House not selling (with listing)

[Houseadvice26]

Posted here for traffic. Thoughts welcome please!

Purchased for £360k in 2023
Heavily renovated
Reduced gradually from £495k last year
Now on with a new EA for £400k

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/165327158#/?channel=RES_BUY

@Houseadvice26 genuine question. If this is your house.

When you set out to do this renovation what was your aim?
What market did you have in mind for the finished house?

I think there’s a bit of confusion in the thread about who the house is for and that may also apply to the house itself. Is it a family home? A rental? A first time buy? Is it being flipped? The grey carpets and decor would suggest that, though the choices are not screaming cheap, which is great. There’s no photo of the back garden though it says it’s a large plot, but you can see a collapsed fence from the double doors. If it’s been renovated, not much has been done to improve the epc by the looks of it. That would be one of the main things I’d look for in a renovated property.

The kitchen, it needed a new one not just painting. The garden, the outside, the grey inside. The lack of furniture and the bedding isn’t even straight.

Heavily renovated you say? I honestly thought this was the before listing! It looks unloved.

The outside looks extremely unappealing, the inside looks cold and unwelcoming, doesn't look like a inviting home, the broken fence through the double doors would immediately put me off, having to renovate the garden again would put me offi massively. It all just seems cold and clinical

But do you think anybody looking to buy on a 1970's estate in Broad Blundson is looking for something Insta worthy? I think you have really misread the market.

The dreary facade and weedy garden certainly isn't insta ready and I doubt I would have looked past the first picture.

Yes, the bathroom looks fabulous compared to the aqua suite it had when you purchased it, but the kitchen looked better than it does now. Did you paint the units green?

That house need new bathrooms and a sympathetic make-over then you would have easily flipped it with a profit.

I had trouble envisaging a cosy living room area, which immediately put me off.

The kitchen is photographed badly. I thought it was tiny but there's another side which I missed on a first look.

It's really hard to get a handle on the space through the photographs.

It's DK grey carpet ....

Honestly? It looks a bi outdated already. You seem to have fitted it out with the style at the time but interior design trends have since moved on from grey carpets, black fittings and subway tiles. Even in 2023 that style was on the way out.

Ripping out that beautiful garden is a tragedy!

It's easy to see why the house is not selling - it is so stark and grey. And it seems the garden has been ruined. If this is what your estate agent told you to do you should find another agent - and don't take too much notice of their "advice."
I guess the house will sell eventually but will have to be at a realistic price so people can put back some "homeliness" / reinstate the garden / get rid of the black paint etc.

It would look 10x better if you

put some big pictures up e.g. over the hallway radiator,
put in a climbing rose in the front garden,
added a wicker laundry basket in the bathroom with some rolled up or artfully draped fluffy hotel white towels,
moved the desk out,
put up big, chandelier style glass lampshades.

in the garden, replace and paint the fence and shed to match the grey and add those thin horizontal panels on top.

Next time focus on less lines. The bathroom has too many lines and the tiles would be better offset.

Just as others have said really, being brutally honest, the front looks awful, it needs a real tidy up, weeding, paint….its not a great first photo. The kitchen looks old, just looks like you’ve painted over cheap old doors and the grey everywhere is making it look dated and dark. The house needs proper staging with proper furnishings to give it life, warmth and texture. Good luck 🤞

If you search within half a mile of your postcode there are lots of houses for the same price or less which are appealing and yours will not compare when buyers are looking.
If it were me I would take it off the market, throw a couple of grand on paint, fencing, some pots of flowers and perhaps beg or borrow some furniture to make it look homely.
It just looks unloved, uncared for and neglected.

There isnt one photo at all that makes the room look appealing. Even the rooms which look used are untidy. Sorry OP.

Pull up the weeds for a start, that will make it look nicer. A few pot plants etc. Inside looks quite cold and uninviting - a lot of grey, and I’m not keen on the dark grey carpets to be honest. You need to do things to make it look a bit more inviting about a pop of colour using cushions or throws. It doesn’t look very homely at the moment.

I think it looks great internally but agree it doesn't have kerb appeal.

The house is stunning inside, really lovely. Just need a nicer front part, bit of colour with plants?

It's not too bad when you take the time to imagine how it could be, however, people searching for houses online, don't want to be doing that with each house in their criteria. You need to have photos that will draw potential buyers in and want to come and see the house in person.

You need to re-take your photos. Nothing flows. Nothing makes sense. The fireplace pic for example, was that taken through a mirror? Why was the photographer lying down to take pics? Have a look at other listings to get a feel and idea of what photos look good.

Before that though... get a house dresser in.

Make the beds nicely, tuck the duvets in around the sides. Add some decorative cushions.
Get rid of the clutter - the house looks surprisingly cluttered for an empty house.
Mirrors make spaces look bigger. Some plants, greenery, something on the walls to break up the grey (if you could go back to a neutral colour - I definitely would). Flowers in nice vases. Lamps turned on to give a bit of brightness and cosy feel. Folded/draped throws.
Fluffy towels (with a bit of colour) nicely folded and draped on the towel rails, Some nice bottles and candles. The bathrooms look very dark which would put me off. Can you regroute white?
Clear up the log storage - and the desk. Spaces need to be shown for what they're used for. Put the desk in a small room to create an office or get rid. Hire a sofa, buy a nice second hand but something needs to be in the living area.
Again, look for a dining table and chairs and dress it.
Where is the garden and the front of the house? What does the house look like from the garden?

You need to spend a bit of money to get it sellable. What you have isn't enough and it isn't showing the house to its full potential.

Why haven't you replaced the kitchen @Houseadvice26? If you're going to renovate a dated house to a high standard, the kitchen needs to match the style/quality of the rest of the reno. Whereas here it looks like the old kitchen has just been painted/stained.

Not only that, but compared to the large living space, the kitchen seems small for today's requirements. This makes me think you've renovated on the cheap by not taking walls down to improve the layout/flow.

Otherwise, the inside isn't too bad - if rather grey/bleak, particularly those hideous carpets - but would benefit from staging as it's currently quite hard to establish the purpose of some rooms. It needs to look more cosy/inviting imo.

Externally it's awful! The front needs weeding and prettying up, whilst the back garden was obviously established when you purchased, yet you've ripped everything up and ruined what was there, devaluing the property in the process.

The photos are pretty poor and make to whole place look a lot smaller than it is - I was surprised to see the overall size on the floor plan as it's actually larger than it appears.

Currently, for something supposedly renovated, it looks rather unfinished...not to mention unloved!

I think it’s nice but because it’s non-traditional it’s probably the kind of house people will buy for a specific reason, eg, multi generational living, as you have downstairs bedrooms. Though I guess they can be changed to living space. I think the outside is a little austere and some well cared for potted shrubs would help with that.

Honestly? You've definitely not added any value to that house, personally for me you have devalued it by taking out the garden and it looks very ugly from the front.

So for me that already takes the price down because I'd want to take everything out and add grass etc. It looks like you only repainted the kitchen and I'd want to take out the whole kitchen and put a new one in so that takes the price down (for me) again.

It seems quite expensive for Swindon but I've not lived in the area for 15 years so I may be out of touch with that but there's no way I'd pay that price because I'd want to do the garden, front and new kitchen.

It is really tricky to visualise how the downstairs would work without proper furniture set out. Did you remove the kitchen cabinets along one side to allow it to be described as a “breakfast room”? It might have been better to knock the wall through and create “flow”.

It looks awful OP, especially the kitchen. Kitchens sell houses and it looks so cheap and just squeezed into the corner. And I absolutely would not pay £100k more for what was a perfectly nice house just three years ago - the time for that sort of markup is over. I think you’ve misread the market. The people who care about being Instagram-worthy are unlikely to be able to afford a £400k bungalow.

Genuinely the worst ‘renovation’ I have ever seen.