Help me sell my friends house please!!

[cuppa18]

Hi, my lovely friend has had this house on the market for a few months, had a buyer lined up but they've dropped out. Had a couple more viewings which came to nothing :( Now no viewings lined up. It looks fab to me, are we missing something obvious? Any suggestions welcomed! Thank you!!
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-88472819.html

It’s a pretty small house, there’s one that sold for £347,500 in 2019 which is 101m2 so £3,440 per m2. Your friends is 74.3m2 so equivalent price is £255,636.

I think it's the photos. Where is the one of the front door and stairs, and the rest seem in a jumbled order. I think the house in real life probably looks better from outside than it is shown, but a bit of clearing up the drive and maybe showing a car parked on it for scale would help?

Built in shelves are too dominating and a bit studenty/office-y. It doesn’t look like someone’s home, but a temp rental type place. If they can’t be removed they need to have 2/3 of the stuff removed including everything on the top shelf. A nice rug wouldn’t hurt but there is something very corporate about the sofas so it would have to be something that didn’t boost the student/office vibe. Is there something hanging off the ceiling light?

Remove the cover from the pergola.

Bedroom 1 is very bland. It could be made nicer with a throw and some nice bedside lamps. The ceiling plants aren’t great.

Bedroom 3 isn’t big enough for a double and having one in highlights that. Swap with the bunks.

The front is dull. It looks like there are empty pots along the left hand side and something dead in a pot next to the house. I think it’s a bad photo but a better angle with some plants will be better. I agree the roof looks odd.

I agree with altforvarmt that the front needs jet washing. There is a green tinge all the way around The building with makes it look cold and unloved. The whole front needs attention. It’s a muddle of different surfaces and it all looks quite industrial rather than homely. The problem is there is nothing else to look at.

I know lots of people won’t read it, and if they do it doesn’t matter because they are looking in that area anyway but this puts me off

“Bampton is an attractive Cotswold village known for its large Georgian houses, elegant church and impressive Victorian Town Hall. In the seventeenth century Bampton was an important leather trading centre and became famous for its jackets, gloves and breeches. Bampton is also renowned as the historic home of Morris Dancing and the Bampton Morris dancers flourish to this day”

The first bit basically says that there are much nicer houses in the village and second bit is pointless shit about leather beeches and Morris dancers

What's hanging from the livingroom lights?

In addition to everything mentioned can they move the blanket box at bottom of bed or is that the only storage in room. Pretty bad photos generally as looks like nice house.

Agree with so much of what has been said.

The front needs pressure washing and softening. It looks like beta at the window - if so remove them.

Make the beds properly- the brown patterned bed is making me twitch with the tucked end and the pillow upside down.

The bathroom needs some personality.

The shelving - if it can’t be removed should be styled a bit like this, as it looks cluttered and messy.

Thy e kitchen looks fine.

The photos need to be redone. In some there are pieces of furniture that need to be removed. For example, the child’s table in the front room.

Also, the second and third bedrooms. Could these be swapped over so the double looks like a proper double. And remove the mattress on the floor (currently I’m with the bunk) as it doesn’t do anything for the room.

You need way more photos to help all the story of the house. I don’t think there are enough to explain the flow of the property.

I’d suggest it’s slightly on the small size and therefore slightly over priced.

Nets not beta fgs

No kerb appeal. When people look at Rightmove, they often click through very quickly and if the first picture of a house doesn't look appealing, then they just pass it by. I think the estate agent needs to take some better pictures from a different angle.

I think it looks as though the house could be in a damp area judging from the moss on the roof and around the base of the house. Tarmac directly up to a house doesn't look good. Could they get some planters to go up against the walls. Also, are the windows able to be painted? I think white would look better than the existing brown; the same goes for the garage door. However, the inside looks good to me.

What's the brown stone building in the back garden with a door, is that the garage?

Front - if you put some hanging baskets, lots of plants etc to brighten it up I think it will give a nicer first impression.

I think the house struggles with 'identity'.
The kitchen and more so the Living room are too formal looking.
In the kitchen you have a lovely table but it doesn't fit in with the style of the units.

The Living room I would get rid of the shelving unit and put a fire place and mirror. Lots of cushions, blankets etc. Give it a cosy country cottage feel.

The first outdoor photo is grey concrete plus green algae, drab, damp and depressing.the kitchen looks nice. The living room lacks focus, just lots of tall cupboards (taller than the chairs) and small telly located up in the corner like a hospital waiting room. The children's bedroom looks odd, legless bunkbed with unused top bunk plus mattress on the floor. The back garden looks a good size but again slightly drab and uninviting. It seems a lot of money for a house that doesn't excite any "Ooh I'd love a closer look" feelings.

I think the house is fine inside but the outside really needs enhancing. The colour of the house around the bottom gives the impression that it might be a bit damp!

Loads of colour, pots, flowers and general accessorising needed!

Agree with others, front of house needs pots, hanging baskets etc. Lots of colour to make it look inviting. A coffee table or something soft to break up the floor space in the sitting room might help too

I may be alone on some of this but the openness of the downstairs would put me off. Rooms are quite small and agree photos aren't the best. The pic of the front of the house is really bad. Need a clean up/power jet and some nice planters to break up the concrete

First picture of the outside of the house is terrible definitely need a better pic.

Comparing to other houses in the same area in the same price bracket

• it looks overpriced when comparing sq ft, and there’s no good reason for it (ie house is not high spec)
• there’s newer houses with en-suite etc
• no curb appeal, it’s not a nice looking house compared to others in the same price bracket.

A quick look at the market information and for that money in the area could get a) more downstairs space b) an extra bedroom in quite a cute period property or c) more square footage AND an attached garage that could be converted to more living space.

Obviously I don't know the area but I'd hazard a guess it's priced too highly, most buyers should be able to see past general dressing up.

Agree with everyone about the kerb appeal- I'd be wanting to get rid a lot of the hard surfacing at the front to soften it which feels like an expensive job and it's only the first photo.

The units in the living room are really unappealing and make the room much less flexible in how it can be configured. Def need to try to soften them if possible, remove them from the estate agents description which currently tries too hard to make them sound like a desirable feature and kind of just emphasises them in a bad way. Maybe try to get more photos of the living room that don't show them?

The upstairs looks cramped in all pics apart from the the bunk bed bedroom. There doesn't look like there's enough room for furniture with the double beds and it would look much better if the large room had the double in it and the small ones has singles (does the bunk bed split into singles for this?) and wardrobes in the bedrooms too so you can see that they fit ok.

The bathroom pic looks squeezed because the gap between the shower screen and the sink is so small- might be worth trying to take another pic which makes it look more spacious if poss- maybe with the shower screen open but out of shot if that makes sense?

The red splashbacks are also an acquired taste- maybe not the end of the world to sort but potentially another thing to add to the list.

It looks nice but I wouldn't buy a house that was open plan downstairs

Iron the bedding, I can’t take my peepers off it 😆 The front of the house looks terribly stark and unloved. Pots filled with cheery flowers would really help. Many people will do a drive past view before arranging an official viewing and I feel that what they see of the front of the house will put them off. Kerb appeal is not to be underestimated! We got rid of all weeds, had lovely pots outside and painted our cast iron gate to freshen it up.

It appears to be a beautiful house inside but many of the photographs make me feel empty and sad and I can’t tell you why, sorry (Perhaps your friend is in an unfortunate situation at the moment, I do hope not xx)

It sounds very cliche but from my experience of selling a house, I believe it can be the small things that can swing it. I bought big fluffy towels for all bathrooms, had the grout freshened up so it was gleaming, fluffy bath mats, sparkling clean mirrors and tiles, elegant soap dispensers (thank you TKMAXX!) and the whole house smelt fresh.

Fresh fruit in a spectacular bowl (thank you to my Husbands cousin!) on the kitchen table, ensure all lighting is working and refresh any paintwork (even just with a tester pot for ‘busy’ areas).

Carpets cleaned if necessary (plumps them up and makes the house smell fresh and cared for). Plump, quality cushion covers and neutral coloured quality blankets.

We decided to do one viewing on one day which meant that viewers had to book a slot and got shown around individually (the previous couple would just be leaving as the next were invited in). The estate agent said it would generate competitiveness from the viewers and my child was only a baby at the time and so it was preferable for us to have it over in one viewing!

We had 13 viewings and had 11 offers. 3 of these were cash offers.

The people’s whose offer we accepted said that the first thing that attracted them to our property was that the outside looked so inviting and that when inside it felt very well looked after, cared for and loved.

We did not have a lot of money at the time (speculate to accumulate, they say!) and so I bought all the lovely bath mats, towels, cushions and blankets, kept the tags on and returned them after the house had been viewed (unused of course).

Best of luck!

Agree with what others have said. The main things that jumped out for me:

• Needs a rug between sofa and TV (adds texture and colour).

• Add some nice towels and a plant to "dress" the bathroom. Is very plain at the moment.

• Front of house is crying out for some colour and TLC. Also maybe park a car to the side, to show space/scale.

What is hanging from the light in the living room?