Bungalow not selling, what would you do?

homersimpson246

Hi All, after some advice.

We have a 2 bedroom detached bungalow in a desirable part of the town we live in, it was originally advertised last september for 300K and we had a lot of interested and 5 offers ranging between 270 and 290K and we accepted the later last november, all was going well albeit slowly and we were due to exchange in March, then the lockdown started and during this our buyer lost their buyer.

We put the house back on the market in April for 295K and had one video viewing from someone who wasn't proceedable and was probably just bored and since then nothing.  We have noticed that 4 bed houses around here of the type that we are looking for are tending to still sell reasonably quickly and are being listed for the same as pre COVID-19 but bungalows seem to be slow to move.

We are on the market with Purple Bricks who are really good, however, its just not getting any interest and our discussions with them have concluded that we lower the price.

Before we do this we have asked a high street agent to come and have a look at the property and give us an opinion, if they think its overpriced for the market we will probably reduce and stay with Purple Bricks, if they think its priced right then we will put it on with them for a period and see if they can do anybetter in case people are put off by the way the Purple Bricks system works (especially as our target market would be older people some of who might not be as technology savy as we are).

To give some idea of prices around here there are some new build bungalows being built at the bottom of the road that start at 335K for a 2 bed upto 495K for the 3 beds.  They don't have garages, have small gardents and parking for one maybe two cars.  I'm, not sure if any have sold as they haven't been built yet (foundations are going in) and they only went up for sale 3 weeks ago.

There is also a bungalow opposite the new development which is a 2 bed, its on for 270K and has been on for around 5 weeks, its nowhere near as nice as ours and needs modernisation, it also has a stange layout where the door to the rear garden is in the second bedroom.

Our house has a large conservatory which is heated so we use it all year round, a large garden which is all lawn and patio so easy to maintain but could be altered and planted if desired, a double garage, a large drive with parking for 4 cars easily (and you could still get any one out without moving the others) or 8 cars if you just cramed them in.  It was totally renovated 10 years ago including the roof, external rendering, its plaster and painted inside so nice and simple to decorate or nice and bare to wallpaper if thats you thing etc.  We know we are biased but we can't understand why we arn't getting any viewings even if the offers were really low, especially given the interest we had in it initally (although I apprecaite the newness of us on the market has worn off).

Our thoughts are that if we reduce it 5K isn't going to make any difference so we would probably look to go to 280K (a drop of 15K) but are we not getting any viewings because the market is slow/poor for this type of house or is it just the price (in which case why don't people come and tell us that?).

We are motivated sellers and have even looked at part exchanging with people with four bed houses (this is on out advert), of the two who have shown an interest one of them wanted 100K more than their house was worth and the other wanted 50K more, I think they were both just testing the water.

We are motivated sellers but also (hopefully) realistic and we appreciate that not everyone wants to pay the extra for the large garage, drive, conservatory, garden and ensuite but surely there must be someone who is looking for a nice modern detatched bungalow in the nicest part of the town where houses go upto 650K in some parts? 

Crashy_Time

Unless viewers are coming in the door (appropriately masked and distanced) and shouting offers at you everything else is just noise. Don`t get caught in the shuffling photos loop that sometimes takes up page after page of threads on here, just price it to sell, I think it will be pretty obvious when someone is interested.

Unicorn_cottage

Be wary of Crashy comments. I blocked him ages ago as he is like a stuck record.

homersimpson246

Crashy_Time said:

Unless viewers are coming in the door (appropriately masked and distanced) and shouting offers at you everything else is just noise. Don`t get caught in the shuffling photos loop that sometimes takes up page after page of threads on here, just price it to sell, I think it will be pretty obvious when someone is interested.

Yes I agree about pricing to sell and if we knew that we need to take 40K off to sell it that would be the way it is but the problem is we are concerned that we could drop the price significantly and it still doesn't sell and then we are stuck because we can't really put it back up if its a case that its priced right but the demand isn't there.  According to the statistics we get around 40-50 views on rightmove every day (thats views on our actual listing not just the amount of times we appear in a search).  If it were a very common type of house it might be easier to see but there are 22 bungalows for sale (including the 7 new building ones) in the town where we live and 350+ houses.

penguineater

Can you post the rightmove link?

Are you in a hurry to sell? If your not in a hurry I would consider keeping the price similar as I believe most people that were looking to buy will pay it's value once things calm down. Of course you will get people trying to low-ball.

I would consider changing estate agent if the contract with them can be months or so, just to test it out and see - it does no harm!

JGB1955

Personally, I'd ditch PB. Online estate agents are seen as a huge turn off by plenty of buyers.

Unicorn_cottage

Would you be willing to share your ad? I know that lots of garden can be off putting for people buying bungalows & of course new build properties are very popular (not with me!).

Crashy_Time

homersimpson246 said:

Crashy_Time said:

Unless viewers are coming in the door (appropriately masked and distanced) and shouting offers at you everything else is just noise. Don`t get caught in the shuffling photos loop that sometimes takes up page after page of threads on here, just price it to sell, I think it will be pretty obvious when someone is interested.

Yes I agree about pricing to sell and if we knew that we need to take 40K off to sell it that would be the way it is but the problem is we are concerned that we could drop the price significantly and it still doesn't sell and then we are stuck because we can't really put it back up if its a case that its priced right but the demand isn't there.  According to the statistics we get around 40-50 views on rightmove every day (thats views on our actual listing not just the amount of times we appear in a search).  If it were a very common type of house it might be easier to see but there are 22 bungalows for sale (including the 7 new building ones) in the town where we live and 350+ houses.

Yes, get what you are saying, and unfortunately no one really knows how the economy is going to come through this, my take is that demand will be affected but well priced properties will get interest from people that really need/want to buy something at that point in time. It just isn`t a good time to be buying or selling IMO, good luck though.

[Deleted User]

A 2 bedroom detached bungalow attracts a specific part of the sales market (older with no children) and as such it could possibly be a while before it sells as that market area could be slower to get going again after covid.
I think wait it out or reduce the price to get rid.

[Deleted User]

I do get your point with PB and some of the older generation wanting to view. I like traditional estate agents myself but Im only ever buying so Im not paying their fees ! 

Tiglet2

We are thinking about downsizing and your bungalow sounds just what we are looking for!  

Bungalows do tend to be popular and it is quite difficult to find true ones.  A high proportion of bungalows listed on Rightmove are actually chalets/houses. 

We have been looking at potential properties for months and there are not many that really appeal. 

I think you should hold firm on the price for now, the market is slow with actual viewings because people are still wary about going out and into homes and potentially catching/spreading the virus. 

A lot of bungalows do need modernising as lots of retired and elderly people live in them and the fact that yours has been modernised is a plus point in my eyes.  I don't want to pay a premium price for a bungalow and then have to spend lots of ££ bringing it up to modern standards.  I have never been keen on new builds but when you're approaching retirement, you don't necessarily want to do lots of work, however very few have much parking (my husband is a petrolhead so parking and garaging is a must) and they are overlooked by neighbouring properties.

Any chance of a link??