Help! No viewings after 3 weeks

LondonDreamer

monty-doggy wrote: »

The kitchen is lovely, it's a shame you are not leaving a single appliance as that's a lot of money for someone to find if they don't already have them, it's not like a standard oven will fit, yours is a range style.

Ooh, I missed that in the listing - had stopped reading the blurb by that point. That would put me off, especially at the current price.

Also just noticed that the washing machine sticks out a lot in the first kitchen photo. Could you push the machine back and retake the photo? Or is your counter less than standard depth?

quotememiserable

You normally get a flurry of viewings early, because the current crop of people who are looking check out new properties when the first come on. After that its slower because you're waiting for new buyers to come to market.
So no viewers in 3 weeks does suggest people aren't finding it attractive. So as people say, you need to make either the property (ie, the photos) more attractive or the price, or both.

rrtt

I've no idea at all re prices for this type of house in your area, but no viewings at all suggests to me that it's almost certainly the price which is putting people off. Had similar thing with house I viewed in Yorkshire - the vendors had bought it at probably slightly too high a price 3 years ago, done a lot of expensive work to make it v. beautiful, and then wanted to fully recoup what they'd spent. Unfortunately they were not willing to accept that house prices have dropped overall in those 3 years. I made them an offer which was probably ott for what the house was cos I really loved/wanted it, was ready to move immediately with no chain and everything in place, but they rejected it and are holding out for an unrealistic target price. I went round to see it a second time when there was an 'open day' on it - there was not a single other person there in the hour I was around ...

I agree with previous poster re damp patches on the front render. As you're using an 'only online' agency, there's no-one there to extoll its virtues and reassure prospective buyers that there's nothing majorly wrong with the house (assuming that's the case).

I sometimes felt as a prospective buyer, that it would be in vendors' best interests to get a full structural survey done on their own property by local surveyors who are well known as independent and of good reputation in the area, to reassure prospective buyers.

It looks a lovely, well presented, neat house with a great garden (nice and secluded too). It might be worth considering using a 'proper' EA to match a few buyers up and really sell it to them. If that fails, I'd drop the price a bit and see what reaction you get.

Mojisola

pmlindyloo wrote: »

You are extremely unlikely to get your asking price because of the stamp duty so will probably looking at £249,999!

Because of the stamp duty level, a lot of people only search for properties up to £250k or maybe £260k, expecting to be able to offer less. The price you've set could be stopping the property appearing in possible buyers' searches.

freeisgood

I think your house is delightful!
It may be the price that is the issue. A lot of potential buyers looking to buy at 249.99k may only be searching for properties up to 260k on rightmove etc.

PS I would leave your cooker. That is such a hassle to arrange when moving into a property.

phoebe1989seb

Another one who thinks price is the main issue, I'm afraid......

Couple of examples from my own recent experience -

I agree that usually you would expect a rush of viewings to start with - even when we sold our last house in 2011 that was definitely not what people were looking to buy in that area, we had a flurry within the first two weeks. Our character property was also priced just above a SDLT threshold, but was very realistically priced - we had spent £40k in three years on restoring it, but priced lower than we'd paid in 2007 to reflect the downturn in that location - and we accepted a proceedable offer of £250k at the end of the fortnight. I guess it represented very good value for money.....and we were fortunate having bought for cash we could afford to swallow the loss and move on

Last year we had to sell my parents' 1920s semi on the South coast. We initially priced it at £270k and did get viewings and a couple of offers within the first month. One offer (£235k) was rejected and the other (£250k) was withdrawn within days 'cos they found out they couldn't get a dropped kerb. Our EA then suggested dropping the price to £250k and arranged back-to-back viewings based on the interest this brought in. We received two asking price offers (and another lower one) on the back of this and the sale went through within four months of putting it on the market.

Other observations on your house - whilst overall it appears nicely presented, it does seem as though you've overdone the de-cluttering to the point that it now lacks personality For example, some artwork above the fireplace in the living room would improve this.....

I also agree with the poster that commented about the appliances not being included. We had a range cooker at our last house and to clinch the deal agreed to include it in the sale price. We didn't really want to do this as it cost us £2000, but it was ten years old, our buyers were threatening to pull out over it and tbh it wasn't worth the aggro. Luckily we picked up exactly the same oven for our new house on preloved for under £500 Having to buy all new white goods including an expensive range could also be discouraging potential viewers so I would consider rethinking this......

But at the end of the day, the bottom line is invariably price

Kastanie

RMBPS wrote: »

It's priced slightly high at £270k - we are hoping to get £250k for it

I'm currently looking up to the 250K SD level. I do also look at properties up to 270K just to see if they might have any possibility for negotiation - but generally I'd expect them to have been up for sale for a while. If I was looking at yours, I wouldn't imagine you'd be up for negotiating down to 250K after only 3 weeks, so I wouldn't bother to view/enquire for fear of wasting everybody's time. If you'd be happy with 250K, could you move a little nearer to it in order to indicate some flexibility?

I think your house looks great by the way, just the first pic that's disappointing - makes it looked uncared-for when it clearly isn't. It'll be more appealing once you get the painting done and get a new photo, which might be better taken on the flat rather than an angle if you can.

richardw

Front photo needs to be done again with the car out of the way behind the camera.

There are two many photos, get rid of the duplicates.

ash28

Your house is really nice, but looking at the floor plans you seem to have lost the door from the hallway into the kitchen.....do you really have to come out of the living room into the hall then into and through the dining room to the kitchen?

I have to say that would put me off straight away and I wouldn't look at the house.

I looked at your neighbour's house and prefer the layout of that....I'm guessing theirs is the original layout?

If your neighbour's house was for sale I would go and look at that.....I like the layout - the fact that it's still got the original cupboard in the dining room - still has a walk in cupboard in the kitchen....appears to have at least one working fireplace......has a big garage with a utility cupboard and the gas meter is also in the garage.....it may not be in the best of condition but has potential.

I guess it just goes to show everyone's different when it comes to houses and what is an improvement for some isn't for others.

Your neighbour's house might need work but for me yours would need work too...the areas for me would be kitchen access and a garage.

It is a nice house and presented well, and I'm sure you will sell it.....though it does seem a bit expensive. It's usually down to price in the end.

Paully232000

The things that would put me off are the first picture, and like others have said the work that needs doing to repaint the front of the house, but you say you are going to do that.
For me it looks like it could have be damp (even though it may not be).
It has got everything that i would look for in a house except for extra space downstairs (conservatory/extra lounge). So I personally wouldnt pay more than the STD as I would know that I would have to spend extra on building on the rear of the property to make it as I would like.
However it is beautifully presented, with lots of outside space, so for a marketed price just under/over the STD I would not hesitate in viewing and putting in an offer. But like others have said I wouldn't presume that you would come down from 270,000 to lower than 250K so would discount it as a possibility and not even view/offer.