Help! What are we missing with our house sale?

[GXDavid]

Hi Everyone,

We had sold our house but then got dropped three weeks before exchange. We have had some viewers and a lowball offer but haven't found that right buyer yet.

Our house is a 1928 Arts & Crafts style house in a private estate, ten minutes from the station/ shops and with a good selection of local private and public schools included a coveted catchment and distance to Dr Challoners grammar schools. The house is fully modernised (wiring, plumbing, heating, windows, kitchen and bathrooms) and is neutrally decorated apart from the kitchen/ dining room which is big enough to take quite a bold maroon colour that offsets the modern kitchen and flooring. For the local market we are on point re pricing , if not a little cheap. So my question is what are we missing?

If you look at the details - what is there that might put you off? Any comments very gratefully received as we feel like we have done everything we can to present the house but wonder if we are missing anything?

www.frostweb.co.uk/property-details/375332/buckinghamshire/gerrards-cross/the-queensway-1

Thanks and regards,

David

I mean, look at this one thats cheaper than yours. Wow.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/72971700#/

The kitchen is soulless. I’d rip that out. Not what I expect to see in an Art and Crafts house.

I like the modern interior but with authentic windows, someone linked to another property which is much more chintzy, I'd hate that and was thinking the whole time how I could get rid of their dated pine! You won't please all of the people all of the time. You should get the bedrooms shown and staged, same with the good interior of the house, which I like. Pictures aren't the best, don't have that glossy feeling for that price of house and it's ridiculous not to have them of every room, makes you think there's something to hide.

Then it's just getting the people through the doors.

Well as always, it ll go for the right price. But yea, the momentum is gone, most people that wanted to move out of London yet stay within commutable distance have made their moves in 2020 so you may have missed the mini boom train.

On a different note, and nothing to do with your house, always been astonished by GX prices, which are basically similar to zone 3 in London but with a 5k a year commute per adulte, I guess it must be an extra ordinary place to live in.

[quote ShirleyPhallus]I mean, look at this one thats cheaper than yours. Wow.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/72971700#/[/quote]
That one is gorgeous, and has the interior I'd expect in an arts and crafts house. Lovely garden too.

So these are the last sales in the area

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=72263946&sale=91923195&country=england

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=81464770&sale=91923225&country=england

people obvs like shiny there so you need to appeal to those people. I agree the garden needs a bit of attention.

Too modern, I hate the kitchen sooo bad, the red colour the wierd designed cupboards.. The whole house lacks personality or potential.

The garden is actually pretty small with no landscaping done.

Didnt see much of the bedrooms, I saw no real storage, front of house lovely but again nothing inviting there, no colourful flowers or a lovely made driveway.

For 1.5 mil I wouldn't view, without knowing the area I would say it was worth about 800k if I was looking at the worth. But then that's because I've seen lush 4 bed houses with large plots of land and stables for 800k as well.

Also would want to see more colour

Clearly crushed velvet does not photograph well!... ;-)

Thanks everyone; no one seems to be holding back (ouch!) but it is very helpful reading the comments.

There is a door to the ensuite but that is a great catch if it does not look like it in the picture. Our living room is zoned into a TV area (big sofa opposite the TV) and social area (two sofas around a coffee table and opposite the fireplace so I am intrigued by some of the comments regarding furniture layout.

An arts and crafts house is on my "if I had all the money in the world" list and sorry but as others have fairly convincingly said, the interior just isn't in keeping. I could live with the garden and do what I want there, but internally it's a modern house with not much character, sorry. I agree that new photos focussing on some elements that reflect the exterior would maybe attract more interest. But you kind of need to decide who you're appealing to, arts and crafts fans or modern house fans.

I agree with several previous posters - nice Arts and Crafts outside, completely at odds with modern interiors. Yes, you can see a few original details but they are swamped and out of scale with all the rest of the modernisation. To me, it's really unsettling; the spirit of the house is somehow wrong.

The house linked by brownet is lovely.
I also love the original arts and crafts airy white room at Morris's The Red House, here:
www.houseandgarden.co.uk/gallery/design-ideas-arts-crafts
This is interesting, too:
www.houzz.com/magazine/how-arts-and-crafts-style-beautifies-today-s-interiors-stsetivw-vs~5263222

Agree with what others have said re garden and also lack of privacy/being overlooked by/closeness of neighbours. But we don't all have the same tastes and I genuinely do hope that you soon find a buyer. Foxhat makes a very good point - do what you can to add extra appeal to people who like modern.

Looking at the houses for sale though I don't think what I like is actually popular in that market. The style of kitchen of this house fits in (maybe not the red).

ShirleyPhallus - a great example of location, location, location. This is a nice house with good potential but it is much further away from the station and very close to a dual carriageway with the additional noise, cars, etc.

I have no issue with the interior vs exterior matching. For me, it's very simple - if a house is on the market and not all the main rooms are shown, I am immediately suspicious and assume that there is something wrong with those rooms that will require me to do meaningful amounts of work to make them usable.

A five bedroom house with a picture of just one (average) bedroom? Ditto lack of pictures of bathroom.

Your house is your house - you can't change the decor etc so I'm always a bit surprised on threads like this where that's the main criticism (ditto -when people say they'd never look at house that had pets.). But you can market it better eg by actually showing all the rooms.

Also ditch the photograph of the house from the back. It looks tatty and rundown and the garden looks really bland in that picture.

Agree, photos not good enough. It looks like it must be a much small house from the photos on your listing.

Whereas the zoopla listing a PP posted has beautiful photos which show it off much better.

Agree not keen on the kitchen colour. It’s almost a bit too heritage in a very not heritage style kitchen.

I think it’s lovely. Expensive but then I live in Durham so could probably by the cathedral for that !
I do agree with the others there doesn’t seem to be many pictures. I think that’s what’s missing! I love the kitchen !

Looks quite cold and impersonal inside.

The decor is well done but I was thinking where is all their stuff? No pictures or paintings or art or vases or decorative furniture. Everything is very functional looking and a bit stark.

I think at that price point you're settling a lifestyle a little bit aren't you and I don't see any of that.

One of the houses @brownet linked to is not GX. It’s Chalfont Common.

The second house in GX is well presented. You don’t need an arts and crafts kitchen to sell in GX but OP you have a house with no interior style. Where are bookcase? Lamp tables? Lamps ? Bookcases and where’s they Hall and stairs with great lighting? It’s uber bland. No patterns. No pictures or photos. No curtains or varied seating or big rugs. You can change some of this. Take a look in magazines like Homes and Gardens to see what you can do to make it less than a shell. I think it’s a tad over priced. You are close to private schools though. I think Frosts should help you with styling because you cannot change the kitchen but you can make it more homely with pattern and colour.

1. It doesn’t look very warm. It is difficult to imagine family life there – do you currently rent it out or is that your home?
2. Where are all the photos? 5 bedroom house with only 1 photographed bedroom puts me off.
3. Lack of bathroom photos makes me assume the bathrooms are all outdated or need work.
4. Garden looks big but they haven’t bothered to take a photo of it. I want to see the end of the garden; not the back of the house!
5. Was the photographer lying on the floor in the sitting room to take that weird photo?!

Good luck with the sale!

Selling not settling!

Some very specific ideas of things I’d do if I was dressing this house, further to my comments earlier:

• Rearrange the furniture in the reception rooms. Treat each section as a room in itself, and arrange it for the photo ....which won’t necessarily be how you’d live with it day to day. I’m presuming you’ve got the sofas pushed to the back because that room is a bit of a corridor? Bring the sofas forward (and can you add a nice armchair?) so they are arranged together in a seating arrangement around a coffee table and rug, and in front of the fire. As if you were about to sit down for a coffee with friends. It also doesn’t matter if it blocks the way to the room through the double doors; it’s only for the photos.

• your third reception area needs a property identity. At the moment it’s just a slightly random space that’s part snooker room (but not enough space to actually play) part music room, and also where an old sofa got dumped. It’s not aspirational and is slightly depressing and makes me think the house isn’t a great space to live in. So either dress it as a games room, or as a music room, or a third sitting room. Or even a gym or yoga studio would be better! Again, it only needs to be for the pictures.

• paint the kitchen.

• the master bedroom needs some attention - I’d consider painting the wardrobes (the doors look really old fashioned - sorry). The curtains and bedlinen clash; neither go with the artwork. I’d personally replace the bed linen with plain white or plain cream and perhaps a throw that ties in with the curtain. The picture is also hung too high - it makes the proportions wrong. Shouldn’t it be hung from a cord hung from the picture rail, not directly off it?

• rear garden needs a facelift. You may not have the time or appetite for re-landscaping but between now and having the photos done again give the lawn a couple of cuts. There is no reason why you cannot get stripes onto the lawn with a decent mower; it would look so much better especially with a large lawn like yours!

• for the photos (taken on a sunny day) get your nice garden cushions out, dress the outside seating area and move all the junk out of sight including the trampoline.

Good luck

The pictures are badly lit and taken from bad angles. Get some better ones done. Mow the lawn and get photos of the garden done from a better angle.

There isn't much you can do about the lack of original features but you do have some and you haven't highlighted them at all. You have those amazing arched ceilings around the windows but they are hidden with model cars, a modern blind and a sofa. I would be dressing them to emphasis them, draw the eye to them as a feature. Instead of toy cars, I would place something like a dramatic floral display on the window sill, maybe some candlesticks (it needs to be something tall to fit with the scale of the window) and move the pool table out of the way to get a photo of the window framing the flowers.

The garden is a bit difficult. Like a PP said, it does look like it's been forgotten. There isn't much you can do without spending a fortune on landscaping but I would trim all the hedges at the front (what's with the weird bumps in the hedge?) and add a few pots of flowers near the door as a focal point.

The back garden looks very unloved and like it is in permanent shade. You need to take the photos when the sun is higher. I would put the trampoline down, restain the wooden furniture, put up (and possibly replace) the parasol and make the lawn look perfect. I would then concentrate on the area around the patio. Buy some large trees and shrubs in pots and some smaller pots of flowers to place around the patio, creating a border in pots around the patio. You can buy mature plants from places like here:

www.impactplants.co.uk/

Op, I reupholster and sell sofas. You have to set the scene and indicate how your house will enhance your buyers lives.

You need to plush it up a bit with more soft furnishings. Everyone can imagine themselves sinking into a lovely stylish sofa while almost no one can imagine themselves wanting to play a game of Poole.

Just some lovely rugs to break up the vast expanse of wood flooring, flowers, cushions, better window dressings, plush duvets, plants etc. Your house looks like it would echo because you have almost no soft furnishings!

Only my opinion but I think the outside looks immaculate and the garden is huuuuuuuuge. Then again, you could buy over five of my house for one of yours so I'm not well qualified on that front!

I agree with those who have said the interiors don’t match the exterior or the period/style of the house.

So that would put me right off, sorry.

Our living room is zoned into a TV area (big sofa opposite the TV) and social area (two sofas around a coffee table and opposite the fireplace so I am intrigued by some of the comments regarding furniture layout.

For me it's the two zones which make it seem wrong. You've obviously moved the red/purple sofa up to allow access to the door behind and the hall. This gives that area a waiting room/corridor feel and to me gives the impression of it being a pointless space.
Then there's the TV area, that space to me would be far better used as a daytime social area as you can enjoy the garden.
I'd have had the television in the other space for cosy evenings.