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

I think you're first photo is letting you down, it doesn't have kerb appeal. Tidy up a bit, add some flowers. It would be easy to discount it on that photo and I don't know if I would bother clicking on it to see the details. The fireplace would put me off a lot too other than that it's a lovely house, some lovely colour choices and love the kitchen and bathrooms. The back garden could be improved with some flowers too.

my very first thought on opening the link and seeing the exterior / design (bear in mind I know zero about the area etc) - was that it’s too expensive. No way would I consider paying 350k+ for a house of that style. I am picky though. For me there is zero character, garden looks soul less as does the front. I suppose for me to consider it it would need to be more modern. It’s that sort of in between architecture that’s not characterful nor modern. The weights in the office make it look like it’s crowded, as does the kids bedrooms. I think it needs better / more aspirational staging and I’d have it painted all white rather than the blue. Sorry if that all sounds very harsh. It’s not awful and Im sure many would like it. I am super picky about interiors and I need character so it’s not my cup of tea with the decor as is. Best of luck xx

Why are there two bathrooms and no kitchen cupboards?

There's nothing much wrong with it, except it looks quite small - small bedrooms not helped by the awful estate agent fish eye photos which only accentuate how small the rooms are, even though that lens is supposed to make rooms look bigger than they are. Decoration not to my taste at all but really, it's generally the bones of a house and its location that people should be looking at (although people get stupidly swayed by wallpaper, funnily enough ...).

But mainly - - well, Swindon. Do people really want to pay more than £200k to live there?

The outside front picture looks as if the house is a bit run-down / no money spent on upkeep. What happened to your drive surface? the gutters and boarding, the side fence to the left all need doing- up.

I think the windows and the brick fireplace are outdated and most buyers would want to replace them.
The double bed is not doing the size of the room any favours.
The bathroom is lovely and mainly your decor is too.

I like the house. I think it's beautifully decorated. My only pet hate is the mishmash of window colours on the inside (some are white and others brown) and there's no top openers. I would try to cut the grass, and 'dress' the garden...ask the estate agent to retake some of the pictures.

PS: You live a road or two away from my cousin!!! 🤣

The house market is currently in flux, and some areas have stalled.
it’s not selling because of the price.

Gosh well youve had lots of feedback here.

Only thing that I wasnt sure about was fireplace in living room, rabbit(?) Run and what is the snug? Is it a conservatory or a brick built extension. A conservatory would put me off.

Going through buying/ selling ourselves atm viewings were few and far between, we dropped the price twice- a total of 50k (our hosue on for a bit less than yours- the one we're buying about the same price as ypurs but different area) and the chain isnt great. It's tricky out there right now.Where we live there are a tonne of new builds that are on for not muxb more than ours - and I think people go for those rather than an older house that might have problems.

Good luck!

I think the house looks lovely. I'd buy it 👍

Surely people genuinely looking for a new home look beyond grass that need mowing and a room with some weights in?

What put me off was how distorted the photos are. I know they stretch things out a bit to make rooms look more open, but some of them look like a house of mirrors at the funfair.
You have to pour over the floor plan to work out actually how big the rooms are.

Get rid of blue painted walls in kitchen and living room.
Get rid of the brick fire place in living room.
Get rid of pet cages.
De clutter.
Bathroom is nice.

House prices in Swindon are just much lower than most of the surrounding area. It makes it a good place to live but houses in my (more expensive) bit of the south east haven’t gone up for years, and so have gone down in real terms, so I just think it’s overpriced for the current market.

I am sure there are very, very many people happily living in Swindon and many who would be quite happy to do so.

You would think so, but a lot of people aren't good at looking at the bones, structure & aspect of a house. I'd want to know where the light is and what walls are structural.

But I think a post upthread nailed it: it's a weird design period and price - those fake "old" windows are awful, for example. For the price, it's neither a modern build nor a period house with a clear character.

Ultimately, a property is only worth what someone's prepared to pay for it. And OP, you only need one buyer.

Add nice rug in living room.

There are loads of cupboards in the kitchen.
I presume the bathrooms are upstairs ie not taking away from downstairs storage space. They have a utility room as well with lots of storage.

I'm sure there are @BringBackCatsEyes but do they want to pay a third of a million pounds to do so ... ? I do wonder whether there are areas in the UK that are just cheaper than other nearby or comparable areas.

But like all our responses, I know that's just my opinion. Luckily for the OP, I'm not in the market for a modern box in Swindon.

Nothing is shifting ATM. No one is buying.

I've not seen the market near me this dead in 8 years of stalking it weekly.

If there's no buyers it doesn't matter how well presented or how reasonably priced you are, you can't sell because there's absolutely no one looking.

Good point about the windows. I wonder if they are uPVC or wood.

Don't listen to this.

The blue is fine. It's clean and a colour that's none offensive.

You'd be wasting time and money and wouldn't improve much.

There's simply no one buying...

I think you've nailed it @RedToothBrush

Serious buyers will look past unimportant things such as wall colour. They'll be looking at size and space and proportion of the rooms, aspect (where does the sun land, south facing etc), general state of repair of the external structures and fixtures (roof, windows, boiler etc).

Haven't RTFT, but if this was near us we'd snap it up!

Some suggestions:

• the fireplace/ brick feature looks dated. Not sure how to remedy this, but maybe paint and possibly plaster?
• Get the EA to label the pictures with the room names
• Get the EA to mention there is parking!!!
• Get the EA to retake the pic of the grey double bedroom from a different angle
• Turn the bed in the trees room so the head is under the window and get rid of the light green furniture on the left. Then get EA to retake pictures
• Get the EA to take better pictures of the garden/ include an aerial shot.
• sack the EA

I've genuinely seen a lot worse. There is very little 'wrong' with the house as such. It could be show room white, but honestly it's minor in relative terms and I don't think there's really enough in this particular example to put off a serious buyer.

It's not even cosmetic really.

You could spend weeks stressing over getting it perfect to sell, spending time and money in the process - but ultimately there's no enough wrong with how it is, to really make the difference to a sale.

The problem is 100% the lack of people looking.

I know two people looking to move. One does have a buyer but there's nothing to move to that works for her. And another who has a property he wants but no one is viewing at all. They've just got stuck because no one wants to sell / buy.

Without enough people as a minimum to oil the market it just grinds completely to a halt. And that's where it is.