Unable to sell house

twopenny

I don't think carpets is the answer but if you do it buy cheap. The people buying will want their own colours.

It looks in reasonable condition to me including some positively good parts. But also some odd things though you expect that in someone elses property.

You could paint the peeling radiator, make the entrance hall as smart as can be. Stick a couple of pots of flowers outside the door. Morrisons 3 for £2 ish primulas. Give the front a welcome and tidy up anything there.

Another thing that could be done that's cheap is to pressure wash the flag stones out back. Strim the edges of the lawn to tidy it up, no chance to mow in winter.

So first impressions and last.

I notice one bedroom is an attic bedroom, converted. I've seen a couple that have the boiler in the cupboard up there so would affect sleep. Around here those often seem to hinder sales because the stairs to them have to go up from somewhere often awkward.

I've certainly seen some when viewing that were dreadful and they sold - but not quickly.

Yours is in move inable condition by the looks of it with some good featurs even if there is work to be done.

Good luck.

markin

The rusted out Radiator needs replacing and is a red flag that all the rads could be in the same condition on the inside, lack of rust inhibitor, or a cheap faulty batch.

The lack of bathroom cabinets or shelving is a minor niggle for me.

If the dog had a little accident would you really know? It soaks into the underlay and floorboards.

BobT36

Looks alright, so if it's not sold (unless there's some other catch), it's the price. 

Remember that most estate agents have never had to deal with a market that's going DOWN in their entire professional careers. 

Unfortunately the stuff you've spent on the house (unless it's something like building a garden room or similar) will not affect the price. That's already baked in as seen, so people will be judging it as it IS, not as it was. And that's all based on surrounding properties and just what people feel is "worth" their money nowadays. 

Bigphil1474

OP, we've just sold ours. Hooray. We put it on the market in mid October and sold on Monday. Had loads of viewings, maybe around 30. Everyone seemed to like the house but we have on street parking or garden too small, etc. etc. We were thinking of dropping price but decided not to. Was up for £190k and we accepted £180k, which was in the range of the 3 estate agents guesstimates.

I don't think dropping the price is the answer as it seems to me that at the moment the asking price appears as a ceiling rather than the starting point in some areas, certainly where I live. The agents I've spoken to about houses I've viewed have all suggested prices below the marketed price. One even told me that an offer 15% below the marketed price would get the particular property. I think if you drop the price, you'll end up with offers below the new asking price anyway. If someone wants your house they'll offer what they want to pay irrespective of your asking price.
I did spend nearly a year getting all those little jobs done around the house, which i think made the difference. I'd suggest doing what you can DIY, and spend minimal amounts of money.

Jonboy_1984

Did you get multiple estate agents round before appointing the current one?

We knew which EA we were going with (through recommendations from friends and family) and still had 4 over to value our property just to go through the motions and see what they said about the property before listing. That proved to us the valuation was reasonable (and also why the EA we went with had their reputation).

Bailey1980

twopenny said:

I don't think carpets is the answer but if you do it buy cheap. The people buying will want their own colours.

It looks in reasonable condition to me including some positively good parts. But also some odd things though you expect that in someone elses property.

You could paint the peeling radiator, make the entrance hall as smart as can be. Stick a couple of pots of flowers outside the door. Morrisons 3 for £2 ish primulas. Give the front a welcome and tidy up anything there.

Another thing that could be done that's cheap is to pressure wash the flag stones out back. Strim the edges of the lawn to tidy it up, no chance to mow in winter.

So first impressions and last.

I notice one bedroom is an attic bedroom, converted. I've seen a couple that have the boiler in the cupboard up there so would affect sleep. Around here those often seem to hinder sales because the stairs to them have to go up from somewhere often awkward.

I've certainly seen some when viewing that were dreadful and they sold - but not quickly.

Yours is in move inable condition by the looks of it with some good featurs even if there is work to be done.

Good luck.

Thank you. I did say to the estate agent that my concern with replacing the carpets was that people will want their own colours, however, the estate agent is adamant that we need to replace all the carpets in a neutral tone of beiges and whites, though I was thinking maybe some kind of grey as the walls are off white, so too much white might not look right? 

Could I ask what odd things stood out as I do need some objective thoughts as I think I've lost my way. 

The garden was given a good tidy up before it went on the market, but I think there may have been a few weeks delay between the tidy up and the photos being taken and I haven't seen what the winter has done to the garden as we were hoping to leave it all to the estate agent and not go back there, but I am going over to the house next week to try and sort everything out. 

As far as we are aware none of the bedrooms have been converted - the boiler is in the kitchen. We know at some point in it's history, there was a hot water tank in a cupboard in the second largest bedroom but that is no longer there and wasn't there when we moved in and think it had been taken out before the people we bought from bought the house. The house is from the 1920s.  

Bailey1980

markin said:

The rusted out Radiator needs replacing and is a red flag that all the rads could be in the same condition on the inside, lack of rust inhibitor, or a cheap faulty batch.

The lack of bathroom cabinets or shelving is a minor niggle for me.

If the dog had a little accident would you really know? It soaks into the underlay and floorboards.

Thank you. I have noticed the issue with the radiator and have added that to my list. 

There was a under sink storage unit that we had, but it was tatty looking so we got rid of it. As we are looking to replace the mirror, we could have a mirrored cabinet but as the bathroom is quite small I'm worried it will look a bit odd. 

The dog is well trained toilet wise and whenever we had to leave the house we always made sure they went out into the garden and did everything and we never left the house for more than 3-4hours, but appreciate that accidents can still happen. My other half is very sensitive to smell and picks up on anything and everything, even when he's lived in the same house for a long period of time but he's never noticed anything. 

If we replaced the carpets, we were hoping to get away with not doing the underlay as well due to the cost, but we might be out of luck there. 

Bailey1980

Bigphil1474 said:

OP, we've just sold ours. Hooray. We put it on the market in mid October and sold on Monday. Had loads of viewings, maybe around 30. Everyone seemed to like the house but we have on street parking or garden too small, etc. etc. We were thinking of dropping price but decided not to. Was up for £190k and we accepted £180k, which was in the range of the 3 estate agents guesstimates.

I don't think dropping the price is the answer as it seems to me that at the moment the asking price appears as a ceiling rather than the starting point in some areas, certainly where I live. The agents I've spoken to about houses I've viewed have all suggested prices below the marketed price. One even told me that an offer 15% below the marketed price would get the particular property. I think if you drop the price, you'll end up with offers below the new asking price anyway. If someone wants your house they'll offer what they want to pay irrespective of your asking price.
I did spend nearly a year getting all those little jobs done around the house, which i think made the difference. I'd suggest doing what you can DIY, and spend minimal amounts of money.

You've hit the nail on the head with the asking price. Our expectation was that we would get offers under the asking the price and we have told the estate agent that we are open to reasonable offers. So if £170k was offered we probably would accept, but if it's marketed at £170k, we are concerned we will get offers of around £160K.

Unfortunately we aren't very good at DIY so it will look better if we pay someone to do it which might be worth it to get it sold. 

Bailey1980

Jonboy_1984 said:

Did you get multiple estate agents round before appointing the current one?

We knew which EA we were going with (through recommendations from friends and family) and still had 4 over to value our property just to go through the motions and see what they said about the property before listing. That proved to us the valuation was reasonable (and also why the EA we went with had their reputation).

Yes we did and they were all within the same valuation band, though one of the four said £200K which we immediately discounted as we knew that it wouldn't generate any interest at that price, the other three however gave us pretty much the same valuations. Though the valuations were done before mortgage prices went crazy. 

Zoopla is saying that  current the estimated price for the house is £176,500; when it went on the market, Zoopla estimated the price to be £185,000, I guess though it may come down to how attractive/sellable the house is so improvements are looking to be necessary to shift it. 

 We went with the estate agent who had sold  quite a few properties in the vicinity so we thought that was a good shout. One of the estate agents wanted £2K up front to advertise it/do viewings but we weren't comfortable with that arrangement. 

RAS

I hope these aren't photos the EA's taken?

A few points.

Decent, but looks unlived in. I know it isn't lived in but you can do a little staging.

Most of the carpets appear marked. Are those really marks that need treating, or just a hoover to deal with stuff brought in? If it's marks, I'd be inclined to replace the beige carpet.

All the radiators and some of the cupboards are cream against white walls. Is that by design or were they not repainted when the walls were done?

What's with the weird radiator in the hall that appears to be half way up the wall and suggests a central heating system that needs replacing?

What's with the badly fitted double doors at the bottom of the staircase and in the kitchen. Are they the same doors? If they are, photo them open rather than closed, which emphasises the problem. 

What's the odd thing in the sitting room floor?

Inject a little colour, greyage is out.

Kettle and a couple of mugs in the kitchen.

Bright towel or bath mat to cover some of the paint job on the bathside, a bright hand gel, remove the loo rolls from the window and add a bomb proof plant. There appears to be a shower, reflected in the mirror, but no shower curtain?

Remove the orange blind in the bedroom. Neither it or the lime radiator cover are offensive in their own right but the combo is strange.

If you are going over, take time to tidy up the garden. Remove dead foliage, strim the lawn edge, clean the patio. 

Buy a tray of primulas from a supermarket and place strategically. Use a few with some cheap pots of tete a tete daffs if you can get them to make up planters for the front. 

Inside a little foliage inside would also help. Sansevieria are cheap in supermarkets, seem to be a thing and are happy with neglect.

Personally, I'd have removed all those shelves, and made good the walls before redecorating. But that's too much of a job now.

Take a vacumn when you go. Remember to frighten a few spiders.