What's wrong with our house 13 days no viewings

[Namechangetoshowhouse]

Help us out Please 🙏
We put our house on the market 13 days ago we have friends in the area who have put theirs on and been busy with viewings straight away but we've had nothing.

Three Estate agents said £375 so we started with that after no viewings at 9 days we dropped to £367
We know house is a bit bottom heavy a bit like me and doesn't look pretty but is well presented and has over 80 Sq m of downstairs living space. A huge Kitchen and lounge, 10 mins walk to most amenities as well.

We have seen a house that we love that won't come up again we've put in an offer for asking price but not sure we'll get it as they say they've had 6 offers already.

Anyway here it is do we drop the price some more or just wait a bit?
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-82594633.html

For me I wouldn't view as it's a 3 bed and the third bedroom is smaller than the room we call the cupboard here. I wouldn't want downstairs bathrooms. The white makes it feel cold and clinical and the missing curtains downstairs don't help. The wardrobes in the master bedroom aren't nice. The outside doesn't appeal at all it needs colour and planters at the front. It seems very expensive for essentially a three bedroom house to me anyway.

Peculiar to do all that building work and not put an upstairs bathroom in. It made more sense before as a modest house for 180k, but makes little sense now with all the changes and costing twice as much.

[quote KingOfDogShite]This is what the lay out what originally
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-18520011.html[/quote]
That isn't the original layout, as the kitchen extension is there in the photos / floorplan. Downstairs, only the utility/office etc. has changed since then, plus the landing has been widened so you no longer have to walk through one bedroom to go into another.

@fashu

I have just sold my house in 9 days. My estate agent told me to never put an number on the end, keep it in the 10's. When people are searching they don't want to see random numbers. I put mine up for 120k, got 118k so I would say drop to offers over 360k to get 365k

Hell, if the random number at the end that's the problem, just say £400k and be done with it!

Or consider that maybe "what the vendor wants to get" isn't what determines the appropriate price? The links posted by people on this thread show that there are better houses in the area for £350k, so pricing at £360k will not result in a sale.

I see what you mean. These houses have had a lot done to them, haven’t they!

Doesn't look good from the outside at all and doesn't seem to have much garden for starters...different pictures may show it differently.

Seems very dark inside, awkward spaces, lack of 'flow' and the third room is very tiny indeed. 'Not my thing' would be my conclusion.

The front one will have been the living room and had the chimney breast in it, the back one was probably the kitchen/dining room.

Even with the beam explanation I’m still discombobulated - here’s the screen shot with my scribble, the blue being where I think the beam/original room dividing line is - what’s the deal with the shape of the front room - shouldn’t the extra square (marked in red) be part of the hallway? The yellow is the fireplace.

I added the pic of 3 classic Victorian terrace layouts because loads of those houses have ended up with a back heavy extension, but the obvious front to back flow in the original corridor hallways makes the bottom heaviness/long thin extension less jarring? And even the ones with the horizontal stair cases only have one zag, so it feels cleaner?

Maybe the thing that does my head in is that you have to go through rooms to get to other rooms, but it’s still too carved up around the hallway to be a truly open plan (which should have the flow through feeling).

Anyway, for OP’s purposes I would definitely suggest grouping furniture as if the two original reception rooms still exist, so as to minimise the puzzled feeling for the viewer and then maybe add a walk-through video? Although perhaps going through the utility will make that awful? (this threads most practical advice of all, of course, is ‘stop trying to sell it as a 4 bed’ 😂)

I used the following criteria on Rightmove:

Bicester this area only
4 beds min and max
£300k to £375k

On the results of that search I’d reckon you could get between £320k and £340k. You need to get into the below £350k search bracket and then I think you would have more interest.

Doesn't look like OP is coming back!

OP - there is another factor to consider.

Looking at the satellite view, it's obvious that this is a street of similar houses, many of which haven't been extended. So this is a street of houses that are mainly either 2 bed/upstairs bathroom or 3 bed/downstairs bathroom,.

Regardless of how nice an individual house might be, the ceiling price for your street is going to be lower than for a street full of houses with 4 beds upstairs and a bathroom upstairs. People do look at local sold prices when determining whether a house looks good value for money.

The highest sold price for a semi in your street looks to have been 68 Bucknell Road in 2017 (£335,500). That house had been extended to give it 4 beds upstairs, a bathroom upstairs and a garage.

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=58885075&sale=5152468&country=england

There's a lot I don't like, sorry, but the main bathroom being downstairs is all it takes for me. I wouldn't even bother viewing it, certainly not at that price.

Have not read full thread but see there are no updates from op.
If I were looking for a house here at this price and I liked the look of it these two things would stop me looking at details/photos in detail

1. Street view - ‘sanctuary’ vans outside next door led me to ‘sanctuary group’ who provide student housing - amongst lot of other things - that would be an absolute no from me.

1. Security - the photo showing the edge of the extension through the front passage way makes it look extremely insecure at the side/ back. More so than it is. Is there a way of A small amount of fencing to avoid This. Can see neighbours Sides/backs look much more secure from the street.

Good luck op

[quote KingOfDogShite]This is what the lay out what originally
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-18520011.html[/quote]
It looks way better from the front then than it does now, much more kerb appeal.

It could have been reconfigured much better than it has and probably for less than was spent.

Honestly, its boring. Its character less, but then some people prefer plain, I am sure someone will come along soon

@deste has the rite idea!!

Based on the link to the former layout it looks as though that additional front/side window was in a downstairs loo which opened into the hallway by the front door ... ?

That isn't the original layout, as the kitchen extension is there in the photos / floorplan. Downstairs, only the utility/office etc. has changed since then, plus the landing has been widened so you no longer have to walk through one bedroom to go into another.

Presumably at some point the upstairs and downstairs were the same size, so I’m now wondering if the original, original layout was just a two bed, and that’s why one bedroom is so maddeningly small? Would explain the weird extra square on the front room, if it was originally more scullery/galley kitchen...

I think this is a case of a gradually increasing footprint ending up as more extension than original house - that’s not appealing if not done very carefully! If it’s marketed as 2 and a bit beds with bonus room/granny room buyers will see the extra space as a plus, marketed as a 4 bed it feels like dishonesty, even if the total square footage is the same as an average 4 bed locally.

It's not a 4 bed though, as others have pointed out. Is the price what 4 beds are going for? If so I'd have a re think because to me, honestly, it's 2 bedrooms and a box room rather than a 4 or even a 3 bed. Sorry

I went straight to sold prices, and i think it is way overpriced.
The rooms lack pull. Theyre quite bland.
No upstairs bathroom.

Omg just realised it is not 4 bedrooms either! It is barely three since it doesnt look like there is a wardrobe in the third.

OP, are you with the same EA as your friend?

I ask because I've spoken to three EA's in the same small town this week and each has told me conflicting info on whether or not we can view properties for sale with ref to government guidelines. Maybe your EA is telling ppl their house needs to be sold before they can view which is what one EA told me earlier

I will be making a post about this later for advice

The upstairs has been altered to fit in the toilet so the rooms may be a little smaller than they were to begin with.

The downstairs extension seems to have rebuilt a bit that was already there and then put the annexe on (room and shower room) in addition to the previous extension.

Properties seem to be selling really fast at the moment so there are some vendors who ask for proceedable buyers only to come round for viewings. It is up to the vendor really though.

To me that doesn't look like a 4 bedroom house, there's only 3 bedrooms upstairs and the third room if tiny. Maybe that's the problem?

Oh God, op, I've just seen the original floor plans... You have not improved that house in any meaningful way 😬

The downstairs extension seems to have rebuilt a bit that was already there and then put the annexe on (room and shower room) in addition to the previous extension

I think they’ve just connected the downstairs extended bit of the house to what was once the garage, which is why the annexe is zigzagged. The new connecting part is the utility room.