compare the picture to the agents photo - its centred on the postcode.

[p1esk]

SilverSixer said:

Would the thread northerners care to see what £200k gets you in central Reading, next to the railway and within easy reach of the town's finest drugs and prostitution suppliers?

Do not view whilst eating:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...

Wow. That's all I can say. It's best that I leave it at that.

[Durzel]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I'm such a child.

Price is eye watering, but that's the SE factor I guess. How do people who just work "normal" jobs down there manage to live remotely close to their job?

[KTF]

Durzel said:

How do people who just work "normal" jobs down there manage to live remotely close to their job?

They dont.

[Sheepshanks]

TA14 said:

Ollerton57 said:

Who does this help? Adding a link for a house in North Yorkshire about 250 miles away... Not exactly a fair comparison.

If we're doing comparisons like that, then please add in the links which detail opportunity and value by earnings in the area. Doing that I think you'll find that the house in N. Yorks is more expensive in regards to affordability.

I don't think he meant it like that - it could have been any price - it's simply how it's presented. We're all different though and when I clicked that link the first thing that I thought was "oh no, an ugly flat roof extension."

I think he did mean it like that.

The bungalow in N Yorks is terribly presented - looks like it hasn't been touched in many years. There's even peeling wallpaper in one of the bedrooms.

[KTF]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I see it now as well. Yes, there will be plenty of traffic driving past as they get to the houses further down.

At least the extension doesnt have a flat roof on it but the garden seems to have no privacy at all as that doesnt look like a 6ft wall.

Link: http://goo.gl/maps/48hoK

[Hythan]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

7 Aysgarth Park is very close (VERY close) to my friends property, and ever since hers has been marketed, I must have heard a million times, that number 7 went for £380,000.

I have told her time and time again, that the two houses are different, and they cannot be compared. And yet she still brings it up time and time again.

That is the first time I have seen interior shots of that one, and I completely agree it's in a different league.

All points raised about the ill thought out extension I also 100% agree with.

I have spoken to her today, and gone through with her lots of the points raised in this thread. I can tell that she is finding it difficult to hear it, but it's a necessary task in order to move on with her life.

I'm going to let her 'digest' the info now, and speak to her after Christmas. I just hope she takes it all on board.

[Bluebarge]

Hythan said:

A frustrated interior designer? Strange conclusion, I am merely attempting to help someone present a house to market in the best way possible in order to appeal to buyers. Sounds more like common sense to me.

Too involved? You don't know my friends situation, and my involvement up to now, so I would say to you, with respect, that your opinion on that front is slightly uninformed. I'm the ONLY person who will help her. And why wouldn't someone help a friend? She has no experience of selling houses, and is emotionally attached to the house and it's style. I'm not, which is a huge benefit in this situation.

Completely agree on your second point. I too believe the price to be too high, and yes it is a quiet period. Any redecoration does need to be minimal. As you say, it's the price that will have the most effect here.

Edited by Hythan on Tuesday 23 December 16:49

You appear very insistent in trying to impose your views on your friend (even to the point of suggesting she re-arranges the furniture) when I don't think that what you recommend will make much, if any, difference. Everything wrong with that house is easily changeable by an interested buyer but, at the end of the day, it is a little box in a cul de sac off the M4, and in a flood-plain, so price is key. At £350k it would stand out but if she can't take that hit, she might as well rent it out.

[KTF]

Do you know what price it was when it 'sold' earlier in the year?

Property Bee said:

01/12/2014 - Price changed: from '£375,000' to '£369,950'
08/11/2014 - Price changed: from '£379,950' to '£375,000'
12/09/2014 - Status changed: from 'Sold STC' to 'null'
07/08/2014 - Status changed: from 'null' to 'Sold STC'
01/07/2014 - Initial entry found.

[Hythan]

Bluebarge said:

You appear very insistent in trying to impose your views on your friend (even to the point of suggesting she re-arranges the furniture) when I don't think that what you recommend will make much, if any, difference. Everything wrong with that house is easily changeable by an interested buyer but, at the end of the day, it is a little box in a cul de sac off the M4, and in a flood-plain, so price is key. At £350k it would stand out but if she can't take that hit, she might as well rent it out.

What it may appear as on an internet forum, is hardly accurate in gauging the level of involvement, or insistence of involvement, in the real world. You have no knowledge of my relationship with my friend, and her family, and are therefore completely incorrect in suggesting that I'm 'very insistent'. Believe me, if I could leave her to it, I would, but I told her I would help, and I intend to. Now with all due respect, I came on here to ask opinions on the sale-ability of a house, not to ask if I should even give my input in the first place as quite frankly that is not your concern. Thank you for your input regarding price and area, I can't say I disagree with you there.

And just to add, your comment of "even to the point of suggesting she re-arranges the furniture", seems a bit of a mountain from a mole hill doesn't it? Are you implying that moving a table and chairs from one room to the room next door is a lot of work? Or that to suggest such a thing is a step too far?

If you read the rest of this thread, the vast majority of posters seem to agree that making these changes, would indeed increase the sale-ability of the house. Is that not the goal here?

You may well be the type of person, as indeed I know I am, that is able to see past dated decor, or be able to imagine their own lives in a new property. Unfortunately though, as has been noted many times above, an awful lot of buyers lack that ability. To present a house to market in such a fashion as to make it as easy as possible for viewers to imagine themselves living there is common practice and indeed recommended is it not? There are certainly enough TV shows about just that.

I totally agree that if priced at £350k, the property would very likely sell. But that is not my choice to make, and one that my friend is unwilling to at this point. Hence why the focus is elsewhere in order to attempt to at least get a conversation going between vendor and potential purchaser in an effort to strike a deal.
The fact that she is very likely pricing herself out of the market altogether will no doubt dawn on her at some point.

Hopefully.

Just to clarify, the funds from the sale of this house, are to be split equally between my friend, and her ex partner. Hence her attempts to gain as much from it as possible, so that she may purchase her own property. A mortgage, although an option, isn't ideal as she isn't that far from retirement age.

.

[Jasandjules]

The pictures make it look ok, reasonably neutral where it counts.

That means the question is what are similar houses in the area up for?

[Hythan]

Jasandjules said:

The pictures make it look ok, reasonably neutral where it counts.

That means the question is what are similar houses in the area up for?

There are a variety of houses in this area, as has been shown by number 7 Aysgarth Park that was posted just a few posts ago. It's difficult to compare.

Number 7, is a completely different league to the property in question here, and yet is part of the same terrace.

It would appear, that even without the aid of direct comparison in the immediate area, that the price is too high. Evidenced by sheer lack of interest.

[Hythan]

KTF said:

Do you know what price it was when it 'sold' earlier in the year?

Property Bee said:

01/12/2014 - Price changed: from '£375,000' to '£369,950'
08/11/2014 - Price changed: from '£379,950' to '£375,000'
12/09/2014 - Status changed: from 'Sold STC' to 'null'
07/08/2014 - Status changed: from 'null' to 'Sold STC'
01/07/2014 - Initial entry found.

Yep, £375,000. And they were pretty lucky to be offered that IMO.

ETA: Sorry, correction, it was £370,000. Still lucky!

[Spudler]

As already suggested, take it off the market till early spring.
Some decorating and clearing inside and out and a revaluation of the asking price.
Maybe look at the agent.