Here's my house. How can I make it more viewer-friendly!

[HouseyMouse]

Apologies, I'm very new to Mumsnet so I'm not sure if this is the done thing, but here is my house which I've just put on the market.

The kitchen's dated, but we can't afford to update it as we've just replaced the windows (no money left!).

What could we do to make it more viewer-friendly?

Thanks.
P.S. I'm not at all proud of it, so any "Yuck" and "That's awful!" replies are most welcome! :)

I think it looks like a lovely house with a great garden - best of luck!

I like it, we are looking for something similar but in Norwich. Best of luck.

Bloody hell, some of you are incredibly picky.

I think it's lovely. Had our flat photographed today to put on the market and I'd be thrilled if it looked like that (unlikely, since it's a one-bed flat).

I think serious buyers will be able to see past any imperfections (even quite major ones) if they really want it. I viewed a house a couple of days ago that has (I think) a mum and three or possibly even four kids living in it. There was kids' crap EVERYWHERE. So I thought to myself 'well, since we don't have kids yet, we won't have all that stuff, so it won't look cluttered.'

It hardly takes a massive leap of imagination.

Good luck!

Have just spent MONTHS looking around rightmove as a hopeful buyer, and one thing I noticed is that a lot of the photos are taken from a low vantage point, say about chest height or sometimes even lower. I think it's because it makes rooms look bigger, and if you have nice floors, they show more (and people really like nice floors). They are also usually taken with a wide angle lens, so that the part of the room near the photographer is bigger and the room appears 'lengthened' in the direction the lens is facing. This can be done to emphasize certain features, have windows seem big and emphasize natural light, etc etc. Could be worth a try. Looks lovely!

Lovely garden. Move the sandpit.

And take no notice of the tankthingy person. How rude. And wrong.

Your house is lovely. And the photos give a good idea of what's there. Please don't worry about small details like the duvet being crumpled, anyone who won't view an otherwise totally immaculate house because of a small thing like that is nuts and would be a nightmare to deal with!
The listing is fine IMO. Much better to concentrate your efforts on showing the place off at its best for viewers.
My small tip would be to make sure you leave all curtains open on a viewing to make the place feel light. Also hide all evidence of dog as done people are funny about animals.
Good luck!

*some people

I would get them to make the floorplan more accurate. My 1st thought on the floorplan was why on earth is the en-suite so much bigger than the main bathroom and that would put me off looking at it no matter what the photos looked like. I think you also need a photo of the bath as that's one of the main things I look at in photos when looking at houses.

Good luck with selling & the move.

I was looking at details of a house for sale recently & realised that although it had 2 bathrooms, neither had an actual bath. That would put a lot of people off, surely?

The floorplan of OP's house doesn't even show the big sticking-out bit in the middle at the front, does it? & that includes the bathroom. These agents really aren't up to the job, are they?

I love it! Lovely garden too - obviously nothing useful to add!

Thanks again, everyone. Here is the new entry on Right Move. The floorplan's still not right - the bathroom's larger and there's a door between the utility room and the dining room, but we're getting there.

Thanks again for all of your hints and tips.

I've taken the table cloth off!

OMG You're my neighour

Really ggirl?! Are you M or K or V?

Or someone else? There are only four houses on my street. Do we know each other? Hello if so, and hello if not! :)

I was joking. I live in hants

I just had a quick flick through so sorry if this has already been said.

When people buy a house they buy a lifestyle. The people who are most likely to buy your house are ones who have a family - so try to appeal to them. Cute, desirable toys for the kids room - but keep all of the kids toys in the garden or in their rooms. Intellectual - ish (but not intimidating) books on the coffee table. Family photos in frames put about the house - it tells the viewer subliminally that it is a happy family house where there is enough space for everyone but you are still tight knit.

Get rid of the oil stain on the drive. Put some co - ordinating pots at the door and carry the theme through to the end of the parking. As the shot is, it looks as if the blue car is in comunal parking. Get your EA to retake the shot when the sun is on the front of the house, without any cars on the drive unless you can borrow some really aspirational ones.

Get the EA to take the bathroom shot off the site - everybody knows what a shower cubicle looks like and the photo on there shows that the bathroom is only big enough for a shower and you don't hang your towels neatly.

The kids bed needs to be made. Most people will realise that the bed is only tidy for the photo, but it is distracting and viewers are not realistic - they make an emotional decision. They will assume that because the bed is unmade the room will be a tip when they move in there.

Put a big photo above the master bed. It will break up the vast whitenness above the bed.

Take the piano out of the dining room and turn the table 90 degrees. The room is too small for both.

The garden is fantastic - Get the EA to retake the shot though because you can't see past the tree. Prehaps if there is a sturdy enough tree, make a tree house or put a swing up and get them to take a shot from the lounge towards the trees to get a different angle.

When you have viewers ask the EA what their hot buttons are - if they can't tell you change EA. So if someone is moving because they are having another baby you can tell them how happy a place it is to bring up kids, safe, good schools etc. If they are moving because they relocating - give them lots of info about the area, tell them how quiet it is, good sense of community etc. Take the viewer back to the place they seem most interested in at the end of the viewing - that way the positive is reinforced.

I really believe that if someone is looking for a 4 bed house in your area, they will arrange to see yours even if your daughter's duvet cover wasn't quite straight and you didn't have flowers everywhere in the photos. Similarly the kind of people who wouldn't consider your house because of the green tiles will never find somewhere to live except a new build where they get to choose the tiles. I agree that people are buying a lifestyle, but your house probably fits the type of people who would be looking at a house like yours.

The things that would put me off are:

The dining room looks tiny. I would want to be able to seat 6 (imagine a family with 3 children looking at your dining room). Is there any way to move the piano and show it at a 6 seater dining room?

The apparent size of the bathroom given the photo of the ensuite combined with the misleading floor plan.

It looks like the only way to get food to the dining room is out into the hall, through the lounge and into the dining room.

Two of these are easy to fix by getting the floor plan revised.

I would jump on your EA as they are going to get thousands of pounds from selling your house. It has already gone live on right move and people seriously looking to move in the area will have already seen the listing and dismissed it because of the dodgy floor plans. What is the chance of them returning to look at it again when the floor plans have been corrected?

I agree with the above poster. I'd move the piano to the sitting room and get a better photo taken of the dining room. The picture of the bathroom is very poor and makes it look tiny.

The view from the front is slightly ruined by showing too much tarmac/fence to the side. I would maybe show just the house.

It looks a lovely spacious house to me. Nice garden too.

I don't think you need to change much but the estate agent needs to take some decent photos.

it's only going to appeal to people who like modern houses if you're part of the 'period only' brigade then you wouldn't even consider it.

So, bearing that in mind, i think your house looks amazing. Big, family friendly and the garden is a huge selling point.

"When people buy a house they buy a lifestyle."

Really? I mean, really?

Are people genuinely so stupid that they think they are going to get your sort of life as well? That's actually quite creepy.

Surely most people have a well-grounded sense of self and, although it's helpful for them to be able to imagine themselves in a house, if they seriously imagined that a room will be a tip when they move in because a child's bed was unmade in the photos, they'd have to be unhinged: the room will be empty when they move in.

I think if you borrowed someone else's "aspirational cars" the buyers will try to knock money off as they'd think you are rich bastards who can afford to lose it. And advice to build a tree house just to have a picture taken by the Estate agent? What. The. Actual. Fuck.

'Intellectual-ish (but not intimidating) books on the coffee table'.

Thats what we all missed!