anyone had more than 50 views and still hasnt sold!!

IHateDida

Your kitchen is a tad small - but the finish and the amount of work surface makes up for it. So I would say that is a plus - also have you mentioned possibilities of knocking through a wall to create a bigger kitchen diner - just incase the size is putting people off?

You say that your wife shows people around - have you tried showing people around instead? As a female, I would rather be shown around by a bloke! Sounds odd and rather sexist I know but I think blokes sometimes don't put as much pressure on as us females do! (unknowlingly of course!). Just an idea!

I reckon the "open house" thing will work - all the "open house" events that I have recently seen in my area have resulted in a sale (I've been following them as I said if my house didn't sell after a couple of months I'd do it!)

I feel for you.....its horrid having to constantly live in a show home, worrying about things like cooking smells, bits of dust etc!!! - I did it for 6 weeks and it was such a relief when we received an offer. Good luck and keep us informed.

stolt

IHateDida wrote: »

Your kitchen is a tad small - but the finish and the amount of work surface makes up for it. So I would say that is a plus - also have you mentioned possibilities of knocking through a wall to create a bigger kitchen diner - just incase the size is putting people off?

You say that your wife shows people around - have you tried showing people around instead? As a female, I would rather be shown around by a bloke! Sounds odd and rather sexist I know but I think blokes sometimes don't put as much pressure on as us females do! (unknowlingly of course!). Just an idea!

I reckon the "open house" thing will work - all the "open house" events that I have recently seen in my area have resulted in a sale (I've been following them as I said if my house didn't sell after a couple of months I'd do it!)

I feel for you.....its horrid having to constantly live in a show home, worrying about things like cooking smells, bits of dust etc!!! - I did it for 6 weeks and it was such a relief when we received an offer. Good luck and keep us informed.

thanks for that, made alot of sense, i'm definatley going to try the open house idea, i actually think it's a really good idea, i've never been to one myself but I wish i had.

As for my wife showing viewers around, I do know what you mean, sometimes a bloke just lets you get on it with, my wife really does go to town pointing out that even down to the block paving being put in by us, and I say it sounds like were desperate when you mention things like that, and we end up arguing about it, perhaps if we get another viewer I'll do it, i don't mind, we just both thought that sometimes a woman is more approachable than a guy (plus i'm 6ft, shaven head, and tattoos and we thought I might put them off, sad I know but nobody ever sits next to me on the train to work, and everyone reckons because its the way i look!!!)

totally understand the shown home scenario, my wife cleans like made before we have viewers (even if we only had some the day before) plus we have three young girls under five, so very hard to keep the house looking nice without it turning into a playroom!

noyk

stolt wrote: »

yeah will agree with you there, I'm confident that someone out there will want. but my wife is getting alittle dis heartened with the whole process.

we have a private sale after following some great advice on these forums, we leafleted the houses we like and someone called us, we have agreed a price and he's not going to put the house on the open market which is lucky for us because i think it would be snapped up straight away. the vendor is buying some land with a bungalow on it, but the bungalow had just had a 6 month rental lease taken out on it so he had to wait until that finished so he could sort it out with the guy that owns the land. this suited us perfectly because we hadn't sold and of course we didn't have to rush. I just want to maximise our chances of attracting the right people.

I like the leafleting idea, any hints on doing this - what format did you use, like a letter or something else?

densol_2

I think your house is lovely. You mention people saying the bedrooms are small but looking at the size of them I don't think they are too small on measurement. There is only one picture of the main bedroom. Can I ask do you have lots of furniture in the bedrooms that make them look small. I can't imagine any clutter because your house looks so clean.

I guess your house is on an estate with similar houses - so those viewing know the area and like? I think in Essex the market is very hard for houses just over the stamp duty threshold. Not personal to your house.

All the best

stolt

noyk wrote: »

I like the leafleting idea, any hints on doing this - what format did you use, like a letter or something else?

hi this is the letter we used and only dropped it through the house son the close that we like, therefore I know it would be sods law that if i put them through every door, it would be a house that we didn't like that phoned up.

alot of people said it wouldn't work, but as I say we got lucky, the guy actaully told me that he threw the letter away because he was convinced he was never going to move, then see some land he wanted and had to ask one of his neighbours if they still had the letter, which one of them had put away for a rainy day.
here's along the lines of what we used....

Dear Homeowner please don’t throw me away before reading me.

We've just accepted an offer on our Property (and we have first time buyers). The problem is there’s not much for sale in the areas my wife and I like and we would very much like to stay in Rayleigh.
We are very fond of your street and house style, but as there are no houses presently for sale, we wondered if you would be kind enough to contact us if you were planning on selling in the near future.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this letter.

stolt

densol wrote: »

I think your house is lovely. You mention people saying the bedrooms are small but looking at the size of them I don't think they are too small on measurement. There is only one picture of the main bedroom. Can I ask do you have lots of furniture in the bedrooms that make them look small. I can't imagine any clutter because your house looks so clean.

I guess your house is on an estate with similar houses - so those viewing know the area and like? I think in Essex the market is very hard for houses just over the stamp duty threshold. Not personal to your house.

All the best

thanks, yeah thats what amazed us about the sizes of the bedrooms, you easily get a double bed in all three bedrooms, plus furniture. We were struggling to find a four bedroom house with a decent size fourth bedroom.

Our house is on a close of 14 houses and its in a corner posistion which i think is an advantage, the houes are about 29 years old, although I think they give the impression that they look alot newer.

The market does seem to be slowing judging by rightmove website, although i wish it was mine showing that little word in red next to it.

densol_2

Another thing I thought of - since the advent of Location Location etc they bat on about "period Features" this and period Features that - making modern houses the second best. I am sure it puts people off.

Give me new houses anyday - nice clean double glazing ( I like your Georgian Bar effect ) central heating & modern kitchen etc over crusty period fearures !

Denise

stolt

thanks once again for all the advice, replies all have been useful to some extent. and finally we have had an offer on the house this afternoon of 288k, I;ve the asked the agent to see if they can go to 292-293k which I will happily accept. over the moon at the moment, and finally feels like we can move on now.


Actually the EA has just phoned at to say that they have put another offer in at 291,500K, we wanted a little more but at the say time i don't want to be greedy and lose them. told the EA we will let him know in an hour after we have had a chat.

Bogof_Babe

Excellent! :beer: Don't risk losing them for the sake of £500 though .

stolt

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

Excellent! :beer: Don't risk losing them for the sake of £500 though .

no, I was just saying that to my wife, for 500.00 I don't want to lose them.

I'm really happy, and the couple are really nice, its really strange because i when i saw them get out of the car I thought there is no way that these people are going to be interested in this house, there about 65-70 both retired and wanted a modern house that they didn't have to do anything to it. I just assumed that it was young family or couple with no kids that the house suited.

feel relieved now.........

only problem now is that i need a five times my salary mortgage for about 174k!!!!:eek::eek::eek: for the new house...