Cant sell my house and desperate to move...

phoebe1989seb

I sympathise with your situation and think your house is very nicely presented - although I agree with the poster that suggested livening the garden up with some colourful planting - but also agree that it must be a price issue.

I'm not acquainted with your area at all and appreciate that you need to sell for a certain amount to buy your new place, but if you could survive in a smaller (and therefore less expensive) house or flat, I would rather drop the price a bit more and sell quickly rather than hold out for another year and seven months whist watching prices drop further.

We also suffered last year at the hands of the recession - losing a whopping £60k on our purchase price plus money spent on renovations - when we sold the house we'd bought in 2007, but fortunately we were in a position to afford the hit - not that this made it any more palatable.......we priced realistically from the outset though and sold straightaway (within two weeks) which enabled us to buy a house closer to our families

Tinkaf1

Maybe ask your agent to advertise an "open day". A two hour open viewing timeslot where people can just turn up and view something that they might not have considered. I think they are very good at getting people through the door and challenging their expectations. The agent will usually just take names and addresses of those that attended and get back to them for feedback. So if no offers are forthcoming, you might still have 20 people saying "It is too expensive" which would at least put you on the right track.

clw1

As others have said price and the tesco's / pub may be an issue but I think it's a lovely house and I really like the decor. It is a 5 bed house so it is probably going to appeal to a family and so in you need to be presenting it with them in mind. So some things I would do:

In the lounge get rid of the footrest thing in the middle of the lounge as it makes it look smaller and move the dog bed (it makes me think of dogs being in the lounge which could mean smells and recarpeting). Also move the thing that is stuffed down the side of the sofa in photo 4 on Stonhills listing. Also get better pics of the lounge on the Taylor's listing.

Kitchen - declutter the worktops to make it look like there is more worksurface, currently there is lot's of "stuff" out which makes me think there isn't enough storage. Also for viewers and pics move things like the washing up liquid etc. Picture 8 on the stonehills listing makes the kitchen look lovely and large, the other listing needs a similar picture as it's a great feature for a family house.

Utility room - get a picture up of it.

Cellars - could they be converted into rooms ? if so make sure it's mentioned in the details.

Garden - the Taylors listing doesn't have a pic of the garden which is a big selling feature for a 5 bed house. And I would get rid of the pic on the Stonhills listing that shows the pub's beer garden ! If the back of the house is pretty have a photo from the end of the garden to show the view when you are in the garden. You could also add some pots etc as the pic's make it look a bit unloved.

Bedrooms are nice and large - just make sure the estate agents pic's make them look as large as poss and show off the features, also is there a reason why there are only pic's of 4 bedrooms on both listings but it's sold as a 5 bed ?

Bathroom - it's fab but there is no pic of it on the Stonhills listing. (it would make me think that it needs replacing with no picture)

The pictures on the Taylor's listing make a few of the rooms look small or dark and some are blurry - can they redo them ?? (if they do open the curtains further to make it lighter and have lamps on).

Schools - is it in a good school area ? if so get that on the listing and mention it to viewers.

Good luck selling.

Wyndham

Am I right in thinking you have one bathroom in the whole house? No separate WC anywhere? If so that would put me off for a 5 bedroom house.

I'd also change the decor, and I think it will be putting some people off.

But, after saying that, you can sell anything quickly if it's the right price, and I know you have reduced, but if it's not selling you've got nothing for it. Sorry to be harsh, but the reality is that you may need to lower your expectations for moving on.

andy.m_2

You have to consider what is important to you.
Life is about compramise, you need to prioritise with your husband and work from the top down.

Being together would be everybody's number one I'm sure
Next up, living by the Spanish City
finally, possessions and dogs

Simples.

I cannot begin to imagine a scenario whereby I lived away from my wife, infact, I gave up working away on the lodge once we were married and took a pay hit acordingly.
Of course I am not you and you are not me, i dont fancy your husband for one! but clearly your priority is to live in the NE first, husband second.
This is not a criticism but you both need to be honest with whats important to you and work from there, some people will put the dogs at number 1, my Mum would, but she's as mad as a bucket of frogs.

Next up, the sale of the hoose, and we may have to be a little brutal here!
Unless you change something, nothing will change. Obvious but sadly true.
In fact the environment around is changing, and for the worst.
If I were looking at your place I would wait until the Tesco is up and running, just in case they will have artic deliveries every morning at 3am, I would also be looking at the type of punter coming out the pub sloshed on a Saturday night at 3am (watch out for the artic~!) climbing over my car that has to be parked on the road.

only with these facts and the certainty that nothng else would change could I make a sensible offer.
It is too expensive.
You could sell a house next door to a nuclear power station if the price was right, your house would have sold 19 months ago if the price was right.
Of course it may not be the right price for you, but it would be the right price for the market.

Good luck, but you have to sit down and do some hard and honest thinking and talking with hubby to sort out the mess you are in.

Spartacus_Mills

nattyb1982 wrote: »

we've dropped from £220k to £199k, we cant afford to drop more as there will be no money for a deposit on a new place as 20% (£30k) is the minimum deposit the banks will lend out.

Tough.

Reduce the price and it will sell.

Buyers are not obligated to pay you what you need for the house you require.

Modeler

nattyb1982 wrote: »

we bought it in 2008 at £194k but have completely renovated it - mouseprice and zoopla dont take those things into consideration

A lot of houses have a ceiling price, in other words spending money on it doesn't necessarily add to its value. If it's any consolation, I have spent tens of thousands on mine over the last decade but nobody would pay that much more for a house like ours in our area.

I've been told that it these things make a property easier to sell, but only if there is a buyer in the frame in the first place.

ShAnE

Spartacus_Mills wrote: »

Tough.
Reduce the price and it will sell.
Buyers are not obligated to pay you what you need for the house you require.

As harsh as it sounds this is the truth.

You chose to originally buy a property in Northampton knowing the value could go up as well as down.
You chose to go and get married in Vegas.
You chose to move up North.
You chose to own three dogs.

Had you not got married in Vegas, you could of had the money left to fix the house.
Had you not chosen to move up North, the house price wouldn't be an issue.
Had you not chosen to own three dogs, you could have purchased a 1 or 2 bed flat up North and started saving/building equity again.

I think it's unfair to expect a buyer to pay over the odds just to continue funding your dream.

phoebe1989seb

Modeler wrote: »

A lot of houses have a ceiling price, in other words spending money on it doesn't necessarily add to its value. If it's any consolation, I have spent tens of thousands on mine over the last decade but nobody would pay that much more for a house like ours in our area.

I've been told that it these things make a property easier to sell, but only if there is a buyer in the frame in the first place.

This is true - whilst the house we sold last year was a good sized one-off detached period property that we believed at the time of purchase had potential to increase in value, it was let down by being surrounded by an estate of small modern bungalows If the house had been in a nicer location (as it deserved to be) the work we carried out would have increased its value - instead our EA said it merely made it more saleable......which was confirmed by how quickly it sold in comparison to other houses in the area.......

getmore4less

we bought it in 2008 at £194k but have completely renovated it

..........

the sale fell through when the survey was conducted and too many red areas showed for the buyers who back out,

.......

Wood worm and pointing still need doing

......


you passed on a decent offer that needed you to leave everything and save on removal costs.
How much is your stuff worth?


Get your mortgage covered and move on.


Do/did you keep the dogs in the house, get someone round with a keen nose and move the dogs.

Animal smells are a big deterant since they can be very hard to remove once in the fabric of a house so traces of dogs will put people off

If you were renovating why on earth is there not a second bathroom/ ensuite and a downstairs loo(utility looks big enough from the plans).

edit:
just thought I would add the main point.

A completely renovated house does not fall apart in 4 years, two main issues which will cost 7k are to do with the fabric of the property(woodworm and pointing) these would be top of the list in a renovation before you start internal work.

I suspect renovation was really redocorated.

What work was done for this renovation?

A couple of other points as well as the lack of loos.

The front door seems to open into a living/TV room, and access to the garden has not been optimized to give inside/outside patio/french goors onto a garden seating area.

I think the real problem here is that all people will see when looking is more work and expences(including decoration) so there are likely to be better option at the price point.