Umm, can you tell me why this cottage isn't getting viewings?

MarieAAP

Hi MSE’rs

I am needing some of unbiased views and opinions for Mum.

The situation is this, she has come back China, and in between the mad manic of me getting married, she is moving closer to me. So Mum has been looking at potential areas, and made the mistake of falling in love with a property. Without selling her own!!! Yep, I hear u say about, make sure yours is sold before looking, but as she didn’t know the area, and wanted to see if the type of property she is looking for is available up her, she went hunting.

Now the problem is this, she’s unable to sell her’s.

So would you mind having a look at her place, and provide us with your opinions.

The starting price was £289,950, and has been reduced twice to £265,000 just to try and get folks to come and have a look. Its been on the market since early January, and she changed agents back in April. She's only had 5 viewings in the 6mths.

The Cottage is in a medium size village, with 2 pubs, butchers, post-office, a primary school at the end of the land, and a library opposite the village hall.

Thanks folks
M

Blah edited it to add the website address, otherwise how could u find it !!! J

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-29595152.html

princeofpounds

It looks very dark in the photos. Dingy almost.

elona

The pictures make it look very dark and the dark curtains don't help.

Zazen999

Dead right - it needs brighter photos and a more enthusiastic description!

RAS

The first photo from the lane and the car park (no 8) do nothing to flatter the house. A parked car in the car space would help. The gardens looks untidy and dark.

The internal pictures look dark. Some light coloured paint and lighter curtains would go a long way, or a little time on photoshop

Sandrock

As others have said, it does look rather dark in some of the interior photographs.

Usually (speaking as an ex estate agent!) properties which have little viewings are simply priced too high.

How about bringing it down to £249,950 and go from there.

Cannon_Fodder

Haven't managed to identify the name - when did she buy/what for?

How does it compare space-wise to Glebe Cottage ? Sold for £215k in Dec 09.

How does it compare to the 4-bed detached, that was available for £227k; http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-value/find.html?searchLocation=pe9+4hr&sellersPriceGuide.x=63&sellersPriceGuide.y=5&radius=0.0&propertyTypeAlias=&bedrooms

A family might be more likely to go for http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-15511509.html and save themselves £65k.

Being 'Stone' might attract some buyers, over 'ordinary' other properties, but at a £40k-ish premium ? Doubtful.

Proximity to the Primary School might put some people off. Especially, as the parking area is down that narrow lane - could be a bun fight every morning to get out onto the road...

Its been pretty poorly presented, imo. Some photos are poor, but not entirely the EAs fault as the boxes/empty spaces are going to be difficult to present well.

£250k is a natural barrier, might as well just get under that and see if it creates some interest.

DVardysShadow

Looks potentially an interesting property. But it is a semi, which means there will be a ceiling to the price you can ask - dependent on area, so I won't be more specific - above which, buyers will only be looking at detached properties.

Have you tried the 'mystery buyer' going to the Agent?

Owain_Moneysaver

The Rightmove text being truncated and misspelt is bad. "this three bedroom stone cottage, located in the po"

The interior photos are DIRE. Lounge carpet/suite/curtains look very dated - might be worth removing all, and sanding floorboards? Kitchen looks too narrow - one photo of kitchen end and another of dining end would be better. Is there room for a dining table? If so, put one in. Remove boxes from conservatory for photo. What is the dark stuff on the walls in photo 5? Photo 6 - garden looks a mess, get the mower out.

There's no proper schedule of particulars. Why no description of utility area or cloakroom? Why no measurements or photo of bathroom - is it really tiny and horrible? Do any of the bedrooms have fitted wardrobes? Is there central heating or double glazing?

It's no good telling us there's a butchers, PO and primary school - that info needs to be in the schedule and preferably on the website too.

Have a look at this one which is on sale through the same agent. See how light and airy the interiors are (with the lights on). See how nice the lawn looks when it's freshly cut. Read all the nice feel-good buzzwords in the text.

substantial individual ... large gardens, backing onto open farmland, ample parking ... refurbished in 2004 and boasts deceptively spacious and versatile ... large conservatory, with under floor heating,

SoyaBunny

The interior photos are not appealing at all. Here are a few ideas which might help:
The lounge - Get rid of the dark curtains, do something about the carpert in the lounge as it looks very off putting, perhaps remove the sofas.
Breakfast kitchen - Again get rid of curtains. You might also want to think about painting the wood doors of the units or even going so far as to do something about the floor.
Bedroom 1 - Remove the curtains (which although might not be dirty certainly looks like it), and paint the walls a very light colour e.g. light cream...what are those brown boxes on the wall? Is that just paint?

A lot of these steps are probably things you really don't want to do (e.g. painting and doing something about the floors) but these are things that will really help if you want to be selling as soon as possible. In my experience of looking for a place last year, if a property looked like it needed a lot updating and work inside, we would not be keen to see it unless it was priced very reasonably.
I have no idea what house prices are like in your area or whether the price of your mother's property is reasonably but if you have had no interest and you would rather not do too much work on the house then you might want to consider lowering your price.

Anyway I hope I've been of some help and wish you and your mother luck in selling her property.

gorgeouslatinrose

The main photo of the house does nothing for the first impression, even though it probably is really nice.
Also the lack of furniture, and the garden being slightly unkept could be putting people off by making them think it needs a lot of work.