Selling house : 30 viewing's in 3.5 months & no offers

dirtbag1981

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Have you researched land registry sold prices for your street to see if you are being marketed at a realistic level?
www.houseprices.co.uk

Yes we have, and house near us sold for £195K May 2009, and next door in late 2008 182K

DVardysShadow

dirtbag1981 wrote: »

Hello there, stamp duty is NA on the price, we have just started to get feedback, some too small's, storage heaters are the number 1 feedback, no "it's too much" have come back to us

dirtbag1981 wrote: »

Many thanks for the advice, if it is is overpriced It cannot be miles out, so could it be that all but 2 of these viewers are not in a position to offer, still does not explain why no Chancers have offered.

You will rarely get 'too expensive' as feedback. It is logical too. When people are selecting houses to view, they are often looking at a price range. So your house probably meets the price expectations and the comment is expressed as disappointment at what is offered for the money, for example 'only storage heaters'

dirtbag1981

DVardysShadow wrote: »

You will rarely get 'too expensive' as feedback. It is logical too. When people are selecting houses to view, they are often looking at a price range. So your house probably meets the price expectations and the comment is expressed as disappointment at what is offered for the money, for example 'only storage heaters'

Point taken many thanks

azkaban420

Hi All, and my apologies for posting on this thread but I have a similar (ish) situation. My house has been on the market since end of Oct, and I've had 2-3 viewings every week but no offers. Well, we did get an offer, which was increased the next day and was almost going to be a done deal at a price we would have accepted, but the buyers re-assessed their figures and realised they couldn't even afford their initial offer to us. Cry!

The house is a 3 bed semi, in pretty good condition as we redecorated the whole house (new carpets/paint, wooden flooring, combi-boiler) in June last year. We also 3 weeks ago fenced up the garden to enclose it all, as we have a massive garden.

The BIGGEST downside is that in Oct last year the council slapped double yellow lines on the road outside, and we're on a hill, so it's limited parking space everywhere. Bummer. After several people came to view, asking the same q, where do you park, we asked the agents to tell people upfront that parking is limited, to avoid time-wasting. Surprisingly, viewings haven't really dropped. We've actually had almost 50 up to now.

The house is on at £200k, £5k more than I paid for it 2 years ago, but with approx £10k more added value in refurbs since we bought it. In my opinion the agents are doing a fair bit of legwork for my house (and I have already dropped the price down frome £210k to promote a quick sale when I found a house I wanted to buy...which I subsequently lost).

I don't really want to drop the price much further as it will be difficult to buy the next house, but are there any other suggestions? Should I leave the current EA and go with another, try selling it privately etc etc? In comparison to other houses on the market it's reasonably priced, as there are many semi's on without parking, and in worse condition, and smaller overall plot size.

Am so disheartened as after practically every viewing it's the same - loved the house, but didn't like the a) lack of parking b) area (sometimes...it's on a hill).

Sorry for the essay, need some positivity, that's why I thought I'd post!

Az

Doozergirl

OP I'd try a new agent. I'd be surprised about it being very overpriced with that numberof viewings - it must be something that changes their view when they get there.

Are you telling them openly about the storage heaters? It's possibly not something most would notice on a first viewing... Are you completely without gas? Even if you are there are decent technologies to get you around it.

I had one of those houses once- I think we had 40 odd viewings, same time period. One sale fell through from redundancy. I am sure that we were a bit of a tourist attraction for people wanting ideas for what to do with their house. I don't think they were being vetted properly and they also didn't know the area as we used an out of town agent. What they then got what a beautiful house - not in the best street - but fairly priced for that reason. What they were expecting was a total bargain in the middle of a field.

We changed agent and sold to the first viewers through the door on the first weekend with them, for full asking price. No rhyme or reason!

Blackpool_Saver

dirtbag1981 wrote: »

Hello, had a couple of it's too smalls, but id say mostly all negatives are the storage heaters.

I could make it appear double the size if I had a free reign, it needs lightening up, it's a great house though in a nice position at end of row.

dirtbag1981

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

I could make it appear double the size if I had a free reign, it needs lightening up, it's a great house though in a nice position at end of row.

Many thanks, and to all of you who have responded (deeply touched) you have helped us out.

dirtbag1981

Doozergirl wrote: »

OP I'd try a new agent. I'd be surprised about it being very overpriced with that numberof viewings - it must be something that changes their view when they get there.

Are you telling them openly about the storage heaters? It's possibly not something most would notice on a first viewing... Are you completely without gas? Even if you are there are decent technologies to get you around it.

I had one of those houses once- I think we had 40 odd viewings, same time period. One sale fell through from redundancy. I am sure that we were a bit of a tourist attraction for people wanting ideas for what to do with their house. I don't think they were being vetted properly and they also didn't know the area as we used an out of town agent. What they then got what a beautiful house - not in the best street - but fairly priced for that reason. What they were expecting was a total bargain in the middle of a field.

We changed agent and sold to the first viewers through the door on the first weekend with them, for full asking price. No rhyme or reason!

Yes we are, to be honest we dont comment on them unless they ask. As for Gas there is a Gas hob + in the living room there is a hidden dead leg which is a gas stub that has been defunked, but can easily be re-used , so gas is present, not just in the kitchen !!

Did you keep the same price when you changed agents and did they try and beat you down to put it on for a lower price ?

dirtbag1981

whitesatin wrote: »

Prices in Hertfordshire tend to be pretty high, I have noticed. We are hoping to move there but probably will have to go to Bedfordshire as we can't afford anything similar to what we are in here in Surrey in Herts.

I know, we are looking to buy an old farmhouse, but herts is too much, so we are lookin at Bed's , Essex, and Cambs

Doozergirl

dirtbag1981 wrote: »

Did you keep the same price when you changed agents and did they try and beat you down to put it on for a lower price ?

We dropped the price by 2% - the new agent wasn't bothered, thought the asking price was acceptable and it was still above what we would have accpeted. I'm thinking that 2% probably wasn't the figure that made much of a difference - the buyers offered the asking price straight away.

Interestingly actually, in the time between giving notice and starting with the new agent, the old one pulled a buyer out of the bag. They wouldn't quite come up to what I wanted although I heard later from our architect who designed the extension on the house they did buy look like ours(!) that they thought the EA was playing games with them.B y the weekend we'd the full asking price offer with a much cheaper estate agent. That move literally saved us £15,000 between the price I would have accepted from them and the EA fees! They'd have had to offer over the asking price to get the house in the end.