Why doesn’t anyone want our house?!

[noitsachicken]

Been on the market since January.
Dropped the price twice, recently switched agents.
Lots of viewings, generally positive feedback. People like the house, but no one wants to buy it!!

It looks like the bedrooms in real life will be smaller than the photos make them seem.

It’s a lovely clean and tidy house but there’s not a lot of wow to fall in love with.

So we dropped the price and had a lot of interest

At the very distinct risk of me sounding like a broken record - ultimately the reason a house doesn't sell is always down to price.

The wallpaper in the diner, the yellow bedrooms, the browney curtains.

Sounds silly because they can change it when they move in, but it makes a difference.

Surely before the conversion there was a door at the front no?

Took us 18 months from putting our house to the market to actually moving. We lowered the price to the lowest price we could accept, it still took 7 months to get buyer. We lost 2 buyers and then 3rd time lucky 2 weeks after the last buyer pulled we sold again. It is not always done to price or presentation it just finding the right person. It will sell they all do in the end, but I do understand how you live in limbo when you are desperate. Have to say, when our 2nd buyer pulled out we resided to fact it would be probably take another 7 months to find another buyer, and started to forget about selling again, we even started decorating again because we did not like this particular we had put up, and then out of the blue a new buyer came along we moved 2 months after. Have faith it will happen.

And I'm another one who loves your bookcase! Definite selling point.

Love your bookcase but for a detached, the bedrooms are far too small.

Sofas would go in on their ends I guess.

I’d put some pots with bamboo in the garden, seems a bit bleak to me.

I can’t see a problem with the bathroom.

Sorry, I’m back to the solar panels. There’s lots of articles in the press and internet that mortgage companies won’t lend on properties with them. I’d investigate buying out the lease so you own them outright. I like the house, though I do find the lack of a front door offputting.

It's small for a 3 bed. No bigger than the 2 bed we moved out of.

How do you get big furniture in with the door where it is? Our front door is at the side but overlooking a wide drive. Yours is in a narrow side return.

There has never been a door on the front. It’s just the style of the house

All our furniture came in the door, or into the garden and through the French doora

This is what it looked like when we bought it

It did look nicer when you bought it (especially the neighbour's frontage).

Isn't Stoke Gifford the student area though? That may be putting off family buyers. You say school isn't an issue because you have a drive. Doesn't that mean it is actually an issue with parking all round you or risk of drive being blocked?

Personally the wallpaper on the wall in the dining room does appear to be making the room look dark. Could that be freshened up in some way.

Fab living room.

Do you see how that photo makes that side passage look as big as possible, whereas your current photo doesn't?

Yes, the original front photo looks better. The shrub, the more distinct property line? Something.
The inside is fine, it’s that curb appeal. You need to work on the front.

Yes I agree it looks better in the old photo

Are the viewers proceedable?
Who would be buying your property FTB or people wanting to start a family?
Like your kitchen diner - a small kitchen puts me off a house the most.
Personally am not keen on detached houses that close together but nothing you can do about that.
I would find out if it's possible to remove the solar panels and take them with you to a new property.
Would it be possible to convert the cupboard downstairs to a cloakroom with a loo and small sink?
In the Bristol area a lot of house price inflation has been driven by people moving from the South East/London, and prices there are falling so that could be a factor.

I really like it, but I do not think it looks attracctive from the front. You need to break up the monotonous bricks as the drive way and walls just blend into a samey samey smack in the face. I would get some nice modern style planters. Maybe a tall skinny one with one of those pointy leylandiis in between the windows and some troughs with tall grasses and structural plants to add colour and interest. Hanging baskets are good for colour and I would try to define your boundrary from the neighbours messy garden too. I love the living room and book cases everywhere but that is not to everbodys taste...I read somewhere that turning the books around so the spine is hidden reduces the attention from large book cases and stops viewers thiking " crikey, I could never read that sort of book, this is not the sort of house I could live in"....not idea of its true but may be worth a try.

I think that, because there are one or two quirks you need to advertise below £300,000. Also give it more kerb appeal by doing something to the front garden.

Your bedrooms are small. All of them. No en suite and no cloakroom and no utility. People might pay more to get one or more of these desirable features. There is a semi for £285,000 and that is bigger and has a cloakroom. Your 3 bed is the same size as my 2 bed London flat and that’s the problem. It really isn’t very big. I’m not sure how that can be addressed, other than price.

I didn’t even notice the lack of front door in the Rightmove listing. So I may be the kind of person you are having for viewings. As soon as I saw there was no front door, and the side access was so tight, there’s no way I’d be making an offer.

Is it feasible to put a front door in, even if it goes directly into the kitchen/diner? If so, it may be worth it to get a sale?

Looks fine to me. Are there many other houses on the market nearby? It could be that the price for your house is higher.

Otherwise, I'd do the usual stuff - flowers and coffee in the kitchen. a rug and coffee table in the living room, matching curtains and bedspread (with matching cushions) in the master bedroom.

Ah, I see, how it was,,and that's quite a big increase in price in seven or eight years. You bought it at the end of 2011 for 186k then put it on for double that at thr start of 2019?

I think thr house inside is fine, but the conversion has done nothing for the kerb appeal, the side return where the door is is very narrow and dark at just over three and a half feet, and the bedrooms look like there is no space for storage ie proper wardrobes, the smallest really is just a box room, suitable for a small nursery.

I genuinely think it's price, some of it is lovely, but i think it's over priced really.

As a pp said, when something doesn't sell it's always the price.

There are lots of lovely things about your house.

However, the photos make it look like you have to squeeze down a narrow dark side passage to get into the house. This would put me off looking at it as it looks unwelcoming and impractical. And it’s really confusing!!!

You need to make the front look better in the photos. You can get the estate agent to take better different ones. Add some plants for colour and take the photos on a lovely sunny day.

They also need to add into their blurb how accessible the front door is - prams, sofas, wheelie bins will fit down easily etc. As it really isn’t clear that things will fit.

Don’t be afraid to challenge the estate agent and make them do a bit of work!