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

Clearly from the before pics, it was unfurnished and you didn’t want to have to pay to buy or hire furniture to stage it properly. But then you should have left it completely bare, not left one random cheap chair in the living room. And if you’re showing off the new bedroom, the sheets should look immaculate. I’d want to see how sofas could fit, and where.

When buying to sell, surely you want to make everything up to date and neutral, so the viewers can see the potential, but you’ve gone with marmite choices like green kitchen cupboards and black bathroom. Better to have left them ultra modern so buyers aren’t just adding up the cost of fixing them.

Main problem obviously weeds, too many photos trying to show off new bathrooms, none of the utility or garden which should be selling points. Paint over all the grey, it’s 15 years out of date. If you really wanted modern or insta worthy you could have done panelling. Kitchen cupboard handles need updating.

But day 1 should have been deciding on who you are targeting, and then decorating consistently based on that.

Sorry to say, for me you’ve devalued it, the mature shrubbery in the front was lovely. I hope the previous owners don’t see it now, I’d be so upset.

The only picture of the garden is through a window and I can see weeds and a broken fence.

The kitchen is clearly the old one and has the same tiles and the bathroom which screams cheap flip rather than 100k+ of renovation

IMO the problem with renos like this is that often they are not to the buyers taste and they don’t want to rip out new stuff so they pass, and they are also going to wonder if it bodged or if they are going to have to rewire and replaster again because it was only a superficial reno.

The problem is OP, it has no curb appeal, the outside looks neglected and the interior is clearly modern and fresh but also totally characterless -your target market would probably have been my father in law - but we looked at one with him in a pretty village here in Somerset and had this kind of overhaul and he hated it - he actually preferred the ‘slightly dated’ but well kept bungalow he bought around that price range, and that he could still ‘do a few bits with’ - with a lovely big L shaped frontage, swing round drive, small but nicely done garden - and I think it’s out the price range of most buy to let landlords

The more I've looked, the worse it has got tbh. The style of house wouldn't appeal to me, unless I wanted to live in a specific area and that was all that was available in that area. It's a marmite kind of house to start with and any renovation needs to be either to live in, so personalised and more homely, or with the intended market in mind and broader appeal.

Please do come back and let us know what you and your husband decide to do @Houseadvice26. Any house will sell if priced right. Whether you can afford to take it off the market, make improvements and re-market it or reduce the price further so it sells, only you will know.

Would you be happy for your neighbour’s house to be turned into an HMO?

The pictures do it no favours, character has been stripped out and replaced with tarmac and dated grey. No picture of the back garden or utility, kitchen isn’t shown fully and the weird angles on the pictures suggest small rooms (they look much larger in the old listing). If the EA selling the property is the same EA who gave you terrible advice on “improvements” then look for another.

There was some kerb appeal in the old pictures, even though it plainly was ready for redecorating. Now it looks neglected, weedy, a weird dollop of tarmac in a block paved frontage All the black/gray with that stone looks like an industrial unit not a potential home.

The modern kitchen/breakfast room is neither of those things - its plain that the old units have just been given a coat of paint and some removed to put in a giant fridge. Its not a breakfast room - with three doors and the rest cupboards there is there is nowhere to sit and eat. Is that flooring LVT? if not make it clear in the listing because it looks like it. The grey makes it feel cold and dated and where there was some character it is now lacking.

Its also bungalow but has no accessible bathroom - that will remove a sizeable part of your audience.

i would also be put off by the appearance of a cheap renovation - everything looks very budget, especially the old kitchen with a coat of paint and cheap tarmac filler instead of matching or patterned block work at the front. Is this a DiY job using spare components from other jobs for the newer areas?

Stunning? Stunningly bad.

Its also bungalow but has no accessible bathroom - that will remove a sizeable part of your audience.

There’s a bathroom on the ground floor. It couldn’t be more accessible.

One other point OP which your EA should have told you. Buyers can and do look at old listings and prices. Any buyer looking at the old listing and the new is not going to see that increased price reflected in the quality of renovation, especially in the current climate.

Its not an accessible bathroom - it has a bath but no walk in shower and the door doesn’t seem to have been widened to accessible standards. If a wheelchair user or simply someone with poor mobility moved there they would need to refit that bathroom.

Yes the accessibility is good with the interiors. However, it's a niche market and most needing accessibility will buy to renovate to suit needs if they're wealthy enough.

Yes, as someone in a wheelchair/using a walker, I agree with this.

What an ugly, grey and boring house. And you want nearly 500k for it? Wow.

Well I guess OP got her answers as to why it isn't selling!

I think it's a terrible idea to listen to EA about the garden - IME most people want a garden, or at least an attractive outdoor space. To rip out a garden, cover with black tarpaulin for the buyer "to put down astroturf or gravel" is not a good selling strategy. Few buyers will want to do that.

Also the semi-circle patch of tarmac outside - OP was told the flower bed was putting buyers off. If that's genuinely the case, it should have been made into a whole bricked drive, matching the existing. Just pouring tarmac in there looks like a quick & lazy fix, and I imagine people will think the rest of the renovation has been done in the same way.

You definitely need some kerb appeal, OP. Some - any - sort of plant life.

I hope you have found this thread helpful op, even though you've had a grilling. I missed the garden picture with the tarp before. I think if you sort the kitchen to match the rest of the house and sort the outside space it will sell. Not everybody will like monochrome style but some people do and will buy if the kitchen matches the bathrooms.
People with 400k to spend won't want to have to renovate a kitchen or build a garden from scratch.
Hope it sells for a profit even if you'll have to spend more money first.

Has someone posted this already? Probably, as it's a long thread - but here is the google earth view of the garden pre 'reno'

The living room/diner looks dark and dingy, and not just because of all the dark grey paint.

You removed the hatch that went into the kitchen, the doorway into the hallway, made the main window a lot smaller, removed the thin window on the left of the fireplace and bricked it up, and I haven't seen if you removed the small window at the bottom of the stairs or not.

You've removed multiple sources of light ibto this room for some dubious reason, and then have put in the giant staircase and decorated in dark colours.

Compared with the photoa from the 2023 listing, it looks half the size now.

Your best bet would be to redecorate in white, and get some mirrors in there when staging.

There's no chance I'd want the wood burner either given it's risks to health, especially if it seems like you had likely DIY'd it.

I think you've made some really questionnable choices on a lot of aspects of this "reno", which others have covered more eloquently than I can.

In your shoes I would read the thread, reflect on the comments, and come to terms with the fact that I'll be losing money on this project and that perhaps this isn't where my/husband's natural talents lie.

Before the thread ends I just want to say how thoroughly I've enjoyed everyone's comments and opinions about this monstrosity. Maybe we should bookmark the listing to see how much it sells for eventually!!!

There are quite a few HMO up for sale in the area (not Blunsdon, a lot closer to town) that are 4 bed for around £250 and already fitted to go. Prices in the area haven’t moved for ages and some of the above have been on the market for over a year. The front and back although now low maintenance look awful and the interior seems to have had had the wrong things concentrated on for a quick flip. The stairs etc were a feature before and in keeping with the age and style of the property (and I loved the bathroom) it’s all greige now and like something out of a Next shop. The front is now completely out of keeping with the rest of the street. I know someone who lives close by and they call it the wtf chalet.

It's not a monstrosity. Don't be daft. @BoxingHare

Especially nowadays. Greenery is so important, so calming and restorative 🌱

Nice, but sterile. Empty I assume?

Plus, the tones make me feel like I've lost all sense of colour. It looks COLD

I'm sorry OP but this is one of the worst listings I've seen on here posted by people wanting feedback on why their house isn't selling.
You've ruined it compared to what it was like before yet want a lot more money than you paid for it.
The front is a disaster as is the garden with the falling down fence. The photos and staging are very poor. There's very little living space for a 4-bed house. The kitchen is shown as kitchen-breakfasting on the floor plan but there's no sign of a breakfast bar or a table and chairs in the photos. The main living area is tiny. I couldn't even imagine where furniture would fit. Similar for the bedrooms, they need to have beds and wardrobes in them so people can see how the rooms could be used.
The bathrooms really aren't to my taste. I can't stand black fittings. That's my personal taste of course but I think it would put a lot of people off. I couldn't live with bathrooms looking like that so I would have to redo them and then I wouldn't be prepared to pay the price you are asking for the house because of the cost of the bathrooms. I really don't like the kitchen either. It looks a mess.

OP we've been harsh and I am not surprised you haven't commented further. I think it was the reference to Insta that triggered a lot of the comments. If you said "I just don't have a clue about these things" people would have been more forgiving, but it was the suggestion that you are some sort of design influencer/creator that left most of us a bit gobsmacked.

I hope that in amongst it all you and your DH have found some useful ideas and suggestions and that some of the AI images have shown how you can improve kerb appeal without blowing a fortune. You mentioned upthread that you are thick-skinned - good for you - it would be brilliant if you came back and showed us new photos and a 'sold' board. I think we'd all be cheering for you. Honestly.

I'm fascinated with the interior shots. Why would you have one black window in the living room?

Also with no furniture it's hard to see how the main room would work as a lounge/diner, especially with the stairs being where they are.