Problems selling and best plan

GDB2222

jimbog said:

GDB2222 said:

Herzlos said:

I don't buy any of that. 

People get an AIP from their morgage lender, and then look for something they like that they can afford. Almost no-one is going to turn a house down because the cost per square metre is too high, but they will if they can't see themselves living there. 

I'm of course assuming the house is priced sensibly for the market, and disagree with your baseless claim that it's hugely over priced. 

Pretty obviously, one of the key measures of whether a house is priced sensibly is the cost per square metre. 

Here in the UK very few people would know the sq meterage of their home or a sensible price per sq metre. More important overseas

I've got a RightMove add in for Chrome that shows the price per square metre. I’d forgotten that others don’t have that. 

Most floor plans show the size. 

Herzlos

I don't think £/m^2 is a good metric of anything. 

Take this random flat on Righmove:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/163976276#/floorplan?activePlan=1&channel=RES_BUY

It's 150m^2, but a significant chunk of that floorspace is useless or awkward, being landings, a loft room and a balcony. Does this give you anything or any more value over a smaller property across a single floor?


Or this one:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/169558367#/floorplan?activePlan=1&channel=RES_BUY

It's huge at nearly 200m^2, but only has 4 rooms. Sure, that top bedroom is nearly the size of my last house alone, but if you're only going to be sticking a bed and a dresser in it what are you going to do with the remaining 30m^2? Does it give you much benfit or value over a smaller house with more rooms?

A family friend lives in an enormous house with huge rooms and high ceilings, and they have the same amount of people and furniture as we do, just much higher bills and time spent cleaning. 

GreatShout said:

I think a lot of sellers just think “I’ll just knock £5k off and see what happens” but if the photos still look gloomy and cramped then buyers will just scroll past 225k the same way they scroll past £230k.

Worth fixing every other part of the listing then worrying about adjusting the price if you still don’t see interest. Dropping the price before improving the listing just means you’re giving money away without solving the actual problem.

That's my thinking too. If the place appealed to the buyer and they wanted to pay 225k they'd still view it at 230 and offer 225. 

GDB2222

Cost per square metre makes sense when comparing similar types of property. Less so, obviously, for very dissimilar properties. 

You regard stairs as wasteful, whereas I regard them as a way to avoid bungalow legs.

Herzlos

Only if you can find similar enough properties. 

I've no problem with stairs, I think multi-story dwellings are a lot more efficient than bungalows. I just mean that a significant amount of floorspace in that property can't actually be used for anything.

BikingBud

Herzlos said:

I don't think £/m^2 is a good metric of anything. 

Take this random flat on Righmove:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/163976276#/floorplan?activePlan=1&channel=RES_BUY

It's 150m^2, but a significant chunk of that floorspace is useless or awkward, being landings, a loft room and a balcony. Does this give you anything or any more value over a smaller property across a single floor?


Or this one:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/169558367#/floorplan?activePlan=1&channel=RES_BUY

It's huge at nearly 200m^2, but only has 4 rooms. Sure, that top bedroom is nearly the size of my last house alone, but if you're only going to be sticking a bed and a dresser in it what are you going to do with the remaining 30m^2? Does it give you much benfit or value over a smaller house with more rooms?

A family friend lives in an enormous house with huge rooms and high ceilings, and they have the same amount of people and furniture as we do, just much higher bills and time spent cleaning. 

GreatShout said:

I think a lot of sellers just think “I’ll just knock £5k off and see what happens” but if the photos still look gloomy and cramped then buyers will just scroll past 225k the same way they scroll past £230k.

Worth fixing every other part of the listing then worrying about adjusting the price if you still don’t see interest. Dropping the price before improving the listing just means you’re giving money away without solving the actual problem.

That's my thinking too. If the place appealed to the buyer and they wanted to pay 225k they'd still view it at 230 and offer 225. 

Cost per square metre makes absolute sense.

What is completely lacking in any logic, rhyme or reason is how we buy and sell property in the UK.

Just because we conduct property sales so poorly, and it is getting worse, why should we consider one of the most effective metrics unfit. 

Did you mean only 4 rooms or only 4 bedrooms?

In the German system, where the roof is lowered they actual area is reduced by a factor and garages, heating rooms, cellars, storage rooms etc are all excluded.

If an EA cannot follow a protocol to measure a property and get an accurate result then they do not deserve to be in business but we continue to put up with poor service, extended timelines and no protection against any problems.

Herzlos

4 general purpose rooms: 1 public room and 3 bedrooms. I didn't count bathrooms, kitchen or corridors, because outside of their utility you can't do anything with them. 

If you need to exclude a lot of rooms from the metric, is a particularly useful metric?

I don't think m^2 is useful for much beyond quick comparisons and bragging rights, because it doesn't really tell you anything apart from the footprint. 

No arguments about the whole house selling system being a mess though. 

EssexHebridean

When we were looking I certainly took account of the floor area from the plan - and indeed plans that don't have that information were more inclined to make me scroll on - but I literally never worked out the cost per m^2, not least as all the listings vary in what they actually include in this. Until there is a set agreement across the board with agents about exactly what can be included in a suggestion of useable floor space, the figures mean nothing. 

monkey-fingers

Herzlos said:

4 general purpose rooms: 1 public room and 3 bedrooms. I didn't count bathrooms, kitchen or corridors, because outside of their utility you can't do anything with them. 

If you need to exclude a lot of rooms from the metric, is a particularly useful metric?

I don't think m^2 is useful for much beyond quick comparisons and bragging rights, because it doesn't really tell you anything apart from the footprint. 

No arguments about the whole house selling system being a mess though. 

I'm absolutely with you on this.

I previously rented a bungalow that frankly had terrible use of space.
Each room was separated by a corridor - including the kitchen and front room.

The only value that I could see it bringing was my neighbour had his strewn with family pictures, so it was like a gallery. Otherwise, completely useless.

Whereas the bungalow we now live in has a central hallway with all the rooms off it and maximises the space.

In terms of square footage, the old house was considerably bigger. In terms of usable space, this one is huge in comparison.

strawb_shortcake

If you price by sq m/f how does that then take account of other desirable features? My home if I remember correctly is around 90sqm however my garden is significantly larger than many gardens, I have a fabulous view which many in my area don't have. 

We had our house on for 12 weeks, we had no offers largely because we didn't have anyone proceedable view. We had no comment on pricing. 
Negatives were:
- No gas - you could change that at significant cost, but you don't need too and why would you when fossil fuels are trying to be phased out.
- bedrooms too small, I disagree 2 doubles, one the width of a house and one is larger than a box room.
- 1 person didn't realise the railway line was still live, I'd have thought the train station was a pretty good indicator! 
 
Dropping the price wouldn't have solved any of the above.

In light of having lots of views but no offers, what would I have dropped it too? We realised if a house we'd viewed had been dropped in value then they likely wouldn't have had an offer at that price?? I think it was just a case of timing for some houses

BikingBud

Let's not conflate the issue of poor design and layout with room sizing with the fundamental concept of available living space.

If you want 150m2 but if the layout is poor you might consider if internal walls could be adjusted, moving stud walls etc or just walk on by but you cannot make a 4 bedroom with 2 rooms barely big enough to fit single beds any bigger. But that's a symptom of pandering to developers. 

And we don't have a set system because too many people do not welcome the scrutiny, the VIs rejoice in ambiguity and obfuscation.