What's wrong with my house? No viewings

[vincentaroony]

House has been on the market for several weeks and we've had zero viewings. If you have a moment to take a look at the listing on Rightmove and let me know what you think is putting people off, I'd really appreciate it.

Unfortunately the house is not furnished (was tenanted but the tenants did not want their belongings photographed so we had to wait til it was empty). Also I know town houses are not the ideal layout for many, but there are plenty of other townhouses in the area that seem to be selling.

Have spoken with agent, reduced price a few weeks ago, but nothing...

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-64693244.html

There's nothing wrong with it persay but it looks a bit soul less iyswim , can you pretty it up a bit and dress it up nicely to sell , Good luck op

£205k is a weird number - drop it to under £200k to be picked up in more searches.

The blurb says Jack and Jill doors to downstairs bathroom, so that should mean a door to the hall or the other bedroom. But that's not on the plan. Hope it's to the hall.

I'd get them to rename the front downstairs to study / bedroom 4 (it'd make a fab room for work from home or for someone to use as a beauticians / consulting room) and the back downstairs as a garden room / bedroom 3.

Searching in the postcode area it appears to be overpriced.

Photos need a better filter, they look very cold.

The blurb describes the ground floor bathroom as a family bathroom and mentions guests use. It also says rooms one & 2 have en suites. Has the door been put on the wrong place in the floor plan? Something as simple as that could be putting people off when in fact it's a mistake on someone's part

The layout. At four bedrooms, your main market is families, but I wouldn't want a family home where two bedrooms are on the second floor and two on the ground floor, with the living space in the middle.

As a PP said, I'd be looking at how I could move two bedrooms and a bathroom onto the middle floor, and put the kitchen downstairs leading out to the garden. With another townhouse that has a better layout and a garage on the market for only £10k very close by, I'd reach the conclusion that yours just isn't worth it.

I'd get your agent to change the marketing to promote it as a buy-to-let opportunity. Alternatively, give the house some TLC (white paint and a deep clean throughout to freshen it up) and stage it for the photos with furniture and bright soft furnishings to at least get the enquiries in.

I think you need to say if it if fixed price or offers over, it's just got a number in the corner. The picture hooks also look like marks, and the flattened carped where the furniture has been it appear dirty, although I'm sure it's not. In general, these things make it look like it needs some work done. I think if you had furniture it would look much better. Who took the pics?

The layout is weird
I wouldn't put. children on the ground floor next to the front door but I wouldn't want my room to be 2 floors away from them
I would prefer the kitchen and living area to be downstairs. How are the children supposed to play in the garden? They would have to be supervised from the bedroom

Lots of useful points have already been mentioned. Yes the layout won't suit families but would be good for professionals buying/renting together so it's not all bad.

We have an almost identical laid-out house (by the same builder), but in a different area.

The photos don't do any justice to how large the house actually is. You probably also need to highlight the diversity of the space available. For example, our garden room used to be a play room for the dc's and is now a dedicated study for me, but with a sofa in so that we can still sit in there and enjoy the fact it opens up onto the garden.

The photo of your kitchen is taken from a weird angle, which makes it look small, but if it's the same as mine, it's actually quite large. The downstairs bedroom at the front is ideal as a teenage room, so they can have it with their own bathroom etc.

You need to highlight the positives, which isn't really done here.

Easy fix for the family bathroom; block up the door to the bedroom 3 bathroom and move it to the hall side. Not easy in others due to bath position. Even if there are pipes needing moved it shouldn't cost more than 3-400 quid.

Wonder if you could divide it into 2 flats - 1x 1 bed and 1 x 2 bed? Would that be better? (I guess you need to get planning permission?). I'd get advice as easier to do as you don't live there.

It's a nice house, but a strange lay out.
Drop the price OP, and let it go !

If you have just dropped the price what was it on at before and why is it priced so much higher than the same townhouses with four bed in the same area, does it have something else going for it that's maybe not in the blurb? It has to be something fairly big to be priced at 25 grand above the other similar properties and before that priced even higher?

Your basic problem ultimately is price.

The layout is not going to appeal to a lot of people.

If you are in the market for a 4 bed house, you're likely a family and having the bedrooms separated by an entire floor just isn't going to work for people with children.

Other issues are the lack of a w.c, access to the garden from bedroom 4 and that having no bathroom.

Practically speaking it's a 2 bedroom house with a guest suite on the ground floor.

By comparison a quick search of the area shows that it's significantly overpriced as a 4 bed house and massively so as a 2/3 bed house.

The lack of furniture doesn't help but it's not the core issue here - equally it does look a bit tired and scruffy - in need of being repainted and throughly cleaned.

In your case I'd do the following:

1. You need to research the competition and be realistic about price. I'd say you are a good 30k off the mark.

1. I'd repaint the walls, take down the old curtains and show it as a bare canvas - but one that's as pristine as a new build.

1. I'd market it as a 3 bed and describe bed 4 as a study/garden room which makes the flow of the house better into the garden. I'd describe bed 3 on the ground floor as a "guest suite".

The layout is bad, it looks dirty, needs furniture, no family bathroom, possibly over priced. You need to re carpet and put furniture in as a bare minimum.

All the previous comments make it clear it probably isn't ideal as a family house. It would work well for someone running a business from home though - counsellors, massage therapists etc. would find those ground floor bedrooms perfect for seeing clients in. Or someone who needs an office, space to make stuff they sell or store it (i.e. artists, people with online shops etc.).

And also it would work as a buy-to-let for 3 people sharing a house who won't need bedrooms near to each other. Or even two friends buying a house together - one gets the ground floor and the other the top floor.

But as your market is narrower it probably is overpriced.

I have no idea about the price, so we'll ignore that for now.
The layout is odd... x2 bedrooms downstairs and x2 on the top floor? I would want my living room or kitchen to have access to the garden. The wardrobes look very dated. You don't seem to have photos of all the rooms?
The carpets look disgusting. Might be worth getting a professional carpet cleaner in.
The lack of furniture doesn't help, it's hard to visualise when you can't see if you can fit the baby grand piano in . I know you can 'rent' furniture if sell a house, might be worth looking into it?
For my the garage detached completely from the house would annoy me.
I personally wouldn't go for a town house, think they are a marmite thing.
Have you asked the vendor why they think your not getting viewings? It may be they aren't doing enough, can you switch estate agents?
Having said all that, cosmetics isn't the end of the world, most houses don't sell due to price. Is it competitive compared to others on the development.

Honestly the layout would prevent me from viewing it. Id contemplate a townhouse, and am not fussed about detatched etc, and the price doesnt seem too bad for the area. The fact it is vacant wouldnt put me off, in fact Id be glad as its chain free, but the floorplan alone means it wouldnt even get a viewing.

I would never consider a townhouse with the kitchen not on the ground floor. Never. The thought of putting my two kids down there, or having the whole of the groundfloor vacant while we lived on the 1st and 2nd wouldnt work for us. And all the food shopping up and bin bags coming down. And having to go through the bedroom for easy access.

Sorry.

It's over priced. I think the photos are fine. I presume there is a mistake with the bathroom descriptions. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Also, was it sold for £80,000 in 2012? Not sure if I've the right house as the numbers are confusing?

It's next to Belle Isle ... worst estate in Leeds, the carpets make it look a bit grotty and yeah unfurnished makes it hard to imagine .
Just being honest don't slate me.

Overpriced. £199,950 seems a lot cheaper than £205,000

Overpriced

I don't think "bedroom 4" was ever intended to be a bedroom, to be honest. It's got French doors into the garden space, and other bedrooms have en-suite bathrooms. It was probably originally designed as a second sitting area, or TV area.

Agree that the layout is awful - no loo on the main living floor is rubbish and I have rejected holiday accommodation for having bedrooms on the ground and top floor and lving accommodation in the middle - wouldn't ever consider buying a house like that.

Advice about moving kitchen downstairs is fine, but not cheap. If the going rate in the area is £180k, then there's no point spending £20k on moving the kitchen and remodelling the ground floor, and still facing a huge price reduction.

Thanks for all the responses, many of which are very helpful. I realise the layout won't appeal to families, we lived there as a couple and had a study each on the ground floor - after living in a Leeds city centre flat that was the exact same price (£185k when purchased), the space was great! Cant do much about the layout but agree with PPs' suggestions that we rename bedroom 4 as playroom/study.

Floor plan is wrong! Thank you - we had not noticed that the door from the bathroom to the hallway has been missed off. I'll ask the agent to amend.

If we can avoid it, I don't really want to get into hiring furniture etc as we now live 200 miles away in the south (where you don't get a lot for £205k!) and with a 16 week old I think it may work out easier to reduce the price accordingly rather than redecorating, carpeting and furnishing. It's a shame it looks grubby as it really is a lovely house and the largest townhouse design on the estate by a long way. Ill get the agents to take more pictures so all rooms and garden are shown, and try to make it look fresher.

But ultimately it looks like we need to reduce the price. Not impressed with our agent who originally put it on at £220k!