Advice Welcomed on Sale of My House

[goodbyestranger]

I get on well with the agent who says he doesn't think a price reduction is a good idea; that the price is right. His view seems to be that the house may take a while to sell because I just need 'the right person'. The obvious problem is no on site parking but there's plenty on street parking nearby: I've parked on the street opposite for forty years (for the last twenty with a large VW nine seat people carrier) and there are a number of other spaces just a few steps up the road. A similar house with parking sold for £200k more a couple of years ago and another where parking could be created, assuming planning permission and c. £20k to create, sold for £50k more this summer. A smaller house with a small garden and no comparable views and no parking and much, much further from the beach sold for £125 less a few weeks ago. It's a ten minute flat walk along a National Trust path to the incredibly beautiful beach and the buses to both local schools (one a comp, the other a top co-ed grammar) stop at the door. I've brought my eight DC up in this house - admittedly a bit of a squash, but they love the house even so. I can't create any on-site parking, it just isn't there. The other possible issue is the extension I had to build in 2006 to accommodate the family as they grew. It's not the best looking extension ever but all that could be done within the confines of very strict planning controls in the area (AONB - Jurassic Coast) and is a really lovely room inside. The village community is vibrant and welcoming. Advice on how to proceed welcomed.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/73186305#/

Could you afford to move to a small place and keep the house as a holiday let? Places that sleep large numbers seem to fetch high rents. Layout would not matter then.
I think you need a photo of the front of the house and the street. The downstairs bedroom looks odd, would making it into a living area in a 3 bedroomed house be better?

I think it’s beautiful and anyone looking to buy in that area should buy it if only for the garden and views.

Agree with others that it needs to be staged and decluttered properly for viewings.

Move the dining room table to the space at the bottom of the stairs. I wouldn't buy a house with a bedroom in a hall way.

Get the outside painted, it looks grubby.

Bluntness completely agree about wisteria etc but I literally kill any plant I attempt to grow. Your ideas are really good.

Yesbutisittouching your marathon post also super helpful.

Svalberg genius. Exactly what I'd realised I could do when I woke up in the middle of the night - camp bed thing - and those look ideal.

The DC don't want me to sell at all but the older ones need/ are keen on deposits. This sale has been a few years coming so while we've had a lovely life here, I'm completely committed to shifting elsewhere. It took a while to get to this point but it's the only thing which makes sense financially so I don't think there's any rowing back.

Redburnett no is the answer to could I afford it! Also I badly need capital for the DC so a holiday let wouldn't crack that problem.

landoshalo interesting about the grubby comment. You're the third poster to say that. The front of the house is Beer stone. Much sought after for cathedrals etc and came from the quarry down the road. I don't think anyone local would forgive me if I tried to paint it!

Incidentally that side you see in the photos is the front of the house. The other side backs onto the lane and is very much back, not front.

Branscombe is my dream village you are so lucky to live there! The house is lovely I wouldn’t change much except take out some of the beds and big table if you can then take new photos.
I agree with the agent you are just waiting for the right person to come along and fall in love with the house, which may take some time in the current climate but it will happen.

It's lovely but how is it worth £100k more than this house?

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=61296103&sale=10748395&country=england

[quote QueenStromba]It's lovely but how is it worth £100k more than this house?

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=61296103&sale=10748395&country=england[/quote]
Id say it’s worth even more than a hundred k more. That house doesn’t compare.

It’s a beautiful house but the parking situation would really put me off. If I’m spending that much on a house the chances are I’ve got more than one car. Also I would worry that the spot you usually use would be taken by day trippers.

@Seeingadistance

Given that working from home seems set to be a long term reality, meaning that many people have more freedom to live outwith cities, I’d market the extension as a home office.

I agree. The people who live opposite my parents in their Dorset village have moved to their second home permanently given that they can both work from home. I’m sure they aren’t unusual in this. Two home office spaces could be a real selling point.

I echo what people have said about the beds, dining table, the extension looking like a dorm, etc.

I think the outside pics need redoing, it isn't at all clear that the walls are a lovely stone, they look like grubby painted. The pics make the floor also look like cheap paving, but in the garden pics its clear the paving is a lovely stone. Sometimes when photos are done on a very sunny day it just bleaches everything.

You need pics doing for the front of the house too, I would look and wonder why only one side of the house has been photographed.

Push the agent to do a video walk through, it will be helpful to see the flow, esp with the extension.

I would also either make the extension into a self contained annexe / master (you can make the landing area where the table is into a dressing area or study), or another sitting room with the landing a study. Then market it as a 3 bed. 4 bed you would expect parking.

As someone who lives just along the jurassic coast from you, I don't think you need to reduce the price. I agree with all the comments about restaging bedroom 4 as living space, and replacing the massive table. I would also suggest looking on Rightmove at properties listed with symonds and Sampson, and stags Estate agents as they do far more rural properties and their listing seem more put together than yours. You definitely need more photos than you've got, particularly when people aren't travelling down to the west country from London so much. The garden looks lovely but with the photo of the lawn taken on such a sunny day it's all too dappled to really appreciate it. I would also question whether the extension has annexe potential as this always seems to be a bonus and highlighted in listings

I wouldn’t sell to be honest OP! You have 8 children, how much deposit are you going to be able To Give each of them and still buy yourself a home that is big enough to
host them all? I know this isn’t the point of the thread but if I was your friend I would be saying stay where you are. I think a parent downsizing to fund their children’s deposit is a massive sacrifice, but especially in your case when you still need a decent sized place to host your children and presumably future troops of grandchildren. As a stranger on the internet I’m concerned about where you will be moving to after being in this home for forty years.

Nothing to add that hasn't already been said, but Seaton is one of my favourite places in the UK! We stayed at Upcott House in Beer last year when I was there for a friends birthday weekend.

Hope the house sells soon OP! X

I’m also going to question the selling for deposits scenario. Why?

Assuming you’ll still have to live somewhere and you’ll need to fund that, how much money are you going to release? £300k? Giving each child less than £40k? That seems like an enormous sacrifice for a limited benefit.

I am quite surprised people think thr walls look like paint they look clearly like old stone to me.

Marketing it as a three bed is going to reduce what the op can get for it and reduce her market, it’s a terrible idea. She just needs to make it look like a beautiful bedroom/master suite. It’s easy enough to do

I think the fact people can’t imagine it as a bedroom shows how badly it’s presented. It doesn’t look like one in those pics, it looks like a small awkward space with some beds rammed in dorm style.

Painted, furnished properly it could make a beautiful bedroom.

The DC I have here find the youth hostel comments very funny. It's been like a boarding school for years, never mind a hostel! Youngest has only just gone to uni but they keep coming back, hence hanging onto the beds. As soon as the last one is out of the door for the new term I intend to completely re-do the extension room. I've also already sent an e-mail to the antiques dealer that I bought the table from years ago, in the hope he might take it back.

You're right, about £45k each. But that's probably the difference between their own place and some point and no place. It's entirely my doing that there are eight of them, so I do feel this has to be done. I'm moving out of the area and going to Scotland (half Scottish). It's much cheaper up there.

At the risk of getting boring - thanks again.

I didn't realise it was beer stone, no, def. do not paint it then! Sorry op.

Typo. That should read their own place at some point.

and

Giving each child less than £40k? That seems like an enormous sacrifice for a limited benefit.

Only on mumsnet would 40k be a limited benefit

Cheers landoshalo I was hoping it was a reasonable whack!

To be honest I also am surprised you want to do this. Or that even your kids would let you.

How do you think this sold one down the road compares to yours, OP?
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/71850279#/

No idea about your area but from pictures, this ticks all the boxes ... charming, secluded (yours is overlooked), much better common areas and better layout. Cons of that house is only one bathroom and it’s smaller than yours. It’s a bit like yours without the extension. Yet it sold for higher than your asking price.

Yes don’t paint it- Christ no. Just get the photos redone so it’s not as bleached out and it’ll be clearer that it’s stone. I think either a master bed or a separate sitting room would be lovely, neutral curtains and so on. People will then adapt it to what they want. The camera angles makes the beds look huge and the angle of the fire in the sitting room needs redoing too. I would go with a new agent personally. Some round here opt for those awful fish eye lenses and auto pics and some use professional photography and walk through, the difference when people move to one of those is amazing- look like totally different homes.