What's wrong with my house

[mrsanflowerpot]

Please help.

Our house went on the market about three weeks ago, 8 viewings compared to everyone else in the same bracket having lots. Similar price to others locally even though we have an extension that we use as a dining room. I know the second bedroom is small, but nothing we can do about that. Can we do anything else?

Thank you!

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-72197922.html

Ps when we put ours on the market we put everything we didn't need urgently into storage, so it looked a lot less cluttered, and we had a quick paint/touch up (you could paint your kitchen cupboards), then dress it with flowers, throws, etc. Try not to have anything personal on display. Then moving day will be less stressful as you can move the stuff from the house on the day leaving you space to redecorate if needed then gradually bring everything back from storage.

You have awful photos. You need to get agent to re take photos. You need to make it look more appealing think how they stage new homes to make them look like you want to live there. Fluffy towels. Purpose each room etc and yes the beds look messy. Maybe buy some white bedding and coloured cushions or blanket at bottom of bed etc. Move all your junk out for photos.

I wouldn't buy a house with no parking out front, not even road parking.

My initial thoughts are that it looks like a lovely home but there isn't much thought gone into the pictures. There's too many 'things' in the pics and the beds don't look nearly made. Can you get the pictures re done and remove all the non essentials like the coloured door mat in the conservatory, the toy box? With the cushions in? Just move stuff from room to room when the pictures are being done? I hope it sells for you!

Very badly taken photos with strange angles. The bed isn’t made properly, the curtains are uneven, personal photographs, decor very bland. Remove junk and toys, and the 2 small colourful plastic mats or whatever they are. All this would put me off, the house for some reason doesn’t feel clean because of it..

Also change the bedspread to white, that one looks like an 80’s pattern.

It looks OK from the outside and you have a lovely garden.

But, on a practical level it is not walkable to the train station which would put me off as I don't drive and would be a commuter.

Also the area itself looks a bit bland and too built-up.

The decor in the house looks old fashioned and you really need to tidy up the bedrooms before you photograph them.

Also the pictures make all the rooms look long but narrow.

'Guide price' might confused some people. To be honest I would not pay that amount for the house and its location. I think you will have to take new pictures of it and drop the price.

A few suggestions:

• ask the agents to crop the first front photo so it's just the house and front garden. The second one can show the neighbours but the first should showcase your house.
• I'd make some changes inside and get the photos redone
• the floorplan is poor. The bathroom is labelled as a bedroom?
• Are those drain rods propped up the conservatory / dining room? By the heater?
• could you lose the plastic table cloth, move the dining table into the lounge (nearer the kitchen) and present the conservatory space as a second living room/playroom?
• for the garden, can you try zoning it? Relaxing seating area, children's play area etc - at the moment it feels a bit scattered.
• Presentation is key - you may need to move stuff around between photos - when we sold our flat the hoover and mop were just propped up in a corner as we didn't have much storage but we moved them out of shot for the photos.

Hi
Recently sold our house not too far from you so I know how stressful this could be!

My suggestions would be

Remove rugs in living room
Take chairs out of children's bedrooms
Remove unit from the kitchen
Remove the tablecloth
White bedding in master room
Pop a nice (artificial?) plant on the windowsill in the bathroom and one on the kitchen counter.
Remove floor mats from the dining room
Remove some of the clutter from the garden

Agree with other posters that the photos aren't great. Particularly the bathroom angles are odd!

Good luck xx

It looks like you are trying to cover up some kind of heating/damp/mould issue in the photos.

Windows open in contrast to the others on the street. A large selection of fans and heaters throughout, Reed diffusers under open windows. Guide price, agent from a different town....

When we had our house in the market we were told to have the same price as one of the categories on rightmove/Zoopla. If you are on at £360,000 people will have to hunt some way to find your house. Whereas those on at £350k will be higher up.
If by "guide" price you mean that you would accept slightly lower (or higher) offers, then I would try a reduction to £350k.

What everyone else has said. This is what struck me:

The beds look a bit untidy - easy enough to smooth out or iron a duvet
Lose the chairs in the small bedrooms
The dining room is a bit unloved and could do with restaging
Rewrite the description! "chest of draws" "a stone throw away" and capital letters missing, really??? Typos and casual phrasing and not much detail.

Things you cannot do anything about but which I would not be a fan of:
No hallway so you have to walk through the living room
No downstairs loo
Two front doors
No room to eat in kitchen

I am not suggesting these can be solved but they might mitigate against the price.

Dated kitchen and bathroom.
Poorly maintained decking and shed
No plants in the garden
The dining area looks very dated. The dark wood doors look dated.

Why not look at some other houses online and see which ones stand out. I am sure you could stage your house better for only a small amount of money.

The lounge and kitchen both look very dark so anything you can do to make them look lighter would make it look more appealing, have the photos redone with the lights on. You could dress the dining room table to make the conservatory more appealing and temporarily move the bright mats from inside the door.
It's more expense but I'd paint those brown doors between the house and the conservatory white or cream. The main bedroom looks very cluttered in the first photo, maybe take out the chest of drawers for the photo and replace the television with a picture. Put some curtains up. I'd just use the 2nd photo, you don't need three. Move the clutter by the door if you use the third photo.
The bedroom with the rocket bed linen looks a good size with storage but sort the curtains out. Move the pictures off the floor in your daughter's bedroom. Put a window covering in the bathroom. Tidy the end of the garden and maybe invest in some nice pots which you can take with you and do the wood stain on the decking and fence again.
Oh and the estate agent has messed up the floor plan - either that or you have a bath in a bedroom!

Hi OP, my suggestions are v simple and affordable:

Kitchen - paint walls white. It is crying out for it. Remove the unit and the pics close by. Clear worktops.

Dining room - if you do nothing else you MUST remove those curtains. They're heavy, crowding the space and breaking up the flow of the room. If you need privacy in those windows replace with neutral roller blinds. Remove the clutter.

Lounge - remove picture mural, rugs, the box thing with stuff in, the small lamp on the sideboard. Plump up the sofas.

Bedrooms are what they are, but the master could have more 'luxurious' bedding.

Guide price isn't an issue IMO, I see it often. It's not going to kill off anyone's enthusiasm.

Good luck!

First, take a look at how the other houses nearby have been done up but sold at less than your guide price.

The exterior shot needs to be on an angle, not face on. You need to trim your hedge and hang up a basket. Why are all your windows open when no one else's are?

Move your furniture in from the walls. It may not be how you have it functionally, but for staging it looks more attractive. Throw some plants around.

Why are those mats in front of the dining room door? Is the floor knackered underneath?

Jet wash the garden and get a couple of tins of paint from B&Q - I just did our shed for a tenner and the decking and rails for £20. Throw some pots around - you can borrow them if you need to it's only for the photos.

It's been said by a couple of others but in case it gets missed - please remove the photo of your child and the stickers showing her name from the photos that go online.
When you trim your hedge, offer to do your neighbours' too - it will have a beneficial effect on your property.

Why is there a photo of a car in a field?

All the curtains in the house really need to go, they look messy and don’t fit. Especially the ones in the room with the stickers (why not even bother to straighten them?!) and the dining room. And why not even bother to make the beds, I don’t get it?

All I see is how much work needs to be done!

The double doors are too dark and would need to be painted white

Fresh kick of paint everywhere

The kids bedroom, one has built in furniture making it look super small as it is. Hard to change that.

Kitchen looks outdated

No purpose to that dining room, just looks sad. Even dreasing the dining table would make it look better.

Tidy and de clutter back garden. Paint fences. Tidy front garden. I wouldn’t look at a house on a walkway. Explain the parking clearly. Prices where you are are much on a par with where I live, but ex council houses go for £100,000 less that those that were privately built. This house has a real Council house look to it. There’s not a lot you can do about it, but is reduces saleability. The two front doors need sorting out. They’re awful. You just need one that’s smart and welcoming. The kitchen is so dated. I’d paint the cupboards a trendy colour. You’ve got an extension but no downstairs toilet? Very off putting. Rearrange your furniture to make the rooms look less narrow and dress them. I bought a show house. It has lots of mirrors and lovely pictures on the wall. You need mirrors to reflect light. Make the house look like you love it. At the moment it looks meh. Agree with PPs comments on bedding and dark dividing doors. Most people don’t want a dining room as it’s a waste of space. Could you change it into something people look for for example, work from home space, utility room and downstairs toilet and shower. I think that even with dressing the house for sale you need to ask a set price of £340-350,000 Try the higher amount and be prepared to take the lower amount.

The neighbours trampoline right against the fence is a bit off putting. But then i've read plenty of threads on here about those

I actually like the green! I like the size & length of the downstairs.
Why no picture of a hallway/stairs?

I wouldnt view purely because i can already see im going to need to revamp the garden (the fences and decking have seen better days) 5/6k
The kitchen needs a redo - an easy 15-30k depending, its massive!
And the internal doors need replacing another grand or so

Is that an extension or a conservatory? Looks like a conservatory to me so id factor in another 10k to replace that eventually.

The bathroom another 7/8k. Its not horrible but it is dated

Add that to your normal costs of floors & decorating of moving id feel robbed.

Most of it you could proli fix yourself for a fraction of the price but as it goes with the extras it feels im spending 400k on something totally basic

It does have potentional and it's a nice family home, its just really expensive.

Hope you sell it though good luck

Hi everyone. Thank you so much for your comments. A couple of new photos here.

In answer to some questions, there is designated parking, as well as a shower and I think the kitchen colour makes it look a little older than it is, but absolutely appreciate all feedback. We've moved agent this morning, it's about to go back on the market tomorrow, and we have three viewings already lined up. Fingers crossed. We have two on the road, one completely redone and one that hasn't been touched for some time that are SSTC both for a bit over what ours was on at without the dining area downstairs, so fingers crossed we at least now how some viewings.

Thank you to everyone!

The new pictures are fabulous !
Good luck with the viewings .

Looks much better 🤞🏻