First Time Seller

GreenTea_3

Hi,

I have been lurking on this board for a couple of months now. I have a house up for sale in the B30, Birmingham area, we have been on the market for just over a month. We are not in a chain.

I have noticed that a couple of people have posted queries about selling their houses here, and have been given good advice with regard to house selling, presentation and price

We have pitched the house price slightly lower to comparable houses in the area (size and condition). We have had a few viewers, who have all been fairly enthusiastic about the house, given no negative feedback, but no offers have been forthcoming.

We are advertised on rightmove:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-8499778.rsp?pa_n=2&tr_t=buy

I would welcome any useful hints and tips, or simply impressions of our advert etc. If it is inappropriate for me to post the RightMove link here, please let me know and I will remove it.

Many Thanks

BlondeHeadOn

I don't understand why there are 3 pictures of the outside of the house, especially as in the first one the whole row of houses seems about to fall over backwards! There's no pictures of any of the bedrooms or the bathroom, which would surely make more sense.

Other than that, I think the lounge and kitchen look nice and light and spacious, but it might be nice to have the garden from the other end - so you can see the back of the house too.

Hope this helps a bit!

GreenTea_3

To be honest, we were wondering if it was such a good a idea to have so many outside photos, as it might suggest that the upstairs rooms are not so nice. Which I don't think is the case. Will see if we can get some photos of upstairs and the back of the house uploaded.

Many Thanks

WestonDave

No idea on the price because I'm not in the area.

I've got two issues with what I see there. You really don't need two bathrooms in a two bedroom house. I can see the attraction of the upstairs one as downstairs ones aren't that popular, but at the moment having two is a waste and more importantly is at a cost of either an extra bedroom or probably more attractive somewhere to sit and eat - a dining room! I think you'd be hard pressed to sell it as a three bed house with no dining room, but as a two bed for a couple with no kids having somewhere to entertain might be an attraction. Whether its worth you doing that or simply pointing out the potential to viewers is up to you.

The other thing is that the furniture and arrangement of the lounge does it no favours. Looking at those pictures, a couple wanting to sit down for the evening either end up with one of them in the alcove on the dead end of the sofa or on that bean bag thing. Not having clutter is good but sometimes you need to have enough furniture in a room to make it obvious that when your buyers have their friends/family round there is going to be somewhere to sit. I'd be tempted to ditch the beanbag (or put it in the loft), put the TV where the sofa is (OK so the aerial point is probably the other end but that's a minor issue), put the sofa where the bean bag is now, and beg, borrow, buy or scrounge a half decent 3 seater sofa to put across the window. Result - room that obviously seats 5 rather than one that struggles to seat 2. Yes I know people should see beyond the furniture in situ but if they can't you need to help a bit.

Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear about your house but a bit of dressing for sale never does any harm.

ABN

How does your house compare with number 113 which sold in June for £105,000?

http://www.nethouseprices.com/index.php?con=sold_prices_street_detail&locality=BIRMINGHAM&town=BIRMINGHAM&street=PINEAPPLE+ROAD&postcode=&search_radius=&cCode=EW&year=&house_style=&house_age=&house_type=&find_postcode=&find_locality=&find_town=Birmingham&find_street=PineappleRoad&eastingToSearch=&northingToSearch=

and have the slightly higher comparable houses sold?

JennyW_2

I'd remove Picture 1 - you cant really tell which house is for sale plus they look like they are all leaning!

The lounge looks nice and presentable but as the others have said, I would expect to see a picture of a bedroom and bathroom.

Oh, and I'd remove the washing line and pegs! Could you not perhaps get a picture of the garden with some garden furniture? People always like to see where they can sit for entertaining. However it does look mature and secluded so that's good.

Carter_2

Hi,

Firstly good luck selling your house, its a horrible tense time and I am currently going through it.

Regarding the pictures, I must say, the first outside picture on the site is advertising your next door's house to me - I thought the one for sale had the purple bush under the window!!!

I agree about the bathrooms and living room lay out. However, not sure I would want too much furniture in there - may make the room look smaller if you put in too many sofas. Maybe move the two seater to where the beanbag is so it is not in the alcove and have a chair where the sofa is (whether that possible for you is another matter though).

The kitchen seems ok but for me personally there seems to be alot of cupboards and the layout does not flow, the gaps into and out of the room seem fairly small. I would be looking at redesigning/replacing it in the longer term. Thats just me being picky and it would not put me off buying the house.

I must say the bedroom sizes are very decent for a two bedroom house having looked at several myself recently. Your estate agent has mentioned this but would you be happy to include photos of these? I would if they are reasonably decorated.

HTH and you dont take offence at any comments.

GreenTea_3

Hiya,

Thank you for so many thoughtful responses. I am quite relieved to hear that many people have similar points of view to my own. I will try and address each point

1. 2 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms. The original layout is a 3 bedroom, 1 reception room and 1 downstairs bathroom. I really did not like the downstairs bathroom as my main bathroom, and converted the smallest bedroom into a good size bathroom. What people generally do next, is knock out the ground floor bathroom and extend the kitchen into a kitchen/diner, which is lovely. I was intending to do that next year, but have now been offered a new job out of the area,hence the move. So I am aware that the kitchen, whilst very functional is a bit dated and would benefit from being a larger size.

2. I will look into moving the furniture around, to display more seating space. It my fault in the sense as I love mooching on the bean bag, and so removed the other sofa to enable that !

3. 113 Pineapple road. If it is the house I am thinking of, it was needed quite a lot of updating.. needing a new kitchen, bathroom, re-wiring, flooring and replastering. The reason why I am not sure if it is the same house, is that several houses have been sold in our road(and nearby postcodes) which do not appear to be on nethouseprices. I am personally aware of two identical size houses on a nearby road (Derwent Road) that went for 118 (needing a lot of updating work) and 129 (very good condition).

However, it is true that nethouseprices does not seem to reflect either advice from all EA's we have talked to nor anecdotal evidence, so I am not sure about that.

4. Will definately try and get some upstairs pictures on. The viewers we have had, have commented very positively on the bedrooms and upstairs bathroom.