Nobody coming to view my house

shelly24

So we did things backwards and found our dream home by accident so got mortgage approval and got our house on the market in less then a week.
A similar (4 bed and ours is 3 bed) went on the market and got an offer after 5 days so we expected similar but it’s been 3 weeks now and nothing is happening, nobody is coming to view it.
Is a desirable enough area just outside Dublin and our house is in great condition- recently painted inc skirting boards and doors, new blinds etc
We are wondering if it’s worth changing estate agents? We will have to pay a few of €350 if we do.
Any advice?

LirW

Is it on the market for a realistic price? Had a neighbour who wanted to sell for 18 months in a nice area of Dublin but he wanted some ridiculous money and never got an offer until he drastically dropped the price.

Nekarsulm

Where is he advertising it?
My Home, Daft, ?
Or just in a window?
Have you checked the ad?
Are the photos good?
Is the house spotless and tidy?
Is the price way out of line?

Is he pushing your house, or trying to sell some other house on the road first?

M.Cribben

How "outside Dublin" are we talking here?

Baybay

Were there under bidders for the other property you mention & were they told about your house coming on the market, assuming you used the same agent.

Photos are very important.
So is decluttering. You got sale ready very quickly which is great but could another round of removing excess furniture, pictures, garden furniture, cars etc improve your photos & give a better sense of space.

We had one lady who requested permission to view our garden only without actually going inside our house. Would your garden encourage or discourage her viewing the interior?

Assuming you have your pricing right, it is exam time, primary schools are finishing up with all the end of term things parents attend, there's holidays etc. Maybe it's just going to take a little longer for your buyer to appear.

DubJJ

I think you're expecting too much when comparing it to another property that sold in 5 days, that's just luck that the right person came along at the right time.
3 weeks isn't that long, although you may have expected some viewing by now, is the agent planning to advertise any open viewings?
If it's the property I think it is it looks like a great house in great condition, but the photos do let it down a bit, theres none of the bathroom or the two smaller bedrooms.
A friend of mine has just gone sale agreed on their house in a very popular area of Dublin, they had no offers after 3 weeks but then it got into a bidding war in the 4th week and has sold well over asking, so don't panic just yet!

0lddog

Where I am ( rural but well within Dublin commuter belt ) there are a good few secondhand houses that have been on the market for a over a year with little or no interest.

For all that, four smallish housing estates are being put up. Its a bit of a mystery to me - perhaps the new houses wont sell ?

Homer

If you want to get proper professional photos done drop me a PM as that’s what I shoot day in day out and most auctioneers would say it makes a big difference in generating interest for viewings. Of course the price has to be right and location etc etc!

Nekarsulm

Is the ad for the other house still online?
Take a long hard look and compare it with your ad.
Be honest with yourself.
It's harder to be critical with your own home, but buyers have no emotional attachment.

cruizer101

shelly24 wrote: »

I thought myself that the photos weren’t the best and no pics of kids rooms but be said if we show less then people will come to see?

Such bulls**t, I'd be pulling them up about that, it costs nothing more to put more photos on daft.
If I don't see rooms it makes me think they are hiding something, I wouldn't necessarily says it would dissuade me from viewing a house but it sure as hell doesn't encourage me, to me it doesn't reflect well on the property as a whole and just sounds like laziness on their part.

That said 3 weeks isn't that long, if it priced right it should sell, some new estates nearby could have an effect especially for first time buyers with the grant available.

I've been looking at a lot of similar houses myself recently so if you want to pm me link to ad I can say what I think compared to other ads I've been looking at, not interested in that specific area mind

jimmycrackcorm

Buying : location, location, location
Selling: price, price, price

the_syco

Throw up a link to it. If no link, who knows about it?

davo10

A 4 bed house will always be a more popular family home than a three bed, most families have more than one child and most people prefer to have a guest room.

If it is in a desirable location, you have to look at the asking price, maybe it's too high. People give out about EAs advertising the price low to get people bidding, but maybe you need to consider dropping the price and get a few bidders interested. Also, as above, three weeks is a short period of time.

Personally I don't think pictures of kids rooms add anything, unless the buyers have a toddler.

fishy_fishy

I think you should have pictures up of all the bedrooms and bathroom. I flicked through what I presume is your ad and the thoughts l had were

"Wonky photo to start"
"Pretty good condition. Looks nice"
"Where are the rest of the photos?"
"Wonder what the bathroom is like"
"Oh. No room layout diagram."

People are time poor. Lack of photos isn't going to make them rush out to see it, it'll just raise questions about whether it's worth going to see it. Is it ACTUALLY 3 bed or is it 2 bed and a box room? Is the bathroom usable or does it need ripping out? What about wardrobe space?

ongarboy

Agreed with above post. If I'm a Dublin buyer who can't afford Dublin and am considering neighbouring counties, I'm not going to drive 20+ kms to somewhere that I don't know in advance what the full visual package is. The risk it won't meet my requirements will be too much. Especially if all other properties in the area are showing pics if every room plus frint and back garden. +1 on the room layout diagram. That should be the absolute minimum photo for every house advertised. I also get suspicious if I don't see pics of the additional rooms and bathrooms listed as the assumption is they must be too poor or fixer upper for a photo.

ELM327

Having just bought a 3 bed in the commuter belt in Q1 this year after a perhaps 18month search. I can confirm that we woudl not have bothered to go look at a house that didn't have photos of every room. No photo = something to hide. Same for photos at stupid angles.

Throw up a link to the ad, OP

dk1982

fishy_fishy wrote: »

I think you should have pictures up of all the bedrooms and bathroom. I flicked through what I presume is your ad and the thoughts l had were

"Wonky photo to start"
"Pretty good condition. Looks nice"
"Where are the rest of the photos?"
"Wonder what the bathroom is like"
"Oh. No room layout diagram."

People are time poor. Lack of photos isn't going to make them rush out to see it, it'll just raise questions about whether it's worth going to see it. Is it ACTUALLY 3 bed or is it 2 bed and a box room? Is the bathroom usable or does it need ripping out? What about wardrobe space?

All the photos actually look wonky. Looks like the camera (a Nokia 3210 going by the resolution!!!) is being held at a slight angle which really takes away from them a bit. And agreed, where are the rest of the bedroom photos and the bathroom? I dont think i'd bother travelling any reasonable distance to see it with so little being show upfront in the ad. Does look nice besides all that so I'd be having a serious word with the EA to start from scratch with that ad

gotasmoke

ELM327 wrote: »

Having just bought a 3 bed in the commuter belt in Q1 this year after a perhaps 18month search. I can confirm that we woudl not have bothered to go look at a house that didn't have photos of every room. No photo = something to hide. Same for photos at stupid angles.

Throw up a link to the ad, OP

I agree with this, if a house is advertised with 3 bedrooms but only shows 2 in the photos I immediately think the owner is trying to hide something such as a room that may not fit a bed.

This doesn't apply to just houses, you need high quality images of what you're trying to sell online. It's the only reference that a buyer has and the more images and info you can provide to more interest you will receive.

snowcat

dk1982 wrote: »

All the photos actually look wonky. Looks like the camera (a Nokia 3210 going by the resolution!!!) is being held at a slight angle which really takes away from them a bit. And agreed, where are the rest of the bedroom photos and the bathroom? I dont think i'd bother travelling any reasonable distance to see it with so little being show upfront in the ad. Does look nice besides all that so I'd be having a serious word with the EA to start from scratch with that ad

Fire your auctioneer.
Get a professional photographer to shoot quality photos and maybe a drone shot.
Ask him to do a 2 minute walk through video as well. Get him to send you the edited walk through video.
Post your own ad on Daft.ie at 20% below what you believe is market value yourself (You do not have to accept any offer that you are not happy with). This will generate interest.
Any interested parties that contact you send them the walk through video on whatsapp.
Answer any of their queries.
If they are still interested arrange a formal viewing or group people in an open viewing.
Accept offers
When you agree a price direct the interested party to lodge a deposit with your solicitor and you are sale agreed and saved your self several thousand.

cruizer101

There is only 2 3 beds in kill listed on daft and both are examples of terrible ads in terms of photos, I'm guessing is the first one second one has even less pics of the inside of house.


<snip>

TooObvious

Like the others say, get some new pics. I think it would be worthwhile getting a pic of the green to the front on a day when the landscapers have just been, it's in full foliage now so looks great on the drive in.

mugsymugsy

Also get someone else to ring up and enquire about the house and see how well the estate agent is selling it. See are they actually any good at their job. If they are unable to answer basic questions or don't seem interested in getting people out to see your house then you have your answer.

razorblunt

Have you had a friend/family member ring and enquire about it?
I do this quite often (once a year for a friend who flips apartments) he's not been happy with the response.

BabysCoffee

Good job on the decluttering however for the next set of pictures I think you need to do more.
Even though the kids toys are very neat and tidy they are very distracting near the dining table. For the pictures, remove them completely - it does not sell a lifestyle, it just gives the impression that there is not enough storage space in the house.
Whether you remove the toys during viewings is up to you (can you fit them in your car) but I would recommend it.

BabysCoffee

shelly24 wrote: »

Yes twice! Once they weren’t able to accommodate the person who wanted to view for a full week so hubby rang them and went mental.
Another phone call yesterday by a work friend and the response was much more positive.
A small duplex in the same estate went up only 2 weeks ago and has had 14 viewings??? I know they aren’t the shame thing but still

Is the same agent selling the duplex? They could try show your house to all the people viewing the duplex

Jane1012

One thing that stands out to me (it could just be me that thinks like that),
is when I was viewing houses 2 years ago, I was always cautious seeing adds with kids stuff in it. Immediately it said to me why is a young family moving out and obviously if we want to have a family there must be something wrong with this house.

That could just be me but it was always a preconception I had, may be useful removing the children's things as much as possible.

In the end, we bought a home from a couple in their 60's whose kids were all grown up and they wanted to downsize, this was a comforting factor for me (not too sure why though).

razorblunt

I'm really bad at "seeing" space. My wife isn't and if we viewed your property she'd see past most of the kids stuff.
But the shelf in the front room, the stuff in the kitchen by the door and the house in the garden should be removed and stored.
As others have said wonky photos too, the kitchen photo was taken in poor lighting making the fixtures look dirty or grubby (I know they're not but it just looks like that).

Could you move the sofa from the window?

Is it not a thing that estate agents get proper photographers? It is in Scotland at least. Our apartment looked amazing in photos, to the extent it was commented on by friends of friends who shared the ad on FB for us.

razorblunt

Jane1012 wrote: »

One thing that stands out to me (it could just be me that thinks like that),
is when I was viewing houses 2 years ago, I was always cautious seeing adds with kids stuff in it. Immediately it said to me why is a young family moving out and obviously if we want to have a family there must be something wrong with this house.

That could just be me but it was always a preconception I had, may be useful removing the children's things as much as possible.

In the end, we bought a home from a couple in their 60's whose kids were all grown up and they wanted to downsize, this was a comforting factor for me (not too sure why though).

Good point, it's not always the case obviously. Our agent advised us not saying "we're moving for more room (2bed apt to a 4 bed house) before kids come on the scene" as you'll always have a view that would think "jeez we'll be in the same boat in 2/3 years time".

keane2097

Honestly the bull**** from the agent about less photos = more viewings would be an instant red flag that you should take the house off him. It's such obvious nonsense and shows a lack of interest in doing any leg work on your behalf.

Edit to add, the follow on of him not bothering his arse to arrange a viewing for a week when you had someone ring him makes me wonder what he would have to do to lose the listing!

HeidiHeidi

keane2097 wrote: »

Honestly the bull**** from the agent about less photos = more viewings would be an instant red flag that you should take the house off him. It's such obvious nonsense and shows a lack of interest in doing any leg work on your behalf.

This!


In the overall scheme of things, you stand to lose €350 on a sale of (hopefully) close to €300k. Suck it up. Find an agent whose ads online look professional - crisp, clear and plentiful (at the very least showing every single room in the house). Get them to quote you.



The online ads are your prospective purchasers first view of your house, and you've seen yourself here the reactions to the wonky photos, and the shortage of them. The suggestion to include a couple of outside pics if you face onto a lovely green is good as well.



Another bugbear of mine with online house ads is the random order in which the photos are uploaded. It's a simple thing to order them as if you were walking through the house, and helps give an better overall impression of the house layout. Yours has kitchen, kitchen, sitting room, and kitchen again. (I might be in a minority, but it drives me nuts!) But a floor plan should also be included!


The ad is your shop window. Invest in it. Good luck!

The Mulk

I think your big problem is the amount of new houses for sale in Kill at the moment , with a lot more to come.
You house is perfect for a first time buyer that wants to live in Kill, but there seems to be a large number of identical new houses in the same price range as you are looking for.
Declutter, new photos and ring around a few other auctioneers to ensure your price range is correct.

M.Cribben

Out of interest, what are similar properties in the area selling for? I think your price might be a little too high. A lot of people during Celtic tiger years made the mistake of moving outside of Dublin and spending hours every day commuting so there's a little more caution being exercised this time round.

For instance, you can buy a similar property for the same price as yours in Dublin 15:

http://www.daft.ie/dublin/houses-for-sale/clonsilla/3-allendale-view-clonsilla-dublin-1770678/

Browney7

The Mulk wrote: »

I think your big problem is the amount of new houses for sale in Kill at the moment , with a lot more to come.
You house is perfect for a first time buyer that wants to live in Kill, but there seems to be a large number of identical new houses in the same price range as you are looking for.
Declutter, new photos and ring around a few other auctioneers to ensure your price range is correct.

And they'll get the "help the developer bribe/grant" so if there's a modern new build that can be bought by a first time buyer for a 5% deposit requirement versus an older house with a 10% deposit requirement that doesn't have the new build bells and whistles like A ratings and new fittings, it may struggle to realise the same price. New build also doesn't have the annoyance of bidding wars etc

goz83

Wow! I would tell the estate agent to sling his hook for that €350. What an awful, awful job. The 2 missing bedrooms is reason enough to sack that agent on the spot. Total rubbish! There is no photo of the bathroom, en-suite, or the downstairs toilet. There should be a photo from the end of the back garden too imo. And of the photos that were taken:

Photo 1- Crooked and blurry.
2- Portrait hall photo looks congested. Light on makes me think it's a dark area.
3- Clutter in photo could have been removed very easily. Light on again.
4- Looks dark. Having the lights on highlights this. Seems common in the photos.
5- One of the better photos. Still...lights again.
6- unnecessary photo. Kitchen was covered.
7- Again, the light is on. Photos can be made brighter without having the lights on. Cropping the wardrobe out of the photo would have been better.
8- I would have taken that photo at noon with no shadow, but it's ok.

An overall very lazy effort. I wouldn't have viewed if I was in the market. Too much missing, even if I excused the bad photos.

I also think the price is a little high.

daheff

shelly24 wrote: »

I thought myself that the photos weren’t the best and no pics of kids rooms but be said if we show less then people will come to see?

THIS -this is the main problem. You need good pics and of all the rooms. You have to make people see the property in a good light so that they will come view the house.

Showing less photos is (in my experience) because the rooms don't look good and may be off putting. So honest question for you, are your rooms in bad shape? Would it put off most buyers?

People rarely if ever buy just off the internet. They go for viewings (sometimes multiple ones) before buying (or bidding).


Also I think your pricing could be too high. I'd think more like around 250-265k as a starting price...you don't have to accept offers at that level...its just to get the ball rolling.

Catlady76

shelly24 wrote: »

It’s in kill, kildare so a lovely area.
Decluttered for the pics- we rented a storage area so put a lot of kids toys and the likes in there.
I thought myself that the photos weren’t the best and no pics of kids rooms but be said if we show less then people will come to see?
It’s baffling because the other house sold so quick.
Now there are new houses in Kill so I’m sure people want them over second hand but the estate my hosue is in is much nicer then the new builds- only 90 units, large green spaces and presented very well so I can’t figure it out.
As for the underbidders on the house around the corner, we went with a different agent, we went with the same one who is selling the other house we want to buy- that might not have been the best plan.
It’s on my home and daft and some Kildare newspapers and the indo last week

You would need pictures of the kids rooms because most houses people are thinking ahead to if they have kids what space will they have or else you would be appealing to people already with kids. If you are unhappy with the pics then speak to the EA and ask them to take more. Kill is a lovely area but 3 weeks is not that long to be honest & an EA told me that the summer time slows up in regards to selling & buying houses. If the house is presentable and clean and tidy then there should be no problem. I would suggest pictures of the garden too because that does be very important to people I know for me house hunting its the first thing I look at because I have animals and want a large garden or even one with potential. Maybe put a link to the house up here and people can give you feedback?

Thud

Don't assume because he works as an estate agent that he is always right or knows best.
When we sold our place we had to push EA to do an open viewing (buyer came from that), not everyone want's to have to call an EA (listen to their sh!te and get put on their spam list) to view a house. yeah you'll get a few nosy neighbours but if someone sees an open viewing date it can set a time in their mind to go see the house rather than having to call EA and fit in a viewing around the EA's schedule. Ask for a prime slot at weekend also, no one wants to have to rush from work to view house.

Also had to push them to put up more photos.

Skerries

obviously the new photographer will take care of the lighting as the pictures make the house look dark with all the lights on during the day

Wildly Boaring

If a salesman of anything of any description but in particular a feckin 300k asset cannot make time for me with a whole week's notice. Goodluck!!

Thoie

I sold a 2 bed apartment (with a bathroom and ensuite, and a kitchen/living room) very quickly last year through one of the big name estate agents, and out of curiosity I took a look back at what the ad had shown.

Two photos of the outside of the building (different sides)
One of the entrance hall in my apartment.
One of the main bedroom, showing all the space, including wardrobes
One of the ensuite (with nothing on the counters except my toothbrush and toothpaste - I'd flung all my makeup and clutter into a plastic bag for the photo)
One of the main bathroom (again, no clutter)
One of the second bedroom, showing the whole space from the door)
One of the living room end
One of the kitchen end (mostly decluttered - knife block, kettle, toaster and breadbin left on the counters)
The last "picture" was a plan of the layout with measurements of each room, done by the estate agent.

So 10 pictures of a small 2 bed apartment. People got to see every inch of the place before coming to view, and there was quite a lot of interest. For a 3 bed house I'd expect more.

As an example of the quality of photos I'd expect, here's some from a different big agency. It may be a show house, I'm not sure, but you get a great idea of the house before you even pick up the phone. http://www.daft.ie/cork/houses-for-sale/blackrock/42-blackrock-avenue-eden-blackrock-cork-1722030/

spaceHopper

It's midd terace so say that, the BER isn't great, is there assigned parking. I would get better photos and floor plans. Do an open viewing.
I'd put it with another EA, in fact why did the EA go SA on a property with you when yours wasn't on the market or SA
It's a quite time of year to be selling people are on holidays you may need to wait till September.
Can you close the other purchase if you don't sell. The EA is risking two commissions.

ELM327

Thoie wrote: »

As an example of the quality of photos I'd expect, here's some from a different big agency. It may be a show house, I'm not sure, but you get a great idea of the house before you even pick up the phone. http://www.daft.ie/cork/houses-for-sale/blackrock/42-blackrock-avenue-eden-blackrock-cork-1722030/

That ad is exactly how you showcase a property for sale.
The ad made for the OP's property looks crap in comparison, looks like an amateur with a broken camera or something.


Time for a new EA methinks.

shelly24

Thanks a million for all the replies and great tips.
The other photographer is coming Friday, I really want to give this EA a chance while the other properly we are trying to buy is on the market, it’s in his interest to sell ours and sell us the other property and the other is a bank repossession so it’s tricky. I’ll give him another couple of weeks with the new pics and see how that goes.

pc7

Have a look at this ad in comparison to yours, 3d video you can walk through, decent photos, you get what you pay for. If as others suggest there is over supply in Kill, I'd move now before you lose potential buyers. You are buying a service you don't seem to be getting tbh. https://www.myhome.ie/residential/brochure/16-russell-avenue-east-east-wall-dublin-3/4250350

bluelamp

Besides the photos, you might want to reconsider your asking price slightly, 285 might not be peaking people's interest when there are brand new A-rated houses in kill for 295, and 305 down the road in Naas.

Even reducing to 275 or so would get the ball rolling I'd say.

There's quite a bit of new supply coming online in your surrounding towns, which won't help your sale.

Gumbo

Price, its always the price.

I would move agents ASAP.

DubJJ

shelly24 wrote: »

Thanks a million for all the replies and great tips.
The other photographer is coming Friday, I really want to give this EA a chance while the other properly we are trying to buy is on the market, it’s in his interest to sell ours and sell us the other property and the other is a bank repossession so it’s tricky. I’ll give him another couple of weeks with the new pics and see how that goes.

I think you're doing the right thing, it's easy for everybody to say get rid of the agent but you're buying a property from him so I can understand it makes things simpler.

If I had one bit of advice it would be to get the link for your property removed from this thread. It's too easy for that to show up in a potential buyers search and may give the impression that the property has a history of being difficult to sell or that you are desperate to sell. Once it's online it's available to everyone and that's something that might come back to haunt you in a few months.

10pennymixup

^^What DubJJ sys^^

I know the OP didn't post it but they did confirm it. Dangerous (in many senses) thing to do. Also breaks the A&P forum charter.

shelly24

10pennymixup wrote: »

^^What DubJJ sys^^

I know the OP didn't post it but they did confirm it. Dangerous (in many senses) thing to do. Also breaks the A&P forum charter.

How do I go about that? I tried to delete the thread but it says I don’t have permission

goz83

shelly24 wrote: »

How do I go about that? I tried to delete the thread but it says I don’t have permission

report the post with the link

Graham

Mod Note

Links removed

Please report the post if I missed any.

Thanks