House not selling - same feedback every time! What would you do?

RHemmings

Your floor plan doesn't have dimensions on it. It could be that actually having the room sizes on the floor plan may more effectively weed out people for whom it is too small. 

Camera lenses can make a house look bigger than it is. Is this the case in your photos. I can't see extreme fish-eye distortion, but it could look bigger online than in real life. 

MSE_ForumTeam5

Please could we remind everyone of the notice at the top of every page on this board, which says: "Please also avoid posting personally identifiable information, including links to your own online property listing which may reveal your address." 

BonaDea

Your house and garden look lovely.  But I think you have three problems:

1.  For a 3-bed property, your house is small at 84 square metres.  There are 2-bed flats round my way (London) which are not far off that size (low 70s square metres), and a not-especially large 3-bed house I'm thinking of buying in SW England is 108 square metres.
2.  The floorplan on the website doesn't give room sizes, so people will be expecting larger rooms and will then feel instantly disappointed when they arrive.  I would get the EA to show the room sizes on the floorplan so the viewers who turn up are those that aren't bothered by the size and can see its finer qualities.
3.  In looking at how the price compares to similar properties nearby I suspect you are focusing on other 3-bed houses.  But that may be misleading.  Perhaps you should compare it with other properties of around 84 square metres?  According to house metric the median price in your postcode is £3400 per square metre, giving a house price of £285,600.  Only 25% of homes in that postcode achieve more than £4250 per square metre, meaning that your house would have to be significantly more desirable than most homes around you in order to achieve more than £357,000.

ReadySteadyPop

BonaDea said:

Your house and garden look lovely.  But I think you have three problems:

1.  For a 3-bed property, your house is small at 84 square metres.  There are 2-bed flats round my way (London) which are not far off that size (low 70s square metres), and a not-especially large 3-bed house I'm thinking of buying in SW England is 1164 square metres.
2.  The floorplan on the website doesn't give room sizes, so people will be expecting larger rooms and will then feel instantly disappointed when they arrive.  I would get the EA to show the room sizes on the floorplan so the viewers who turn up are those that aren't bothered by the size and can see its finer qualities.
3.  In looking at how the price compares to similar properties nearby I suspect you are focusing on other 3-bed houses.  But that may be misleading.  Perhaps you should compare it with other properties of around 84 square metres?  According to house metric the median price in your postcode is £3400 per square metre, giving a house price of £285,600.  Only 25% of homes in that postcode achieve more than £4250 per square metre, meaning that your house would have to be significantly more desirable than most homes around you in order to achieve more than £357,000.

Interesting. I wonder what the historical pricings of the house are? I`m assuming that the OP bought this fairly recently? The problem with the house metric though for areas with no or few recent sales is that it is based on much lower interest rates and possibly skewed too high.

newsgroupmonkey_

BonaDea said:

Your house and garden look lovely.  But I think you have three problems:

 According to house metric the median price in your postcode is £3400 per square metre, giving a house price of £285,600.  Only 25% of homes in that postcode achieve more than £4250 per square metre, meaning that your house would have to be significantly more desirable than most homes around you in order to achieve more than £357,000.

With the exception of London and high-value properties (neither of these fit) very few would ever use this metric as a way of valuing a property. Perhaps maybe old-skool surveyors who are really struggling to get comparables.

In this case, there are plenty of comparables.

Source: Someone very senior and experienced in S&V sitting next to me!

BonaDea

Just edited my earlier comment - I wrote 1164 square metres but that's square feet (doh!!) - which is 108 square metres.

DE_612183

thebratprince said:

Niv said:

Let me start by saying - I think your home is lovely (minor gripe with the fake grass lol).

I do not know the aera, or what similar homes are sold at so cannot comment on price but my instinct is that you need to wait for the right buyer. In my opinion homes like this do not fit the more common timelines sometimes associated by houses of this size (three bed terrace I mean).

I think that some people will expect 'standard' height houses, especially if they are also looking at modern houses so when they come to your place it will feel 'lower'. Do people need to duck to get through any doorways etc? Price (without being drastic) wont make much difference to someone not wanting to duck to get through a doorway. I struggled a bit with my previous home as the stairway was spiral rather than a standard dogleg - but eventually it sold without dropping price unrealistically. My current house put some buyers off as the stairway is 'non standard' to say the least amongst a number of other things. 

One of the problems I see is that phrases like 'open plan' can give an image of space and height ceilings.

To your question, 'what would I do' - I would change the wording slightly to make it clearer that the ceilings might be lower than standard  - I am not a wordsmith but assume the EA can think of something. And I would take a hard look at other houses for sale in the vicinity at the same /close price and ask myself the question - Would I prefer my house or this house  and if you keep coming to not your house maybe it is price?

What drew you to that house in the first place?

The first part amused me - we also despised the fake grass and were going to change it before we realised how great it was not having to clean the dog's paws every time he came inside! We fell in love with the character - the stone, the quirks, the beams. In addition to the 'extras' like the home office (we both wfh) and huge garage, which other cottages didn't seem to have for the same price at the time. Trouble is, I'm not sure that city-escapees wanting to wfh in the countryside is our market anymore.

Our price reduction will probably have to be drastic to make a difference, the two small reductions haven't shifted anything much. Good to hear you sold eventually though, it's tough when you don't live in a standard place.

Thank you for your thoughts. 

One point about price reductions are that there are extensions on google that show price reductions, see screenshot - so sometimes it's better to take it off the market - wait a few weeks then put back up perhaps with another agent. As can be seen from the screenshot - this one looks like a desperate seller so will be inclined to attract chacers with much lower offers....

Bigphil1474

OP, I was told that as long as I was getting viewings, the price wasn't too much of a concern if the reality of the property matched the ad. We had our description changed as it was misleading about the cellar area and virtually everyone mentioned it. EA pictures are often misleading, but as above, if the floor plan has accurate measurements, that's a good start. We got a buyer after 3 months, fell through, and another after another month. 

I don't agree with taking it off the market as opposed to reducing the price. Makes little difference IMO.

pjs493

When I was house hunting earlier this year I viewed a lovely period property with low ceilings in a lovely rural village that ticked all the boxes (good primary school, shop, post office, family friendly pub, etc). It had three bedrooms and a ‘bonus room’ through one bedroom which could either be used as a nursery or a dressing room, or potentially for two children sharing but each having their own space. It was cramped as it was currently occupied by a brother and his wife and the sister and her husband and two children. Following the death of their parents and a house sale, they’d all moved in together short term until the parental home was sold and they could all get their own places. 

The house was about 120sqm and was up for sale for around the same amount of money as the house I’ve bought which is about 160sqm. The house I’ve bought has one less bedroom (due to the bonus room in the smaller house). But for me, it was all down to getting more space for my money. So from the experience I had, I’d surgery that it could be that people think it’s small for the asking price. 

Scotbot

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

BonaDea said:

Your house and garden look lovely.  But I think you have three problems:

 According to house metric the median price in your postcode is £3400 per square metre, giving a house price of £285,600.  Only 25% of homes in that postcode achieve more than £4250 per square metre, meaning that your house would have to be significantly more desirable than most homes around you in order to achieve more than £357,000.

With the exception of London and high-value properties (neither of these fit) very few would ever use this metric as a way of valuing a property. Perhaps maybe old-skool surveyors who are really struggling to get comparables.

In this case, there are plenty of comparables.

Source: Someone very senior and experienced in S&V sitting next to me!

It is a common metric overseas. I use it and suspect the reason EAs don't like it here is that it clearly identifies properties that are at the high end price wise