Difficulty selling a house in a remote area of Scotland

song_of_calliope

We have been trying to sell our house in a remote part of Scotland where houses aren't selling at the same rate as in the rest of the UK. We have relocated for work and the house is sitting empty. We just want to get it sold but we've had it on the market for two months with no viewings. A couple off points:

1. The house is not on rightmove because our agent doesn't use them. Very few agents in our remote area do, but we're wondering if this is a mistake. If so how can we get onto rightmove without changing agents, or is this not possible? Can we change agents easily in Scotland?

2. Our home report valuation is £125k and the agent put our house on at "offers over" this amount. Is this price unrealistic? Other houses in our area are on at below home report value. Should we be as well? Perhaps I'm unrealistic but I wonder if a price that's too low turns people off because they would wonder what's wrong with the house but maybe that's not the case? Maybe it's all about the price? We would be willing to sell for £110k so should we stick it on at that and "fixed price"?

The house is a two bedroom detached in the countryside with a detached double garage with light and power and a nice plot of land.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

PasturesNew

1] You can use one of those "sell your own house" websites that use RM and get your advert to send traffic to the agent's site.

song_of_calliope

Thanks, PasturesNew. Any particular site you would recommend or are they all as good as each other? Any to avoid?

chickaroonee

Maybe add "Scotland" to your title as those who know the Scottish system better might see it and be able to offer more advice, as the market is so different to E&W.

Annisele

song_of_calliope wrote: »

Other houses in our area are on at below home report value. Should we be as well?

Are those houses actually selling?

Put your postcode into a site like Zoopla and look at the sold prices (not the asking prices of houses currently on the market). If your house is out of line with the sold prices, then it's overpriced.

I_have_spoken

Offers over the £125,000 stamp duty threshold is daft IMHO.

Rightmove is essential.

TBH, the Scottish market will be in the doldrums until the 2014 referedum. Who'd want to buy with that risk?

agrinnall

My house has been on the market just over a month, and I'm not expecting an early sale (although that would be nice). You either need to be patient or come up with a strategy for selling quickly. Dropping the price is going to help but still may not work unless you drop it so far that it's an irresistible bargain, which would probably have to be a long way below the valuation, and probably less than you are willing to accept.

I have gone with an EA who uses Rightmove, although as yet I'm not convinced that any of the viewers I've had has seen it there. The down side is that it's not on the local Solicitor's Property Centre website, it's hard to know which is the better option for attracting people to a remote area.

carefullycautious

See below accidentally added twice

carefullycautious

Have you thought about selling through one of the 'holiday cottages for sale' sites

If your home lends itself to holiday accommodation this could answer your dilemma.

Good luck

http://www.seasidecottages.co.uk

This one seems to have sales on it every time I look

song_of_calliope

That holiday cottages site looks brilliant, carefullycautious, we will definitely put our house on there as it would be a nice holiday cottage for someone (5miles from a very nice beach, and the house is surrounded by fields).

We will drop the price, that's for sure. We like our estate agents but are open to changing if necessary. However I've found some online agents that offer rightmove (turtlehomes looks good and cheap but there seem to be loads of them) and we will ask our agent about using one if them to get onto rightmove.

WellKnownSid

song_of_calliope wrote: »

We just want to get it sold but we've had it on the market for two months with no viewings.

Two months is nothing for the market here at the moment. As others have pointed out, there is a lot of uncertainly here in Scotland at the moment, which is really holding things back. Most properties that have had a major 'fixed price' reduction tend to sell quickly, though.

What's the competition like? Schools are breaking up in a week or two so the market is coming to a halt now anyway.

song_of_calliope wrote: »

1. The house is not on rightmove because our agent doesn't use them. Very few agents in our remote area do, but we're wondering if this is a mistake.

Almost certainly, although TBH when we bought our 'remote property' it was on one of the other 'prime' property websites so it doesn't have to be rightmove per se.

song_of_calliope wrote: »

Our home report valuation is £125k and the agent put our house on at "offers over" this amount. Is this price unrealistic? Other houses in our area are on at below home report value. Should we be as well? Perhaps I'm unrealistic but I wonder if a price that's too low turns people off because they would wonder what's wrong with the house but maybe that's not the case? Maybe it's all about the price? We would be willing to sell for £110k so should we stick it on at that and "fixed price"?

Offers over is dead and has been for years. Pretty much everything around here is selling significantly below the valuation at the moment. £125k is a daft number anyway, for the reasons given previously, as it's the stamp duty threshold.

song_of_calliope wrote: »

The house is a two bedroom detached in the countryside with a detached double garage with light and power and a nice plot of land.

Age? Condition? Room for extension?

Two bedrooms may limit the market - detached with garden usually means families, and they'll want 3+ beds if it were a potential BTL. Local buyers may be put off by the location (for practical reasons, jobs will be in the local town so buying in the countryside means commuting and all the £costs that brings).

Holiday let use is possible - but you still have to be realistic on price. Holiday lets are hard to get mortgages for, so it might be a cash buy only.