How can we sell when buyers keep raising the same issues?

[E2026]

We originally listed our 2-bed terraced property in September 2025. It is priced in line with other properties and we are located in the East Midlands it was put up for 180k. We were happy with the photos and not had any issues with the Estate Agent.

We had an offer November 2025 but our buyer pulled out last minute just before a completion date was set due to personal reasons.

We relisted the property April and have had 6 viewings in 4 weeks. Our house needed renovated when buying it 5 years ago and we did all the work straight away so we have had all new flooring , a new kitchen, replaced the boiler, new front door , a few bits done in the bathroom (but it is getting tired , it’s a 3 piece white suite though) it isn’t perfect but it’s a lot better then it was and looks relatively modern now.

When we originally had a buyer we had an offer accepted on a property and all the paperwork was completed the same as ours. The seller is happy to wait for us to find a new buyer but didn’t say how long for… we also wanted to move before September as we need to move our daughter schools.

the problem is a lot of our feedback is the same negative points and we don’t know what else to do know to sell again.

the same points are normally

• Access issues - to access our house u drive uphill to a shared drive way, there are 5 garages and 3 visitor parking spaces. The houses are located directly behind. It is not suitable if you have mobility issues.

• The gardens - back gardens to small , front has no privacy (all the neighbours use their front ones, but ours is just grass and pathed)

• The parking - because there are 3 visitor spaces it is tight to get your car into the garages but several neighbours do.

We don’t know what else to do at the point because these are things we can’t change. We bought the house because we could afford it at reduced price due to it needing work so these issues were okay to compromise on to get in the property ladder at the time. We have dropped the price now from 180k to 170-180 guide price. Any advice welcome because I don’t know what else to do at the point.

Also one of our neighbours is putting their house up for sale in the next 2 months. And our other neighbour January next year.

You drop the price.

Unfortunately you need to drop the price.

I had ridiculous feedback when selling houses about things I couldn't change. I finally dropped the price significantly on the last house I sold and it was gone in days.

There’s nothing you can do about those and the buyers aren’t saying you should. They’re just saying that’s why they won’t buy. You’ve only been on a month… it took us months and 72 viewings to sell our last place. And then it ended up in a bidding war. Bizarre.

You just have to wait. Selling takes time and isn’t fast in a non ideal property.

The feedback isn’t meant to be constructive criticism. It’s their reason for not buying not something they’re saying you should alter.

Anything will sell at the right price.

I was talking to estate agent the other day and he was saying average time on market is 12 weeks before offer. If that’s average unfortnautely some will be longer than that!

I get what's being said I guess it's just abit demoralising because I can't change the drawbacks and they keep getting repeated over and over lol

I feel like I don't have time on my side because of both my neighbours selling soon, my onwards property waiting and wanting to move my daughter schools.

Its not going to get an easier to sell if both my neighbours have theirs up for sale at the same time too. I'm gonna have a word with my partner and have a think about dropping the price again.

We bought the house because we could afford it at reduced price due to it needing work so these issues were okay to compromise on to get in the property ladder at the time

You've kind of answered it yourself here OP.
You overlooked the unchangeable issues because of price.
You've now worked hard & made the property more saleable, but sadly the major blockers remain a constant.

It seems it will need to be a bargain price, in comparison to similar properties in the area, to sell again.

@ButterYellowFlowers - apologies I wasn't clear. The feedback I got that I thought was ridiculous was things like "we need 4 bedrooms" when the listing said 3 and we can buy a bigger house in a less desirable area.

But I dropped the price anyway because I really needed to sell quickly.

its finding the right person
get your estate agent to update the details including the feed back
that should weed people out who have a problem with it

Hi OP- I had this with my house. Lots of viewings but always a no due to stuff I couldn’t change. In the end, I did get an offer from a couple who just needed the location- they could live with the rest! (Nothing major just similar lines to yours). I accepted a lower offer from them to get it sold in this market.

I have done this in the description on the listing I'm still having the same problems with feedback . One person turned up and never went in because they couldnt manage the walk up due to their mobility.

That's a fair point. One of our neighbours bought there's a year ago for 160k but it was dated and had a blue bathroom etc so it just feels abit gut wrenching possibly dropping it the near enough the same price as theirs when we have done quite abit of work on ours.

auction ?

i bought the perfect house - which had been on the market for six months to my astonishment. Apparently it was “hard to sell”. But to me, perfect.

Why? Because the things which 99% of buyers saw as drawbacks, I saw as benefits.

Any house is only worth what someone will pay for it. So you have two choices - and only two. You either WAIT for the person to arrive for whom the drawbacks don’t matter; or you lower the price to make it a “bargain”.

Drop the price if you’re in a hurry. What you spent on the works isn’t relevant, I’m afraid.

How much did you pay for it? I think atm the market is saturated with first time buyer properties as so many landlords are selling their properties.

You drop the price. My house "should" have been worth 100k for the area, the number of bedrooms, had a garage and a good sized garden. But it involves shared access through a rather unkept drive. It sold for 75k. You just drop the price until it's in a price bracket where the house is better enough than the other houses in that bracket that it's worth putting up with the negatives.

TBF when I bought it I bought it because it was so much better than any other house I could get for the same money that the access issues didn't matter.

It is priced in line with other properties

Is it priced in line with properties which don’t have the same drawbacks?

This is difficult, sorry you’re struggling.

I think there’s often the assumption that doing work increases value but that often isn’t the case. A house is only worth what someone will pay for it. When your house has compromises your pool of people is so much smaller and will take so much longer. personally I would weigh up the desire to more and move schools, and the impact an extra £10k will have on your ability to move. I would mentally detach the about of money your decreasing by and only consider the impact it has on you moving.

it took a year to sell our house that was compromised by being TINY and expensive

Is there anything you can do to provide semi-privacy at the front e.g. trellis, pergola? Possibly with some nice garden furniture to make it more inviting & show how it can be used, even if you take the furniture with you?

It was at 180k, it's now up for 170k online (guide priced as 170-180k in description) some dont have any private parking though but better gardens.

It also depends on when you bought. Our last property we bought in 2017 and sold 2024. We made a loss of £75k.

125k , 5 years ago . My neighbour who bought theirs the same year bought theirs for 140k but it was nice inside/outside.