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

Hi OP, it must be awful to be so heavily critiqued. I do think it's quite cold and bare at the mo - all walls are white and floors are all laminate. All the seating is a bold colour, and hard fabric. It's not a space you can see anywhere to relax.

The layout is unclear from pics. It took me ages to work out that the lounge and kitchen aren't the same space, so it needs redefining as a place to live.

Lounge: Get a larger mirror with a frame to match dining table, the current mirror is lost.
I would move the red chair further into the room (to roughly where your rug finishes now) and add a warm-toned coffee table between that and the sofa. You should then have a more squared off, defined living space.
Lose the green rug, it adds nothing. Get a thicker textured rug to add warmth (B&Q has a nice neutral one called Noelia).

Move dining table into a prominent spot in front of window instead of seemingly hidden away behind the entrance as you come in.

Kitchen: hide stools, they look cold. Vase of flowers on the island. Large statement clock on that wall. B&Q has a gorgeous subtle paint colour called Colour Courage soft grey, I think it could really warm up that wall (and would probably transform your lounge if you'd put that on instead of the wallpaper).

Main bedroom needs a more neutral, luxurious bedding set.

Hanging basket outside. Take car off drive.

I think it's very spacious and bright so some minor inexpensive tweaks could make a huge difference. Have a play with your furniture. And think mirrors, flowers! And change that rug! Good luck

I think it’s a nice house 😊 I’m so impressed by your tidy bathrooms, where’s all your lotions and potions 😆 my bathroom has been described as “chaotic” there’s bottles everywhere...

1. It's not a 4-bed, it's a 3-bed, so if you're looking for 4-bed houses in Bicester you'd open your listing, taken one look and move on. It should be listed as what it is, which is a 3-bed.

2. The only bathroom is downstairs.

3. Tiny, boxy bedrooms, long, corridor-like rooms downstairs.

4. Very plain on the outside. No curb appeal.

5. Very small garden. Looks like you sacrificed most of it for that very long extension. Did you (or someone else), covert a garage? That's what it looks like.

6. Overall, it's a weird shape, it's not very attractive and it has a poky garden and bedrooms.

Maybe think about your target market. Although you use it as a family home it would probably suit a couple without kids but with more money. Older people might like to downsize to a house with space to have big family meals and grandkids to visit. I’d play up the reception / home office space and reduce the number of bedrooms.

Have a look on instagram or pinterest to get some ideas , move some furniture about, the the sofa stuck in the corner doesn't look cosy . I think a bit of styling would make all the difference. There are lots of duvet covers on offer at the moment so give everything a freshen up with a few chosen accessories .

House is great with plenty of potential but it is definitely overpriced after looking at house prices in the area.
Get the description changed to 3/4 bed with an office.
Would it be possible to get the rendering brought round to the front of the house without it costing too much? Definitely get some plants added around the front of the property.
Remove the stickers off the wardrobe in the main bedroom, if possible take the beading off too, paint and add some modern handles (sliding doors?)
Paint the wall behind the bed and add a large piece of art or a mirror to make it more inviting. Change the lampshade as it disappears into the room, too much white.
Tidy the cushions on the bed.
Pink bedroom, get rid of the teddies, and throws off the bed. Maybe add a set couple of cheap plain pink/ purple bedding sets. Again walls look stark so art or mirrors.
Smaller child's bedroom

Again change the bedding and remove teddies and toys from the bed. Remove stickers from the wall paint a one wall to add a statement, noting bright but to add some personality, mirrors to make the room feel bigger.
Kitchen is nice and tidy but get rid of litter try, tidy away neatly. Remove personal artwork on walls. Mirrors, plants and artwork in the kitchen. Again, too much white.
Living room feels empty and need to flow more.

Maybe take mirror from over the fire to one of the bedrooms and replace with a larger one, it looks lost on the wall.
Table cloth on the table and possibly a rug in the area too. Tall lamp in the corner to make it feel like a reading 'nook' / cosy area.
Definitely add curtains too.
Bathrooms. Do you have towel rails? Add a nice towel rail with a towel in each bathroom and nice hand washes, plants or ornaments.
Hide any toiletries from around the bath.
Office? Remove leopard print and owl cushions add neutral ones. Rug, match the tubs on the shelving (cheap in ikea). Curtains.

Please don't take this as criticism, I've had to do this myself and although it sound like it'll be expensive and a lot of work, it isn't.

Basically it's the removal of personal items (large photos on walls), painting feature walls (doesn't have to be bright), rugs, curtains, plants, couple of ornaments and a few pieces of art.

The room on fhe ground floor can't be honestly called a reception room either - you would never receive guests In a room that you have to walk through the utility to get to. It's a home office, so label it as that.

*convert.

And sorry - that sounds rather brutal - but you did ask.

It doesn’t feel homely to me- there’s no warmth to it. You need more colour especially in the kitchen, it reminds me of a communal kitchen rather than a family one, a soft pastel colour would make the world of difference.

You'll find that once you describe it accurately as a 3 bed, and drop the price accordingly, the bedding and pictures won't make any difference.

I agree with others that it is actually a 3 bedroomed house. It annoys me when estate agents do this. I would have a 7 bedroomed house if I counted my lounge, dining room and playroom.

Get a professional photographer in - it'll be worth it.

I'm househunting at the moment, and we only skim those with fuzzy, dark, half-hearted photos.

A well staged house with bright, well lit photos will sell much faster.

Sorry OP, I'm also struggling with the layout. 'A bit bottom heavy' is a massive understatement. The only way I would consider the house is if I had a disabled family member who needed to be downstairs, in which case I would:

• move bathroom upstairs
• move 'utility room' into kitchen or old bathroom
• make utility room into a corridor wide enough for wheelchair and build disabled access bathroom where rest of utility room is (if it is big enough)

I think you need Sarah Beeny or Kirstie&Phil.

(I also don't think you can have a reception room accessed via a kitchen/utility room. It could be a family room / extra bedroom.)

Agree that it's a 3 bed, and advertising/staging the 4th room as an office is an excellent idea.

Add some bright plants in pots to the outside.

There's so much white inside. Maybe a few colourful pictures on the walls, or bright cushions, or something to liven it up. The inside is nice otherwise.

Also agree that the photos are weird.

Few simple fixes, then get the photos taken again:

• remove the green kitchen stools for the photo
• Remove a lot of the boxes in the study, it looks super cluttered
• Add a plant and flowers in the dining room
• Add a trellis and climbing plant outside or at least move the plants you have at the side/back to the front for the front photo (against the house on the gravel drive)

You can’t fix the layout but you can make it more appealing. May even be worth paying for someone to “dress” the house for you if it saves you dropping the price thousands or tens of thousands.

As someone actively looking, pre Corona I would have looked at maybe type houses, or properties that feel overpriced, now I'm just looking at them online. Doesn't feel worth the inconvenience, hassle and risk.

We've sold, we're in rented on a rolling contract in our new location and have viewed one house (which was empty). There have been 10+ we'd have viewed in normal times.

We've also been less interested in top of budget and not ideal for us as don't want to get caught by a price crash in a house that doesn't really work for us.

Try looking at the floor plan on a mobile phone - it hasn't been uploaded properly and the estate agent needs to redo this

it looks like a care home at the back

The whole series of pics gave me the vibe of an empty, failed care home.

Sorry OP!

I am very confused by the relationship between the reception room in the extension - do you really have to walk through the bathroom/utility room from the kitchen to get into it? That would put me off. The photos are terrible. If I viewed it I would be weighing up how much it would cost to make it better and if I could recoup that. You’re already massively overpriced so that combined with the £££ I’d be thinking for doing it up and it being poorly advertised = either no viewing or walking away for a better option.

The interior's ok. I feel for you, half the people here are saying 'it's too cold and souless' and the other half are saying 'take down your photos'! Ha! The right house a the right price will sell no matter what colour the bar stools in the kitchen are. What would put me off (and I wouldn't even view based on it) is the layout. Essentially, what you have is an overdeveloped 2 bed property. Neither bedrooms 3 or 4 work well. You then have the bathroom issue. Then you have the walk-through rooms - no central hall. That might just be me but having previously lived in a house like that I wouldn't do it again. I don't know what your local property market is like but I think drastic reduction might be your best way forwards (sorry).

I'm going to ignore the price as I have no idea of house prices in Bicester. The downstairs bathroom would be a deal breaker for me. It's not a 4 bed, I agree with a previous poster who said you would be better to advertise it as an office. The kitchen looks a bit like stuff has been plonked in there. The garden also looks tiny.
Also when I'm looking at Rightmove I find it odd when a property doesn't have an photograph of the actual house as the first picture. I always think it looks like you're hiding something. It would be easy to improve the outside by getting some plants.

Also, a downstairs bathroom would put me off instantly

Agree with other comments RE the bedrooms and the downstairs bathroom. Nothing annoyed me more when I was looking than someone marketing a downstairs room as a bedroom, particularly when this greatly reduces the downstairs reception space which is simultaneously being advertised. I wouldn't consider a downstairs bedroom for kids, most people wouldn't so in effect it's a guest room at best or for a very small number of people it's possible as an elderly parent bedroom.
We live in a 4 story townhouse with the bathroom on the ground floor, and it put us off viewing for a few weeks. We have a tiny ensuite upstairs but no other bathrooms/toilets. We ended up buying it though because the (1) bedrooms were all good size doubles (2) it had a separate study to use for working from home (much more reception space than comparably priced houses) (3) it's a Victorian property with bags of charm and (4) the location is hard to beat, we are on the edge of town so a couple of mins walk to the countryside one way and a couple of minutes to the high street the other way, which we felt was perfect for me on mat leave.
Your house looks very modern and fairly characterless so the kinds of people who are looking are much more likely to value practicality over charm, and the bedroom/bathroom situation means your house doesn't have that.
Personally, I would be marketing the downstairs bedroom as a home office/study considering the number of people needing to work from home at the moment. It looks like the estate agent is keener to market it as potential lodger accommodation which I think is a bit misguided. Can you ask them to alter the description a bit?
The decor is a bit plain but that in itself shouldn't put too many people off - I think it's just a combination of issues that ultimately mean nothing about the photos or description are going to appeal to the heart over head buyers, and then the bedroom/bathroom situation prevent it appealing to the head over heart buyers.

I am confused about the more than 80 sq metres living space as the top listing. I thought that meant the whole house rather than just the ground floor which is confusing. I would immediately think the house was too small!
Agree with comments about 3/4 bedrooms.
Also you need to set price at a multiple of £25k on rightmove. Otherwise people will have to scroll down several pages to find your property which they are unlikely to do.

I’d get better pictures. The angle they’ve been taken at make the ceilings look very low. Also, is that a shared drive? That may put people of and yes try and add some planters to the front to give some curb appeal