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

😆 And putting some turf down and some flowering bushes in. (And lots of pastel coloured accessories and cushions around the house etc....)

Oh that sweet, lovely garden before OP got her hands on it! Clearly someone who has no understanding whatsoever of her market. We’d have bitten the previous owners’ hands off because we’re looking to downsize but I wouldn’t even view it in its current state. What a shame it’s been rendered completely unsuitable for buyers who want accommodation that would allow them to live on one level. It’s a travesty of its former self.

Plus... it's really depressing.

It looks like you’ve tried unsuccessfully to copy some trendy houses off instagram, except you’ve done it to a bungalow in Swindon.

Old people buy bungalows, not trendy young things, and even then the things you’ve done already look dated and a bit naff.

I don’t know who would buy this house, it’s all a bit confusing.

Yes, we're the same. We'd love a bungalow to downsize to, they always get snapped up quickly because they're in demand.
Not this one, obviously, but in it's original state it would have suited our needs.

Someone buying a bungalow isn’t looking for an ‘insta-worthy’ house. I certainly wouldn’t be paying a premium for the work you have done as I would have to rectify quite a bit of it. Things such as tarmac in the semi circle in the front and all the weeds screams that it has been done on the cheap and therefore would expect ‘hidden surprises’

Lots of warm tones and textures would be gorgeous here

OK.

Things that you could do today to improve it:

1. Weed the front drive. A house that looks uncared for will not sell except for very cheaply, because the buyers will be expecting to open a can of worms.
2. Replace whatever is growing in that front bed with something that looks alive, preferably flowering to introduce some colour because it just looks like unkempt weeds.
3. Decide whether the house is empty, or occupied. The fact that it looks as if someone is camping out (beds but no chairs/tables) is actually very off-putting. Houses that are occupied are cared for by the occupants. Houses that are empty will suffer no damage to fixtures or fittings (save maybe leaks). Houses that are being camped out in are unloved and uncared for, so things get damaged.
4. Photos are poor, contact EA for them to fix. The wide-angle lens they are using in the downstairs bedrooms makes the rooms look a weird shape (focus on the skirting boards to see what I mean). The kitchen needs more than one photo. The utility and back garden should be photographed, as should the front door and garage interior. Having them in a decent order helps too (frontage, front door, hall, downstairs rooms, upstairs rooms, outside).

Things that will take time, effort and/or money.

1. Implement your decision as to whether the house is occupied, or not. If unoccupied, empty it of everything except fixtures and fittings. If occupied you need to 'dress' the house with furniture which will show off the house to it's best.
2. Tarmac'ing the front was a mistake. Dig it out and put some plants in. What you've done is change an in-out-drive to a parking free-for-all, and it looks terrible.
3. The fence to the back garden (as seen from inside the living room) is broken in places and falling over in others. You need to fix it because as already pointed out, a house that looks uncared for will not sell because nobody wants to buy a can of worms.
4. It appears the entire back garden is under black-painted planks. This looks awful, and is not what people look for in a garden. I would look at it and wonder what it was hiding - cement? Huge manhole covers? A sink hole? This alone is undoubtedly losing you potential buyers. You need to get those planks lifted and actually put a garden in. This will not be cheap.

Can I just ask - who did you think your alterations, particularly outside, would appeal to? Who did you envisage as your target market for a four-bedroom detached?

You got rid of those lovely plants and the lawn 😭😭😭 That’s criminal.

I’d add a pop of colour here and there, eg the fireplace and panelling behind the bed. It lacks warmth to me.

It is isn't it? I can't believe GREY decor was ever a thing. I know some people (about 6 different couples/families, average age of the adults 30-42,) who have just about everything grey in their house. Kitchen (units and doors and flooring,) bathroom (tiles, and bathroom floor, and the window blinds,) laminate in lounge, dining room, and hallway, and the carpets in the bedrooms, and grey bedding. All grey grey grey... Also grey cushions, grey sofa and chairs, grey TV unit, grey units and wardrobes etc. Even grey curtains and grey blinds at the windows.

Utterly batshit. Grey grey grey and more grey and more and more grey. They think it looks lovely and shiny and modern, but it just looks so naff, bland, dated, and ugly. Most people grew of it about 3-4 years ago, but some people still have everything grey. And it's hideous! 😖

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It looked so cheap though.

Agree with most of the comments already made - mainly that you need a new estate agent. His advice is terrible and the photos are worse.

Why have you shrunk the window in the living room? The old photos make the room look lovely and light with a gorgeous view of the garden. The new window looks oddly proportioned and the room now looks really dark. Although I can see why you wouldn't want to have a view of the garden anymore...

the back garden has just had plastic membrane pinned down over the ground. Its just an uneven mess.

Christ. Another one. Please read this which I wrote last year on exactly why your house isn't selling -

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/property/5406571-why-isnt-my-house-selling-is-this-you

In short, it's likely one of these two, the 2nd being something that no seller wants to admit -

a) Your estate agent is bad at customer service, meaning they're not answering the phone often enough, not replying to emails, or they're rude.

b) Your house is too expensive for what the market is like.

In the last few years, this is often caused by buyers making mistakes and paying too much for their house in the first place, and then sometimes spending a fortune doing it up. They then make a further costly mistake of thinking that if if they spent 50k on it, they should naturally get that 50k and more back in the selling price, but it just doesn't work as simple as that.

I don't know anyone in real-life with grey decor. Where are all these people?

It needs some love! It is a lovely house and I would love to make it look more beautiful. Tidy the front up, definitely get rid of the weeds and place a few nice (big) pots around.
Inside you need to borrow or rent a few pieces of furniture and generally make it feel more welcoming inside. Good luck!

Hard disagree. The grey looks cheap - and naff!

They're not mutually exclusive. It's just an ugly house regardless.

The photos are so grey and depressing. Grey was done to death ten years ago. As a former Catholic it’s pretty close to what I always imagined purgatory would look like - apart from the weirdly cheery green kitchen (is it 1950s?). Any potential buyer will have to completely redecorate.

"...which agents say is the main preference these days."

When I look at houses for sale around me (they are generally of a similar age and price point to this one) nobody, absolutely nobody, is putting in "gravel/astro for ease"

As others have already, the EA's photos are particularly bad and it appears that their advice to you on this point is also particularly bad.

house looks nice but the from garden. reds tidied up , and the view from patio doors shows a wonky fence , you should fix these things up

In my street...Well, the younger folk, anyway. Most of the new front doors and windows here are grey.

Let’s remove the lovely flowerbed at the front of the house and fill it full of tarmac

The photos.

I don’t know the local market. But you have a good floor plan and as you say it is recently renovated. The pictures do not do it justice. I would not come to look unless it was a very good area.