How Long To Give It?

alipops1986

Hello All,

We've had our small, 2 bedroom end terrace house in a wee cul-de-sac with allocated car parking on the market for roughly 3 months. Houses in our area are popular but there is also a fair amount of competition at the moment. With this in mind we priced our house at 99,950k, which is substantially less than others - the next expensive one is on at 106k ish.

Now, we did this because we appreciate we are smaller - no back door [random I know!], a large double room AND a very small nursery type second bedroom. Otherwise, it's modern and airy. So far we have had one bloke round, who bought something a little bigger, one woman who didnt turn up because she bought another house and forgot she was coming to see us and we had one viewer for this week, who cancelled due to work committments - might be in touch - although I doubt it!

I realize you can't necessarily put a time scale on these things but i'm rather disappointed and don't know where to start on how to improve the footfall through the door. We can't really lower the price, although we'd accept 95k.

Background: bought the house for 84k, 3 years ago, a REALLY good price for this area - landlord was fed up of it so wanted rid ASAP. Recent sales for similar properties have been at 95-101k.

Can anyone offer any advice?

Thanks,
Alipops x

Lavendyr

If you bought for £84k why can't you lower the price?

Are the second bedrooms in the other houses equally small? Sounds like it's not really a genuine 2-bed house so much as 1-bed plus box room?

Can you post a Rightmove link for comments?

What are houses in your postcode actually selling for? (check mouseprice, zoopla etc)

phoebe1989seb

£99,950 seems high when you paid £84k three years ago, especially when you say you can't really lower the price to below £95k.......

These days to attract any sale, but particularly a quick sale you need to price realistically......and unless you've added value to the house in that time or you're in an area where prices aren't dropping as much, it seems unlikely that pricing at £15k more than you paid is realistic, I'm afraid.

Speaking from experience, on our last house we bought in 2007 intending to stay for some time, spent £40k 'improving' it, then needed to sell last year for family reasons and instead of getting back what we'd spent (let alone making a profit) we actually lost money to the tune of £60k......we did manage to sell within two weeks though

Admittedly, three months in the current climate isn't long, but you need to seriously consider whether your price is realistic and whether you can afford to drop a bit to attract more potential buyers through the door.......

Hope it works out for you......

robatwork

If you have a reasonably thick skin post the rightmove link and people WILL tell you why you have no viewings. However it's going to be either

Lack of kerb appeal - the pictures don't look tempting
OR
Price too high.

That's it.

DannyboyMidlands

Assuming that I was looking for a house like yours, I would see the ad, have a sniff around online, discover that you paid £84k 3 years ago, think you were having a laugh by asking for £100k and move on to the next prospect. I wouldn't even come to have a look at it.

If think that you need to drop the price much closer to the £84k that you paid.

alipops1986

Lavendyr wrote: »

If you bought for £84k why can't you lower the price?

Are the second bedrooms in the other houses equally small? Sounds like it's not really a genuine 2-bed house so much as 1-bed plus box room?

Can you post a Rightmove link for comments?

What are houses in your postcode actually selling for? (check mouseprice, zoopla etc)

You're entirely correct about the 2nd room, it's more a study or nursery.

We visited the EA in person today and have lowered the price to "Offers in excess of 95k" so we're just waiting for this to take effect. In order to move on we can't accept less than 95k, but 95k on the dot would be super.

I appreciate, having bought it at 84k 3yrs, it can't necessarily increase by much but it was a total bargain, right place and right time - most similar properties have sold for 95k in the area.

The link is here:
Now removed

All advice is welcomed!

Thanks,
Alipops x

sammyjammy

Tidy little house, nice big garden for its size, I think you're photos are very poor, the kitchen one is like you're almost taking a photo of the kettle and the others show half the room at most.

The room with the dining table and chairs just looks like its a dining room with a sofa tucked into the corner, could you move things around so its more comfortable lounge than dining room?

Niv

I wouldnt say it was a town house but apart from that is a tidy little modern 2 bed, photos are generally fine, although they do make the kitchen and bathroom look small (but they are so not sure you can escape that). If I try really hard I guess some people may be put off by the next door neighbours garden? But really thats minor. It can only be price or just complete lack of buyers preventing more viewings.

pixiepie99

You've presented it absolutely fine. However:

1. It might just be the photos but it looks absolutely tiny to me, especially the kitchen.
2. Why no picture of the second bedroom?
3. The garden looks find except the fences between yours and the neighbours' gardens look really low so I'd be worried about privacy.
4. There's no floorplan so you can't get a sense of how the different rooms flow and how big they are.
5. The photo of the master bedroom only shows a bed - is there any storage in there? If so, the photos need to show that.

On price, here's 2 examples of what you can get nearby for not much more than you're asking. Both nicely presented (as is yours) but seem much bigger:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-19162587.html
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33469534.html?premiumA=true

alipops1986

pixiepie99 wrote: »

You've presented it absolutely fine. However:

1. It might just be the photos but it looks absolutely tiny to me, especially the kitchen.
2. Why no picture of the second bedroom?
3. The garden looks find except the fences between yours and the neighbours' gardens look really low so I'd be worried about privacy.
4. There's no floorplan so you can't get a sense of how the different rooms flow and how big they are.
5. The photo of the master bedroom only shows a bed - is there any storage in there? If so, the photos need to show that.

On price, here's 2 examples of what you can get nearby for not much more than you're asking. Both nicely presented (as is yours) but seem much bigger:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-19162587.html
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33469534.html?premiumA=true

Yes Kitchen & Bathroom are relatively small, although workable - so it's awkward to get a decent photo of them!
No photo of the 2nd room, it too is very small/awkwardly shaped so EA never took a photo.
In the Master Bedroom there is large real pine furniture, so yes, perhaps this should be shown, it's v spacious even with this.
I hope the neighbours garden doesn't put people off, he's no problem but not the gardening type either! We have put a reed fence near the patio for some privacy.

I'm pleased you think it's well presented as i've tried very hard to de-clutter!! We'll try it out at the new price and see what happens, otherwise we'll just have to stay put for the time being.

One of the links you posted, the cottage, is right beside the main road and has a bus stop outside and you drive down a track behind to get to it, so i'm suprized they got what they did for it - but there you go!

Thanks,
Alipops x

Mickygg

You have just brought up about neighbours garden. The fencing is very low so little privacy would put people off. If you have more privacy can you take a photo from the foot of the garden showing this? I would defo change the bathroom photo. From that photo I'd be wondering if I could sit down for a jobbie without hitting the sink.
Other than that I think ok. It's a small home but ok priced. As always if you are not getting people through the door nearly always it's down to the price.
As said above if you bought 3 years ago I don't see how your place has increased in price by nearly 20%. I know you say you got a good price but people will still look at prices paid and work it out. I always do.