To ask for your opinions on my house?

[StylishMummy]

We're in the stressful and expensive process of moving house, next door have just sold for £170,000. We're on for less and have slightly less space and less than all agents suggested (165-170). But we're not selling!

Collective brain of the vipers nest is my next place for feedback - be as brutal as you like!

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-70481371.html

@StylishMummy are you still there?!

I thought the floor plan was wrong but if it is correct there is a huge issue with lack of natural light.

I agree it's a two bedroom house, the advertised third bedroom is a walk in wardrobe. I think the conservatory should be knocked down. You need an external window in your middle room. The stairs are not child friendly.

The render is awful and the next door brick unfortunately throws into relief quite how unattractive it is.

You could spend a vast amount improving this house but it would quite honestly never be great.

I would advise accepting that the house has limitations and needs to be priced low in order to sell. It could work as a buy to let potentially if the price is low enough.

I would sack off your estate agent as they have advised you badly, misdescribed your property, taken poor photos and let you market it at an unrealistic price.

Perhaps market it yourself on purple bricks or similar and then at least you can save the agents fees against the reduction in price you will need to make.

Maybe big up the location if this is a selling point.

I'm being honest rather than tactful and this is of course only my opinion and may be of no value as it's just not a house I would ever consider buying myself.

You have been very brave and clever in getting lots of anonymous opinions OP and I hope they help you.

It just needs a bit of superficial tarting up - plants, flowers, something to jazz up the brown/beige feel. Yes yes to rug in conservatory and make it dining area. Gardens at this time of year are hard but you can bung some colourful plants in pots, just leaving the outside table/chairs there.

Have a nose around the show homes locally - regardless of taste they do well at depersonalised but still with personality, if you kwim.

And definitely all curtains blinds open and as much daylight as poss! You tell estate agent a time to come to do photos that you know the house has the best light.

The little girls bedroom is sweet, you’ve got a ‘theme’ there (could go further with it).

Hit The Range and spend a bit on cosmetic bits and pieces.

Now this one is bare: www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-80359460.html

@IvanaPee I am here yes, just working so unable to respond individually. We bought as a 3-bed and the agents were really clear on us listing as a 3 bed. We use it as a 3 bed, I'll add a photo of the 3rd room but it comfortably holds a single bed, wardrobe and TV, so fully functional. The bathroom was an old extension as the original 'privy' was an outdoor affair, brought inside in the 80s, hence the ludicrous size, but to swap it round would cost far too much.

Easy things to do:

Big, neutral coloured rug in the conservatory and a nice big plant, I would also put the dining table in the middle of it so it has a function.

Some plant pots/hanging baskets out front.

Pics taken on a dry day.

Re-angle the photo in the lounge with the blue sofa, the pic makes it look as though the sofa dwarfs the room. Little potted plant on the fireplace too perhaps. Also, the curtains are pulled open in a lopsided way, they look a bit cheap/badly hung in the photo, have a play about with them so they 'sit' nicely.

Get rid of the coffee table in front of the wood burner.

Garden - tuck the chairs in under the table, take the bins out of shot.

@StylishMummy was just checking as I know some responses have been very honest!

We're taking it on the chin, this has been a much loved family home for 6 years but we've not done the right thing by overly neutralising it clearly. So we've made a lot of changes already to layout etc and I've emailed the agents a new description- removing various points and amending some. The 2 vs 3 bed issue will have to rage on for now

What price difference do you all reckon and extra bedroom adds ? Around here you’d pay £50,000 more to jump from a 2 to a 3 bed

Looking at houses for sale, the only 2 beds near there are on for between 155 and 169. So not much difference.

If I wanted a 2 bed, I'd buy yours over any of those because it has way more space and a lovely bathroom and better kitchen. If I wanted a 3 bed I'd be completely fucked off at the time wasting estate agents who are getting me to view a 2-bed that they claim is a 3 bed.

I really think you'd sell easily, for not much less money than you're asking (maybe even more looking at the other 2 beds available), if you listed it as a 2-bed.

the stairs and it's a bit too beige. Also the conservatory looks neglected as does the garden.

Just looked at pics and floor plan from next door (when it was last sold) and it's way nicer inside, better layout. No odd conservatory. It also isn't pebble dashed and doesn't have brown windows.

IMO a lot has been done to your house that has likely reduced its value/saleability.

Garden is being worked on this weekend and shed it being repainted. Grass reseeded and bunny moved out for a few days.

Conservatory is back to brick and we've ordered a rug, blue sofa going in there too with all the toys.

Front bay window room is now dining room

Debating reposting as a 2-bed

Could you maybe move the furniture around slightly and move the dining table from the conservatory into the room with the stairs to make it into a dining/ family room. Maybe put the sofa in the conservatory and get a rug to warm it up a little bit. Definitely agree with other posters with getting the photos redone on a brighter day and adding some bits to the front to brighten it up a little. House looks lovely though and I hope you sell it soon!

Sorry I think I cross posted. Fingers crossed you sell soon!

How do you go through the house on the virtual tour? I can only get one room to show. I can look around it, but can't get the camera to move anywhere else.

I'd have put the table in the family room with a seating area also & had the front as a sitting room.

It may be more honest to market it as a two bed with a storage room currently used as a third bedroom?

Pebble dash is a huge turn off to buyers. Can you at least paint it, to make it less eye watering? A white or grey would look ok.

Other cheap things to do would be to get rid of the office style cheap blinds, and the curtains in the front room. Replace curtains with something with one colour. Also put a photo of the third bedroom up so people don't assume it's terribly poky.

I think it looks nice. Do people really discount properties based on the coffee table or wallpaper?

The only thing I can say is change is maybe put a rug down in the conservatory, the flooring makes it look a bit like a shed with chairs.

Good plan OP.
This is how the agents described it when you bought it if that helps with the 2 bed issue.
Definitely worth asking the agents to add the measurements to the floor plan so it's crystal clear too, it'll take them minutes to do but will help.

I'd probably be asking to renegotiate their fee based on all of the above though, or at least ask for a free premium listing, they should have advised you on all of this from the start and now you've lost valuable time.

Hmmm
Hanging baskets in the courtyard
Potted plants in the garden
A big rug for the conservatory
A coffee set, set out ready to serve on the coffee table
Baked some part baked baguettes so the smell wafts through the house
Hanging baskets out the front

They sound like good moves.

A PP posted an excellent point about increments of £10k so marketing it at £160k might be a better option as you’re pricing people out of it and if someone has £170k they’ll likely look for three real bedrooms.

It may be more honest to market it as a two bed with a storage room currently used as a third bedroom?

You cannot be serious.

People have been quite harsh, StylishMummy so well done for taking it on the chin! I like your kitchen and I think your bathroom is lovely.

I think it would be much better to market the house as 2 bedrooms with a useful dressing room/study which would be a great selling point rather than as a 3 bedroom.

A bit of TLC with the decor, but overall really like this house. I would buy (we're hoping to in a few yrs), good price too. I would prefer a bigger kitchen though, I think if I bought it I'd knock into the utility (though I know many people prefer a kitchen and utility room).

As a 2 bed (or 2.5 bed) with additional study space + with a dining space, i'd have been interested in it when we moved to a 3 bed - as we didn't really need 3 beds and converted one into the study, but wanted a dedicated place to eat as our previous 2 bed didn't have enough floor space to have a table up, the eat space was a breakfast bar at the end of a galley kitchen. Most 2 beds don't have the space for a dining room and that is a really important space for me and many others.

However, if I was actually looking for 3 beds then I'd have been disappointed when I saw the '3rd bedroom' on the plan. As a study space or a nursery it's fine, but if I had 2 children over the age of 6, say, who I knew would not want to share in the near future, I'd rule your place out. It's fine for a baby or toddler but that's about it.

I'd probably also drop the price to below £160k. You bought for £125k and I can't see why it's magically gone up £40k in value over the past 6 years when the kitchen and bathroom (the two most expensive rooms to fit out) haven't been changed. I also looked at 'last sold price' for properties and compared photos if available (and this was getting on for 10 years ago, so I imagine that buyers are even savvier about what can be found online now).

Superficially you can add some pot plants or something, or a hanging basket out front, and definitely give a coat of paint to the peeling storage shed. if the price is right people won't care about the pebble-dash - you live inside your home, you don't spend the whole day gazing at the facade!

It's a very nice starter/small family home and that's how I'd market it/who i'd expect to be interested. But I think this will require a rethink of tactics and a price reduction. When you show people round you can say 'we have nearly the same floor space as next door, which went for £170k' so it feels like an even better bargain (at the moment it compares poorly to your neighbours' house in presentation, layout and cost - theirs is more than £8k nicer).