Getting disheartened

May be a good idea to look at the Home Owners Alliance websit:
hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/i-am-buying/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-stamp-duty/

When I have watched home buyers programmes on TV I have been amazed how impersonal and decluttered the desirable homes are. The people buying describe this as 'modern'

I have some well fed pots of geraniums in my conservatory and other plants round the the outside of the house as I do B&B. They receive good comments. As Coolgan65 has suggested plants and pots do help I am sure.

When friends of ours bought a house they were only interested in the local school's Ofstead reports.

I think the stamp duty went up in April so there was a rush of buying before the date.

Good luck.

Make sure your agent is doing his/her best for you.
If feedback is about facts that a buyer should easily be able to see from the detail (such as distance from station), is the agent describing your property clearly to potential buyers?
It is wearing and time wasting having people tramping through your house, if it doesn't meet their needs.
It might help to have a chat with the agent to make sure that they are giving you (& potential buyers) fair & honest information. As others have said, some agents are more effective and hard working than others on behalf of you as the seller. That being said it can take long time, but it helps to push for more detailed constructive feedback from viewings, not just some vague general comment. Then you can change something if necessary.

I had problems selling my last house so I asked the estate agent for his honest opinion and it was that there was too much furniture. I had recently been divorced and moved the furniture from a much larger house into in my opinion, this tiny house.

I had the pale green carpet in the lounge cleaned and removed clutter and I then started to receive offers, too low but a start. I sold it to a young couple who paid close to the asking price.

Timings on house sales are so unpredictable. Mine have always sold so far, but the last one took 14 weeks to complete, which seems an age when you are experiencing it. Some round here stick on the market for years, but I guess that has to be unrealistic pricing, or not really being bothered about selling.

can I suggest you watch Selling Houses with Amanda Lamb ( afternoon TV). I hate to say this as seeming ageist but is you house "an old peoples house" with items like chintz curtains , flowery carpet, coloured bathroom suite etc, if so viewers will be mentally costing up the cost of redecorating (and usually over estimate), If this is the case a modest outlay on updating may be worth it

Good luck! Maybe this weekend will be the lucky one.

Well we have done all that. Could take more stuff out of the bathroom I suppose. Will give it. Go anyway. Thanks everyone

I agree Coolgran what seems depersonalised etc to one person is not how others, especially buyers see a house. How kind of you to help your neighbour.

We took everything out of the bathrooms, which should be spotless, only leaving a plant or two, clean unused towels and a couple of expensive attractive perfume/ aftershave bottles. Definitely no toothbrushes etc! No bath mats and of course loo seats down!

The kitchen also spotless and no clutter on counter tops.

We also kept a new unused duvet cover on a spare duvet to whip out and put on our bed. The spare beds were already 'dressed'.

When looking we saw some messy houses, it didn't put us off as we knew exactly what we wanted, but the tidy well presented houses were preferred!

With regard to dressing a house for sale... as per my previous post when ds changed estate agent after one year of not one offer. He lives next door and house was in good order with a new luxury kitchen. But clearly something was lacking.

Before going to the new estate agent, myself and DH, his brother and sil who live locally got involved, even his retired uncle. We did a blitz on what had already seemed ok.

We gave the garage door a fresh coat of paint.
We put a fresh coat of stain on the wooden windows and doors.
Several flags on the patio were lifted and levelled.
All shrubs were freshly trimmed, bark chippings were raked, everything that could be, was tackled with the power hose.
All windows cleaned inside and out.
All white plastic high and low was freshly washed (again)

In preparation for estate agent pics we moved every planted tub and basket that any of us had onto the property.
I took my beautiful throws and put them over the shabby bits of his leather suite.
My dil went through his nice new kitchen so that the only thing on show was a kettle and a vase of flowers.
All windows were wide open and vertical blinds pulled to the sides to let the light in.
Lots of photos and unnecessary stuff was shoved into drawers and cupboards. (Including the electric toothbrush ds has left charging on his bedside table !!)
Dyson and ironing board into the garage.

And when any viewers were due, the planters, hanging baskets, throws were 'borrowed again' and my dil went in each time and did a thorough prep to depersonalise it.

Happily, It sold in one month.

I seem to have mirrored Anya's experience.

At the moment we are helping a relative look for a house, theirs is sold and they have moved into temporary housing. It may be different in some areas but this is their experience:

Early this year every house that came on the market seemed to be sold straight away. If you wanted to view you had to go on the day the agent said and they were not prepared to accommodate anyone who couldn't fit that in. They put an offer on a house quite a lot over the asking price and it wasn't enough. No negotiation, the agents all said final written offers just a few days after the viewing day. I don't think that was in anyone's interest apart from the agent but they wouldn't budge. Eventually they put in an offer on another house and said it was conditional on the sellers taking it off the market. It was accepted partly because the buyers were in a good position and able to be flexible. That was 3 months ago and nothing further has happened.

Now things are very different. Monitoring Rightmove it is clear houses are not selling so well and several have been reduced. This morning I called 2 agents to arrange viewings and they could both fit them in when I wanted to view! I was advised that offers below the asking price might be accepted.

Why the change? Brexit has made people nervous. Prices in London have bottomed out or even been reduced which makes the rest of the country stop and think. Summer holidays do make a difference but I don't think it accounts for the current market.

My advice would be to look at Rightmove very carefully. View by 'newest listed'and you will see how long properties have been on the market. If you include sold subject to contract you will see how long it took for properties to sell. Look carefully at all the photos and see if there are any clues about what you need to do to present your house more like the ones which sold quickly. As we get older sometimes our tastes are different from younger buyers.

When we sold our last house, during a downturn, we didn't get any offers until I started showing people around myself. Then we got offers from both people I showed round. Next time we sell I will do it myself.

Good luck

True, petra.

Also, you've had offers, so your house is sellable. You say your offers were low, but are they reasonable enough to work with? Some serious buyers put in a "cheeky" low offer on the premise that they are willing to negotiate upwards. Have you thought about how low you can reasonably go?

Don't forget there are people who think that the housing market is going to plummet, so they're holding back on buying.

The request that you take your house off the market while a potential buyer sells theirs is I think unreasonable.

The whole thing might fall through and you will have lost other potential buyers.

I wonder what advice your Estate Agent gave you and are they working hard enough on your behalf.

During one house sale we had more than one Estate Agent and two signs in our front garden. I enjoyed watching the two Estate Agents having a heated discussion outside my front gate.

Noticed your comment about refusing to take yours off the market after receiving a full price offer BB .

I have to say we would ask that too. I don't think its unreasonable if you are making a good offer and are a 'serious' buyer. I really don't want to get into a bidding war and so think that as long as a timescale is set , say 6 weeks for the deal to move forward I don't think its unreasonable.

We are people of our word, but not everyone is as straightforward and the thought of losing a house by being gazumped further down the line is horrible.

But as you say , they now have employment difficulties they may not be in a position now to move forward anyway.

I agree it's a short time. It's not a brilliant time to sell, and some people are apparently twitchy post-brexit.

I used to work in an Estate Agency and there was one particular house that refused to sell. It was immaculate and in a good area. It had great feedback too. It sold eventually.

Anything will sell at the right price. It's about supply and demand. Some house buyers are both extremely fussy and lacking in imagination. You show them something that fits their criteria, and it's"just not them". You show them something that they can put their stamp on and "it needs too much work".

Have you analysed your local market? It's easy to do on Rightmove or Zoopla. And make sure your house is presented and "dressed" well-it's a cliché, but people DO fall for it.

Hang on in there. It's frustrating and sometimes even hurtful to have your much-loved home picked over by others. And make sure your agent is honest with you.

Btw it's possible to sell online now, through Purple Bricks or Tepilo.

Are there other houses for sale in your area similar to yours? If yes, get a viewing and see what they're offering.

A cautionary tale.
A friend has been trying to sell her Victorian cottage for nearly a year. It has been beautifully restored and is a gem, but is on 3 floors with steep stairs, is terraced with no real parking space (village lane, so parking is OK still but on-road) , has a long thin garden which can only be accessed through the house or via a right of way across her next door neighbour's garden, basically not ideal for a young family, anyone getting on a bit or anybody with a swanky car who wants off road parking. Oh and it is virtually opposite the village pub which might be ideal for some, but wouldn't suit everybody. So not easy to sell. Because she hadn't found a house to buy she was very relaxed about it, chose a cheap agent (useless) moved to a more upmarket agent as soon as she was free to and the house was very well marketed.
She had a firm offer 6 months ago but because she hadn't found a house in her new area, shilly-shallied(IMO) and telling me she knew what she was doing, having "moved 4 times in 15 years" , blah, blah, ignoring my cynical advice to accept, sell, put her furniture into store and rent in the area where' she is looking. Her buyers were prepared to wait, but being teachers moving into the area, really wanted to be in during the summer holidays. Then about 6 weeks ago one of the neighbouring cottages, which was rather run down was sold at a knock down price,, scaffolding went up and work has started on the exterior. Apparently without planning permission or building regs, it has stopped and started, Windows have been left boarded up, the noise when they are working is unbearable and unsurprisingly her buyers have disappeared over the horizon.
She has tried dropping the price, but nobody wants to know when they realise the wrangling that is going on over planning permission, when they see the state of next door and realise what they might be in for.
Being kind (?) I have zipped my lip, but so often thought "I told you so".

BB had a couple of those types over the years and felt sorry for them. Harden your heart.

A quick question. Are you doing the viewings yourself? We always did, and soon learned to suss out a bit about the potential buyers.

Young family with school-aged children. Read up the OFSTED reports for closest school. Young professionals? Best local restaurants, coffee houses, best shops, rail links, etc. Friendly looking types, point out how nice but undemanding the nieghbours are. Fitness freaks, local gym down the road and good parks for walking, running. Dog lovers, lovely wooded area just a few minutes walk away? DIYers? Explain how next door extended their bathroom into a spa complete with sauna and swimming pool!

OK maybe a bit OTT, but it does pay to suss out your viewers

We did have a buyer that ' fell in love' with our house.They offered full asking price if we took ours off the market whist they sold their's. We refused to do that. They say they are still interested but now have employment difficulties. Hey Ho

It's interesting to know what makes a buyer "fall in love" with a particular property.

In our case our last house needed a lot of work doing but the buyer loved it because he wanted to restore a Victorian Property and we had lots of period features.

The last time I sold a house I was quite recently widowed and my son was living with me who was in bad health. The Estate Agents were wonderful and worked like trojans to get the full asking price which I really needed.

Previous Estate Agents under different circumstances were not so helpful.

With one property in the past we did have to lower the asking price and then it sold immediately. This was hard to do but the house had been on the market for months with no interest in it whatsoever.

Don't be disheartened BBbevan. You are doing all the right things.

I've moved often and sold many houses.

Firstly, don't believe what any viewer says. Usually they are just being polite and often say they'll make an offer, then you never hear from them.

Secondly, estate agents. Did you get several in to give you an honest valuation?

Yes, it's the school holidays and that can affect sakes, BUT if you're getting viewers and no much in the way of offers then take a good look at your home and see what the problem is. Is your kitchen up-to-date? What about your bathroom? Decor?

It's not just a matter of being clean. If it needs work doing then the price should reflect that. It's horrible selling your home and having people judge it.

Good luck and I hope someone makes a reasonable offer soon.

Ds who lives next door had house up for one year without an offer.
He changed estate agent, made sure better photographs were taken and more of them. Also dropped price by 6k and house sold within two weeks.

BB if it's any consulation, the person who bought our house had seen 25 houses before seeing ours. She didn't look at ours at first because she thought it was the wrong era! She said knew it was the one as soon as she walked through the door.

Someone like this will view your house. As you say it's a waiting game, but it's a anxious time and you have to keep tidying!

Thanks everyone. Feedback has not highlighted any major problem. Estate agent says just things like, garden not large enough, too far to walk to station ( 10 mins )
Every thing is clean, tidy and the house smells nice . Garden looks lovely and DH would polish the lawn if he could. We can think of nothing else we can do. House price is consistent with others around the area and it is a Guide price , so offers are invited.
So there you are . I suppose it is just a waiting game.

If you've had viewings, then I would ask the estate agent what feedback they got from potential buyers because sometimes they don't tell you unless you ask. It could help pinpoint a problem area and give you a chance to do something about it. Some estate agents will let a property stay on their books for a good while without contacting the seller to review the listing.

Keep your eye on the other properties in your area that sell and how quickly. In particular, make a note of the estate agent that sold the property. Some try harder than others.