Would *you* view this house? And if not, why not?

[NameChangePropertyAdvice]

Name changed as this is outing, but I'd really like to know what you think about this property and the way it's being marketed please.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-92534111.html

I'd want a new kitchen and one of the bathrooms replaced but it's got huge potential! I'd only be buying it if I had room in the finances to afford a new kitchen and bathroom.

I agree, although the paddock is mentioned it’s not given enough prominence.

That house has incredible potential, I’d love to live there if my circumstances allowed.

Incredibly bland inside but lots of potential

Looking at similar properties it does look like there are more attractive houses for a similar price within 5 miles.. However I don't know the area well enough to know if 5 miles makes a huge difference in terms of nice areas. It wouldn't be top of my list to view but that is only because there are prettier houses in the 5 mile catchment I selected.

I completely missed the plot size... That definitely needs highlighting!!

Interesting.

Outside is lovely, and the paddock I'm sure is too, if we could see it.

Annexe potential is interesting but it doesn't show any pictures of now or hint at what needs doing or how big a job that would be.

Lots of space downstairs.

I don't see decor as a problem because it's plain and people can imagine their own imprint on it.

But... It's massively overpriced for the area, IMO. Not close enough to Cambridge or London for that to boost the price.

There's a lot of work to do on it. The kitchen is truly awful for a house of that price in that area, and that alone would need a lot of work.

I agree with pp that some of the fundamentals such as garage, land and floor space are far more important than curtains and decor, however it depends on how it's priced. As I said previously, if it's priced allowing for a refurb and potentially even knocking through the kitchen then I'd look at it.

However if it's priced as if it's all lovely, as people who've looked at other houses in the area are suggesting, then it really doesn't look like that from the photos.

Good bones but its VERY boring inside, never seen so much magnolia in my life. Would take an active imagination but this could be a gorgeous house

Layout is really strange. Would need to knock it about a bit to get large kitchen-diner and to generally make the most of the garden. So I think that would put me off wanting to view it. Looks like a well-maintained house though.

That's just paint though @Bpickle1, easy to change. I never look at the decor of a house.

Having once lived in a house that shape, never again. The heat upstairs in the summer is unbearable

One thing the agent can fix quickly is the floor plan. It’s really difficult for me to see on my iPhone SE (see pic). They can separate it into two pictures for upstairs and downstairs to get it all in frame and give a better sense of the size.

I like the layout. The kitchen and dining room may swap eventually but that's it. Bland never bothers me, I will add colour so prefer to start with neutral. For me there is nothing to stop me viewing, like a bright red kitchen, which would make me too stressed to live with while I decided on my preferred layout.

For me there's too much that needs to be done to make the layout work (for that price). The kitchen, downstairs bathroom and dining room need knocking into one big room and the back wall opening out with bifold/french doors.

Cleary you're not going to do that so I'd do some staging. The curtains are not helping you. Curtains in the bathrooms are odd and need replacing with plain white blinds, Short curtains are always a no-no in my book anyway since they look cheap. More focus on the paddock and garden and change the name of the annex rooms to "annex reception room, annex bedroom" to make it seem like this is already a functioning annex.

The 'annex potential' thing is very off-putting because I can't really work out what it means - presumably that's not currently considered a legally habitable bedroom? Why not? What would be needed to make it one? If it could be easily done then I'd either do it or really spell it out so that people can consider it as a four bed. If it's not easy and that's why it's not been done and is skimmed over in the description then it's a three bed with a very large downstairs and you need to think about whether it's really priced correctly for that.

I know the area quite well.

Initially I thought it was incredibly overpriced for a 3 bed house there, but actually it is a project house in a beautiful setting.

i would pitch it as a 4 bedroom house and stress the plot size.

The kitchen and bathrooms are awful but, assuming that planning would allow it, you could either extend the kitchen or forget the annex idea and make a kitchen/ diner in the potential annex.

You need measurements on the floor plan

It's gorgeous. Some of it really good sized, some of it a bit quirky for a lot of tastes and looks more boxy. Overall a real catch of a house. It's a weird time for the housing market though.

Remove the clutter in the kitchen and bathroom. Remove the coloured decoration things in top of ding room cupboards. Remove the red curtain for photos - they don't photograoh well and date the house and detract from otherwise good neutral decor. Remove the swirly thing over the tv - distracting.

1st photo should be house and huge landscaped garden. Make the last photo the 1st photo.

Retake photos with lights on.

Good luck - lovely house. It should sell well.

*dining room

I looked and commented last night and, having read some of the other comments but not returned to the listing, (as in real life I wouldn't, unless I was quite interested), a few comments:

• There's a paddock? I had no idea. (I like pictures and love floorplans. I'd only wade through the description if those things had already sold it to me).

• I saw the garage in the pictures. Didn't know its size. Its roof line matches the house nicely, adding to the visual appeal of the front aspect.

• Conversely, I'm afraid that back extension may be an example of why the sort of 'quantity over quality' approach to maximising bedroom numbers, that might work in a small city-centre flat, does not sell an otherwise attractive, large, rural property, where people will be looking for style and substance. It sounds as though that bedroom hasn't even been counted, which makes me think there's a building regs problem with describing it as one (though it's not obvious what that would be).

• The 'annexe potential' thing is a poor description. On reflection, I understand it to mean that the existing extension could be re-jigged to convert it into a self-contained annexe, with the addition of a proper bathroom and a kitchenette. In which case it needs to say 'extension with self-cointained annexe potential'.

• Its not anyone thinks the bathroom tiles are grubby, it's that cream tiles look grubby. Which is why people use bright, clinical white in bathrooms. That photo angle is awful, highlighting an unattractive cupboard door (beneath sink) and the bottom of an ugly cupboard (boiler?), top right.

• You're sailing against current fashion, with your shades of cream and brown. I'm not a fan of the current / recent fashion for grey (which, as far as I'm concerned, is about decorating your entire house for the sake of a photographic trick, 'stick something colourful in front of it and it looks like an 'artful' black and white photo with one thing coloured in, whoohoo!'). What you do need to know though, is that cream and magnolia are very 'out' and have been for years, so they make it look very dated, so giving an immediate impression of 'needs work throughout'.

If you can be bothered, I think it would be worth re-decorating one reception room, or a wall at least. I wouldn't touch the dining room, as it looks small already, darker colours will add to that. Ok, looking at the photos again:

Living room (with TV, bookshelves, fireplace): Remove clutter in front of fireplace, swap curtains for plain, or remove. For a quick 'fashion fix', add a 'feature chair' in mustard, teal or pink. Your walls here look greyish, so that would give a sense of currentness and provide a visual focal point. Won't quite go with your sofa covers though.

Dining room: remove curtains and coloured ornaments for pictures.

Reception with wood stove: that wall with the curved bookshelf and maybe around the stove is the one to paint. Try a bright, dark blue, or a lichen green. Look at furniture and kitchen catalogues to get an idea of what's fashionable and looks good. Change or remove rug.

The rest is ok, it conveys 'space' well, it's not cluttered.

I like your Ercol furniture, especially in the dining room. It does convey a deliberate mid-century style - which isn't carried through with wall colours etc. I'm not keen on the cushion covers, which do look a bit 'conservatory furniture' to my eye.

Sorry to be blunt but, this is what you came here for

Yes and no. I like the size and garden but the dining room is too small and from the photo I cannot see any furtnitures for China etc. I don’t fancy dragging everything back and forth.

I would have to do work, breaking through walls, making it a large kitchen dining room and for that the price May be too high.

I like the rooms of the utility one, playroom, hobby room, office, guest suite, lots of potential but not if you have a large family, we are only three, it work work very well.

I don’t like the way the bedrooms are shown, I know it is personal taste but there is nothing I can rely to.

Also, the bathroom between kitchen and dining room is odd.

I think that the photos are not great. BUT if I was looking in that area in that price range I would view it because I know that you need to see a property to understand if it is for you or not.

I love it but too many bathrooms! I'd definitely look at getting rid of the one between kitchen and dining room to open those up, and the one in bedroom 2.

The ground floor floor plan is just not the best use of space.

No one needs a bathroom where they have to go through two busy public rooms to get to it.

A buyer buying at that price and wanting that much land will re-model into a big family room open kitchen (instead of the dining room which has been made barrie and cramped by the walk of cupboards) and make a large bedroom with nearby shower etc.

The amount of reception room space is not matched by bedroom capacity.

It’s a lovely looking house in a lovely setting and I would buy it like a shot if the price made sense in terms of making the downstairs space more rational / maybe adding an additional proper sized bedroom without being squashed by eves upstairs.

It’s nice but not very exciting/interesting. The inside needs quite a bit of updating and the kitchen is pretty small. The outside is gorgeous though and definitely a selling point, so unsure why there aren’t more photos of the garden. Also the photo of the front of the house does it no favours.