Keen to sell but little interest. Advice needed please!

netwalk

musey wrote:

Why not offer it and say vendor will pay stamp duty? It might save dropping it to £240K and accepting £235K.....just an idea

Would you believe, after reading going2die_rich my OH and I were just talking over that very idea. It may be a bit gimicky but might make the house stand out from all the others on the market. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll see what the EA says.

A_Fool_&_His_Borrowed_Mon

Take a hit on the price now or you'll take a bigger hit as you chase the market down. The lesser of two evils.....

The Market's turning.

Angela_D_3

TBH whenever i read "vendor will pay stamp duty" I see desperate !!!
Just drop the price otherwise you'll get offers of £200k and still be here this time next year.

netwalk

Well, another update. We've been to see the EA and asked honestly what price would they put it on the market for for a quick sale and the answer was £240k. So it's now on at £240k with offers invited as well. It is also going to be marketed as their "hot property" with extra promotion in the papers and agency so here's hoping!

They also said that from the feedback of the 6 viewings so far that the only negative comment has been about the size of the rear gardens. So it looks like a bit of further pruning and clearing is in order to maximise the space we've got. We can't make it bigger but can hopefully make it feel bigger.

Our advert on Houseladder probably gives the best photos of the rear lawn..

http://www.houseladder.co.uk/SearchEngine/PropertyDetailsForSale.aspx?PId=93826

Does anyone have any suggestions on the best way to present gardens that are mainly lawn? Thanks again for all your input.

A_Fool_&_His_Borrowed_Mon

Also bear in mind that House values are poised to fall in New Zealand over the coming year, so if that's the case, might be worthwhile to wait a while for things to settle down & land yourselves a bargain! (still sell here asap though)
As for your ad, cant fault it, great looking place. It's just Nitpickers who moan on about petty things like the lawn.

netwalk

A_Fool_&_His_Borrowed_Mon wrote:

Also bear in mind that House values are poised to fall in New Zealand over the coming year, so if that's the case, might be worthwhile to wait a while for things to settle down & land yourselves a bargain!
As for your ad, cant fault it, great looking place. It's just Nitpickers who moan on about petty things like the lawn.

Thanks for the positive comments and yes, it does look like the housing market is going to "go south" in New Zealand shortly (or should that be "go north" if they are in the southern hemisphere?).

Their interest rates are high (7%+) and the market is slowing at last after double digit gains for the last few years. Even better, once their interest rates start to fall and the UK ones may rise a bit more the exchange rate should improve so we have more to spend.

Here's hoping it all coincides nicely. Best wishes, Julian.

RHemmings

Looking at rightmove, your property is still on sale.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property/6284518

A month ago the cheapest 4 bed in your area by whatever search method I used then was this one:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-7995658.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

It's been taken off the market. But it doesn't show up in a search even within a mile of South Reston as under offer or sold. What happened to it? It might be worth your while contacting the estate agent and asking. If it sold that says something. If it was taken off the market due to lack of interest that says something else.

The most that a house has ever sold for in Main Road, South Reston is £249,000. According to nethouseprices.com. The address of that house is:

Hillside Cottages Main Road,
South Reston,
Louth,
Lincolnshire,
LN11 8JQ

And that was in October 2003.

It might be useful looking at that house and seeing how it compares to yours.

There's another house on sale in Main Road, South Reston.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-12864869.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

While this house looks much more impressive than yours, and has two acres of land, it's on for £395,000 versus your £246,0000. Has there been any interest in this one? If it sold, that would be massively over the highest amount that any house has sold for in your road.

netwalk

Thanks RHemming for taking the time to look into this for us; it is much appreciated.

We know the people who were selling the property you highlighted for £210,000 and it was on the market with the same agent as we are on with. They had an offer at full asking price but once they began looking around couldn't find anything they liked as much so took it off the market!

The other property for £395,000 looks impressive and has a good plot of land but from what we've heard internally it's very pokey. The price really is for the setting, not for the house.

Finally, Hillside Cottages in 2003 is strange as it isn't much to look at externally and doesn't come with land; just an ordinary looking, older house and not as nice as ours (but I would say that!).

Thanks again, Julian.

RHemmings

It's in my interest to pick up extra bits of information about how the property market works too. If the £210,000 house received a full asking price offer but yours didn't, then it would be interesting to know why. Perhaps that was the absolute limit that the prospective purchasers could go to. Did the same purchasers even view your property?

netwalk

Well, we had our first viewing in 7 weeks yesterday evening. A lovely young lady with one child, another on the way, with her mother. While here they loved the house talking about where the furniture would go, asking about carpets and curtains and promising to come back with OH as soon as possible.

Phone call received from EA this morning quoting exact words of prospective buyer, "too immaculate and pristine" and nothing else. Do you ever get the feeling you're :wall:?

My wife's now gone on strike and is threatening not to clean until we sell. Maybe one day we'll sell....

Julian