Advice on selling - 2 others on road also on market

pimento

Which one is yours, andidb?

andidb

Ours is 3 bed. Next door is also 3 bed. We all have south facing gardens... Have reduced our price to £169,950 today but that won't be reflected on rightmove yet.

zara*elise

As a young couple with no plans for kids, the thing that would put me off yours is the downstairs bathroom. I've never liked the thought of having to walk through the kitchen and living areas after a shower. And the other house has amazing fireplaces, which really appeals to me.

But yours (from what I can see of the downstairs) looks like it's decorated nicely and is open plan.

Great idea with the floorplan, but why are there no pictures of the bedrooms, bathrooms or conservatory? To me, that means that maybe the bedrooms are cramped, the bathroom needs modernising and the conservatory is a lean-to. Get the agents over to take more photos (and maybe another of the kitchen, as the chipped worktop on the right makes it look like it might need replacing).

casper_g

IMO the 2-bed looks nicer. I like the stripped floorboards and the woodburners. The two houses posted will appeal to slightly different markets.

One has an extra bedroom, and the extra living space from the conservatory, but has more of a dated look and feel and the downstairs bathroom will put some people off (how much of a problem this will be may depend on how prevalent this layout is in the area). The other seems more timeless to me, and the garden looks better. It will appeal to someone who doesn't need the third bedroom, perhaps someone choosing with their heart slightly more than their head!

dopester

For the first one PropertyBee (a cool 3rd party plugin to use on Rightmove with the Firefox browser) says this:

date: 22 April 2011
event: * Initial entry found.

For the second on PB says:

date: 20 April 2011
event: * Price changed: from '£174,950' to '£169,950'

date: 01 April 2011
event: * Initial entry found.

I've not got any opinion about the area of differences between the houses. However from what you've posted it sounds like you want to upsize to a more expensive house. So I would be less concerned with dropping your own price £5K or £10K or whatever, and be more focussed with getting £20K-£50K (ect) discounted from houses of the type you're looking to buy. Providing it doesn't cause you to struggle with finding the necessary deposit for an upsize move to a more expensive home.

Lots of sellers with more expensive homes are in similar position to you.. but they may have to reduce by a lot more in financial terms order to sell. Thus, install Property-bee to get a better grip on the current market, asking prices and price changes, for your upsizing plans.

DannyboyMidlands

Personally I'm more attracted to the 2 bed. I like the separate reception rooms as opposed to open plan and prefer an upstairs bathroom to a downstairs one accessed via the kitchen. The lack of a bathroom picture reinforces this view. However, I don't have kids yet and people who do may well be more keen on 3 bedrooms.

The thing is, if I was looking to buy a house like any of these I'd view all 3 before making offers. The fact that you aren't getting many viewings suggests that none of the 3 are on many peoples radar? Why is this? Maybe all 3 need a significant reduction in asking price?

imfedup

for fear of being shouted at - if I was selling my property and next door were also selling theirs and also another property over the road - I personally wouldnt go with an estate agent. I would put a board up myself with my number on it.

Anyone looking at the other two propeties would, in my honest opinion, give you a quick ring to see whther they could come and have a look and also how much.

Depending on what your EA fees are you could take this off the asking price making yours much cheaper than the other 2.

I have done this, as have my parents and it worked every time, mine and theirs have always sold before the other ones.

Again this is only what I would do and I realise everyone has a different opinion.

dopester

Are you getting some super discounted price on this then?

andidb wrote: »

We do need to sell as we have an offer in on another property - and the vendor of that one has said that we have to exchange in 6 weeks, with a view to completing in July. We have managed to borrow the money so that we can afford to have both for a short period of time but we will be very very stretched so we naturally want to sell asap.

Any other thoughts on pricing or what we could ask the estate agent to do?

Is it because you are special? Lots of other houses out there, and perhaps not as many people out there ready to snap up this bargain at the price you're rushing to try and meet. However I don't know all the circumstances. Good luck with your super-short time schedule though.. easier if you make your own house an attractive price if you want fast sell I would have thought.

WelshNic

dopester wrote: »

Is it because you are special?

Was there any need for that?

dopester

andidb wrote: »

We do need to sell as we have an offer in on another property - and the vendor of that one has said that we have to exchange in 6 weeks, with a view to completing in July. We have managed to borrow the money so that we can afford to have both for a short period of time but we will be very very stretched so we naturally want to sell asap.

Any other thoughts on pricing or what we could ask the estate agent to do?

Does the prospect of having 2 houses not terrify you. What if price discovery for all these houses in the area you're trying to sell takes a bigger, deeper slump over the next few months/years? Not selling, but just more houses stagnant on the market. They are asking prices and none of them sold, and you're trying to sell around same price as your competition.

From what you've outlined, being squeezed to run two houses without selling one.. I'd take security of selling first - with sale price fully established and transaction finalised - prior to buying again.