Biting the bullet - what’s wrong with my house?

[ClaraLane]

Hi folks, I’m hoping you lovely bunch can help me work out why my house isn’t selling. We’ve been on the market since 14th October and have only had one viewing. Their feedback was that they didn’t think our balcony would get enough sun despite the estate agent doing the viewing telling them that the sun sets on that side of the house so gets full sun from about 2/3pm until sunset.

There is no picture of the 3rd room because we’ve got to do a bit of work on the bulkhead over the stairs and lockdown is making this tricky. We currently have storage heaters but have had central heating being installed in 2 weeks time.

We’re not desperate to sell as haven’t found anything we like yet but I’m starting to get concerned about why we’ve had so little interest and wonder if I’m missing anything obvious so would appreciate feedback.

Here’s the link if anyone fancies helping out: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/98430179

It's a nice flat.
Show the third bedroom.
Dress the balcony and clean it as it looks slimy and I'd worry about that.
See what the pics would look like without the lights on as that always makes me suspicious.
I'd wait until spring now.

Could it be the price is too high? It’s not my cup of tea but it looks nice on the inside.

Clean the balcony and stage. The kitchen cabinets could maybe do with a lick of paint.

What’s the supply/range like for properties of a similar size and price in / around the area? Could it just be that as a block maisonette it’s less appealing to your target buyers at that price than their other options?

Pics look fine, agree that one being missing will make people assume that room’s a mess, but sizes are clear from the floorplan.

Nice size rooms.

Is there artex or some other textured paint on the sitting room ceiling? That would put me off.

The main thing for me is the fact it’s quite far out of the City and you can get Victorian / Edwardian terraced houses with character and a garden nearer in on all sides round the Norwich ring road. I’d probably view yours but wait and see what other houses came on the market.

A quick look through RM shows there’s a few on there. They might need work, but they’re houses...

You’ve done a lovely job on the flat. I think only thing that would give me pause is the full flight of stairs from front door up to living area. This might put off families with very young children or pensioners with mobility issues looking to downsize which are a good number of the segment of buyers in the market for a 3bedroom flat.

Cleaning and staging the balcony is doable. I think I’m going to ask the estate agent to retake photos after the central heating is installed as I wonder if people are seeing the storage heaters and not reading the description where it mentions the heating installation. I’ll get them to do photos of the spare room at the same time.

@PrimalLass it’s very light - the windows are 7ft wide so the kitchen and lounge have windows the width of the room. Sadly it was raining and overcast the day the pictures were taken.

@Gretchizilla The kitchen was meant to be getting replaced in March but lockdown stopped progress and as we’ve now decided to move the estate agents advised it wasn’t worth doing as wouldn’t really make a difference price-wise.

@Dozer There’s not much around in a mile radius - lots of 2 bedroom flats and a couple of 3 bed terraced houses that need work doing.

I don’t think it’s over priced, your kitchen is a better layout than the one under offer marketed at £175k

Tricky time to sell because it’s fairly close to Christmas this time of year does dip with viewers.

I think inside is fine but really dislike the outside. The balcony adding a few plants might help a bit and maybe a table and chairs. Front of house maybe shouldn't be pic 1, maybe living room should. I don't know with price but with that level of viewings and houses just over a mile away I would guess its too high.

@YellowandGreenToBeSeen

Nice size rooms.

Is there artex or some other textured paint on the sitting room ceiling? That would put me off.

The main thing for me is the fact it’s quite far out of the City and you can get Victorian / Edwardian terraced houses with character and a garden nearer in on all sides round the Norwich ring road. I’d probably view yours but wait and see what other houses came on the market.

A quick look through RM shows there’s a few on there. They might need work, but they’re houses...

Nope no artex on any of the ceilings. We are a way out of the city centre but are practically in Sprowston. Right near several schools (primary and secondary), on a bus route into the city and 5 minutes from the new ring road too.

@PlanDeRaccordement We’ve got two children (3 years and 3 months) and the stairs have never been an issue for us except for dragging up the food shopping 😂

Once it's ready, on the next sunny day try taking your own photos from lots of angles. I think they could be better and you know your own house best.
Specify in the details that the balcony gets full sun from early afternoon.
There is lots of little garden tables etc on Facebay at the mo. You want to really show off that space outside. I'd get some greenery out there too.

My parents have got an outside bistro table we can borrow so I think plan of action once the heating is installed will be to tart up the balcony, take photos on a sunny day and add a photo of the spare room. We had lots of flowers on there in summer and grew tons of tomatoes too.

It really is a lovely house, we’ll be sad to leave it but never planned to be here so long. This was my “young, free and single” house not my “married with two children” house.

OP it’s a nice flat; really airy etc it’s just too far out of the City (where I would be looking at the terraces) for me. If I were going to move to Sprowston, I’d move out to one of the nearby villages.

Your flat is lovely and very homely, if you could take away some personal items to make it more of a blank canvas you may attract different people. At the moment families and perhaps couples would be interested as it seems to be set up as a family home.

I agree that you've done a lovely job on the interior and it looks clean, fresh and spacious.

Also agree with the pp who said not to start with a picture of the outside, it looks a lot less appealing than what you've done with the inside!

Ah - I see it’s a house! That doesn’t come across in the photos. You need to show the stairs.

I think it looks nice. The storage heaters would put me off from the photos so I probably wouldn't get round to reading the description. I agree re the balcony, if you can try and make it look nicer it would be a great asset. It also looks like it has a flat roof which is off putting to me, if it doesn't then I'd suggest a photo from another angle to show that the roof isn't flat.

I think it looks very nice inside, what others have said you need to make more of the balcony .

I don't think it should be described as "Arranged over 3 floors" or "Three Stories" - its not really and if someone reads this and then checks the floor plan, they are going to be disappointed.

I think it's absolutely gorgeous! I don't think you need to do anything with the decor or furnishings - it's beautiful. I don't know anything about the property market in Norwich though so don't feel qualified to talk about price. But you have a lovely home.

It's a nice flat.
Show the third bedroom with a bed in it. Most people can't gauge the size of a room on a floor plan.

Dress the balcony with some nice green plants in pots, and a table and chairs.

I'd also change the first picture to be just your front door with perhaps another couple of plants in pots or hanging baskets.

Its absolutely lovely! The only slight thing I can see is that the balcony looks a bit dingy in the photo. Can't comment on the price.

Is it ex-Local Authority? That is a no-no for some people.

Also, the ESW1 cetificate, or lack of it, very sadly makes many flats unsaleable at the moment if a mortgage is needed. You don't have to have any cladding.

metro.co.uk/2020/09/03/cladding-crisis-making-3000000-peoples-homes-worthless-13213365/

It's a nice home. Is it ex local authority? They tend to have good sized rooms.

There's a lot of natural light and it's well decorated.

I think flats are a hard sell at the moment. My observations are that I can't see a shower in your bathroom and there is no descriptions of what's included in the rooms. Your kitchen is a bit dated but I imagine that's reflected in the price. It doesn't have a garden which would probably be wanted by people buying a 3 bed. And you need a pic of the 3rd bedroom. I wouldn't have put my house up for sale if there was still work you wanted to do.
Also as previous posters have stated dress the balcony.