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

look at the old listing, its the old kitchen painted I reckon. And s big dent in the front of the dishwasher.

Wow. You absolutely wrecked the kerb appeal...ouch!

I can see you've done renovation work, but let's be honest, it was simply cosmetic.

Personally, I would get rid of as much grey as you can, get the white paint out. Have you even spent £40k? I think it just looks like more work now, sorry.

Or maybe you meant “black canvas”, like the description of the garden

@BeanQuisinea serious house buyer would still investigate and not scroll past, but then they’d be put off by the half arsed “reno” work combined with the price and not bother.

Just coming back with a couple of things not mentioned so far OP

See images below
In the 60s it was normal to put lights near windows. It’s not anymore. We need lights in the centre or wall lights. Not a random light near a wall. Suggest in the rooms This occurs you move them as that’s obvious work and money for someone else to do if they buy.

The second is the oven
You can’t have an oven sticking out from the cupboards the way you have it. It’s an obvious mistake clearly shown in the photos.

Just some suggestions If you’re looking to do anything to push the sale

When people are looking for a house to live in, especially one which seems to be at high end of the price range for the area, then they want to feel attracted on an emotional level and reassured on a financial and practical level that it has been well maintained. A run down and weed infested front garden achieves neither of those goals, and suggests that the seller simply doesn’t care. It also tends to suggest that any “improvements” are largely cosmetic and likely botched, hiding or creating problems which could be both expensive and inconvenient to fix.

Oh my god, the garden! That's an absolute shocker!

It looks like an abandoned church.

It looks unloved, so why would someone else love it?

Looking at the other photos would confirm it.

No weeds out front and a few pots of flowers, then paint out the grey.

Did up my late dad's bungalow to sell. A few pictures and some stuff off marketplace made a big difference.

Love the flooring.

Oh.. it was so pretty.
It just needed maybe a nice matching light warm natural colour on the garage and wood panels. And the garden was pretty and homely.
Never trust estate agents. They arent designers and rarely have any gcses.

To be honest, it looks to me like it's been decorated soley to flip, which makes me weary of the quality and longevity of the work. The old laminate kitchen cabinets have just been painted over and I would worry they would start to peel. The original upvc windows on the front look like they've just been painted black and I would also expect them to peel soon. Personally, this decorative makeover is not worth anywhere near 135k to me, I would be weary as a buyer that you had chosen materials for a quick flip, rather than to withstand wear and tear, and that ultimately I'd have to pay to redo a lot of the work to meet my standards. I think you need to be realistic about price for the work done.

Astro turf? The estate agent is totally wrong that, it looks cheap and nasty and is bad for wildlife, I would avoid a house like the plague if it that god awful stuff was laid...

Open the blinds for a start. The property looks like a half arsed flip that was abandoned some time ago when you run out of money. I would shut the toilet door on the second pic as it looks weird that you can see two bathrooms.

It looks like the location for a gritty BBC crime drama about a male serial killer, who spends his day working from home, gaming and eating ready meals whilst plotting sat in his poang chair.

Honestly though, I'd only buy it if I had the money to make it nice again. So I'd buy something cheaper or nice in the first place. What you've done to the outside and the gardens is horrific. The inside not much better..

Omg I had sympathy until I saw the original house. You’ve ruined it. I cannot believe the criminality of what you’ve done to the garden. Your neighbours must think your batshit.

As lots of other posters have said, it's a very poorly done reno'. I looks cheap, he kerb appeal has gone, it's grey and depressing and it is generally impractical.

Did you buy it to flip, hoping to make some quick £££?

The other problem is that you were greedy with your pricing. Who is going to pay a 40% uplift in this area when prices haven't risen (probably fallen) and the ceiling price for the road is around what you paid? I would try to rectify the garden/exterior at least and then lower the price again.

Did you really rip off that lovely front climbing plant off the front of the house, and destroy the lovely curved garden bed and it had a circular driveway! People dream of circular driveways ( ok maybe only me) but what a travesty. And just to be certain are you actually trying to sell it with the back garden covered in black plastic? I don't understand that at all. Going against the grain, the kitchen green is lovely but I hate the bathroom with all the black and white geometric patterns and square black showerhead, good luck,

Except they've ripped up the lawn and covered it with black plastic sheeting...

It looks like the house that love forgot. The house of a very lonely person. The outside is unsightly - weeds, dirty bricks (which would also make me question if there were leaks somewhere to cause that stain) and no front door. The inside is not at all to my taste - what is renovated looks cheap, grey, and unfinished. What's going on in the kitchen with the half-finished look? Why is the bathroom so early in the photographs - that looks cheap too and seems to take up a lot of space.
I think you will struggle to get what you originally paid as I don't think your renovation has actually improved the house.

PP have pretty much covered everything...

But I will say the overall impression is of an unloved and uncared for house. If you as the owner don't care about it, why should a prospective buyer?

And as for ripping out the lawn - is the EA who recommended that the same one that did the terrible photos? Because they clearly don't have a clue about presenting and marketing a property. S/he is an idiot.
This is supposedly a family home (4 bedrooms) - the outside space is important. And it has been ruined, and leaves a huge and expensive job for the new owners to do before they can set foot in their back garden.

And honestly if your DH has been making all the renovation decisions then he's an idiot too. For ripping up the lawn, for leaving clutter in the house (a stack of pictures in one bedroom, clutter in the - horrendous- kitchen), for not weeding the drive and back garden, for accepting the awful photos - it just goes on and on.

Sorry OP but you really need to start again with this one...

I can't make the photos match the rooms.
The shower room appears larger in photos than the space allocated in the top floor diagram.
The front hall is missing an extra door. It appears to have two front doors on the diagram. I'm not really a green kitchen person but the house is neat and functional. Utility room?
Bathrooms are redone but quite cold in decor. Main bathroom I would prefer to have without loo and with a wider vanity bench top - just personal taste.
Furniture in the living room would add warmth and show that the space is livable.

The paint work is fine outside - dark grey - but the bricks appear in need of a scrub. The curb could do with some flowers and bushes, instead of the black semicircle, and some hanging flowers.
The side fence looks wonky through the back doors. I'd love to see the back garden.

Usually the price is why a sound house in a reasonable location, with a garage and back garden, will not sell.

Honest truth. The black on the front of the house along with the black windows and black garage door. If they were white it'll be so much more appealing. Also the radiator colours, and the strange half circle on the driveway should of been all bricked like the rest of the driveway. The kitchen looks a little outdated.

Your house isn't 'heavily renovated' as you said in your OP.

You can tell that the kitchen hasn't been renovated as there aren't any pan drawers! Just the drawers above the cupboards, which were standard in 1980s and earlier kitchens. I'd also be put off by the log store under the stairs - that should be in the garden or the utility, with a small basket of logs by the fire. I'm not keen either with access to upstairs coming from the living room, so that would put me off the house.

The other thing I noticed is that you've done nothing to improve the EPC rating of the house - that says to me that your extensive renovations are just superficial. Anyone buying the house to rent it out (as you suggested earlier) are going to have to get that higher.