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Original poster

our converted garage isn't selling, market seems to have not picked up in jan

269 replies

pigglewiggle · 18/02/2015 20:15

We've converted our garage into a home. Its freehold and I'll admit its a bit on the small side but if I was in my 20s or looking for an investment I think it would be fab. Its similar in size to one bed flats however has the advantage of no shared walls.

We took out a quite large loan to pay for this (40k) and currently have it on at 175 so were hoping to make a decent profit but its been on for 3 months now with only 4 viewings and no offers. Its getting to the stage where the interest is making a real dent in our finances and eating into the profit. Its all done up to a good spec and is clear and neutral so I don't think that's the problem.

I was to spend some money to put some funishings in and keep the price while partner is wanting to lower the price 10k. Any advice?

OP posts:
Pipbin · 21/02/2015 11:53

I missed Jamie's comment. I'm assuming it was about 'you lot' and 'you people'.
Why are 'house price crash' so interested in us?

wowfudge · 21/02/2015 11:57

It was pretty nasty. More than one person reported it. HPC are scathing of MN - I've read the thread on there.

Pipbin · 21/02/2015 12:35

Just read those threads. Wow, they really do hate women don't they. One even comments that he's lucky that his wife isn't one of us. That's what he thinks anyway!
They seem to think that we are all stupid, all home owners and many are landlords. I guess they just gloss over the landlord threads.
All we get is one tiny corner of the internet and they can't even let us have that in peace. It reminds me of pubs in the 70s when a woman would never think of going in alone.

Bowlersarm · 21/02/2015 12:44

Pipbin, to me they just come across as a bunch of bitter sad men who have missed out on any house price rises, and have been wringing their hands for the last ten years or so, hoping for a big crash and becoming even more bitter as time goes by and it doesn't happen.

So they laugh and poke fun at others to cover their helplessness, and the bad decisions they have taken. As demonstrated by Jamie and Ron on this thread.

wowfudge · 21/02/2015 13:39

Pipbin apparently we're a 'coterie of brazenly aspirational mares'. Lovely. Now I know where roneik and his pals hang out. And where to avoid.

AryaUnderfoot · 21/02/2015 14:04

I had a boyfriend once who predicted that the world was going to end on the 21st November 1997. He was utterly convinced - it was going to be an alien civilisation who had visited us in 1947 and given us 50 years to 'get our act together' before destroying the earth. He knew all this from an 'astral projection'.

I also remember some crackpot psychic on the TV saying that the next Pope after John Paul was going to be black, and after him there wouldn't be any more popes but a triumvirate (not sure of spelling).

Some things - like rain during Glastonbury festival - are easy to predict with a high degree of probability. But the degree of precision and absolute certainty that some poeple have about their 'predictions' is just laughable.

Come July, I am quite convinced that I will be having the same little snigger as I did about the other two 'predictions'.

If I'm wrong, I'll eat my flipflops.

Viviennemary · 21/02/2015 14:07

Maybe the mortgage companies aren't keen on lending on this type of property. Would foundations and building specifications be up to standard if it's basically a garage. I immediately thought this was a joke thread. But if not perhaps the answer is people are wising up to silly prices.

Apatite1 · 21/02/2015 14:08

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Baddz · 21/02/2015 14:31

This thread makes me desperately sad, for many reasons.
Seb...thinking of you x
Ron is right - it's utterly obscene that people think it's ok to market a converted garage as a home.
Our 3 double bed detached with large garden didn't cost that Ffs.
Op...I am sorry your initial plan fell through but I really don't think that it is marketable as a property in its own right.

wowfudge · 21/02/2015 15:24

I don't think it's obscene to try to sell this former garage which has been properly converted into a one bedroom home. I do think that pp who have suggested selling the house with self-contained annexe as a better idea have it right.

As for the price, that depends on the local market. We live in a three bed semi which didn't cost what the OP stated as the asking price for their former garage. Doesn't mean the asking price for her property is outrageous - though it is likely it's on for too much if there's been little interest.

Baddz · 21/02/2015 15:32

I dont care where is is...£175k for a garage conversion?
Madness.

Pipbin · 21/02/2015 15:51

I dont care where is is...£175k for a garage conversion?
Madness.

But where it is makes all the difference. Madness in general I grant you, but change that in certain parts of London and people would bite your hand off for it. IMHO no one should be paying that much in any part of the country - house prices have gone crazy but that seems to be the asking price in the OP's part of the country. It's more than my three bed semi cost too!

PetulaGordino · 21/02/2015 16:14

you can talk about whether house prices are too high in some areas (i'm sure they are), but i'm assuming the OP didn't just pluck the price out of the air. i would expect that the valuation came from one or more estate agents who know the local area and what people are prepared to pay. the fact that it hasn't sold suggests that they have got it wrong and people aren't prepared to pay that much for what it is in that area, but i don't think the OP is being greedy or whatever just because she has taken the advice of estate agents on what to put it on the market at

i have never been on the HPC forum but i shan't bother given the behaviour of their ambassadors. they seem like those cult leaders who forecast the apocalypse and then have to scrabble about to explain why it didn't happen after the day has passed

AKnickerfulOfMenace · 21/02/2015 16:29

Bear in mind what the cost of the land with nothing on it would be in Hampshire, Baddz. That's a big part of it.

noddyholder · 21/02/2015 16:31

I work in property and still hope for and think there will be a price correction later this year.

88blueshoes · 21/02/2015 16:46

My DH and I were looking to buy (in London) for quite a lot of last year. I remember seeing a property that was clearly a "converted garage" and was on the market for months and months. I think it eventually sold but it took far longer than anything else in the area to go and this was at the very height of the crazy London house price bubble in early 2014.

Perhaps we're too proud for our own good, but we never even considered looking at it even though it was well within budget, and we did look at some 1 bed flats. There's just something faintly ridiculous and depressing about your home being someone else's converted garage.

Baddz · 21/02/2015 16:59

Blue...spot on. That's exactly it. How depressing.
Noddy...I agree and I have a mortgage.
Something has to give....of course I have been saying that since 2005!! :)
I do find it amusing that we are weeks away from a general election and.....no parties seem to be campaigning yet!....No one wants to inherit this god awful mess :(

macready · 21/02/2015 17:28

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MNHQ
TheOnlyOliviaMumsnet · 21/02/2015 17:34

And a warm welcome to our new friends from HPC
You might want a link to our talk guidelines
Thanks

SolomanDaisy · 21/02/2015 17:36

Oh hello, macready. Have you popped over to join us from another forum? The good news is, you don't have to type cnut here, we are free to type cunt. It's handy for when cunts come over from other forums to abuse posters here.

macready · 21/02/2015 17:52

I take it you think £175k for a garage is a pretty shrewd investment then?

Bowlersarm · 21/02/2015 17:59

Depends on the local property prices doesn't it macready? In London, it would be a bargain.

macready · 21/02/2015 18:10

Yeah that's what I thought.

Because it is not a shrewd investment, it's just sheer greed on OPs part.

Thats why shes only had 4 viewings in 3 months and no offers. Not even lowball offers which goes to show what the 4 people that actually bothered to see it thought about it price wise.

Hampshire is pricy, I live here, but not £175k for a granny annexe/garage conversion pricy.
I have sympathy for OP for forking out 40k out to look after family, but she did admit she wanted to give up work early which explains the real reason for the ludicrous asking price.
Also, granny annexes are usually on the property so is she dividing up her plot and writing a new set of deeds? where is the access to the road? is it shared with the OPs property? is there parking? is it adequately insulated?

Taking the garage off OPs property also devalues her own property so not a well thought out plan, best to rent it out, cheaply, maybe below bed sit rates as it does not even have privacy of a bedsit.

Or just lower the price to a more realistic price that reflects the fact it is just a 40k garage conversion, granny annexe in Hants. There will always be someone prepared to pay the right price, if OP has minimal viewings, it is simply over priced.

macready · 21/02/2015 18:12

yes in London maybe, Not in Hants.

PetulaGordino · 21/02/2015 18:13

people objecting to you making nasty misogynist comments doesn't mean they don't believe the price is too high. plenty of people have made that comment in a reasonable and helpful manner

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