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

To be honest I don’t think any amount of plants in pots is going to change the first photo from looking dire ! Is there really no way of photographing the front door aspect, or is that worse - I can see a kind of tall chimney thing that side ?!

A mad cat lady would have lots of cosy but shabby second hand furnishings and lots of plants and knicknacks that all have a story behind them. Even if that story is that they bought someone else's family album because they couldn't bear to see it going unloved in the charity shop.

This house is the opposite of cat lady.

The only reason a property doesn't sell is price. Even the most dilapidated/out of date/poorly located property will see if the price is right.

I think you are being over optimistic expecting such a large price increase in just 3 years. Property prices have stayed pretty stable for the last three years and cosmetic improvements, whilst costly don't add to the value of the house.

That being said, I agree it is poorly staged and the outside needs a good tidy up.

I would love for the op to come back and tell us what the story is and if it is their's what changes they are making to make it more appealing.

Maybe the op is the previous owner of the home and devastated by what has been done.

I agree. It doesn't scream any type of person to me. It just looks like it's someone young-ish (under 40,) and is only half done/half finished.

Blimey I’ve now just looked at the before photos, it actually does look more like a home there ! The angled shot showing the garage and the flowerbed is better than the cold office look. I honestly think grey should be banned. The inside isn’t to my taste but I wouldn’t bother looking past the first photo in all honesty.

I'm afraid it looks like it's been "developered" with that very generic greige look which now feels quite dated (Sorry). As a buyer I'd be thinking that a fair bit of work has obviously been done so I wouldn't want to spend the money on "improvements" that weren't to my taste and then pay again to make changes.

That said, I'm someone who'd rather by a wreck and then do it up how I want it. A lot of people just want ready-to-move-into and for those buyers I think you have to sell the lifestyle bit more. Which means staging it properly and showing how all the rooms could be used. And - as others have said - clear the weeds! It makes it look uncared for and would make me wonder what else hasn't been kept on top of

You have ruined a perfectly nice house that only needed an update in the kitchen and bathrooms I assume.

The house now is an eyesore in the cul de sac.
I expect the neighbours are livid.
It's totally out of character with the other houses.

You've ruined the softness of the landscaping at the front, the garage door is dire and doesn't coordinate with the pale brickwork.

It's such a shame because someone will want to spend a lot of money ripping up the astroturf, planting shrubs at the front, making a new garden.

When I saw all the tiling in the bathroom I just said ;My eyes, my eyes!' God knows what it would belike to live with all those brick tiles.

It's always price. As far as I can see, you've not added any real value - no extra bedrooms etc. So you've basically done it up a bit.

I've never heard of someone ripping up the garden to sell in case the new buyer wants gravel or astro. If you really think this - and I don't agree - then put the astro down. Nobody wants gravel. Leaving it bare just looks like you don't care and isn't a selling point - which presumably is why there are no photos.

House prices in Swindon have actually dropped sligthly since 2023 so I'm not sure why you think it merits such a huge increase. Have other similar houses in the street sold for that price?

What is it with all the monotone grey?

People are doing this here, getting hold of cherished bungalows and just being vandals, especially with the gardens.

I don't think a career in flipping is for you, OP.

True 'nuff 👍

Another thing. I think the old semi circle flowerbed was creating a visual barrier between the pavement and the drive and created a sense of privacy.
Now that has gone, it's brought the pavement towards the house and it looks much more open to people just wandering onto the property and much less private.

It is a shame. It was someone's beloved home and now it has been ,"renovated" with little sympathy or taste. Agree with pp re: the bathroom.

I think the biggest problem for OP is that people can access the before photos and see what has been done. I would worry it has been renovated on the cheap with no real care.

There's like, 6 scented candles on the mantlepiece and what looks like 2 diffusers.

It's to hide the smell of the rotting corpse.

If you updated it...why didn't you do the kitchen!??! Anyone who buys it is looking at £20K to update the kitchen and probably another £10K to fix the messed up drive way and back garden.

You and your DH were greedy here, OP, and I think it's come back to bite you! I wouldn't pay £360K for it now, but I would have before. You've absolutely ruined that house.

it looks like shit. its been mainly covered with black weed membrane, looks like over a pre existing lawn as its all bumpy. large weeds all around the edge, you can see it in the pic with the patio doors and collapsed fence

I suggest you repaint the garage door cream or a pale shade that matches the brickwork and doesn't scream 'city' when this is a small cul de sac where all the houses are similar.

I'd also invest £500 in getting some mature shrubs at the front to take away the bareness of the current frontage.

What I can never understand - and it's a common theme- is that younger owners buy a house and want to impose what they consider 'the latest trend' which is totally out of character with the adjoining houses or the estate.

It just doesn't work.

You end up with an eyesore . There's an example near me where the new owners went 'all dark grey' and 'modern' in a cul de sac of 1960s red brick houses and it looks terrible.

I think they have actually reduced the value by what they have done.

The hall is big enough that the stairs could have been relocated from the living room to the other side of the first floor shower room. Now, in order to get upstairs you have to go via the kitchen, which is bonkers. The bonus of moving the stairs would have been a more spacious living room, which would work well with a separate kitchen diner.

Honestly, whoever planned this renovation has made so many mistakes I'm unsurprised it's not selling.

that doesn't help but honestly I think the OP's biggest problem is the bad choices that they have made and spent money on.

I agree with other posters that it really only needed upgraded flooring, kitchen and bathrooms and a lick of paint. Kitchen being the main one that should have been done to a decent standard. Front and back gardens were lovely before, I don’t mind grey but none of what you’ve done goes together well.

Is this where OP lives or was it bought as an investment to resell?

Assuming the latter.

It's been a very bad move. Or rather 'no move'!

Whether you have a mortgage on it or bought from cash you've lost money.

That money could have earned interest in the last 3 years.

Instead you have an empty house that is costing you- you'll be paying council tax and utilities - and you won't reclaim your investment.

My advice is your drop the price on the realistic expectation that any buyer will want to rip out a lot of what you have done.

I'd look at it and assume because of the corners cut elsewhere that the bathrooms have been bodged and will give endless trouble. The kitchen needs a total refit.

I agree with you. It needed gentle sympathetic refurbishment - a new kitchen, complete redecoration and new flooring throughout, a restoration job on the blue bathroom, all focusing on enhancing its now fashionable mid century charm while maintaining the mature garden. Such a shame, it had huge potential which has now been destroyed.

Appropriately 'Insta-worthy' would have been leaning into the house's heritage and creating a mid-century modern/Scandi home. I suppose there's also still an Insta-movement around grey, crushed velvet and 'Live Laugh Love' but you'd need to style the home to capture that.

But I'm not sure why 'Insta-worthy' was your goal. Profit should have been. The house doesn't have a clear story, or a clear audience - it's a dormer bungalow, I'd have been going for the older market. My folks are in their 70s and looking to move into a bungalow. They're not fans of 'millennial grey' and they're not choosing a home based on how it will look on the 'Gram - when you're doing a reno to make a quick buck, you need to be ruthless about who the market is, and make decisions accordingly. IMO you should have spent more money on the kitchen, less on the bathroom (those tiles are SO subjective!), and just decorated everywhere else. In any colour but fucking grey.

And left the garden well alone. You've just made a massive mess someone else has to fix out back, while making the front look actively unhomely and unkempt.