Please Critique these details?

Alchemilla

Tigsteroonie wrote: »

Photo 6 - hallway - I don't really want to see your coats and bike helmet Maybe just an umbrella if you need to demonstrate purpose.

I'd like to see a photo of the kitchen arrangement, not the dining arrangement. I'd also like to see a photo of the rear garden.

Just adding them. You might think I had better not!

Alchemilla

ellie27 wrote: »

Lovely house, beautifully decorated.

Photos only show 1 bedroom. I would assume the rest are tiny or not worth a pic? Something must be wrong with the other bedrooms if there are no pics?

There are no pictures of the kitchen?

The garden is high priority for us having 2 young children. Again, no photos of a back garden tells me its not up to much and not worth taking a photo of.

I have added a bedroom pic and the back yard - you were dead right Ellie!

Alchemilla

AnnieO1234 wrote: »

Needs kitchen and garden photos; the nook at the stairs top looks interesting but needs pic; no bathroom pic; pic of walk in pantry. What are the original features? Would be nice to see pics.

Also the ad is mute on parking situation.

Xx

There is a garage (does anyone ever park in them anymore?)
and parking on the square which is ample but not owned by the house. How to phrase that?

Alchemilla

franklee wrote: »

I've just ploughed through the rightmove listing. Then I looked at the brochure linked to from the bottom of the rightmove page which has a few more pictures than are on rightmove and what a waste of time! I recognise the kitchen area from April 2015. Many posters including me asked about the lack of kitchen and garden pictures before yet here we are with a new listing and still the same pictures missing.

Fine if you want to post again in a new thread but please refer to the old to save us all writing out the same comments again! It's here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5223213

(Asking price 450K with paddock, 410 without in April 2015, didn't sell, now you are asking 390K without paddock).


So complete waste of time but here's my comments for the second time:

Loads missing from the listing.

Bespoke kitchen ... where are the pictures to show this off?

Garden pictures?

Parking, where and for how many cars?

Age of house, any interesting history?

What powers the radiators, presumably oil fired?

Bathroom pictures? Shower room pictures?

Any nice views out of the windows.

Which way does the house/garden face?

Garage pictures?

Pictures if other bedrooms?

Quantify the distance meant by "paddock nearby". Is it two minutes walk, five minutes drive ...

"Despite being in the centre of the village there is very little movement of cars around the house and so it is very quiet and peaceful." Would not mention the car movements sounds defensive.

I removed the defensive bit! Thank you.

booksurr

franklee wrote: »

I've just ploughed through the rightmove listing. Then I looked at the brochure linked to from the bottom of the rightmove page which has a few more pictures than are on rightmove and what a waste of time! I recognise the kitchen area from April 2015. Many posters including me asked about the lack of kitchen and garden pictures before yet here we are with a new listing and still the same pictures missing.

thank you!!

I looked at the pics and my immediate reaction was that looks familiar and I sure there was a similar gallery style kitchen like that before.

I now see my reaction is consistent with my thoughts last time...
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=68219066&postcount=16

melstar11

OP - the photos need to flow, so work on the order as it's disjointed. Also, is that the bathroom or the shower room. It is not at all clear. I think you need to get some better photos. For example, when the EA took photos of the house we sold recently, he positioned his camera on top of the bathroom door to get the shower and the bath in the shot.

ReadingTim

According to Rightmove, only 28 properties within 3 miles of your location have been sold in the last 2 years. This suggests a slow market, so you might just have to sit it out. If you want to get rid of it quickly, keep dropping the price until someone bites.

However, I can't help wondering if your choice of online agent is what's really hindering you. High St EAs will have lists of buyers looking, and can ring people up and press for opinions, even suggest you're open to reasonable offers (assuming you are?) - does House Network do this for you?

I can't help thinking you're focusing on the marketing materials as the source of your problems, rather than the marketing strategy...

DRP

I think the house looks good decor-wise, and the ad is basically fine. Just a few little niggles that have already been mentioned, but tbh they're not going to make the difference if someone is interested in the type of house and area.

The main indication of your problem is the lack of viewings.

To me this means a combination of slow market and/or over-priced.

For the area, the price is eye-watering unless you're someone with a lot of equity - this usually means a family selling a home. Families like decent size gardens.

Families also tend to like open-plan family room / kitchen. Hard to tell from the ad, but the kitchen layout is a little strange, with most of it around the corner out of the way from the diner area.

So... slightly odd layout, small garden, slow market, and not a good FTB price.

It may be a hard sell unless you drop the price...

phoebe1989seb

Hi Alchemilla,

I remember your previous thread from last year and am sorry to hear your house is still not sold. I stand by what I said then that it's a lovely property, but have to agree with other posters that in such a niche market - larger house with tiny garden - you will need to be priced to reflect that and sadly the fact that you're getting no viewers indicates you're still not priced correctly.

We've had a few such *niche* period houses in the past so know how hard it can be. Our last house was beautifully restored (imho and that of the five EAs we had round to value ), but, sitting as it did adjacent to the A30 - albeit on a third of an acre - and being thatched, we always knew it would have the marmite effect and would be worth less than a similar house in a quieter location. Despite pitching it at the lower end of those valuations it was also historically the highest priced house in our village, in an area where higher - think £1m+ - and the lowest - circa £250k - houses were selling but the mid-priced like ours were hanging around for 12 months.

After only a few weeks at our initial asking price and with only one viewing - the day after our ad went live on RM - we dropped the price and suddenly - 5 weeks in - had a flurry of viewings resulting in three offers. The sale went on to complete at our new asking price.

Another period house sale - not rural this time - back in 2011 involved a house rather like yours, garden-wise. A previous owner had sold off the extensive grounds in the 1990s, leaving a garden that wrapped around the four sides of the house but was a max of 20' deep in any direction. It hadn't bothered us as empty nesters taking it on as a restoration project, but with five bedrooms we knew our target market was likely to include families expecting more outside space.

From the outset we priced to reflect this (in fact we priced below what we had paid as we were very keen to relocate) and did get a handful of viewings in the first week - all from couples with no kids, either older, retired or younger, no kids yet- but no offers were forthcoming and although they all loved the house itself - and feedback from our EA didn't mention the garden - you could tell that *something* was letting the place down. Ten days in we had a viewing from a couple in their late 30s with three kids and two dogs. We assumed that the garden would definitely be the stumbling block, but having extensively debated (in front of us) the pros and cons of dog-proofing and where to site outdoor play equipment, they put in an asking price offer as they fell head over heels for the house. Five years on they are still there (and now have five kids), so I guess they've somehow made the odd garden work for their needs.

So in both my examples the houses were niche - but well restored and presented - and both sold within a matter of weeks. In both cases our buyers admitted they could not have afforded the house had it been in a quieter location (house 1) or had a larger garden (house 2). We used a high street EA both times as having considered an online one we came to the conclusion that a niche property needed the extra services a high street EA could provide. In particular the company we used at our last house were fantastic!

Imo your presentation is fine, bordering on very good (odd little things like moving those coats, making your courtyard more *aspirational* etc!) and the issues are mainly stuff you can't change - small garden (not everyone will want to buy the paddock etc and it's not adjoining the house iirc?) and unusual kitchen layout - so it has to come down to price/slow market. At the right price everything will sell, and as we found, sell relatively fast. Unfortunately unless you are prepared to stick it out for what could be years, you may have to drop your price even further. Such a shame as I still think it's a lovely house for the right people Good luck.......

ElsieMonkey

Beautiful house!

I'd say remove the rugs downstairs to make the rooms feel bigger - rugs draw the eye in and close up a space.

Can you clear out all the stuff stored/hidden under the beds? It gives the impression that you're struggling for storage.

Can you make more of the courtyard garden? It's a family sized home so I'd imagine a family with children would view it? The fact that it only has a courtyard may be off putting, but if you can make it feel more like a space they want to spend time in an can imagine their kids being in then it may help them view the space differently and consider something different than what they otherwise would have preferred (they may ideally have wanted a lawn etc.).

Declutter tha hallway.

I think the Key Features list on the ad could work a bit harder! Think about it from your target audience's point of view - who are your target audience? Families? What would they most care about? What's on their 'must-have' list that your house offers?

Good luck!