Any suggestions on why house isn’t selling (with listing)

[Sheepcountryside78]

Posting for traffic. Reduced a couple of times previously - would welcome any opinions, brutal or otherwise!

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/161097428#/?channel=RES_BUY

Would be the garden for me.

I agree re the lack of kerb appeal and the squished rooms. You need to “stage” it a bit more for the photos.

Also, as others have said that statement about not wasting an inch leapt out at me as off putting. Who on earth thought that was a good idea? Get that taken out.

Also, did the estate agent actually sit in the cot to take the photo of the nursery, another thing I’ve noticed is that the toilet seat doesn’t fit, you also need to remove hats from
curtain poles.

The front of house photo - can that be retaken to be straight on and you can just see your house? It looks like one big detached house that oddly doesn’t have the garage at the side.

are other things shifting in your area? Near us, the market for flats and small houses has slowed right down, loads on the market for a long time. This has had a knock on effect on those wanting to sell next step up houses.

if other houses in your area are selling quickly, you might need to look at the price again.

Is it priced to sell as a 3 bed? It looks tiny.

I also wouldn’t buy next door to someone who leaves their garage door like that. It looks scruffy. I like my own house and the entire street to have kerb appeal

You could tweak it quite easily, I reckon. I’d repaint the blue living room wall in photo 5 to something more neutral as it really dominated and I’d tone down the green created by the tiling in the bathroom, even just by taking away the green towel etc in 8 and replacing with cream. Those photos draw attention to a non-neutral scheme that might not appeal to everyone. Remove the black swivel chair - the room looks cramped with it. Buy some bright potted plants to jazz up the exterior photo.

Create a driveway divider using narrow rectangular planters. Example link

Then make the front photo the front of the house.

It's a top heavy house and not really a 4 bed, because of the tiny Harry Potter-esque bedroom under the stairs, the size of garden and the amount of downstairs space. I would call it a 3-bed with study, and price accordingly. And, yes the front looks rather gloomy and confusing as to what's going on with next door. As pp have said, define your space and brighten it up a bit.

The EA's description is cheesy and offputting and in the case of this sentence, not actually backed up by the pictures and dimensions:

"Laid out over three generous floors, this four-bed semi doesn’t waste a single inch. Big on space, smart on layout, and built for busy family life with room to breathe."

Does the en suite have a toilet as well or just a shower and hand basin?

Agree with the loo seat issue in the main bathroom.

Bed under the stairs is not a good look. Other bedroom with a clothes rail screams lack of storage space.

The lounge configuration doesn’t look right, looks like a waiting room rather than a family lounge. No downstairs loo. Price and lack of kerb appeal. Rear garden needs a tidy up too. The agency write up and photos are pretty poor as well. Any reason why this agency were chosen?

That's quite a price hike from the 2018 purchase price. Did you have the extension built?

Lastly, where’s the EPC info? Not just the rating.

For anyone with kids, the garden is not kid friendly at all. Wall, concrete steps, balls being kicked over easily.

Bathrooms are dated.

Blue door and general front of house is scruffy, so it would make me think of general lack of maintenance and what else might be wrong.

Bed under the stairs.

I think it's a very nice house, OP. Very well presented. As regards how it looks, the only 2 things that might a bit of a niggle are the rack of child clothes. It just says 'this room isn't big enough.' Could you take that out of the room and store those clothes somewhere less visible?

Just a side note - we sold our house a few years ago and because the kitchen was small we always had to keep a couple of waste bins on top of the counter. The estate agent advised us to move them as it just gave the 'too small' message. We also had a pile of coats usually hung up in front porch, so every time we had viewings we took the bins into the garage and put the coats in the car.

And, as others have said, the outside of the house need some colour and plants and brightening up.

Move the desk out of the room with the bed under the stairs, and move the bed.

Change the picture of the garden that just looks at the wall.

When we moved, I was always a bit suspicious of listings that didn’t have the external picture first. If they were at the top of/just over my budget, I’d probably be less likely to click on them.

The front of the house looks dreadful uninviting and cold.

living room also looks cold and dark

1. paint over blue feature wall or a nice light wall paper.
2. remove children’s toys
3. A nice rug going from under sofas and under coffee table.
4. main bedroom paint dark walls
5. clear everything from kitchen surfaces
6. ask ask for new pictures to be taken
7. power wash driveway and back garden wall
8. Childs room with leafy wallpaper needs painted over.
9. take single bed away and tidy up office
10. loose the dolphin blinds
11. take away black bath mat. A couple of
12. nice new towels in bathroom
13. the other bathrooms tiles are horrendous they need painted over white

1. so

It’s a nice house, I love the kitchen.

i wouldn’t view it because of the back garden. It’s not great for children or for entertaining. I like a garden all on one level as you can do more with it -a pond, trees and so on.

inside I think you could make the living room look less cluttered, see how you can rearrange it. I can’t see the function of some of the rooms, are they an office with a bed in there ? And is the cot room a bedroom or something else ? And are the children’s bedrooms on a different floor to the adults ?

I think there’s a few issues for a buyer to overcome, kerb appeal , also one of the bedrooms with the bed awkwardly squashed in. The garden is up decking steps, which could be slippery and the view from the house to the garden is on to a wall and doesn’t look particularly inviting. I would also remove the picture showing the back of the house as it makes the house look out of proportion.
It is really nicely decorated though, Im sure it will work for someone at the right price.

Please excuse the brutal read but you did ask!

My immediate thoughts are it's outdated, especially the kitchen tiles, too much blue (looks cold), not great use of space, 2 upstairs rooms looks really small, the garden is small and messy.

If I were you I'd be painting the kitchen tiles, changing the kitchen door (the glass one), putting more colour into the house (soft furnishings and rugs) and putting more pots etc out on the front and rear garden. The garage door needs painting, as well as the front fence, if yours.

It's just a bit meh, really. It doesn't look homely.

Inside is nice, outside is naff. I’d change the front / photo of the front with garage. Especially as the front door is at thd side. Needs to look useable not neglected. Definitely needs smartening up.

Back garden looks unloved although has potential. Get rid of dead things in scruffy pots . Needs grass cutting and an abundance of thriving plants and flowers. Will also disguise it’s not the biggest. A beautiful garden is an asset and you aren’t making the most of this one.

The bed under the stairs is a terrible photo. Is there no other angle or direction thd bed could go. I’m sure it’s workable to live in but it’s massively off putting.

That’s quite cheap for a 4 bed in the south - what’s the area like?

You either need the outside picture retaken from another angle to actually show your front door, or you need to define the line between the properties.

The furniture in the room with the navy blue wall makes it look very narrow.

Some of the upstairs rooms don’t look like rooms?

We wouldn’t buy it because of the steps/sloping garden (elderly dog) and the loft conversion (they’re always too hot, and where do you put all your junk??) but someone will if you get the price right.

I know you say you've reduced already, but is £315k really the right price for a semi in Swindon?

It looks like a 3 bed with a study to me l, rather than 4 bed and needs to be procedure as such.

I agree some things could be done to improve the kerb appeal, but I think most buyers.woumd be able to see that too.

Agree with the others. Also, the living room and main bedroom looks dark. And the doll/cuddly with the crazy hair freaked me out, on first glance I thought it was a small child…maybe that’s only me though.

Looks like 1 large bedroom and 3 box rooms

agree with front door needs sprucing

All of this and get a new agent who can take decent photos and knows what they’re doing. A decent photo of the front door with an autumn wreath maybe and some plants in pots. Better garden photos. Declutter the smaller bedrooms, move the clothes rail for example. Take it off for a few weeks while you sort it all out. Then put it back on with a better agent. Look at the photos for the houses they have on their books to make sure they’re decent.

Also, where's the rest of the description? There's no typed details about the rooms. Get a better agent. The write up is as awful as the photos.

And I agree with pp that it's a 3 bed plus study.

Get rid of the navy wall a feature walls with wallpaper and paint the. The same colour as the rest of the room!

The front has no kerb appeal and the planters in the rear garden need refreshing.