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schooleydoo
Posts: 26 Forumite
Our townhouse has been on the market for one month.
We used the same estate agents that a friend used to sell her townhouse within a week. She had one open house that resulted in 4 offers and she got her asking price.
They lived one street away and it meant there were at least 3 disappointed buyers on the estate agents books that were looking for a townhouse in our area.
Ours is 3 bed and has an integrated garage. Hers was a 4 bed with garage in a block. Ours is 5 years old, hers 15.
We have had 5 viewings and no offers. Feedback:
x2 don't like the area.
x2 don't like lounge/kitchen on separate floors.
x1 wanted us to apply for planning permission to extend before making an offer.
70 properties in our town have sold in this month. Our estate agent has sold nearly 20% of those and tell me that in February, they sold 36 of 43 properties they had listed and 34 of those at asking price.
Today our estate agent admitted they were stumped and expected it to sell very quickly. They have marketed it well and it has been a "featured property" every other day. They do seem to have done everything they can. They then suggested dropping the guide price £10k to generate interest and then hoping to get enough offers to push it back up towards the original price of £300k. I agreed to do so but am now doubting myself.
5 viewings in a month doesn't seem too bad nationally, but as houses are selling very fast locally, is disappointing.
Taking less than £300k would hurt. We need to repay 30% back to Help To Buy and have already had a valuation submitted to them at £300k. If we take less, we have to make up the difference.
We are in a mild hurry to move. My wife's maternity leave ends in one month and during her absence they have moved her office 20 miles further away. We want to close that gap by moving.
Should I have dropped or held out?
We used the same estate agents that a friend used to sell her townhouse within a week. She had one open house that resulted in 4 offers and she got her asking price.
They lived one street away and it meant there were at least 3 disappointed buyers on the estate agents books that were looking for a townhouse in our area.
Ours is 3 bed and has an integrated garage. Hers was a 4 bed with garage in a block. Ours is 5 years old, hers 15.
We have had 5 viewings and no offers. Feedback:
x2 don't like the area.
x2 don't like lounge/kitchen on separate floors.
x1 wanted us to apply for planning permission to extend before making an offer.
70 properties in our town have sold in this month. Our estate agent has sold nearly 20% of those and tell me that in February, they sold 36 of 43 properties they had listed and 34 of those at asking price.
Today our estate agent admitted they were stumped and expected it to sell very quickly. They have marketed it well and it has been a "featured property" every other day. They do seem to have done everything they can. They then suggested dropping the guide price £10k to generate interest and then hoping to get enough offers to push it back up towards the original price of £300k. I agreed to do so but am now doubting myself.
5 viewings in a month doesn't seem too bad nationally, but as houses are selling very fast locally, is disappointing.
Taking less than £300k would hurt. We need to repay 30% back to Help To Buy and have already had a valuation submitted to them at £300k. If we take less, we have to make up the difference.
We are in a mild hurry to move. My wife's maternity leave ends in one month and during her absence they have moved her office 20 miles further away. We want to close that gap by moving.
Should I have dropped or held out?
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Comments
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I don't know the area but just to clarify, your 3 bed is now 5k less than her 4 bed? I would say that a 4th bedroom is worth more than 5k difference, are you sure it is priced correctly now? When did you make the reduction?
You bought it for £230K ish in 2012, but can't sell for less than £300K? I think if you are looking for a quick sale you may need to adjust your expectations.0 -
I've lived in your design and it is an acquired taste - we loved it until we had mobile kids then it became more challenging. The only upside was that they had floor 2 to themselves and we had our master/ensuite on floor 1 (and no cloakroom - a larger L shaped living room instead)
In terms of the pricing I can't see where you get anywhere close to £300k from for a 3 bed when the 4 beds sold for £295k - having a quick look online I'm struggling to see why you justify more than £270k (or less to move it quickly)0 -
hers look like a bit more of a traditional design whereas yours looks a bit more modern. I prefer the modern look but some buyers are quite staid in their tastes.0
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Her house is much more attractive to look at than yours it also has 4 bedrooms. It isn't everyone who wants a house that looks like yours does and that look might well have already dated.
So you have a house with a dated look that will only appeal to some people with only 3 bedrooms on the market at almost the same price as a more traditional looking house with 4 beds and a garage.
So if her house with 4 beds and a more traditional look fetched £295K yours is overpriced by the cost of a 4th bedroom and an extra downstairs room. (The space that your garage takes up.)0 -
You say there were 3 other lots of people disappointed not to be buying your friend's house, but maybe they were all looking for a 4 bedder.Make £2024 in 2024
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Your friends house has toilet facilities on each floor0
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Part of the problem might be that a house with 4 beds and a separate garage sounds considerably larger than 3 beds with an integrated garage, even if the properties have largely the same floorspace. I guess that's the problem with the UK way of doing things, compared to continental Europe where they usually quote the size of the property in square meters. Therefore, somone who's not familiar with the actual properties in the actual streets, and instead is only searching by the number of bedrooms might filter your place out.
With regard to areas, there are variations even between streets, so 'the new part of the estate' (as yours seems to be) could be seen as rougher than the older part, where your friend's house is. 'Out of sight, out of mind' also springs to mind in terms of congregating "youths"...
Ultimately though, it comes down to price - the photos and listing particulars all seem fine. Who set the £300k figure? I think you need to be a bit brutal in terms of how realistic it is that you'd ever get that price, before asking as to the wisdom of dropping it...0 -
A month is no time but the £300k starting point was a mistake imho. I would have started at £295k, same as your friends' sold price, on the basis that yours is more modern but hers has the extra bedroom. And because people who viewed hers will be expecting yours to justify its higher starting price.
I think you've made your bed now. Leave the price at £290k and take the hit in the interests of expediency. The urgency to move will get greater and you will kick yourself if you discourage buyers at this point.
It's a lovely house; it will sell. Good luck
Mornië utulië0 -
An integrated garage does not carry the same weighting as a 4 bed house. And as mentioned newer does not mean better, in fact i avoided newer properties as ones in the last decade have nationally been very poorly built.
As above if a 4 bed went for 295k i would put yours more at 250k. Also a mortgage valuation may come in a lot lower so your buyers are unable to borrow enough and thus down the line you will be back to square one.0 -
I don't know the area but just to clarify, your 3 bed is now 5k less than her 4 bed? I would say that a 4th bedroom is worth more than 5k difference, are you sure it is priced correctly now? When did you make the reduction?
Reduction was today.
We got three valuations from three estate agents and an independent (paid) valuation from a solicitor. All came up with the same figure. An identical house to ours on the same estate sold in September for £295k.
This townhouse is a few doors down with less floorspace but a different design (lounge/kitchen on same floor). It went on the market two weeks after ours, also advertised at £300k.
£300k seemed right to us a month ago but now not so sure. None of the feedback has been related to price, though would people actually tell you tha its overpriced?Your friends house has toilet facilities on each floor
Ours does also, for some reason the floorplan doesn't label the ground floor WC. Just noticed that!0
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