selling house - when to start worrying? UPDATED x2 (pg. 3)

inmypocketnottheirs

Why not just amend details to read "Study (bedroom 3)".

Other than that another point, which has been taken on board, is to declutter and remove personal stuff. The link above to the property opposite looks like a show home. This is what you should aim for.

However, it would appear that the reason the property opposite hasn't sold is down to price.

We have just sold and move on Wednesday and it took 15 months to sell. And we only achieved the sale when we switched from local agents and their traditional "dinosaur" marketing methods to the (often unpopular here) "offers in excess" method of method of Express Estate Agency. It resulted in us dropping our price way below what we wanted, but successfully neotiating back up to just about the absolute minimum that we could afford to sell at.

Could you consider dropping your price to "offers in excess of £70,000" and then maybe negotiate upto around £80-85,000?

phoebe1989seb

I agree that your house looks very welcoming (if a little over-stuffed with furniture, but we love our *stuff* too, lol!) on the inside, although not to my taste externally. You definitely need pics of all the rooms and the garden too!

Regarding the downstairs third bedroom/study - I see what other posters mean about it really being a two bed with study, but........last year we sold a house that only had two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. However, downstairs as well as a kitchen, a conservatory and a 20' x 14' main reception room we also had two further shower rooms as well as four more rooms, ranging in size from 11' x 9' up to 18' x 10'. There's no way it could have been described as a 'two bed house with five receptions, kitchen and conservatory' - although the potential for multiple reception rooms is one of the reasons we bought it!

The owners before us had used these as annex facilities for their parents, we used them as additional receptions - dining room, sitting room, study, music room. When we came to sell our EA described them on details and floorplan as bed 3/study, bed 4/dining room etc and as the couple that purchased (within the first two weeks of marketing ) had three kids and parents living overseas who often visited, they were intending to use two of them as bedrooms.........

Whilst these days it seems that potential purchasers need uses of rooms spelling out to them, I would have thought most intelligent people can see the options available for themselves - and if you need a third bedroom (and don't mind it being downstairs) then that's what it becomes, however if you don't - then it can be a study etc etc.....

Hope you find a buyer soon

hazyjo

Surprised nobody's mentioned the flat roof. I would have written it off from the first picture unfortunately... buyers can be picky in this market.

Is there anything beneficial about it you can add? Has the roof been replaced in the last X amount of years?

Hope you find a buyer soon. Good luck.

Jx

abaxas

nat38 wrote: »

Put our house on the market at the beginning of June. Had no viewings yet, but I knew it could take quite a while as the location is not great.
Still, when should I start worrying and/or make changes?
I wish I'd seen some of the MSE threads before the EA came to take the pictures......

---

UPDATE
right ok, I'll be brave as I really don't want to waste time...here's the link:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-23154579.html

so, de-clutter and...?
thanks (and be gentle please)

Brace for impact and please dont take this personally.

Kenton bar is hardly one of the best areas in Newcastle. People mention it's name in the same breath as Elswick, Benwell etc.

The problem being that prices rocketed in the early 00s but now (as you know) have been dropping. The issue being is why should someone pay 90k for your house, when they can live in a much better area for not much more. A good example of this happening is Chopwell. Houses that were 10k jumped to 100/120k is about 4 years, but now no-one can even sell for 20-40.

No amount of de-cluttering, staging or paint is going to stop someone from buying a better house for similar or not much more money.

Horrible bit over now the nice bit.

If you get the price right, it will sell. Hopefully to young ice couple who want kids will move in, cuddle on the sofa, make babies and occasionally (!) drink too much. (they will be geordies after all like you and me!)

The question is currently 'what price do I/the EA want?', it should be changed to 'what price will people pay?'. You find that, you house will sell quickly. The mad thing is it might be 87k, but it might be 40k. I dont know.

nat38

pixiepie99 wrote: »

Personally, I think you're house looks really nice on the inside. Shame about the outside - that will immediately put a lot of buyers off. I also think this is really a two bed, not a three bed. At the moment, people looking for 2 beds will miss this while those looking for a 3 bed will soon realise that this isn't really a 3 bed; it's a 2 bed with a study.

Don't get why people looking for 2 beds would miss it? Unless they are searching only for 2 beds, instead of minimum 2 beds?

I think I hadn't seen that as a problem because where I come from properties are advertised stating the number of rooms/spaces + kitchen and bathroom, eg. a 3-room house is usually a dining/lounge and 2 bedrooms but you could have lounge, bedroom and study, or even 3 bedrooms with no lounge if you wanted.
As a pp said, I presummed that just because it's a study now didn't mean it had to be advertised as a study.

HappyMJ wrote: »

Agree with everything so far. The house just isn't appealing to me. How to fix it though? I would not show the neighbouring properties in the first picture. I wouldn't call it a 3 bedroom property. Although the study could fit a bed in it, if you want to put a bed in and set it up as a bedroom then you could do that otherwise it's a very spacious 2 bedroom house with a study.

would it be too bad to leave out the outside picture? Just realised that's what the previous seller did

HappyMJ wrote: »

Also, is it on a road or do you have to park up elsewhere and walk to it?

Have to walk to it - 20mts though.

nat38

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

Why not just amend details to read "Study (bedroom 3)".

Other than that another point, which has been taken on board, is to declutter and remove personal stuff. The link above to the property opposite looks like a show home. This is what you should aim for.

However, it would appear that the reason the property opposite hasn't sold is down to price.

We have just sold and move on Wednesday and it took 15 months to sell. And we only achieved the sale when we switched from local agents and their traditional "dinosaur" marketing methods to the (often unpopular here) "offers in excess" method of method of Express Estate Agency. It resulted in us dropping our price way below what we wanted, but successfully neotiating back up to just about the absolute minimum that we could afford to sell at.

Could you consider dropping your price to "offers in excess of £70,000" and then maybe negotiate upto around £80-85,000?

I guess we could, but how do you manage to negotiate 70k upto 80-85k? (this would prob be our minimum)

nat38

hazyjo wrote: »

Surprised nobody's mentioned the flat roof. I would have written it off from the first picture unfortunately... buyers can be picky in this market.

Is there anything beneficial about it you can add? Has the roof been replaced in the last X amount of years?

Hope you find a buyer soon. Good luck.

Jx

yes, the flat roof....:mad:
it was replaced just before I moved in, so 6 years ago...

abaxas

nat38 wrote: »

I guess we could, but how do you manage to negotiate 70k upto 80-85k? (this would prob be our minimum)

Is that a minimum due to moving to a larger house, or due to debt secured on it?

nat38

thanks a lot everyone for all your input.

abaxas...you nailed it. I was trying to see the sale of my house as the sale of any house,and that's prob not realistic, as it's in Kenton Bar. It's not as rough as they say it used to be, but it's def not nice. I guess that's why the EA didn't bother too much with the photos. I actually think the most likely (only?) buyers might be young couples who grew up here and want to stay locally. Eg, my next door neighbour lives 200mts from her mum, the one 2 houses down has her daughter around the corner, etc etc.

abaxas wrote: »

Brace for impact and please dont take this personally.

Kenton bar is hardly one of the best areas in Newcastle. People mention it's name in the same breath as Elswick, Benwell etc.

The problem being that prices rocketed in the early 00s but now (as you know) have been dropping. The issue being is why should someone pay 90k for your house, when they can live in a much better area for not much more. A good example of this happening is Chopwell. Houses that were 10k jumped to 100/120k is about 4 years, but now no-one can even sell for 20-40.

No amount of de-cluttering, staging or paint is going to stop someone from buying a better house for similar or not much more money.

Horrible bit over now the nice bit.

If you get the price right, it will sell. Hopefully to young ice couple who want kids will move in, cuddle on the sofa, make babies and occasionally (!) drink too much. (they will be geordies after all like you and me!)

funnily enough, I'm not! I'm not even English! :rotfl:

abaxas wrote: »

The question is currently 'what price do I/the EA want?', it should be changed to 'what price will people pay?'. You find that, you house will sell quickly. The mad thing is it might be 87k, but it might be 40k. I dont know.

It's funny you say this. I know two houses that sold relatively recently, one went for 47k the other one for 100k.........

why o why did I buy a house here........:(

nat38

abaxas wrote: »

Is that a minimum due to moving to a larger house, or due to debt secured on it?

neither, that would be the max we'd like to lose (so to be fair, it is not a real minimum, we could sell for 50k but would be losing way too much). fortunately, we are in a position where we can move without selling. we thought if it doesn't sell we could try renting it out, but it might be even more difficult. what would you do?