[Closed] Tips for selling a unique house

The property is unique and very desirable to a certain market.

That’s code for ‘has a sex dungeon’, yes?

If that would help sell it, I could build one!
Why? Are you interested if it has one?

Are we talking https://www.fineandcountry.com/uk level?

Be prepared for a long wait. Wife has family on the Isle of Man with a significant property for sale. The issue is as the price rises you are fishing for a buyer in a smaller pool.

Yep, it’s fine and country level stuff but it’s not a grand country pile.
It’s a modern, oak eco house. (Bit of an alpine chalet vibe to it)
I designed and built it...

You can buy a much bigger house for the money but not one that’s as unique and in such rare location

I need a buyer that specifically wants something like this, rather than looking for value per m2

come on, you know you want to put a link up on here

I genuinely didn’t think about putting a link up but here you go

House

House looks lovely. I'd be expecting better photography at that price point. Looks like it was taken by an estate agent not a photographer. Look at some of the pics on that fine and country site - they look much more like professional photos IMO (I'm a photographer by trade).

@grum
Agreed, it was a bit of an unplanned and last minute agreement to sell

The photos do not do it justice

Wow, what an interesting house!

I've no idea about estate agents, except to say you definitely need a better one. The photos are rubbish, some from funny angles and several out of focus.

You can see GCHQ from the garden....

It's a stunning house.

I've stayed there 😀

I would agree with Grum about the pictures. Usual totally overblown estate agents description but I guess thats par for the course. Describing small bedrooms as generous

Whats the usual selling price for a new build 3 bed in the area? My guess would be that its not worth as much of a premium as you think given the link to other houses in the area for a lot less but its a long way from me and not a market I know either area or type of house

Can’t really compare it to a usual 3 bed new build... location is unique, build and materials are unique etc.
Next to no utility bills etc etc

House prices down here are silly though!

@bregante... how long ago did you rent it off us? Can’t remember

Can't offer any help. Just wanted to say that is a beautiful looking home.

They are poor pictures. The first one, which ought to really pull in the interested, is really poor.

Take same more pictures yourself?
Advert in some posh design / interiors / self build / holiday homes magazine might work?
Do a self promote / article with one of the same posh magazines?
Advert at the local sailing club / riding school / range rover dealerships?

I think we were your very first visitors. The garden had literally just been seeded.

My kids still remember chasing Lily and Special (the chickens) out of your neighbours garden 🙂

Best stealth ad ever.

Em, if you built it, why are all the rooms so small?

Is it a midget sex dungeon as opposed to a regular one?

@bregante haha I remember! Wow, that was quite a while ago... glad you have some good memories.
I wish the seeded lawn had not taken, it’s the bane of my life mowing that bloody thing.
I strava’d it once... 2.2miles of walking To mow it!

@funkmasterp cheers🙌

Thanks all, for the advice

@yourguitarhero small??? Do you live in a palace? They are not exactly small...
Two reasons for the size anyway... it’s a sustainable house, built to a size that’s needed, rather than excessive spaces to heat and built to a limited budget that dictated totally m2. I could have built bigger but couldn’t have done it to the same quality or performance.

There was a thread on Mumsnet recently. The seller was getting no interest from the first listing:
First Estate Agent

After following MN-ers advice on presenting the property better, she switched estate agents:
Second Estate Agent

The new photos seem to have done the trick, and she's now had several viewers.

+1 on the photos. The place I'm in the process of buying, I went round and took better photos point-and-shooting with a borrowed GoPro than are on the sale website.

Cheers @esme, I’ll have a read

Don't get me wrong at all I am not meaning to be offensive - its a really nice house but I agree with YGH - the rooms are small but thats par for the course really with modern build is it not

small??? Do you live in a palace? They are not exactly small…

Again, probably the photos. But it looks a bit cramped.

Have you any interest in letting it? It looks like it'd make an amazing holiday home.

Lovely, id buy it if i didn't have to work where i do but 119m² isnt big 😬

it is the size it is, I’ve not said anywhere that it’s a big house... not much I can do about that.
Cramped it isn’t, as it’s open plan for the most part.
Total m2 is 136m2, plus it all opens into 30m2 of sheltered outdoor spaces... looks like I need to check the agents measurements!

Anyway, see explanation for limitations on size when it was built.

Maybe I’m fighting a losing battle if it seems the majority of the market want big houses?

We already holiday let and get between £1500-2k a week, so yep, it definitely works well for that.
We were fully expecting whoever buys it to buy it as a holiday home, rather than a family home, sadly

We are still pretty happy here, with two kids but fancy a new project (with a bit more of a healthy budget this time)

120sqm for a 3 bed isn't small, is it? It's a lovely house, but as suggested, I would want much better photos, and nowhere near as many. Key points in the photos - less is more. No-one wants to see your hall, your stairs, the back bedroom or 18 slightly different shots of the exterior. Some of them show just how close the neighbours are so don't show that if you can avoid it. Focus on angles which frame the house and the space around it, like pic 34, then one looking back the other way but not showing the car park.

Total m2 is 136m2,

thats a bit better - your agent is obviously poor at maths. But by comparison my 1 bed flat is around 90 m2 and the bedroom is 4.5m x4.5 m It is in a 150 yr old building tho

As i said - its really nice and I would love it tho. Just my sort of thing.

@richpenny... cheers

Impressive!
Ignore negative comments ^^^ about room sizes.
I agree with various comments about poor quality of agent's photos - they don't show off the house as well as they should.

I think a trip round some other agents is on the cards tomorrow!

As above, don't worry about the sqft nonsense. Nobody buying at that level could care less. A sale will be because someone likes the look of the house & area.
Do go to a better agent though. Ideally one with national reach used to advertising in Country Life etc who will quite probably already have a list of clients looking for your type of property.

That’s a bit rich for a holiday home, but I’d be looking at Savills and their London clients. Nice house. I need to retire back home because it makes where I live look cheap 🙁

We put a sign on the gate and sold in a couple of months for far more than most agents had said it was worth.

True story.

(Also rather unusual property in coastal location).

Cramped it isn’t

I didn't say it was cramped. I said it looked cramped.

We already holiday let and get between £1500-2k a week, so yep, it definitely works well for that.

Sit on it for 6-9 years and you'll have your asking price in the bank, yet still own it.

fancy a new project (with a bit more of a healthy budget this time)

You built that on an unhealthy budget?

Floor plan on rightmove shows no door into the Gf shower/wc.
View of fairfaced block wall outside bedroom window is 🙁
There's too much clutter in the rooms, think of it as visual noise, lots of people find it distracting.

Try the modern house to see if they'd sell it for you

Nice house, nice location and price doesn’t seem excessive. You definitely need better pictures, less of them and a video tour. Your target market is not likely Bude/North Coast locals but London/South East. And don’t necessarily expect second home buyers as the Covid impact has made people think about property lifestyle and WFH meaning migrating away to a different life is desirable.

You need to speak to more agents who play in the £500k - £1m bracket and know how to market it. Having spent a lot of time in Bude and North Cornwall I’m sure a self build like this isn’t that unique.

It looks fantastic - you have my deepest admiration for designing/building such a lovely house.

As for getting the most for it:

Whats the difference between what you think you should get for it, and what the typical sales price for a 3 bed detached cottage (in a nice spot) is? This will give you context to any money you might spend making it more saleable. Might be worth doing all/none of the following:

Drone shots - you need them. Show off the views better, and have one showing the proximity of beaches etc - they do that here in Australia, with a drone pulled right back, and the house/land marked, along with the beach. Something like this:

http://b.domainstatic.com.au.s3-website-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/2016443681_1_1_200818_063454-w3000-h200 0" alt="" />

The huge deck/veranda: It needs to be turned into an outdoor lounge - firepit, STW-approved woodfired pizza oven, outdoor sofa type things, designer throws n'shit.... you get the idea. I think the principle is that you are selling the idea of living there, not the house itself.

You need some photos showing its green credentials - people don't read the blurb - they just look at the photos. Have you got a fancy looking biomass boiler or something? Maybe a eco-home report?

This is a bit more, well.....: It seems like a decent amount of land. Could the people who did your oak frame put together a plan for a barn/workshop/garage/outbuilding/annex? Not sure how much that would cost for some basic drawings, and it would obviously be subject to planning, but it would put the idea into peoples heads (who might be worried about size) about the potential to expand. Something like this:

Anyway, just some ideas

It’s on Rightmove which is go to for house purchases regardless of price bracket.

When we last bought we literally viewed 100’s on Rightmove but only viewed 4 in real life. That was in your asking price bracket.

Honest objective opinion, the pictures are poor, rooms are cluttered and don’t make the house stand out at all.

I do get you are passionate about the house but a quick look on RM shows a barn conversion in the area. That’s your competition for a buyers money.

Is it unique because of the build, as you can see there are properties nearby? If so the build if it is Passivhaus standard may well put off some people as they simply can’t grasp the no heating, mechanical ventilation side of things.
Personally I like them and would love to build something to that standard. As for photos I would say de-clutter before you take them, books on windowsill, and kitchen spring to mind. Make it look less busy and more of a blank canvas that prospective owners could see putting their stamp on.
Good luck!

My initial thoughts are too cluttered, and naff pictures.

I would especially remove the pictures with other houses in background as they make the house look small, and detract from it looking like it’s in a unique secluded area.

Also having built the house yourself, don’t do the viewings. People will say things you do t want to hear. Easy to be offended when you ha e such a link to the building. Which brings me to price, I have no idea what it’s true value is, but it’s sounds like you have based value on the emotional investment you have put in to it. Trying to convert that to a sale price may be difficult.

We bought our house off the bloke who built it and lived in it. Afterwards he admitted all of the above.

Thanks all, much appreciated.

I have so far, simply been going on what agents have priced it as.

@batfink lots to think about there... I actually designed the build and construction system to be easily extended.

@cougar you’d be surprised how little we spent building it, when your only costs are raw materials, it’s an awful lot cheaper than having a house built for you.

Sitting on it for 6-9 years and renting it out is not viable as we need to live somewhere

@funkydunc weirdly I don’t have any emotional attachment to it and I am not that connected to it (always surprises people) but I’m pretty indifferent about it. Probably as it stole so much of my life for 18 months! Regarding price, we have just gone with what most agents valued it at and the fact that we are in no rush to sell.

Possibly they might both be better than they appear due to poor pictures and clutter but neither the kitchen or the bathrooms look that great, and for that money and a small (ish) house given the cost I’d be expecting something more impressive here.
I’m sure it’s not the case but one of the kitchen pics looks like someone put some B&Q shelves in the corner...

Photos are not great, why is one of them just after heavy rain? An aerial shot would help show the size of the garden and the location relative to the beach, hills etc.

It's not that cluttered, it is clean and tidy but looking at other people's adverts should help you fine tune it's appearance.

Also, the unique aspect of the house could put people off. Not everyone has your perspective, or will appreciate your design. House purchases are not a rational affair, there are so many subjective elements at play that can influence the decision. At the end of the day, estate agents are useless morons who just look on Rightmove to guide their pricing.

They also use Automated Valuation Models which are generally based on transactional data but are also full of inaccuracies and pseudo-scientific modelling. (A dept of my company creates and sells them).

They sell them to Rightmove, Zoopla (multiple listing agencies) so it's a daft eco-system. Estate agent uses MLA site to guide house pricing, houses get sold at varying prices, AVM models are updated many months later when the transaction data is published and so on

Looks an awesome property.

Pictures aren't good, personally I like the ordering of photos to flow around the house, make it feel like a virtual viewing. There is there is repetition in the images, they are taken at differing levels which throws the eye and makes rooms look odd, the outdoor ones are blurry and could be anywhere.

Suggestions above are good, I think it would help to take one item of furniture out of each room for photos - the island in kitchen, empty grey thing in bedroom, chair in bathroom.

Personally again I would like first photo to be the property taken from the most flattering angle (showing land, no other houses). Then approach via this entrance driveway unless it looks crap, then work around the property logically.

Great idea on making something of the veranda, even if you moved an indoor sofa out there for the photo and covered with a big throw for effect.

The photos should sell that not the blurb, which could be far more focussed. Worth reading what they or you have written imagining it's the first time you are reading it - lots of guff to read around and things that do not tally up with the photos (e.g. open plan space with windows on all sides?). The cut down version you get on the (Android) app could be way more focussed, the waffle means it cuts off before the key info has been presented.

You would never present that way in a business environment so unsure why agents do this for houses. You have 6 or so lines which should be plenty to get the key bits down.

Looking on the desktop app it is the longest description I have seen for the scope of the property. I can't think this matters that much as think the right photos should sell it if it's priced right.

I’d second an earlier suggestion about credentials. You describe it as a green house but then don’t explain - is it a Passivhaus? PV and solar water are pretty standard things these days - I have both of these in our barn conversion and we got a B in our energy efficiency survey, but I wouldn’t describe it as an ECO house. Presumably it’s not passive as you have a heat pump.

Pictures are terrible for that price point.

I sold a house for £500k and paid about £100 for a "proper" photographer, made a big difference.

Rooms look very cluttered, you need to de-clutter, there is far too much stuff lying around.

Rooms are small, 10ft "double" bedroom? Bathroom looks like an obstacle course.

You definitely need better pictures!

The eco credentials are mentioned but nothing about how low the actual running costs are. Make more of that.

Lovely house 👍
It was was a few years ago but some friends of ours had a quirky small medieval town house which wasn't getting much interest.
They put an add with couple of nice pics in the Sunday Times mag. Sold very soon after.

The bedrooms are definitely not large! We've got a 2012 built house and our smallest room is bigger than most of these and it's not a big room.

The floor plan needs the dimensions for the open plan kitchen lounge bit. From the plan you can't tell if it's 2m wide or 8m.

Your target market isn't local. You need to get all these people who are trying to move out of cities interested. At that price and location, probably Londoners, but SE in general. Find an agent who can market there. And another repeat of de-clutter and better pictures (applies to almost every house for sale so nothing personal)

and the fact that we are in no rush to sell.

This is an interesting one. Right now nice country properties with outside space are in demand. If you want a good price then you need to be grabbing the opportunity. Also, I suspect as we roll into winter houses in Cornwall will seem less appealing than now.

To get things a little more back on track... instead of, your bathrooms sh*t, your kitchens sh*t, you built a house for a midget etc etc
All well and good but it is what’s it is, I’m as guilty for jumping in and feeding the trolls, it’s all good fun but we have gone off track a little here, as I’m not after advice on what is wrong with the house... (although some of the advice on de cluttering etc is great)

What I am after, as per the op... is options for places to market it.

I am dropping the current advert and agent and would really love to hear about any specialist places, people have used, to sell or buy... or even anyone in the industry with some view on where we should advertise it.

Hopefully I will get the right company onboard to advertise it, in the next couple of weeks, so any help in who to approach would be ace!

Thanks so much for all the time folk have taken to give me their advice in this area so far

It amazes me how this place always comes through with helpful advice in areas where mine is lacking 🙌

just check out the competition and make a list of the agencies they are using.

To get things a little more back on track… instead of, your bathrooms sh*t, your kitchens sh*t, you built a house for a midget etc etc

apologies if my posts came over like that. Mine were intended to be a comment about the overblown agents descriptions rather than a criticism of the house. I think the house is beautiful.

On the windows - are they something fancy in terms of triple glazing / self cleaning / posh manufacture ? if so make a mention of that.

I think it is lovely but the only thing that would put me off is that there are no en-suite facilities.

Other than that, if circumstances allowed, I'd buy it. I can almost taste the beer slowly sipped whilst sat on that porch 🙂

And another repeat of de-clutter

Not sure I agree with that – the style suits the property.

I would love somewhere like that - and happily go for AECB Gold or PassivHaus. I think there's a growing market.

I'm even kicking around a local plot at the moment, it's very overlooked but very affordable, with the plan of super efficient...

A quick google of "eco house specialist estate agents" kicks up these 2 for starters

https://www.themodernhouse.com/

https://www.greenmoves.com/

Was just going to put up the Modern House. Most people in our road of 'unique" houses who aren't local and knew of them found them through The Modern House.

is options for places to market it.

Everyone uses Rightmove, Buyers may use other specialist house marketing websites occasionally, but they'll have the new homes search from Rightmove going on in the background.

Just get some better photos taken of it.

just check out the competition and make a list of the agencies they are using.

This, use rightmove but dont look at whats on the market, look at the SSTC and sold ones which went for a similar amount or higher, look who the agents were for that and maybe jump ship.

I also agree the pictures arent the best and do make the kitchen look pretty poor. Pay a hundred quid to get some nice shots and a aerial shot showing outdoor space and proximity to beach etc

I'd be over the moon with it if I stayed there on holiday.

If I owned it then all that external wood screams lots of maintenance though. Did you watch The Waltons a lot as a kid!? 🙂

Built and completed in 2012 this incredible high spec eco friendly home is constructed of a green oak modular frame with hempcrete high perfomance insulation. Clad in local larch and lime plastered.

I'd guess the problem is people like bricks and mortar 'safe' especially for £700k, so your target market is limited.

It's a dreadful advert from the estate agent. As said the photos are shoddy and they are in a really confusing order that makes it hard to understand how the house flows. The text is really generic for what they are describing as a unique building and it's made worse by spelling mistakes throughout.

Biggest issue is it's not clear what you are selling, are you selling a home or a holiday let? If it's a home then it's missing things that would show that it is livable and the photos imply a lack of storage space from the living clutter about the place. If it's a holiday let then the advert is missing critical due diligence info (like you put above) on potential rental prices and occupancy rates.

I get that you like it and it was designed for your needs but there are layout and location issues that limit the marketability. You can't fix that but you need to consider it when taking a view on how attractive it is to others and address those in the advertising to sell the positives or cover the concerns. The floor plan makes the stairs look steep and tight which is likely to put off loaded retirees, open plan everything means that there is no get away space for families (and no WFH potential). It's close to beaches but everything is going to be a drive and there appears to be little in the way of local facilities (pub/restaurants) mentioned.

@hooja

It's a small house, which is evident from the floorplan, but your photo's make it look worse due to the clutter around the place. The photo of the stairs for instance - you've got books and bedding/towels scattered around it and boxes on the window sills - it makes it look like you don't have enough room to store things. Similar for the racks in the kitchen and the stuff on all the exposed beams particularly in the kitchen/diner. Put all of that stuff in boxes and either in the loft/garage/temp storage. Open the blinds fully to show the light. Where you've got exposed beams at the walls and roof, have you considered, soft LED light strips hidden in the corner of the beam/wall. It would only cost a few pounds and would add a nice lighting effect for photos. It's the small details that get people through the doors or not. The size is there for all to see, but their perception of that space can be skewed by the photos.

Agree with the idea of removing at least 1 medium/large item of furniture from each room before photos.

You need to make more of that stoop, it needs decent, comfy outdoor furnishings and photos at sunrise and sunset of the thing looking enticing.

I think at this price, and with this house, you need to sell a picture of what life could be - mood lighting and cosy living inside, alfresco dining at sunrise and sunset outside. days in the country, etc.

I do like these shed threads 🙂

@johnx2 do you spend your weekends heading into the city to openly laugh at the poor plebs living in those ridiculous Tiny boxes they call homes too.. what life must be like for you? Being mean for your own amusement! What a lovely chap you come across as.

Despite all the lovely people on here, there are just as many utter bells

The other consideration is, as a non standard construction are the any constraints on accessing mortgages? I know there are some properties round me that are effectively unmortgageable due to their construction.

Edit: ignore my old post.

House is lovely, photos are terrible. Get the estate agent to get a photographer in, if they won't then get another agent. Get drone shots.

Ignore all of the guff above about room sizes, you can't change that (and they are fine). Also I don't think it is cluttered, only exception being the stairs.

Include information about rental income. Also email your previous guests, they may want to buy it.

Nice sofa by the way, we have the same one.

@mrhoppy good point but not in this case. I was pretty carefully during specification and design, to make sure everything was certified and warrantable, so nothing that would limit mortgage-ability (if that’s a word?). Which was a pain, as some of the materials are, or were fairly cutting edge, to ensure the performance aims were met...

< I’d also be including information about rental income. I’d also email everyone who has stayed in it telling them it is for sale, if they liked it they may want to buy it. > @bregante😉
Thanks @franksinatra... good points that I’ll raise with whoever takes on the marketing!

Agree broadly with the points about photos - I didn't notice there was a stove until I saw the flue in the bedroom shots. At that price point you need something a bit more professional, with sunsets, flickering flames and maybe a drone shot showing just how good the location is. You're marketing a lifestyle.

Would have thought it would be very desireable for a city type, especially with the eco-credentials.

Don't know who you've got it on with, but have a look at some of the sold properties here for an idea of the sort of quality marketing you should be getting.

https://www.westcountryhomesonline.com/sold-properties

As others have said, photos are crap, but that's fixable.

Reading through the thread though, and apologies if this is not the case, it feels as if you need to switch your mindset from selling 'your home' to selling 'a house'. Buyers don't care (generally) about how much you like it, the effort you put it designing and building it, why it works for you etc, instead you need to give them all the information they need to realise that they like it and why it would work for them.

Might be worth looking at Knight Frank or similar, they appear to actually market properties and target audiences, rather than just whacking it on Rightmove and waiting for a buyer.

martinhutch is spot on, you are selling a lifestyle. Your buyer is likely to be someone out of the area moving to the country. Dress the table, set up a home office if you can, put nice dining stuff on the lovely veranda. Or, get a professional agent to help.

I love the house, the veranda is awesome.

o the rear of the property is a substantial block outbuilding 23'11 x 12'3

Could you convert this into home office space without spending much? That would be a huge bonus in current climate

@johnx2 do you spend your weekends heading into the city to openly laugh at the poor plebs living in those ridiculous Tiny boxes they call homes too.. what life must be like for you? Being mean for your own amusement! What a lovely chap you come across as.

Despite all the lovely people on here, there are just as many utter bells

sorry sorry - unique shed. Better? 🙂

Thanks again, some really helpful stuff being posted...

I know I have a very niche market and we have our eyes open to the fact that it really will not suit the vast majority of buyers (you can get an awful lot more space for the money, in a more conventional house).

This is why I posted to see what people’s knowledge and thoughts on marketing a niche property to a smaller audience.

I would stay here for ever, as it works for us very well (so there must be others out there) but we have itchy feet, I love designing and building and generally messing around with buildings and it’s time to get stuck into a new project.

@johnx2, you have just come in here, added no value and called the house I live in, designed and built, a shed!
It’s just offensive, regardless of banter etc.

If that’s your idea of humour, there is something deeply floored about your personality

Did your mum never teach you, that if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all? 🙄

[img] [/img]

Property threads are great! Brew anyone!? 🙂

🤦🏼‍♂️

@johnx2 do you spend your weekends heading into the city to openly laugh at the poor plebs living in those ridiculous Tiny boxes they call homes too.. what life must be like for you? Being mean for your own amusement! What a lovely chap you come across as.

Despite all the lovely people on here, there are just as many utter bells

There are a lot of shed build threads on here. With so many folks saying such nice things about your beautiful home, which you're advertising here at £700k I'm afraid it was a bit too much of an open goal.

I was genuinely surprised that you're upset and I am sorry, as I've no desire to make anyone unhappy however prickly they may be....

deeply floored

nah. Leave it. It's a trap.

I like the council house aesthetic 😜

But srzly did a 10 mile similar properties rooms are a bit smaller than some of the competition, don't think that many buyers would like that compromise against the uniqueness/eco-friendly-ness,though some will. Think it's priced high compared to competition too. But big outdoor space is a big bonus and the veranda is a big selling point. Better pics, less clutter, sell the lifestyle with a better worded blurb

@ johnx2
Appreciate your reply and yes, feel free to correct my use of the wrong flawed...Im fully ashamed of it myself 😳