Any House-Selling Tips?

thedanshires

Hi everyone, I didn't realise this forum existed so finding it at this precise moment is incredibly useful!
Basically my wife and I put our three-bed semi up for sale in Wrexham in early January. We'd fallen in love with a bigger property nearby and decided to go for it as we could see our family growing up there (we've just had our second baby last month). We went with the same agent that the house we were interested in was on with, as they made good noises about houses like ours in our location going extremely fast, as well as figuring that it would be in there interest to help us find a buyer as it would result in them selling two properties rather than one. 
Despite the agents bold claims that the house would be 'sold in two weeks', we're still on the market and really only had a handful of viewings, sadly meaning we missed out on our dream house about two weeks ago when it was sold STC. 
Luckily we've managed to find something else which whilst not being quite as 'dream property' is still a big step forward for us and we really want to secure it.
The issue we're facing is twofold: 

• Similar houses on our estate have sold quicker and in some cases for more money than we're asking for (some on with the same agents) - we feel like our listing is good (photos look good, has floorplan etc), but the viewings we've had have felt quite 'timewaster', describing it as 'too small' or 'not enough downstairs rooms', when we're not hiding anything in the listing - it's very clear what that house looks like and the dimensions are
• Based on this, we don't feel like we're getting any advice from the agents on how to improve the chances of selling the property; whether we should reduce the price or whatever - we want the benefit of their experience but they're being very little help

I just wondered if anyone had any advice in terms of how we can improve our chances of selling, getting the best out of our agents and hopefully viewers who are actually seriously considering the property.
Thanks in advance.

SameOldRoundabout

When have those similar houses sold quickly? Now or previously? I don’t know about Wrexham, but in Cardiff there is not much coming on and anything that isn’t a doer-upper seems to be sitting for ages not selling. I think Brexit and now Covid-19 are having an impact on whether people want to make the move, especially now with interest rates dropping and the knock on effect that’s expected to have on the housing market. 

You could post a link on here for us, or check out recent sales within 1/2 mile to see how much has come on since yours, and how much has actually sold. 

thedanshires

Thanks for your reply. I tried to post a link to the property but the forum said I was too new... if there's an alternative way I can send a link to someone else to post on my behalf I will. 
Basically four similar houses size / price have gone up on our estate (all built in last seven years) and sold in the time that ours has been on (in some cases within days). Looking at the condition of the houses (prices, features etc), ours doesn't feel different so the lack of movement feels more fundamental with our listing / presentation.

Davesnave

People lie when giving reasons for not being keen on a property, but the real elephant in the room now is the virus. The government were playing it down, but the effects are going to be severe in the short term. Personally, I'd not be too concerned about moving this year.

thedanshires

Davesnave said:

People lie when giving reasons for not being keen on a property, but the real elephant in the room now is the virus. The government were playing it down, but the effects are going to be severe in the short term. Personally, I'd not be too concerned about moving this year.

Agreed that's what I think it comes down to. The couple who visited us on Wednesday were the sting in the tail for us, they seemed completely into it on the viewing and talking about how nothing needed doing and how they could just move in having seen some pits, then come back and say it's two small for the pair of them - it doesn't line up so like you say an easy excuse.

I know moving right now isn't ideal, basically our situation has changed and we need the extra space. We've had a second child and had the space to manage that, but then simultaneously my job became based at home as my company wanted to save money on the office space we had so I need a place I can work quietly away from the children. 

RelievedSheff

If you can post the Rightmove reference number then someone will find it and post the link for you.

thedanshires

RelievedSheff said:

If you can post the Rightmove reference number then someone will find it and post the link for you.

Thanks for the tip - here's the reference 76531726 
So to update from the weekend, we had two sets of viewers, one Saturday afternoon, one Sunday morning. Saturday may have been the worst one we've had so far.
They were first-time buyers and one of the couple had decided to bring their elderly mother with them. She was rude, obnoxious and overbearing the entire way around - the 'highlight' being after i'd shown them the downstairs and tried to take them upstairs, she said 'i haven't finished in the kitchen yet' and walked back in, proceeding to open every single cupboard and look inside. Despite having seen the whole of the downstairs and garden at this point, she said 'and there's definitely no utility room', despite the listing, images, floorplan and experience of being in our house for 10 minutes clearly indicating there wasn't. I patiently kept smiling and joking, trying to keep the energy up but wanted them to leave at this point.

The family on Sunday were ok, just very quiet and difficult to build a rapport with. They didn't ask any questions, they just looked around and left. 

Am now waiting for the inevitable 'too small' feedback we'll get from both parties. Ultimately if you've looked at the listing properly before you book a viewing, you'll how how it's laid out and what is has/doesn't have. 

Whole process is an exercise in patience.

pinkteapot

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-76531726.html

sgun

Are you actually living in it? It doesn't look like it. You want people to come for viewings thinking that they want to buy the house, you need to sell more of a lifestyle in the listing images so that when people turn up they have already bought into the idea of living there. Its hard to do that if the house is totally impersonal. Think about your demographic and the sort of things they like and put some of that into the house to give it some personality. 

thedanshires

sgun said:

Are you actually living in it? It doesn't look like it. You want people to come for viewings thinking that they want to buy the house, you need to sell more of a lifestyle in the listing images so that when people turn up they have already bought into the idea of living there. Its hard to do that if the house is totally impersonal. Think about your demographic and the sort of things they like and put some of that into the house to give it some personality. 

Yes - the images were actually taken Christmas week as at that time we were trying to move things forward quickly to get the house we initially fell in love with. 
We were advised by the agents to take all the Christmas decorations down and make it as blank canvas as possible, hence what you see in the images.

RelievedSheff

thedanshires said:

sgun said:

Are you actually living in it? It doesn't look like it. You want people to come for viewings thinking that they want to buy the house, you need to sell more of a lifestyle in the listing images so that when people turn up they have already bought into the idea of living there. Its hard to do that if the house is totally impersonal. Think about your demographic and the sort of things they like and put some of that into the house to give it some personality. 

Yes - the images were actually taken Christmas week as at that time we were trying to move things forward quickly to get the house we initially fell in love with. 
We were advised by the agents to take all the Christmas decorations down and make it as blank canvas as possible, hence what you see in the images.

I think you have gone a little too far with making this one a blank canvas. You need to try and make it feel a little more personal. People need to imagine themselves living there.

I would remove the bright plastic objects from the bathroom pictures.

The bedrooms don't look very big. I'm not sure if that is just how they appear on the photographs but that might put off some potential purchasers.