House not selling (with listing)

[Housesale2]

Any thoughts welcome - awkward lay out? Decor? Anything else?

To pre-empt a couple of questions; it was originally listed at £400,000, and there is parking for two cars (one on the gravel, one on the right)

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/171873854#/?channel=RES_BUY

Why isn’t it four bedrooms?

Ah right. If I was confused, others may be too.

Yes, there’s no garage - was converted historically.

What is putting me off would be the expense of changing the things I couldn't live with (open shelves in the kitchen) and metro tiles in the bathrooms.

The rest of the decor is easily changed to my taste but I'd be adding on the cost of a complete kitchen and two bathroom refits which makes it much too expensive.

I think it’s really nice and I don’t think the price is too high either. It seems pretty reasonable to me. Maybe because the market is shit with terrible mortgage rates at the moment.

Other than it needs a good de-clutter and a few hours of gardening it looks fine. No reason why it shouldn't sell. if i was buying it i would want 10k off because those windows and the fire place would have to go.

The fireplace isn't nice, the grey walls in the kids rooms would put me off. Can you take the planet stickers off the wall in one of the kids rooms and repaint a neutral colour? The office is really bland and uninspiring. Can you hide the boxes and stick a colourful rug in there with some bright curtains?

Outside, put some colourful plants on the gravel and some hanging baskets.

I love your kitchen and the colour of the walls in there and the living room.

Because bedroom nr 4 is L-shaped and is already too small without an awkward layout. I estimate, the actual usable space there is no more than 2mx1.5m. They would have been better off building one bedroom on top of that extension and making it ensuite with the bathroom to the side.

Honestly, I'm not that far from you. Your house is lovely and I would view it at least. I don't think a few boxes and kid stuff would put many people off.

My house is also on the market. A trickle of viewings. One offer but fell through near exchange. I see a lot of houses reducing, coming back on after sale agreed etc. I think it was already a bad market before Trump attacked Iran and sent mortgage rates up, but my EA says people are now being very cautious since then.

We're just entering the busy time now. Perhaps just honestly assess your house against similar ones on the market and adjust price again if needed. Otherwise, I think you can only wait, or try again in a year or two and hope things have improved. Good luck.

The photos would put me right off, they're clearly taken with a super wide angle lens which makes it look all stretched. It would make me assume the rooms were very small (and from the floor plan they're no smaller than I would expect in that style house).

You are let down as picture 1 of the outside has no kerb appeal. The red door clashes with the brown windows (I personally don't like brown). The drive is part tarmac and part gravel with some haphazard rocks around. Can you do anything like remove rocks, paint front door a few large potted plants? It's a Shane as your kitchen is gorgeous.
When we sold our house the estate agent taking photos insisted we move the cat outside as they didn't want animals in shots. Can you move the hutch?
It's also an awful market tho so you may need to wait for the iran situation to settle. Good luck!

Zhuzh the fron garden up a bit. So it has some kerbside appeal. The rest is fine.

I really like it. Some people have no imagination. There's slight things to do. But it's a good price imo. I hope you don't have to drop it more?

Are you down or upsizing?

1. The driveway - was it raining just before the photo was taken and had a car just been removed ? as the driveway is two different colours i.e. black and grey Or does it need a good clean
2. No wall cupboards in the kitchen, just shelves with jars on
3. The fireplace is hideous and sooooooo big !
4. that double bed - is it an extra large king or something as a bed is usually 6'3" long and the room size says it's bigger than 6'3" it actually says 8'6" so where is the missing 2' ? One should be able to at least walk past the bottom of the bed
5. the ' office ' is awful
6. the small animal/s in the ' snug ' ? need to be popped outside for photos and viewings

Probably not helpful but the three small bedrooms are all tiny. I’d be happy with one single but would want the other two to be proper doubles if I was buying a four bedroom house. Otherwise I think it’s really nice, the bathrooms are lovely.

You need to grab people on the first picture or they’ll just scroll on by without even looking. The front of the house is a bit uninspiring if I’m honest. You need to tidy up the front and get it looking fab, maybe put out some pot plants in some gorgeous pots before getting the estate agent round to take some new pics.

Once you’ve got people’s attention, hopefully they’ll be more interested with what’s inside.

Whose garage is in the first picture then? If not yours, its attached to your house so I think saying its a detached home may be a stretch as at best it's actually link-detached? Imo its functionally semi-detached as your living soace os attached to their garage and especially so if their garage is also in use as living space.

As others have mentioned the market isn’t great at the moment which can’t be helping but this is what jumps out at me.

• Lacks kerb appeal. I’d give the front a good tidy up, trim any bushes, remove any weeds and add a few pots
• Kitchen is lovely but I would pull the table out from the wall and add a vase of flowers. I’d remove a few jars from the shelves and replace with a bit of greenery
• The fireplace in the living room is very dated and off putting. Not just for the work to remove it but that once removed the floor will most likely need replacing too so that’s another expense
• Remove pets and kids craft corner from conservatory and declutter this room to give it more purpose. Make it look like a more appealing place to relax rather than just a dumping ground
• Utility room, remove fridge magnets from fridge. Maybe add a plant or something to make the room look more welcoming
• Bedrooms all come across as being on the smaller sides in the photos. One of the beds is far too big for the room. If it’s possible I would swap that out for something more in proportion. The kids rooms I would have a big declutter to give the impression of more space.
• The study needs to be made more welcoming and presented as a study. I would move the exercise equipment out of it too.
•.The back garden, like the front needs a really good tidy up and presented as a more usable space.
• Parking needs to be made clear

On a positive though you have lovely bathrooms, a lovely kitchen which are great selling points and most other things are easily remedied

If you look at the competition in your area and at your price there are much better options (sorry).

Looks nice but I wouldn't view this as I can't get an image in my mind of the bedrooms - there's no wardrobes etc in the pics, are they small. Where are all your clothes?

Am I right that you have to walk through the reception room to access the rest of the downstairs? And the kitchen and snug are open plan. So although it's a biggish house, the only quiet/private space downstairs is the office. It depends on the family set up of course, but that might put me off.

The windows would put me off from even considering it.

I think its ok. For me the issue would be no garage. Where do you put your kids bikes etc? House is fine. 4th bedroom is small but if I wanted a 3 bed it would be ok.

So as usual there's been pages and pages of people being sniffy about decor and saying that adding few pot plants and moving a few bits of furniture will suddenly make people pay 50 grand more than they would have done for the same pile of bricks. But it's the price. Saying 'the price is fine, it's just the market isn't' is ridiculous. If the price was good it would have sold. It hasn't ergo it isn't. The price may be OK in the market of tomorrow, or it might not, nobody knows.

I don’t know house prices in Swindon, just in my part of Yorkshire and this seemed a fair price for a detached. I like the kitchen and I like the bathrooms, two double (one at a push) and two single bedrooms plus a study, although at the expense of the garage IMO. I personally think you can only convert a garage if you have a double, everyone needs somewhere to store their shit.

I don’t like the windows or the fireplace or the turquoise paint, but none would put me off buying and the great kitchen and bathroom fittings are definitely a positive.

So, I can only assume it’s too much for a house with no garage and small bedrooms. I don’t think there’s anything that would put me off buying, unless it was overpriced OR there were more period style, attractive houses in the same area for the same buck.