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

having had a quick look at insta (I don't usually go there) I am quite surprised that the OP's driver was for the house to be "insta ready" because its nowhere near what I have seen on the "dream houses" type posts.

We have one near us where the bloke decided to do similar with a beautiful Edwardian stone house. It's now known as The Battleship, and has one of those awful fridge type doors with the long chrome handle. Awful.

no shit Sherlock? My point was that all gravelled gardens are not terrible....but yes a bit off topic.

sure, but there is no garden, they ripped it out, it’s just tarpaulin and weeds, no one is saying a buyer can’t create a garden, be it gravel or whatever, but the buyer needs to now do that, as there is nothing, and no one wants to sit by their tarpaulin

see my previous post

The good news @Houseadvice26 is that we are on page 39 now and MN threads only go up to 40.

Yes, that's very definitely off putting.

I’ve taken another look and am baffled at the decision to block some of the living room windows and half the large picture window. Perhaps it was done with the aim to reduce the occupants having to look at the devastated garden.

No shit Sherlock! I know some Mediterranean style gardens with no grass can look good!
This does not. It's not even a garden.
Sherlock 🙄

No doubt someone will claim that it's some beautiful contemporary style or somesuch😂!
It just reduces the light and makes the place look dark and unwelcoming.

Just because someone is an EA doesn't mean their advice is good advice. Sounds like OP has watched too many homes under the hammer and decided to give it a go. At the end of the day its a dormer bungalow. And the people that tend to buy dormers are not those that spend much time on insta. You've missed the target mark by an absoloute mile.

And bear in mind that landlords are selling up in droves. Its not the cash cow it used to be so dont bank on being able to sell it as a rental either.

Edited to add sack the EA cos the photos are awful and the pin on the map for the property isnt even on the right road

Most of the interior is stunning. The first impression ie front could be improved; get some tall plants to soften the side. It looks really messy; are they weeds?
The green units are a curve ball, the kitchen looks a little strange. As others have said can you style the kitchen and get new pics of it? And of the front.

I’m also surprised at the window decision, I think it’s what’s made it look smaller.

@PuggyPuggyPuggy Our flat is from the 1930s. One of the major selling point for us is there is a huge floor to ceiling, structural, built in cupboard between the two bedrooms with louver doors (it has a dividing wall so each bedroom gets a separate cupboard). When we were viewing it the estate agent opened the door and said - brightly - look at this, you could knock it through and add a toilet.

That said the same agent suggested it would be easy to remove the "strange old fashioned bricks" (original 1930s oak parquet set in a herringbone pattern) from the living room and install lovely new laminate so .....

@MNHQ I know this thread is really cruel, but I honestly think it should be in Classics, because if it puts some other plonker off from destroying a perfectly nice house (and garden - that's the shocker! 😱😭) it's worth keeping.

So you bought up a home that someone could have bought and lived in and slowly renovated themselves in order to try and make yourselves some profit, and in doing so you’ve ruined it and you’re not going to make a penny… I hope you’ve learned your lesson.

Oh hang on, it is perfectly acceptable to buy a house reneovate and sell on.

well I was stunned by it but not in a good way.

Yes it's perfectly acceptable to renovate and sell on for profit. The interiors are good. It's the kerb appeal that's sadly lacking. Sometimes you don't get the expected return. That's the risk. Move on and chalk it up to experience.

I live laugh hate it.

The front has no kerb appeal, I also think the kitchen is unappealing and doesn’t fit with the rest of the house. What is the garden like? I’d ask for the garden to be photographed, outdoor space is a big thing now.

Dormer bungalows are ugly to start with. The dormer extension looks like it was done on a budget.

It looks really nice but you need to

• tidy up the garden and driveway, add some potted plants
• put some staging furniture in the house - people lack imagination and you need to suggest how each room can be used

The garden:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5491095-house-not-selling-with-listing?reply=150553949&utm_campaign=reply&utm_medium=share

There was a thread on here a couple of days ago title something like 'what would you never accept in a house'. There were lots of posts with 'stairs going up from the living room' and 'only being able to access the living room through the kitchen'. These are structural things that would put people right off.