Would you buy this house

[LateToTheAprilParty]

We're going to view a house tomorrow that's been on the market for 18 months. Another similar house on the same road, admitedly in much better condition, just sold for much more money in under a fortnight! We really like the road and there's nothing else avaiable so i was kind of hoping this house would be ok. The agent says it needs a lot of work, a new kitchen etc. do you think this is a big enough problem to put people off, or would you think there must be something else really wrong for it not to sell?

Looks like a nice solid sort of house - and I think your mum is right re 1930s houses generally being well-built. The photos will have put people up - they should have swept some leaves up, the exposed wood on the hall door, very busy kitchen etc, but I think it's liveable with - you wouldn't need to do a panic/rush refurbishment.

put people off, not up

There could be issues that aren't immediately apparent. We went to see a suspiciously cheap house only to find out at the viewing (beforehand would have saved our time) that it had Japanese knotweed in the foundations so wasn't mortgageable, and had been 'wrecked by priests'. Someone has now made an offer on it but they'll have to wait two years for the knotweed to clear.

It looked OK on Rightmove though!

which is why i wondered if previous sales had foundered at survey stage...

Do other houses in the road have a separate dining room and living room?

I only ask because I viewed a house where an internal wall had been removed to turn 2 rooms into 1 big room. No support, no building regs I didn't buy it.

It's not suspiciously cheap, slightly overpriced if anything, it's the length of time it's been on that makes me nervous. But i will definitely ask if there have been previous offers and what happened to them.
Good point about the knocked-through rooms, i'll definitely get a proper survey to make sure all is as it should be.
Will report back tomorrow once we've seen it

If it's a bit overpriced, then you've probably got your explanation about why it hasn't sold. It may be that the owners really don't want to take sensible offers. The houselooks fine to me. I was talking about absolute disasters; that looks like a nice enough house, if a bit dated. It could be really lovely when you've sorted it.

Are you local OP? I know that area fairly well and it can suffer from being downwind from Mogden, which may explain why it hasn't sold.

I think another factor is that when houses have been on the market for ages, people start to assume there must be something wrong with it.... a bit of a vicious circle, really.

We're localish, Ogre, but have spent quite a lot of time in the area and in Twickenham and I've never smelt anytything, but maybe the wind has always been in the right direction. I also heard they'd done something to limit or stop the smell? Does it still get bad? It's only when i started looking at the area on googlemaps that i even realised the sewage works was there!
bradbourne you may have a point. Fingers crossed that's all there is to it...

If you ever go to Redlees Park the smell can be pretty bad there, also Isleworth Pool and library. Such a shame, but I'd be very cautious. Thames Water have been 'improving' Mogden for years and recently lost a court case brought by local residents, but a quick google of Mogden complaints shows it's still an issue.

We own a late 20s / early 30s house that was on the market for AGES because it was lived in by an elderly lady and needed masses done to it.

We offered VERY low (think 20% less than asking, and that was back at the end of the boom) because it needed lots of work - and then got a full structural survey done. When that came back with a list of extra work needed (we hadn't factored in the fact that the electrics weren't earthed, for example, or that the windows literally bulged in the wind) we got all of it priced up by trademen recommended by the EA and asked for that off the price as well.

The offer was accepted. We got the work done (luckily the electrics, plumbing and heating were done before we moved in, but the resultant bare floorboards / new plaster took a while to paint - we do that ourselves - and replacing all the windows in January was a bit chilly) and are now sitting in a house worth the old asking price and more.

If it needs work, offer low (stating what you think needs doing), get a full structural survey, then get quotes for any extra work identified, then lower the offer again on that basis. If you can bear a year + of disruption or have the funds to do it all at once, then go for it.

Around here the houses that have been on the market for ages are the ones that won't accept a reasonable, but low, offer.