Unable to sell house

Bailey1980

ReadySteadyPop said:

You can`t  "press for substantive feedback", people viewing a property are not obliged to give any feedback, if the agent annoys them they might be put off a second viewing if they had this in mind, be careful with this approach, if the house is priced correctly the viewings will probably pick up.

We have had lots of viewings over the last 4 or 5 months and the estate agent has always left it a few days before contacting people who have viewed it to ask for feedback. Up until a few weeks ago, the only feedback that was being passed onto us was that the property needed too much work. We queried this because it's had front gates fitted to the front driveway (2020) external wall insulation (2021) a porch has been added (2022), kitchen, utility room and downstairs toilet was all completely redone in 2021, built in shelving added to the living room in 2020,  a new patio was laid in the rear garden in 2022 and the all walls in the house were redecorated a white/off white before it went onto the market. 

The estate agent said that all of the too much work feedback was because it was not to people's individual personal decorative tastes,  which was not something we could do anything about. 

A few weeks ago, I spoke to someone at the estate agent who I hadn't previously spoken to, but apparently had been doing a lot of viewings and asked if they could be "brutally honest"  with me and gave us a very long list of everything that's wrong with the house and a list of work that needs doing if we want to sell - this included new carpets throughout, new internal doors throughout and ripping out the existing bathroom and replacing it all (tiles, flooring, sink, bath, shower, toilet). 

So we feel very aggrieved that all the way along they have told us their is nothing wrong with the property and it isn't to people's personal decorative taste but have now turned round and given us an expensive list of works to do and even when the works are done, we have to pay a company to come in and stage the property and drop the price. 

Had we'd done about all of these alleged works earlier, we could have looked into it and perhaps put a few things in place which may have resulted in offers. 

With the new agent therefore we want them to be brutally honest with us and if they get substantive feedback to pass it onto us, rather than stringing us along for 4-5 months when we are having to pay out two sets of household bills which they were aware of. The sooner we know about issues/things that are putting people off, the sooner we can perhaps do something about it.  We gave all the keys to the estate agent and left everything in their hands. 

EssexHebridean said:

A good agent absolutely will ask viewers for feedback - as the OP says, in a way which isn’t pushy or likely to put folk off.

Thank you the above is what I meant. I know it's a delicate balance between obtaining feedback we can do something with and not alienating people who view the property. We just want to be clear with the estate agent, that t feedback of too much work without any specifics is not helpful so if they can get specifics and pass that onto us, then maybe we can do something about it. 

Jude57 said:

@Bailey1980 just to advise that if you're intending to rent the property out, make certain you have written permission from your mortgage lender to do so. Your current, presumably standard 'owner occupier' mortgage could be voided otherwise and it's a headache you don't need. Your lender may be willing to convert you to a 'buy to let' mortgage but there are likely to be costs associated with that. Please also be certain that you understand ALL the legal requirements of being a landlord because, as others have said, even a fully managed agency service doesn't absolve you of legal liability. There's a very good Sticky at the top of this board which I strongly recommend you read very carefully before you decide what to do.

Thanks for the advice; we are already aware of the need to inform / confirm with the mortgage provider about renting it out and we are going through everything we need to do as landlord even with a fully managed service to make sure we know what we are getting ourselves into.

As I've said all along our preference is to sell but we have had a horrendous and dare I say incompetent estate agent which has now put us into very bad position financially. As there are still two sets of household bills that are coming our as well as paying for some minor works to the property we are trying to sell  to make it more palatable to potential buyers.  I am also trying to find cheap /free furniture to put in the house to stage it myself but I am not having much luck. 

Murphybear

Don’t be put off by the EAs telling you your property needs too much work or it needs staging.  Properties that need work are not always difficult to sell, many people are looking for a “doer upper”.

Our first property together was fun.  The only thing in the kitchen was the kitchen sink .  This was useful as it was much easier to plan and install a new kitchen.  It needed a rewire which my husband did (he had some qualifications which allowed him to do this).  My main job was scraping the woodchip off the walls and making tea.  I swore I’d never look at woodchip again, it can be evil.

As long as your house is reasonably priced it should sell.  

As for the staging, I think your agent has been watching too much tv.  Search “House Doctor”, very popular programme at the turn of the century.  

Owain_Moneysaver

Bailey1980 said:

I guess the issue is is that we paid to have the entire house professionally deep cleaned, including the carpets <</div>

If it's been unoccupied since September it will smell through lack of heating and airing. If you're not doing viewings yourself get the agent to go round half an hour before viewings and put the heating on max and open all the windows. Also check all the sink plugholes as they can dry out and let smells in.

Bailey1980

Owain_Moneysaver said:

Bailey1980 said:

I guess the issue is is that we paid to have the entire house professionally deep cleaned, including the carpets <

If it's been unoccupied since September it will smell through lack of heating and airing. If you're not doing viewings yourself get the agent to go round half an hour before viewings and put the heating on max and open all the windows. Also check all the sink plugholes as they can dry out and let smells in.

Thanks, the heating is operated through a digital thermostat so when the house drops below a certain temperature, the heating does come on as we were worried about the pipes freezing over winter.  Radiators are all set to max. 

We asked the estate agent to arrive at the property a little bit before but it seems they have not been doing this. 

Good idea of the sink plugholes. I've been back to the property several times over the last few weeks and can't say I have detected any unpleasent smells, however, when I go back over next week to check how the minor works are going, I will check the plugholes. 

I've got some of those de-odourising drain sticks but if not it will be good old fashioned bleach

BobT36

Bailey1980 said:

So the other two houses have been sold to subject to contract. 

The one that was advertised at £200K was only put on the market on 02/02/2024

The one advertised at £187,500 and was being marketed by the same estate agent we have had for the last 4-5months (who has been very unhelpful) was only put on the market on 12/02/2024. 

I know that we don't know what was offered and there are is all the conveyancing that still needs doing, but I'm just shocked that they have sold subject to contact within 2-3weeks and we've had no offers in the last 4-5months. 

Then you need to have a very good, objective think about how those properties compare to yours. 

Maybe show links to yours and those ones to some friends or family that don't know which address is yours, and get some additional objective feedback.

There's got to be something that people like about those other properties more than yours, and are willing to pay that price for it. 


Dropped the price (again) yet? ....

Bailey1980

BobT36 said:

Bailey1980 said:

So the other two houses have been sold to subject to contract. 

The one that was advertised at £200K was only put on the market on 02/02/2024

The one advertised at £187,500 and was being marketed by the same estate agent we have had for the last 4-5months (who has been very unhelpful) was only put on the market on 12/02/2024. 

I know that we don't know what was offered and there are is all the conveyancing that still needs doing, but I'm just shocked that they have sold subject to contact within 2-3weeks and we've had no offers in the last 4-5months. 

Then you need to have a very good, objective think about how those properties compare to yours. 

Maybe show links to yours and those ones to some friends or family that don't know which address is yours, and get some additional objective feedback.

There's got to be something that people like about those other properties more than yours, and are willing to pay that price for it. 


Dropped the price (again) yet? ....

Yes we have shared the links with friends and family and I have been trying to be as objective and critical when it comes to our house compared to the others. 

We haven't dropped the price yet as we are waiting for the effective date of termination (early March) with the current agent, and the tweaks we are having done only started on Thursday and I'm waiting on deliveries of mirrors/ under sink storage and some other bits to stage the house. 

Once effective date of termination has happened and the tweaks done/ items arrived, new agent will market it at the reduced price of £175K. 

One of my concerns though is righmove will show that it was previously listed not too long ago, which might put people off. 

ReadySteadyPop

Bailey1980 said:

BobT36 said:

Bailey1980 said:

So the other two houses have been sold to subject to contract. 

The one that was advertised at £200K was only put on the market on 02/02/2024

The one advertised at £187,500 and was being marketed by the same estate agent we have had for the last 4-5months (who has been very unhelpful) was only put on the market on 12/02/2024. 

I know that we don't know what was offered and there are is all the conveyancing that still needs doing, but I'm just shocked that they have sold subject to contact within 2-3weeks and we've had no offers in the last 4-5months. 

Then you need to have a very good, objective think about how those properties compare to yours. 

Maybe show links to yours and those ones to some friends or family that don't know which address is yours, and get some additional objective feedback.

There's got to be something that people like about those other properties more than yours, and are willing to pay that price for it. 


Dropped the price (again) yet? ....

Yes we have shared the links with friends and family and I have been trying to be as objective and critical when it comes to our house compared to the others. 

We haven't dropped the price yet as we are waiting for the effective date of termination (early March) with the current agent, and the tweaks we are having done only started on Thursday and I'm waiting on deliveries of mirrors/ under sink storage and some other bits to stage the house. 

Once effective date of termination has happened and the tweaks done/ items arrived, new agent will market it at the reduced price of £175K. 

One of my concerns though is righmove will show that it was previously listed not too long ago, which might put people off. 

Most people will be using apps like PropertyLog, they will know it is just a price change/re-staging, which happens all the time anyway.

MobileSaver

ReadySteadyPop said:

Bailey1980 said:

BobT36 said:

Bailey1980 said:

So the other two houses have been sold to subject to contract. 

The one that was advertised at £200K was only put on the market on 02/02/2024

The one advertised at £187,500 and was being marketed by the same estate agent we have had for the last 4-5months (who has been very unhelpful) was only put on the market on 12/02/2024. 

I know that we don't know what was offered and there are is all the conveyancing that still needs doing, but I'm just shocked that they have sold subject to contact within 2-3weeks and we've had no offers in the last 4-5months. 

Then you need to have a very good, objective think about how those properties compare to yours. 

Maybe show links to yours and those ones to some friends or family that don't know which address is yours, and get some additional objective feedback.

There's got to be something that people like about those other properties more than yours, and are willing to pay that price for it. 


Dropped the price (again) yet? ....

Yes we have shared the links with friends and family and I have been trying to be as objective and critical when it comes to our house compared to the others. 

We haven't dropped the price yet as we are waiting for the effective date of termination (early March) with the current agent, and the tweaks we are having done only started on Thursday and I'm waiting on deliveries of mirrors/ under sink storage and some other bits to stage the house. 

Once effective date of termination has happened and the tweaks done/ items arrived, new agent will market it at the reduced price of £175K. 

One of my concerns though is righmove will show that it was previously listed not too long ago, which might put people off. 

Most people will be using apps like PropertyLog,

That's a ridiculous and obviously untrue claim considering PropertyLog has only 90,000 users after six years compared to around six million property purchases in the same time period. Even if every single PropertyLog user was active and bought a property that's still less than 2% of all purchasers...

ReadySteadyPop

MobileSaver said:

ReadySteadyPop said:

Bailey1980 said:

BobT36 said:

Bailey1980 said:

So the other two houses have been sold to subject to contract. 

The one that was advertised at £200K was only put on the market on 02/02/2024

The one advertised at £187,500 and was being marketed by the same estate agent we have had for the last 4-5months (who has been very unhelpful) was only put on the market on 12/02/2024. 

I know that we don't know what was offered and there are is all the conveyancing that still needs doing, but I'm just shocked that they have sold subject to contact within 2-3weeks and we've had no offers in the last 4-5months. 

Then you need to have a very good, objective think about how those properties compare to yours. 

Maybe show links to yours and those ones to some friends or family that don't know which address is yours, and get some additional objective feedback.

There's got to be something that people like about those other properties more than yours, and are willing to pay that price for it. 


Dropped the price (again) yet? ....

Yes we have shared the links with friends and family and I have been trying to be as objective and critical when it comes to our house compared to the others. 

We haven't dropped the price yet as we are waiting for the effective date of termination (early March) with the current agent, and the tweaks we are having done only started on Thursday and I'm waiting on deliveries of mirrors/ under sink storage and some other bits to stage the house. 

Once effective date of termination has happened and the tweaks done/ items arrived, new agent will market it at the reduced price of £175K. 

One of my concerns though is righmove will show that it was previously listed not too long ago, which might put people off. 

Most people will be using apps like PropertyLog,

That's a ridiculous and obviously untrue claim considering PropertyLog has only 90,000 users after six years compared to around six million property purchases in the same time period. Even if every single PropertyLog user was active and bought a property that's still less than 2% of all purchasers...

 There are loads of similar apps around though, that isn`t the only one, and people share computers etc. many more people than you think are using technology to be more informed about the market nowadays.

Slinky

ReadySteadyPop said:

Bailey1980 said:

BobT36 said:

Bailey1980 said:

So the other two houses have been sold to subject to contract. 

The one that was advertised at £200K was only put on the market on 02/02/2024

The one advertised at £187,500 and was being marketed by the same estate agent we have had for the last 4-5months (who has been very unhelpful) was only put on the market on 12/02/2024. 

I know that we don't know what was offered and there are is all the conveyancing that still needs doing, but I'm just shocked that they have sold subject to contact within 2-3weeks and we've had no offers in the last 4-5months. 

Then you need to have a very good, objective think about how those properties compare to yours. 

Maybe show links to yours and those ones to some friends or family that don't know which address is yours, and get some additional objective feedback.

There's got to be something that people like about those other properties more than yours, and are willing to pay that price for it. 


Dropped the price (again) yet? ....

Yes we have shared the links with friends and family and I have been trying to be as objective and critical when it comes to our house compared to the others. 

We haven't dropped the price yet as we are waiting for the effective date of termination (early March) with the current agent, and the tweaks we are having done only started on Thursday and I'm waiting on deliveries of mirrors/ under sink storage and some other bits to stage the house. 

Once effective date of termination has happened and the tweaks done/ items arrived, new agent will market it at the reduced price of £175K. 

One of my concerns though is righmove will show that it was previously listed not too long ago, which might put people off. 

Most people will be using apps like PropertyLog, they will know it is just a price change/re-staging, which happens all the time anyway.

Is that you Crashy?