Another thought. I know you already bought something else and will be moving in 9 months. Any chance you can rent it out for the cost of the mortgage payments?

Just shared it on my FB page. Maybe we all should! Let's help this GW friend sell this house!

BTW, LOVE the garden and BBQ space. I'm puzzled why it's not selling.

No other strange things. Enough job opportunities in the area and this area is quite nice. One of those rare places you can still park your car on the street and forget to take out the keys. Even the scenery is nice. You can take long walks, ride your bike and everything you need is near by. Supermarkets, swimmingpool, bus stop, church(es) schools. First big city is only 10/15 minutes by car.

We can rent it out yes, but I'd rather lower the price far under the market value..

Have seen a lot of places totally destroyed by the people renting the place.

It's in some kind of development? Are there a bunch of places for sale in the development you are competing with?
I think the "neutral neutral neutral" advice is overdone. Only a moron would decide not to buy it because of the wallpaper.
Only drawback I can see is the houses are packed in together.

That @ Edlincoln, might actually be an issue now that you mention it. They have been building the past three months. As far as I know, the newbuilds in this town are only rentals, but about 4 miles futher in the next town, they have been building new for sale. Not sure about their price range though. But newbuilds in Holland are usually quite expensive.

Just checked, it's al rentals.

Yes, it's packed.. But that is how they build here. As many people on a square foot as they can :)

The new house is less like that.

Love the windmill photo! Charming! My heritage is part Dutch. Just shared on twitter and I have MANY followers. Fingers crossed for you. https://twitter.com/Dances4Wins/status/636304725999284225

BTW, there is a way to get a renter to behave, but let's try to sell it first! Wishing you the best!

I think your place looks really nice and the style is not uncommon in Europe at all. It looks very similar to the homes of some of my child hood friends, but it is very taste specific though compared to what was sold and what is available. The others are all very neutral and makes it easier for a buyer to see themselves in those units. Yours has more color and has to appeal to somebody that likes/wants those colors in their home, unless they are handy and will just redo the colors/wallpaper. However somebody looking to do that would likely just choose one of the lower priced units and put the money in those to redo rather than paying top euros and put money into it. Yours will appeal to a buyer, but because it is more taste specific and higher priced you have reduced the buyers pool some and thus will just take a bit longer to find the right buyer. You can paint and wallpaper quite a bit for the price difference.

The stairs are worth something, but what I don't know without understanding your sold comps more, it looks like there is still access and in Europe people will generally tolerate more inconvenience to get to a room than an American would, so it also boils down to how much a buyer really cares to have the stairs vs the original access

It's not my style, but I love it! I see it appealing to younger people. The only staging I would do is a few of the suggestions above....maybe a few plants, some fluffy towels, and something decorative on the kitchen counter. It just needs to be cozied up a tiny bit and made to feel more homey. You mentioned some of the suggestions are not your personal style, but perhaps that is a sacrifice you need to make. We did a lot to stage our home that wasn't really our style, but I firmly believe it helped sell our house rather quickly. I think the open house weekend in October will be very telling. I would ask your realtor or whomever is hosting in your house that weekend to collect very specific feedback from people who tour it. Good luck!

Six months seems long...what's the average where you are? The house looks great. Everything is new and clean and it's easy to see the space. I think any cosmetic changes at this point would turn off as many people as attract. How to make it more appealing: lower the price. If 170k is not just a wish and it's an absolute minimum then you might have to wait a while...except after 9 months you'll have to raise your number to account for the cost of continuing to carry the house. From what you've posted it looks like there's a lot on the market but not that many buyers, maybe this was not so much the case when your neighbor sold for 172.5k. You say that if you lower now, there will be no space left to bargain.
For six months you have had no one to bargain with. I just don't see
another 5k drop immediately bringing in a full-price offer. And will
another nine months bring in a 170k offer from the 1.5 additional
viewers?

We were actually called this afternoon! We'll have a viewer next Monday. It will be the second one so far.

I agree with dadereni that cosmetic changes might not help a lot. In the end you can not please the whole world. So many people, so many different tastes.

I'll take some of the advice to make it feel more homely.

I don't think we should drop in price. We've done that recently and if we don't get any buyers we can always consider it again later on. It is just too soon.

I'll keep you guys updated.

Looking forward to your updates. This is great news!! Fingers crossed that this viewing results in an offer!

Take a look at every single comp in your neighborhood that has sold since you put your home on the market. Take a good look at their photos, the sales price and the condition of the home. Now, ask yourself, "why in the he__ did the buyer choose this home over mine? Heck, why didn't the buyer even LOOK at my home before choosing this one?" If you answer those questions honestly, you will find trends that will tell you what you need to do to be competitive.

Once you are finished this exercise, do the same practice for all of the comps that are currently Active. You want to look at all of the Actives, and realizing what you learned from looking at the solds, you need to position your home so that it is the next home purchased, not one of the others.

@ncreal.

The only good comparison was the one of the neighbours across the street. They were on the market for the same price as ours and sold for €172K

So we are not too high in the market.

It's always price when you aren't getting showings. You're in denial.

We're definitly not in denial, that's for sure. It's also summer season here, people want to spend their money on Holidays first.

We're certain of one thing and that is the price.
It must be something else. Holiday season, newbuilds in de area and the specific area we live in. It's a small and quiet religious town and not everyone wants to live there. We'll probalby sell to someone who's already living in this town or young people spreading their wings.

All of those factors means that the housing market in your area has gone down. Which means that you are now priced too high. Prices change with the market.

If you're willing to wait, the market may come back up to where your price is. But it may also go down even lower.

I know you do not want to hear this, but I feel obligated.

The possible reasons that you mentioned for not getting views can all be overcome... with correct pricing. If you've gotten a ton of internet lookers and no one wants to even go visit after looking at the pics, then, assuming that all marketing is being done correctly, the place is over priced.

We will just wait and see. We still have till May/June too sell the place. At this point I don't think it is over priced, it actually is under priced. The market is getting better and I feel that this is not the right time to lower the price again. We have bought this place for €164K and I am not willing to sell it for the same price. When we bought it, the place was very outdated. We'll have a couple who'll come to look at the house on Monday. I might think about lowering the price when we reach January of Feb. It is just too soon now.

How much are your carrying costs from now til February? Subtract that NOW from your price. Or do you not really want to sell this house? It's fine if you don't. But, if you do, the market doesn't care at all about what price you ''need to get'' for your house. The market only cares what other real comps actually sold for. Not the asking price.

A low price cures all kinds of incurable defects.

Costs are not the issue. We still live here and have no other costs for the new house. It would be unreasonable to sell the house with a loss of 35K or sell the house far under priced. The market value of this house is €185k we came in at €179K and are now asking for €175K. This is a very low price for what you get in comp with the other properties. Our neighbours came in at the same price for a very similar house only a couple sq ft smaller and sold for €172k. That is low, but reasonable in the current market.

I agree that carrying costs would not be an issue because if you sold it next week, you would still need to rent somewhere while waiting for the other house to be finished.

In a hot market, buyers are anxious to view homes and buy before someone else beats them to it. In a slow market, nobody is in much of a rush which is indicated by the wait between viewings. Good luck on your Monday viewing!

Were the other sold properties rowhouses, or detached single family homes?

Who did your FMV? Six months with only two showings says there is something massively wrong with your assessment of your pricing. If you were priced right, you should have had at least a showing a week, at minimum. And a ''lowball'' offer. When you aren't getting any showings to speak of, then you aren't priced right.

Or, you aren't getting any exposure at all with other realtors. This is't a FSBO situation, is it? You do have a realtor involved, and are on your country's version of the MLS?

I'm not sure what the norms are where you, but I know in the UK many people list with multiple estate agencies, is that an option for you? It might get more showings. I also know that many countries that a real estate agent does next to nothing for marketing. Have you asked your agency what they are doing to help sell your home? If they do next to nothing have you considered how you can market your home? Even though there is a national wide open house in October, could you host your own?

Who set the price here? Your real estate agent or you? Because the market is telling you unite loudly that it is not low enough. I cannot fathom a situation where you think that 2 showings over 6 months wouldn't be the price. Especially with the home being so neat and clean. It is a bit cold feeling, but that isn't enough to keep people from viewing it. It's not the home. It's the price of the home.

@ greendesign. The other properties are exactly the same as ours, even the layout and pricing. Only difference is that we have more space, a bigger bathroom and a fully finished bedroom in the attic.

The only main difference is that we moved our way too small bathroom to the smallest bedroom. So we lost one bedroom and that seems to be the main issue at the moment. The original bathroom was only 1m x 2m, put in a cabin and a sink and your bathroom has only 0.5m of free space left. So we decided to create a new bathroom in the smallest bedroom. Which originally would fit in a single bed and a small desk, but it would be big enough for a bathroom.
The first viewers said that they were missing a bedroom since they already had a kid and had one coming. Though there is enough space for two kids.

Now that i think of it, we had another viewer while we were on holiday. Our agent said they were very interested and loved the house etc etc. But had two other viewings on their schedule. Not sure if these people will come back for a second viewing or that tomorrow will be new people.

There could have been a third viewing, but these people cancelled before the viewing because they came to the conclusion that they rather not live in this town.

I know you guys all think it must be the pricing, but honestly I don't think it is. Maybe the missing extra bedroom and probably the holiday season. I think we should have been on the market a bit earlier. The Holiday season in Holland is quite long. May - August. Between these months a lot of people are away. The only month in are which no National free days is June. People rather go on a well deserved trip to wherever, than spend their money on a new house. The new house can also be bought after the holiday season...

@ Live Wire: The price was set by the agent. He said we could go in higher, but advised us to put it sharply priced on the market. The housing market is getting stronger again and the interest is very low. Which actually means that people with a lower budget are also able to buy something a bit more expensive.

However, there is something else going on... these F**k uppers of a government decided the change the rules for getting a loan per 1st of July 2015. So especially for first time buyers this means it will almost be impossible to buy. And there we are.. selling our house priced just right for first time buyers who can't get the loan.

So yes, I don't think we are priced too high. We just need to find the right people, which means first time buyers with a lot of savings or home changers who just like the house.
But I can tell you, not a lot of first time buyers have a lot of savings.. they sometimes even have 30K dept.. and that is also because of our government..

There are no strict rules for buying on account, getting a phone contract which they can't afford and now they even have to finance their study with a loan which they will have to pay off the rest of their working lives.

The loss of a bedroom is HUGE as far as pricing! Why didn't you share that earlier? You are choosing the wrong home models as your comps. Losing a bedroom, even if you have a nicer bath as a result, negatively impacts the home's value downward. 20-40k down Ward would be average in the Entry range market here. Even more in an midrangeome. 2 bedroom homes are much more difficult to sell than 3 bedroom homes, even if they have a nicer bath.

You meed to go completely reassess your price and only compare the pricing to the 2 BR comps.

Though we gave up the room, we created a new room in the attic. So we still have a 3 bedroom house and the option to create a fourth. But you can not see that in the pictures. So in the books it is still a 3 bedroom house and it is also listed as one. We also have a big dormer in the attic. Which the other property doesn't have. So yes we lost a small room, but we still have the same amount of bedrooms and the house is slightly bigger. The garden is twice as big.

Was the attic conversion permitted, inspected, and recorded in the town's books as additional square footage?

That's actually not needed in Holland. you only need a licence for some extentions. but our dormer is within limits. and in Holland you don't need permission to use the attic as bedroom. and yes all extra room created will count

Bianca,

First --- on the number of rooms you now have - how many baths? Looks like 1.5? Also, could that green room that is an office be a bedroom? And which rooms are the attic rooms? What do the stairs to the attic room look like?

Also, I'm now very unsure of what assistance you are in need of: you started this all by asking what was wrong --- and you've seemed to reject all comments about what you should maybe change.

Based on all you've said, it seems you need to examine your approach to improving homes and the overall financials involved. This seems to be not the right time to sell yet you have bought another house anyway. Someone asked, I think, about the financials of owning two places and you won't consider renting.

In my thinking, it's OK to make improvements that aren't valued by others (which is what you've seemed to have here) when you'll be enjoying those improvements for some time.

So when we made the new bathroom, we changed the former bathroom into a utility room.

The green room is actually a bedroom, not an office. It used to be our sons bedroom, but we're planning another little one so we moved him to the attic. For the time being, we put the computer is his former bedroom. The attic room is the one with the toys. It's a lot bigger than the pictures show. About the same size as the master bedroom.

The assistance we were asking for was basically decoration wise and we are happy with most of the comments. But people will still see what's online and only notice the difference when they will come round. New pictures will cost € 150,-
Pricing wise we do understand all of your concerns, but we are 100% sure that pricing is not the issue. It is very reasonable and even lower than valued.
We will have a talk with our agent if tomorrow will end up in nothing. Coz even though we're online and were in the local newspaper in the first month, we have the feeling they are not doing an awful lot more.

About the renting part..
There is no reason for us to rent. If we sell before we get the new house, we'll move in with his parents for the time being. If we don't sell, we'll move into the new house and might think of renting out this place. Since we earn too much, we are not allowed to rent in the social sector. Which means we will pay as much as we pay now. So it doesn't really matter if we buy or rent. Renting in the private sector will in most cases even be more expensive.

Then we have this buying a new house part :)
To make it even more complicated, we actually do own three properties now.

The reason we put this house up for sale is because we found a newbuild project in the same town as the inlaws. It is where my BF grew up and it is just a more vibrant town. Normally you would not buy a new house if you have not sold the other one, but we were able to put a clause in the contract. If we would not sell within 6 months we would be able to break the contract. They said fine, but we will put a 24hr clause in it. If someone else wants to buy you get 24hr to decide if you still want it and we'll take out the 6 month clause.
A month later we were called that other people wanted it and we said fine, let them have it. We did not want to have to pay for two properties.

We decided to keep our house on the market and wait till it's sold. However.... a month later our dreamhouse came on the market.. we went to visit and found out that the owners will not get their new house till June 2016. Since that gives us almost a year to sell this house and lets us have no other costs than just this house, we decided to make an offer which they accepted.

The new house: http://www.funda.nl/koop/gorinchem/huis-49400594-arkelsedijk-169/fotos/#groot&foto-1

And last but not least. YES!! you are absolutely right about our approach of improving. It was our first buy and stripped down the house very enthousiastic, put €20K of new material in. Kitchen, toilet, flooring, walls plastered, bathroom. We basically updated everything. Which is fine and was really necessary, but we made the mistake of doing it with the wrong money.. And we expected to earn it back.

We learned from it and will approach the new house in a different way.

Those stairs wouldn't be allowed here. Winders must have the minimum tread on the inside be able to support foot traffic. They are completely unsafe as you show them. I doubt that your country has standards of safety that are all that different than the U.S. Does the bedroom at least have a window that can be used for emergency escape and egress in the case of a fire?

I actually don't understand what you mean? This is a regular factory build stairs. The stairs to the first floor is steeper, but that's because this is an older house. The stairs to the attic is a modern one and safe. Cannot see why it would be unsafe.

And yes the attic has several windows, but i wouldn't recommend using them.
Yes, building regulations are different here.

Sophie, if you are commenting onthe stairs, you've never been to Holland. That is entirely the norm. Houses are narrow and tall and the stairs are the same. The small hotel we stayed at was in a canal house and we had a couple of flights like that up to our room.

The stairs in the picture may look steeper than they are. Maybe a wrong angle. I can place my whole foot on it.

Sophie - yes rules when it comes to stairs are very different in Europe. People are actually expected to watch out some for their own safety too. Winders are very common in new construction as well. Stairs are often much steeper too. Just like play grounds actually have cool play equipment on them that would never be allowed in the US due to safety and the potential for lawsuits.

Who pays the realtor fees? I know in some European countries it's the buyer. Even though it' reflected in the price, could you offer to pay (some of) the fees?

Second, I remember that the Dutch system has a huurwarde (spelling?) tax, so is there any systemic reason why people may not buy? Could you address that in your advertising?

In Holland you pay "Kosten Koper" this has nothing to do with the value of the property. The buyer pays 2% taxes over the price of the property and some fees for registering in the "kadaster" (legal owner stuff) and have the house put on their name with a the notary office. All these costs you can have refunded once you do your yearly tax stuff. So it would be really stupid to pay these charges for them when they can get it back.

Not sure what you mean with huurwaard? Never heard of that or of anything similar. Maybe you mean "erfpacht'' ? In this case you buy and own the house, but not the parcel it's build on. You pay a monthly rent to the owner of the parcel. But our house doesn't have this construction. You buy the house and the parcel it stands on.

Oh, a long time ago when we were looking at house in the NL. As a home owner you had to pay tax on what the rental value was for your property, the reasoning being that since you owned, it was basically like income because you didn't have to pay rent.

Are there no realtor fees, or how does your realtor make his/her money?

today's viewers were enthusiastic but we're also viewing another property. One similar to ours but more expensive, still have the small bathroom and used the smallest bedroom as a closet. Our agent said they liked our kitchen and bathroom better and ours is cheaper. so fingers crossed

There are fees. They get like 6% of the selling price. We actually have to pay that.

Still not sure where you got that info from. You buy a house with a mortgage / loan from the bank. you'll have to pay the interest each month. And sometimes a bit more. depends on the loan construction you have.

If you are able to buy a house without a loan you will have to pay taxes over the value of the property. because the house is like having savings. and you will have to pay income tax of some sort. But not a lot of people can afford to pay for the full house. And if you can you will make sure you can't or won't.

You have a nice house with curb appeal. Your job is to make the house look like something people want to buy, and I think you need to work on making it seem more spacious. People buy space when they buy a house. Wallpaper makes a room look smaller, and I could not believe how true this was till we removed our wallpaper in a redecorating job. The rooms looked so much bigger without wallpaper. I also think you should go neutral with the paint when you repaint the walls and use the same wall colors in rooms that look into each other (dining room, hall and living room, maybe kitchen too). Using the same wall color this way also makes the place look bigger. The other thing that makes your living room look small is the large sectional that you have there. This too large, over stuffed furniture in small rooms only makes the rooms look even smaller than they are. You are selling space, so work to make the house look more spacious.

This was in the 90s in the Netherlands. It was very straightforward. No idea if it's still the same, but here's something on huurwaardeforfait

But we're digressing since it's obviously not of a concern. I just remember that I thought it was the weirdest thing.

Perhaps there is just not a lot of activity in your area? Could you ask your realtor how quickly houses sell? What's the ratio of houses on the market to buyers?

Actually never heard of this but we're paying for it. We get it back with our tax return.

It's now called eigenhuis forfait. A trick from the politicians to get even more tax money of you. They say: You might (at some point) be renting out your house to someone else. In that case you generate income and have to pay income tax over it. So because you may or may not be renting out your house, you have to pay "income" tax in advance. I actually didn't know I was paying for this crap, but have been told we get it back once we do our tax stuff at the end of the year.

Not a house per se, but more like a townhome or condo. While it looks very neat and clean, not everyone wants a home with 'shared' walls. It's a different lifestyle than a house. Good luck to you!

Patty...shared walls are the norm rather than the exception in Europe. Having a detached house comes at a premium and is outside of most people's price range. My family lives in the UK and my parents are the only people I know with a detached home. Everyone lives in semi-detached or terrace houses. So I don't think the fact that Bianca is in terrace house is that unusual. Or at least I am assuming the Netherlands is more similar to the UK in terms of type of housing stock than here in the US (where in all but HCOL, shared walls is pretty significant negative).

Emma is right here. Detached is only for people with a high income. At least, with us in the south west that is the case. Up north houses are a lot cheaper, but that's not the problem. Not a lot of people move to the north.
Don't forget that unlike most of the houses in the US, the houses here have concrete isolated walls. So it's not a pest to have neighbours.

If the most recent buyers opt for the other, more expensive home, have your agent find out the reasons why from the other agent. This info will tell you a lot on why buyers keep passing you over.

We will, thanks!