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

Think you have been ill advised by the estate agent.

I'm looking for a house with a decent garden i can make my own, when 1 comes up around here it sells straight away. Others seem to stick around longer. Maybe people hate concrete jungles or fake grass. I would not buy a house with a concrete slab. I bought my current house with gravel knowing I could (and did) easily get rid of it. A patio could at least look decent with no work needed in the short term. A concrete slab no chance. Could you patio over it since it is too late to undo the concrete?

But as it is done now, you still need a photo of the garden. Could get the fence fixed, as others have said sort the weeds from the front. Not enough photos, is the 2nd upstairs bedroom missing? The kitchen looks dated. Doors missing from the cupboards over the sink. Could just put new cupboard doors on cheap enough to get it all to the same standard.

Selling at a fully renovated price but the kitchen would still need doing, as well as a new fence (if you loved the concrete garden so ignoring that).
The old listing photos are missing from rightmove, so potential buyers can't see what work you have done. As far as they know you could have bought it like that, and now trying to sell under 3 years later at a higher price.

Love the bathrooms by the way

I have no idea what that is? But it doesn’t look very carpet like to me…

I think the major issue is the first photo which doesn't look like the kind of house I would choose to live in. It doesn't match the inside plus it looks really unkempt. The fact that you haven't finished this off, and have left the back garden in a frightful mess suggests you have run out of money or interest and I am wondering what other corners you have cut. The kitchen is the old one sprayed green but still looks dated. And the staging is poor - is somewhere lodging there with no furniture?

So you ruined it, and want to make a profit. Honestly I despair.
Don't give up the day job @Houseadvice26

Same here.

I'm used to posters asking why their houses aren't selling and there being bits and pieces that could help, as well as reducing the price a bit.

But this. This is in a league all of its own. No one deserves to make a penny out of what they've done to what was a dated but warm home.

Oh my god! The difference. That's actually a really useful comparison. It also shows the OP how to present a house well.

Doesn't seem to have changed enough since it was last sold to warrant the change in price, unless I'm missing something?

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/property-history/55-sutton-park/blunsdon/swindon/sn26-7ba/70334287/

I don't think that it is OP's property.

I wonder if it was three years ago…?

If I was you I’d paint it white and get it dressed like a family home, do a bit of weeding and pressure washing out the front, then have a new set of photos.

Like others, I’m not keen on all the grey - we found on our house in 2022 and saw quite a few houses with grey interiors then that were done up by builders. We didn’t even consider them; it made me question the quality of finish and I love colour so would rather have a white blank canvas if it’s not a full Reno project.

I also agree with others about being clear on your audience; the radiators look and log burner have a more traditional style but everything else screams modern. I think white would help with that too, grey is a v modern trend.

Good luck, I hope you get an offer soon!

You say you're thick skinned, so here goes:

No kerb appeal, weeds, collapsed rear fence and you say you've taken up the lawn so the new owner can choose gravel or astro turf - big mistake.

The inside has the look of a prison cell, sorry, but true, add some colour and furniture - not everybody likes grey/black and the minimalist look.

All I see out of almost every window are broken fences and weeds. Inside seems grey and cold. Doesn’t look good.

First photo has no curb appeal, as others have already said.

If you look at the pics of the lounge diner from the Zoopla listing, you can see that it looks nice and big, but the pictures you have made it hard for me to get a sense of whether you could get a big sofa in, where would the telly go etc. Some pictures at the angle of the Zoopla ones would show it off better.

The kitchen is described as generous, but the pictures don't look generous.

The garden is described as low maintenance, but my first thought was "I can't see the garden, the only view of the garden is a glimpse through the lounge French doors and what you can see looks dilapidated, but you have updated that in fact the garden is not a low maintenance but that you have pulled everything up.

The location of the GF bathroom is strange, I agree, but it was like that when you moved in.

Picture 9 of one of the GF bedrooms/office room looks distorted.

Picture 15 is really strange as it makes it look as if the upstairs shower room is directly opposite one of the bedrooms, but the bedroom and bathroom doors are at right angles on the floor plan, so I'm not sure if the EA is a contortionist!

I'd want to get an idea of storage in the upstairs bedrooms.

I love the inside apart from the kitchen and dark grey carpets. The lack of garden photo would instantly put me off/ make me suspicious.

I'd lean into the 1960s and present it as an updated post modernist house. There's lots of 60s house renovations on pintrest that you can refer to.

Paint it a warm white, tone down the tacky grey and introduce warm tones and greenery.

You're absolutely right. I'm wondering if the best plan would be to really slash the price and cut their losses.

I've just noticed that the first thing you see coming into the house from the porch is the toilet.

Have to chalk this one up to a learning experience.

It's the price - it's always the price. A house is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. Removing a few weeds will improve the photos but won't change that fundamental fact.

Agree with lots of prior feedback. I would add that it's not obvious the 'shower room' has a loo so at first I thought no upstairs loo and had to squint to see it. I would change the labelling.

Also, all properties have a ceiling price. Just because you spend a lot on renovations doesn't mean you can smash through that ceiling. Hopefully you will make a nice profit though if that was the aim.

I find it a bit sad tbh. No kerb appeal, you’ve put tarmac over a glorious flower bed. If I were going to buy a house this size, I’d want a garden, not more paving. artificial grass is an ecological death zone. Honestly , I think you were seriously poorly advised by your estate agent.

Inside, maybe hire some furniture and dress the house? It’s hard to see room function when it’s all bare. Too much grey.

I'll be honest and say they have actually devalued it, quite a lot.

I think you're absolutely right.

Is this a joke? Whhhhy would you do that.

You took up a lawn?!
Who on earth would cover their back garden with gravel! No one. No one would! This is insane. Why would you believe that?

Get some turf laid and get decent pictures: For me the first think I thought was where is the photo of the back garden… is the garden overgrown or something? It seemed odd there wasn’t one. So I was right but turns out even worse than that!

The photo of the outside is dreadful too.

When I first saw it, I didn’t think you had any garden at all. Having found it on Google maps put your garden back. It looks like you have put tarmac all over. Just why would you do that?

The pics really let you down. Hard to tell which room is which and the angles are definitely not the best.
Photos need to be redone. Also front of house (weeds) need a good tidy, in one pic you can see weeds through the glass doors. Makes it look messy outside.
Pics of the garden are also needed.

House looks lovely inside and ready to move into which is a positive.

Price wise I can’t really comment on as unsure of the area.

Hopefully a few tweaks and it will sell.

Is that really what you believe? Insta worthy? Definitely not, it’s soulless whereas it was charming before . No wonder it’s not sold. Where is the back garden?