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

The photos are terrible. I thought the kitchen was the utility room- or is it? It's very dated. I would imagine having g to spend ££££ to get it up to a decent standard. A lick of paint and new carpets don't justify a price increase like that. I'd be eating to see a brand new kitchen and decent garden for that price. Where do you put wardrobes?

Fucking hell.

Why did you get rid of those lovely plants?

It's so much worse.

You have failed in this. Looked FAR better before. Not sure ‘insta-worthy’ is what you should be going for when marketing a house.

I also think if you're going to "heavily renovate" a property and price it as such, you need to finish the job. What happened to the outside, not just the house, but the garden, fence, driveway?

Fence is falling down, garden is a mess, pictures propped up against the wall in main bedroom, everything is grey, first photo is of a featureless wall, and the worst thing is the house looks unoccupied and barely furnished.

Every room has to have a clear purpose and purchasers have to be able to envisage themselves living there. You can’t just have an empty room that’s described as (eg) “dining room” on the plan. People are forming an opinion on a quick look. They don’t have time or patience to look at a pic and then at the plan and think, oh yes I could fit my table and chairs and a bookcase in that room. They just think “empty room, wide angle, could be any size, scroll on.”

I clicked the link, looked away for a minute, when I looked back I went eww.

That first photo is very unflattering.

The outside photo looks unappealing - the front needs tidying up
The interior photos are taken at weird angles and don't showcase the space. They also look quite dark. Tbh it looks like the camera lens was dirty as the photos are weirdly low quality!
The loose bits under the kitchen counter are untidy and unappealing
The interior looks very cold. Can you dress it with AI furniture?

IMO every photo needs to be retaken. I would recommend switching estate agents.

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/property-history/55-sutton-park/blunsdon/swindon/sn26-7ba/65838182/

The old listing is much better.

What have you done to the kitchen, garden etc?

That's much nicer! It's got real appeal here.

What a travesty it is now! Completely destroyed the appeal in the intervening couple of years.

If I'd come across the way it looks today I'd scroll past.

Also the street view doesn't lead you to a desirable cul-de-sac, but to the nearby council estate.

Mate. It looks like a shed.

It lacks kerb appeal, outside looks stark, unkempt and in need of softening with planting or pots. Inside the layout looks odd in the pictures(wide opening to toilet?) and ceilings low, but I think that is due to angle of the photography.

This. It was so much nicer before.

From the pictures, I find it impossible to see which room is which, how you would live in it, where furniture would go, the aspect and space is lost completely and it is just emply boxes with no concept of how I would live. I think you could get some furniture or hire some to dress it a bit for the photos.
Also the frontage looks a bit warehousey, a couple of plants might help this
It all looks a bit stark and hard to get a feel for it.
I bet its lovely inside but you are not doing it justice as a family home.

Yes, originally the garage door and trim were wood coloured, now they're black and it looks much worse.

I’d be sitting in the lounge area waiting for spiders and creepy crawlies to present themselves from that log storage area under the stairs.

That's tongue in cheek right? Cos you've absolutely wrecked it

Is the issue that people don't come to see it, or that they don't make offer after seeing it?
The best way to understand what happens is to get a good EA who will do follow up calls after each viewing.
We had maybe half of them only doing this when we were looking for a house, they get very valuable feedback. It's better for them to ask after by phone, rather than on the spot, as you feel less pressured to be nice as a buyer.

I'm not a huge fan of photos without any furniture, it makes hard to visualise the space, but it wouldn't put me off viewing the property if it looks fine otherwise.
I imagine in this case a 4 bed house would mainly target a family with children? But there are no photos of the outdoor space, and what you can see through the window would definitely put me off. Based on this only I wouldn't come and see it.

The listing from when you bought it looks so much better , and you’re taking the piss expecting a huge increase when you have just painted the old kitchen units. Downstairs bathroom is another negative

Maybe if you "un-insta " it and make the front look like it did before and minimize the grey you will get some offers. People need to want to live in it. I do not think you extensive renovations have improved the property

Agree with this 100% I can't believe the op thinks what they've done looks better... maybe if they had taken out the weeds it might have a chance but seriously I'm baffled

Here

OMG, I've just seen the street view picture too. Why on earth did you do that to the exterior, and the front garden?! It turns out there's loads you could do to the outside, put it back how it was!

I think it can rescued (mostly with tidying and better pics), but i really hope you didnt spend 140k on this!?

If its insta worthy why are the photos so bad 😭

And the broken rear fence and weedy patio are doing no favours, immediately screaming work required.

We had an estate agent trying to insist that we turn the entire garden into gravel. We resisted and got another estate agent.

The first bloke told us that we needed to aim to sell to someone single and that the back lawn was a disincentive. (It was a two bed, mid-terraced house.)

I worked on getting the lawn looking nice and the other work on the garden that I've already mentioned above. It sold to a young couple with a baby on the way.