House on the market 6 weeks so far

Ker88x

My property: a modern 2 bedroom terraced house, fixed price £109,995, in West Lothian, Scotland.

My house has been on the market since 4th April this year. We had our only two viewers in the first 8 days of it being on the market. Another viewer was booked in for the week after the second viewer, but they didn't show up! Since then we have had no viewers, and the estate agents have said that the only interest my property has had in the last few weeks is one person requesting the home report (our home report is good FYI).

I know our house hasn't been on the market for very long, but we expected to receive more interest that what we have received so far.

We are with a smaller estate agent which is based in a town just over 10 minutes away from us. They have marketed our property on RightMove, Zoopla, and S1homes. I noticed that most of the houses which they have sold are in the town where they are based. Do you think them being based in a different town would cause the lack of viewers, even though our house is advertised on the big websites? There is another house in our street up for sale (a 3 bedroom) with a different estate agent (Re/max - whos office is in our town not far from our house). We are thinking about changing to that same estate agent, but have not yet decided.

What are your experiences with using an estate agent which is based in a different, but close-by town?

Thanks in advance.

cloo

I don't know about your last question, but I'd like to ask how good you think the photos are?

I put my house on in what I'd heard was a crazy busy market. Photos weren't great but I foolishly assumed it wouldn't matter. I got a few views (and a few no shows) but no good enough offers.

Took it off for a month, put it back on, new agents too vastly better photos, everyone who said they'd come to view did and I've just accepted a far better offer than the highest I got before.

I do think better photos went a long way to getting more people interested and more of them committed to actually turning up.

googler

Are you in commuting distance of Edinburgh?

If so, is your selling agent a solicitor firm, or a stand-alone estate agent?

Why didn't you consider listing with RE/MAX first time round? What led you to your current agent?

Logan008

some agents steer potential buyers away, so btl friends can buy at a cheap price when your desperate.

jacko74

Logan008 wrote: »

some agents steer potential buyers away, so btl friends can buy at a cheap price when your desperate.

Does this really still go on in this day and age?

I know it did in the past when estate agents were far less regulated (in the late 80's my parents were repeatedly told by an agent that a house they were interested in was sstc, it was only when they actually stopped and spoke to the owner he told them he'd had no viewings and certainly no offers!)

Ker88x

Unfortunately I'm unable to post the link as I'm a new user. If you go onto Rightmove and search 'Livingston', choosing only 2 bedrooms, at price £109,995 you should be able to find it.


We are around a half hour drive from the centre of Edinburgh. As for our estate agent, they are a stand alone estate agent dealing with selling and to let. What led us to our current agent is the low price and the fact they list on the 3 big websites people in Scotland use to search for houses. And they sold a house across the street from us in a week at the end of last year. That house is same as ours.

GalaxyStar

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-43759675.html

This the one?

Ker88x

Yes that's our house. Thanks for linking it for me

CWSmith

Neat and tidy, but at first glance, I thought all the photos were in black and white.

~Beanie~

Yes, it does look very 'grey' to me too. There is no colour anywhere. The kitchen doesn't look lived in, neither do the bedrooms. Can you put a picture or something above the bed, or a couple of coloured cushions on it? The pic of the bathroom isn't the best either, it looks like the photographer has taken a photo of the toilet!

Other than that, I think its a nice house, just needs brightening up a bit.

Katgrit

Hope you don't mind me chipping in - I thought "GREY" too. You can improve things relatively cheaply before you get your new pics done.

My suggestions:
Couple of nice bright cushions on the couch, duck egg blue, red, purple perhaps.
Take the grey canvases off the wall over the couch and replace with something with more colour - even if you just cover canvas box frames with samples of nicely patterned wall paper.
Bright coloured kettle, toaster or mug tree with coloured mugs on the worktop. Vase of tulips ontop of the fridgefreezer thing to put some colour against that wall.
Buy a couple of cheap voile curtains and put these up in the bedroom.

I have just found a buyer after 6 weeks - only my second viewing. I currently HATE living in my house - all my photos on the walls of lovely friends and family are gone and replaced with generic canvases that are all the rage and ten a penny in shops. The walls are now all magnolia or white. There's voile curtains that I'd never usually have in a million years up at the patio doors, rather than my lush thick (but ugly) thermal curtains. There's shiny cushions on the bed in the spare room (what's the bleeding point - they never get used - either on the bed when it's not being used, or thrown on the floor when it is!) and strange minimalistic ornaments on my mantlepiece. It doesn't look like my house - I did it all to appeal to buyers. Living in such a "not me" house makes my teeth itch, but it's done the job.

OP, You can be sorted with an afternoons work and less than £100 spent down the retail park.