House has had no viewings - input much appreciated

Davesnave

Bossypants wrote: »

I get the impression older people prefer smaller rooms sometimes. The previous elderly owner of my house apparently used the small second bedroom as her sitting room, completely ignoring the lovely well-proportioned lounge two doors down. My grandmother too preferred to sit in her tiny kitchen, rather than use her very pleasant large lounge. Perhaps when I am 80 I will understand.

No need to be old. In 1974, whilst saving my deposit, I rented the top floor of an old house out in the sticks.

Although I had a living room, bedroom and huge bathroom, the only room I warmed was the kitchen/diner, where I had my paraffin heater.

It was a simple matter of economics.

Albala

re photos, I have seen far, far worse. I've been looking at one house, and it has been with three agents. The best set of photos are worse than those, and the previous sets are absolutely dire (even the oldest is under three years old).


If the woodwork really isn't as red as that, a bit of toning down of the reds in Photoshop might help a bit. The garden and views are great.



I'd have thought that larger houses will generally wait longer for viewings and get fewer, all other things being equal. Many people will only buy a 'made house'- one which they feel they can move straight into with decor they can live with for a while, so they won't waste time viewing. With this one, most people would want to redecorate, and have a new kitchen and bathroom. If the price is at the top of the market, it may be too high for that reason- it's not just the costs, it's the disruption too, especially if you have kids.


I still think it's a lovely house, mind you.

OldMusicGuy

This house has a fundamental issue which we recently encountered with the sale of our house. It's upside down. The upstairs is too small for a £600,000 plus house. Add to that it will need 20 to 50K spent on redecorating and replacing kitchen and bathroom, it's overpriced and the outdated decor is putting off viewers.

Just compare it to the competition in Dedham - a very nicely decorated modern house with 4 bedrooms and an ensuite. Extend the search area to 3 miles, all are 4 or 5 bedroom houses. The seller is overvaluing the position and views.

We've been through similar with the sale of our house. It has a small upstairs relative to the downstairs space because the bedrooms do not extend over the garage. However, it does have the same number of bedrooms as the competition, and more ensuite bathrooms than some. It is in a desirable location and is great decorative order throughout with some really nice features.

Given all of that, with the EA's blessing we put it on at what we knew was an optimistic price but were open to offers. We had lots of viewings but the feedback was consistent - love the house, love the location but the upstairs rooms are too small. No one even made an offer so that we could haggle.

This surprised us because the room size upstairs has never bothered us. After all you spent most of your time downstairs. But when people are looking at alternatives and have choices, they spot the negatives that you (as the owner) overlook.

The mistake we made is that we put the house in the low end of a price range, like this seller has. Most people using Rightmove and similar search in ranges, so if you are the low end of the range people can generally afford to pay the higher end of the range, which means they don't want to haggle at the lower end. This property's problem is that people looking at this will be looking in the 600 to 650 range and if they can afford up to 650 (and are seeing 4 and 5 bed places), haggling for this one isn't going to be worth it.

We dropped the price and targeted buyers in a lower price range and that meant we got an offer pretty quickly. That's what this seller needs to do unless they are prepared to hold out in the hope they get lucky and find someone that is prepared to overlook the small upstairs, dated decor, kitchen and bathroom for the views.

Crashy_Time

Any viewings?

micktoberfest

Unfortunately not ��

Fire_Fox

Beautiful garden :happylove and lovely view. Agree the conservatory needs the blinds open in photographs.

Far too heavy furniture and far too much of it. It is very difficult to see the rooms themselves, and thus difficult for potential buyers to imagine how they might live there.

Many rooms appear small because there is no floor visible, or because furniture or heavy curtains are blocking windows or doors. If you are downsizing it would be worth deciding what you intend to take with you, and what you wish to sell on or give away now.

HTH.

Crashy_Time

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

It is rather over-furnitured and over-frilled.

Maybe the photos have bad colour rendition, but I would repaint the kitchen walls white where not tiled - they do look rather bilious - and sort the unit doors that are askew. Turn the table parallel to the wall and only have two chairs.

Dining room looks cramped - I would lose the big wall unit and just have the table and chairs.

The bedroom dressing tables need to go, as does the shelf unit on the landing. Get the excess stuff sold on Gumtree with the furniture-buyers getting first refusal on the remainder when the house is sold if they want the whole set. All you need in a bedroom is bed, bedside table, 1 x wardrobe, space.

Photos definately need to be improved to show the light/colour and views from inside.

Yes, less is more in a lot of cases.