Please Help!! First House sale, only two viewings in three weeks!

rufus_bp

Hi

This is my first post on the forum, so hello.

I'm currently selling my first house, it's worth around £350K. It's located in a village 4 miles from a small town and 8 miles from York, I've chosen to go with an agent from the small town as he's local and he is trustworthy.

The house is 60's bungalow so not the prettiest from the front. But it's in a nice position in a nice village. The agent did say it would be difficult to get people through the door, but once they did it should sell ok.

It's new on the market, it's on rightmove, it's been advertised in the small town newspaper. But we've only had two viewings so far, is this normal or does it indicate that the house is overpriced, or that the agents marketing is poor?

I'm considering placing an advert in the York property press (which my agent doesn't advertise in), which will cost me £500 in an attempt to get more viewings. Is this a reasonable approach or should I wait a bit longer/ go dual agent?

Any estate agents out there willing to advise???

thanks in advance

-rob

DKLS

Before you splash the cash, Do you have a rightmove link?, there are a number of cost effective things you can do to improve the aspect. Is the local Agent even on Rightmove, Should be as your property is in the highly sought after commuter belt to Leeds/York.

rufus_bp

Hi

Thanks for your reply, here's the link:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-15048067.rsp/svr/2013;jsessionid=1F0AE997A3FCF0861B57EC6132DA5606?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

More info on house, it's 8 miles from York, 17 miles from Leeds. People who live in the village commute to Leeds and york. A two bed terrace goes for about £200k in the village, to give an idea of price.

cheers

-rob

rufus_bp

By the way...

If you see anything wrong with house from the pictures, or think it's overpriced, ugly etc. Please let me know, I can take the criticism! It is hard for me to get objective opinions, because friends/neighbours won't be that forthright.

thanks again

-rob

Amitoocautious

It looks a nice house to be honest though a sofa on the landing is a bit bizzare but i guess it shows you how roomy it is.

Could it be that its quite an expensive house and so there arent going to be masses of people in that area with the cash to splash and so will take a little longer

dnwilliams

Here we have a classic example of a ‘difficult to market’ property. Firstly, there are few comparables in the local area, just one semi sold 2 years ago, so establishing a value is very tricky. Secondly, at first glance the property looks fairly modest and as such would have a similarly perceived value, which will undoubtedly put people off viewing given the £345k price tag. Whereas, it is actually much larger than it looks with 5 bedrooms! However, a number of these rooms are in the roof space with velux windows, which doesn’t tend to increase the value as much as one might think.
So in my opinion it has been priced as a 5 bed house when it should have been valued as a 3 bedroom with converted loft space, which would ad, say, 10% at a guess. I notice there is a Dorma window at the rear so perhaps a picture of the back may do it more justice.

olly300

Pictures are good but the description lacks some information.

Your potential buyers will probably not know the exact area that well so the description should have information including:
1. It is situated within easy commuting distance to York and Leeds
2. Something about the local schools
3. More info about the parking so people know that more than one car can fit on the property

rufus_bp

Thanks for that. It does seem to be the problem that it looks small from the front when it is nearly 1500 sq ft, and that's not counting space with low headroom in the loft conversion.

There are three double beds downstairs, upstairs there is one large bed and one small bedroom and a shower room. I take your point about the loft conversion, if this adds about 10% then maybe it should be around the £330k mark?

WestonDave

If I were to buy that house, I'd partition the upstairs main bedroom into two, and have 3 kids bedrooms upstairs, and make the landing into a kids chill out area - big TV, games console etc. I'd make one downstairs bedroom into a dining room, have the lounge as a adult classy area, and the kitchen as a kitchen/breakfast room. I'd then make the remaining two bedrooms into a master bedroom and ensuite.

The trouble is that with 5 bedrooms and one not massive lounge its imbalanced - the dining bit of the kitchen doesn't really feel like you could go there to get away from the other 4 or 5 people all crammed into the one lounge. The landing isn't showing an obvious purpose.

Sorry to say this but it feels a bit like a house that someone has converted to accomodate their over large family of teenagers most of whom are never home except to sleep or who live behind slammed bedroom doors if they are home! To have more general appeal it needs to be more of a place to live rather than just lots of bedrooms. Getting it changed will cost and people will be factoring that into the price. That said find a family with 4 teenage kids and they'll bite your hand off!

Hope that isn't too offensive!

seven-day-weekend

I would put some tubs/planters with colourful plants in the front drive.

cattie

Ooh, you have a cow on the landing, I hope she is well behaved. :rotfl: