Long time on market

sam3103

I am no expert but I can only give my experience. Our house was on the market for 10 months before we even got one viewing! Now we are two weeks from moving out, we got there in the end!
First off, change your agent! We changed ours halfway through as they offered no advice whatsoever on what we could do to get more interest.
We used our local ewemove agent next who sold it. Don't know if you have one in your area but they were trained on professional photography which they did not charge extra for. They rang us every other week with suggestions and changed the photos around regularly.
I would also suggest the leading photo does not grab the attention of people who are browsing. I personally like to see the outside first.
Secondly I would just like to say we were selling a new build property, we were the first owners and had lived in it for 7 years before we sold. Every estate agent I spoke to explained that we paid a premium to be the first people in the house and we ended up accepting an offer 5k under what we actually paid. We could have held out for higher offers but after only 2 viewings in 10 months we decided to cut our losses and move on. Not suggesting you need to do that but it is worth considering that just because it was a new build when you bought it doesn't really mean it will appeal to the next owner in the same way.
I hope you have some more luck, it really is frustrating!

[Deleted User]

Personally, I think you've made the house look smaller by overfilling it with furniture.

Get rid of the armchairs in the living room. Or get better photographs if the room is larger than it looks.

King size beds are great, if they don't make a room look smaller (can you borrow a double?)

Do you have two fridge freezers in the kitchen (and cupboard doors in three different colours - mixed in with two brightly different coloured large fridge freezers)? If you didn't have super storage for frozen food, you'd probably be able to put the table and chairs in the lounge in your kitchen. Then there's the orange red and white tiles (bit more than a strip) lol.

Yes additional bedroom pics needed.

Yes be pleased you aren't actually losing money when someone makes a offer close to what you paid. Think what it would have cost you if you'd been renting lol?

Just a few flowers or something in the gardens would help.

You've asked for advice but I suspect that you aren't really prepared to accept it. There's got to be something wrong if other places local to you are selling (even if slowly) but yours isn't.

Crashy_Time

DRP wrote: »

First lesson is don't buy in an areas with (historically) slow growth.
Second lesson is don't buy a house at a premium price (new build) in those areas.
Third lesson is don;t repeat your mistakes (given that this is the 2nd house you've had trouble with).

Sorry

Would the "historically slow growth" have been the case there ten years ago though? Most areas would have been benefiting from the massive amounts of loose credit leading up to the bust, the OP`s mistake is in thinking that their house is STILL supposed to get more pricey even after all the emergency intervention etc. to keep the housing market afloat. IMO they should count themselves lucky if they get what they paid for it.

ElsieMonkey

I really don't think changing estate agents will do much. they're all much of a muchness IMO. At the end of the day people do their searching online on Rightmove etc. A newspaper ad won't achieve anything. And EAs saying they have a list of interested people ready and waiting is a load of crap - potential buyers aren't loyal to particular EAs! Unfortunately it always comes down to price. If I was you I won't bother messing around with new EAs etc. just get the price reduced and have done with it. The only other thing that may help is to remove it completely from the market and put it back up, afresh, in September when the market tends to get a bit busier again (but put it back up at a cheaper price than is now).

ElsieMonkey

sam3103 wrote: »

I would also suggest the leading photo does not grab the attention of people who are browsing. I personally like to see the outside first.

Agree, I hate inside pics as leading picture (unless the inside is AMAZING), as it usually makes me think it's been picked because the outside must be too hideous to show (I won't even usually click through to see the outside pic to see if I was right or not).

But, changing pics etc. will only go so far...it's always price.

steve2000

Judging by the house prices in 2007 at 150k then anything over 120k should be strongly considered.
The problem with Coldstream is its a nice place to live DEPENDING on your lifestyle.

Most people buying houses will need to be in the city for work and most people do not have a 6 figure income.
Coldstream will have less interest because its in the country side, and therefore will have less footfall in that area.

its not that the house is worth that amount, its simply because not so many people could life there due to income levels. traveling into Newcastle everyday is a significant fuel expense, and for this reason most people cannot afford to live there.

On a bright note, the house looks reasonable. But i would not be happy with those pics.

If the low offer was more than 120 ish then its a good idea to take it (depending on your circumstances)

This is simply due to the average house prices in England.

Whilst London is booming the rest of the country is slowly losing its value (in my opinion).

glasgowdan

Many parts of scotland really are seeing rising prices, largely around good schooling.