To think that it’s odd no one has come to look?

[Onwayto50]

I wasn’t sure how to title this - but we put our house on the market 3 weeks ago and have had utter tumbleweed. I’m including a link - am I missing something? I think it’s priced right for the market and I think the photos are lovely but maybe I’m too close to it?? AIBU to think we should have had a least a little interest? Or am I missing something glaring??

It's a well presented house overall but there are a few things that are perhaps deterring viewings.

While it's a large house in terms of square footage, it has a narrow footprint. The photos/video seem to highlight the narrowness. You really need some better photos.

It spans four floors including the basement and the loft. It might deter people with small children as well as elderly couples. So your potential market is smaller.

The kitchen might be in a good condition but the layout is not very functional and despite having a large footprint it gives the impression that there is not much storage. Ideally, a galley kitchen type layout with a peninsula at one end would be better than a long island as it would provide more storage and functionality (e.g. the fridge freezer closer to the cooking area). I would also expect a separate utility in a house of this size. I understand you will not install a new kitchen now, but people who are viewing the listing online are calculating the cost of one.

So really what you have under your control is the price. I know you said it's priced well given the area, square footage, and condition etc. but when you have not had any viewings at all then you have to revisit the price. A property's worth is not measured by how much you want, or even what your estate agents think you'll get- it's ultimately how much a buyer is willing to pay. And the buyers are telling you that you need to lower the price.

I hope you sell the house soon.

The only sensible thing to do is drop the price to reflect roughly what it would cost to refit it.

According to the description the kitchen is 3.17m wide from curiosity I've just measured mine and it is 3.20m wide. I have standard size units on both sides. The 'end' has two standard width single doors (i.e. a double width base unit on each side with single door access) an integrated dishwasher and a 30cm wide narrow cupboard. so a traditional layout wouldn't be a cramped galley with very little space between the units but the current strange layout definitely gives that impression.

That wouldn’t work. Anyone offering on it will want the cost of refitting off the asking price. They won’t accept that the asking price takes that into account.

Okay, if you could get 6 to 8 cabinets up on the wall that’d solve it for me and I’d be happy as a buyer to do that potentially

really? yet you are the one who has decided to single me out to talk to ..... and what a valuable contribution you make

Yet you return.

I had no idea that there was a MN rule requiring threads to be a back and forth between the poster and the OP.
Talking amongst ourselves!
It's almost as if this were a chat forum

I know Grantham well as I have family near by. This seems incredibly expensive for the area, especially as it’s a terrace, The kitchen and dining area look nice but the bedrooms and downstairs loo/bathroom look quite plain & dated.

My flat in South London went on nearly 3 weeks ago and I just one viewing so far. I fear the price will have to drop but the estate agents say the last few weeks have been absolutely dire for all types of property. They blame the international situation. I’m less sure about that but I do know it’s incredibly quiet and very different to my previous experience. I don’t know your market but I’d ask your estate agents how the market in your area is doing before assuming it’s the house/pics/price

This. It's always the price. The photos do make it look slightly like a tunnel downstairs, and I would consider (weirdly) putting a few select bits of kitchen stuff out to make the kitchen look more like a family space. But honestly it's a lovely house and pretty enough for people to want to check it out if the price is right. No viewings of this lovely house over 3 weeks screams too pricy to me.

A bit off topic, but I heard a great piece of advice last week. A friend of a friend had a house in Streatham, S.London (I think it was an unfurnished second home) that had been on the market for ages with little interest. She hadn’t spent any money on it for a while and contacted another EA. They advised she paint the whole property white and put cheap, white IKEA curtains in each room. She did it all her herself without spending much, and ended up with three offers soon after.

Meant to add, that was earlier this year.

I know OP said she’s not coming back which is a shame. If she won’t take the price comments on board she’ll still not be sold in six months time.

i know Grantham well. This is on the same street for what 80k less? https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/159489149#/floorplan?activePlan=1&id=media16&channel=RES_BUY

yes the garden isn’t as nice but the kitchen is 20x better and it’s an end of terrace. Not a mid terrace. Even if they were the same price I’d take this one over the OPs. I certainly wouldn’t pay 80k more for what I perceive to be a worse house.

Ooh that is lovely! An extra bedroom too and even though the garden is smaller it looks much better maintained and lower maintenance long term too which I bet is appealing to a lot of young families

That isn't lovely.

@Onwayto50 Overly harsh comments from posters about the kitchen imo - I much prefer having the big island over a more galley style kitchen (although I admit I do appreciate a full height oven now that I’ve gotten older, but lots of people mustn’t care or else things like ranges wouldn’t be so popular!) It’s just a matter of taste and there will be others like us.

Personally from a visual/photo perspective the thing I might do differently in your kitchen is paint the walls a very light green down the sides and keep the darker mid green just to each end of the room as that helps make a room look less like a long rectangle. I also perhaps would have put more shelving down the whole length of the room rather than just half of it, as the side without the windows looks a bit plain. But tbh otherwise the kitchen looks fine to me 🤷‍♀️ and those changes would be easy to do.

You really need photos of the garage though! The first thing people often think about period terraces (apart from what period features does it have? - so highlight photos of any fireplaces etc if you have them) is where will I park? You need to make it very clear by photos that you have private parking as people often skim over the blurb when looking quickly.

Visually it’s a lovely looking house (especially the frontage with the tiles and the nicely done garden) and although not all the decor is exactly my cup of tea in terms of the bright colours/black (as I’m very much a pastels and wood tones type of woman), the big ticket items of your decor mostly seem fairly neutral so that can’t be the issue and the house also looks to have lovely, well proportioned rooms on the whole.

I can only think it’s might be a price problem as your nearest competitor on the same road is at far less, although without the bonus of the finished basement room, your nicer gardens and especially the garage/parking - but they do have the extra bedroom and are end terrace compared to mid terrace, so I’m not sure why your shared estate agents priced yours at a full £80 000 more. What did the agents tell you justified so much extra in their opinion, compared to say, only £40 000 more? (which at £350 000 would also take you into a new search bracket on Right Move too). I’d be concerned that anyone wanting an 4 story period house in your area isn’t going to look past the much cheaper one with the same agents. Really hope for you though that isn’t the case, good luck!

Hmmm. I don't think this house is nearly as attractive as the OP's, or really bigger (OP has the basement converted and the beds on the first floor are a much better size than this house). So I would not say it's nicer, but its existence would certainly make me think twice about buying something more expensive that is broadly overall the same space. Plus I see that this house has been recently reduced in price. So I still think it's price (sorry, OP, if you do come back).

In what way overly harsh? The OP asked for comments and MN delivered. A lot of people don't like the layout of the kitchen and have said this is why it has put people off.

For what it's worth, I don't dislike the kitchen per-se, but I wouldn't like my washing machine stuck next to an oven, I wouldn't like have to bend down to the floor to plug my kettle into an extention lead, and I would miss having wall units.

Added to which, in the video of the house (and as someone else already pointed out), there's an ironing board to one side of the fridge-freezer, and a vacuum cleaner to the other, both of which look like they've been dumped there as opposed to being stored neatly (albeit still on show) and both suggesting the house lacks storage. Why not at least move them for the time it took the photographer to make the video? It's almost as though the OP thinks the house is going to sell itself, and yes, if she's fortunate enough to find someone who has that amount of money, who wants to live on that street, and loves the layout, then it will. But from the photos and the video, it looks like living there will be physically exhausting.

In what world would it be a good idea for someone to ask for feedback and then not be told the truth?

Anyone who likes to cook wants a convenient layout in the kitchen

The triangle arrangement between the cooker, the fridge and the sink is a well known, tried and tested design principle.

This kitchen has a major design flaw that people are picking up on.

It's not 'overly harsh' to say this.

If you have to walk ALLLLL the way up and allll the way down to get various things, it's badly designed.

And most people acknowledged that it wasn't the design choice of the OP too. So I don't get why it's been taken so bloody personally.

But it could be as attractive with some decorating. Which is cheaper than replacing the kitchen which I’d consider a necessity in the OP’s house. Plus the draw of an end terrace over a mid terrace would outweigh the slightly smaller rooms.

Grantham as a town is a dump but there are grammar schools, surrounding countryside is nice and you can be in London via train in just over an hour.

The decor is really, really not the issue with this house. The moment the video started and went inside, I couldn't believe how far anyone would have to walk to gain access to the front room, only to have to walk back on one's self, through the dining area, to get to the sitting room. The first thing I would do if I bought the place would be to reinstate the original sitting room door to the hallway.

The other thing that worried me was the steps down to the garden, which appeared to have no handrail. I dread walking on decking at the best of time, having once gone A over T on a flight of decked steps, and I was much younger then - I'd never get back up with only a bruised ego like I did that time.

As others have said, the OP needs to really think about what did it for her when she bought the place, and then play to those features with a like minded buyer.

Maybe the OP is stressed, she likes her home , she's unsettled because she's had no viewings.
Some posters have expressed their views about the carpets( cheap, thin) the general feel of the house( student occupied) , the town ( a dump) and of course the kitchen in very brutal terms.
Of course she's taking it personally.

So she shouldn't have posted on AIBU.

No sympathy.