Advice on our house listing please

[LancsRose75]

Hi all, I’m looking for advice from the MN property experts on our house listing please.

It’s been on the market since beginning of March.

We never actually wanted to move, we loved the house and had long term plans for it, my my husband got offered a job we couldn’t say no to so had to move. We are now no longer in the country.

The feedback we have had is it’s too expensive. We listed it at the agents recommended price which we thought was a bit ambitious and dropped it £15k almost straight away. We are reluctant to drop it again, but are still being told it’s too expensive and needs too much work doing. It’s £45k more than we paid in 2016

We’ve done So much to the house since we moved in, every rooms had new flooring, levelled out uneven floors, new internal doors, added a bathroom, opened up the loft and had it boarded, new plumbing and heating, extra powerful boiler, new kitchen... I have added the link from when we bought it and there is a very good reason there are no kitchen pictures, it was so bad we actually went without one for 4 months rather than attempt to use it.

The biggest job that needs doing is new windows and doors. There is nothing wrong with the windows other that they look old. We weren’t planning on replacing them until we had the money to renovate and extend the back of the house. I asked my husband to paint the front door, I stupidly assumed he’d just give it a coat of its original colour but he decided to paint it blue, although our plan was to do this colour eventually, it looks completely out of place the way it is now 🤦‍♀️

There are a couple of areas not covered by the agents, I’ve added pictures. I also hate the green in the agents pictures, it looks nothing like the actual colour.

Location wise, the house is on a main road but in a very sought after area, it’s a couple hundred yards from an outstanding primary school. The council actually block the road so parents don’t block resident parking so that’s not an issue, it’s with in walking distance to the township, other outstanding schools in the area, train within walking distance, within walking distance to a holiday village with lots of facilities...

Here is the link and the link to what it looked like when we bought it.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/103572305#/

Original listing

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=37356456&sale=87986772&country=england

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My husband is going to go back in a few weeks to check in the house and do some jobs. The garden will be over grown with weeds by now so he will sort those out and anything else he can.

The onl6 room I don’t have pictures of is the lean to, which is horrible and holds the boiler. We never did anything to it as it was to be knocked down in the eventual renovation.

I also should add the house has soooo much storage, more than most could dream off.

Can totally see why you did it but you've lost a bedroom which might explain the drop in value, especially if others in the street still have the 4 bed layout and it's what people expect for the area then it would appear in fewer searches if people are specifying 4 bed.

You’re biggest problem is that it’s empty. It’s so much harder to see how a room will work without stuff in it and obviously people can spot every flaw. My current house was empty when we viewed, we hated it. Then another house on the road came up and wow the difference with furniture in is incredible.
Is there any way at all you could borrow a bit of furniture from someone?

Well I think it's bloody gorgeous OP! I like the blue door and anything I would do would be purely cosmetic. There's no way I could get anything similar for that price around where I live. Going to have a look at the original property listing now - to see what you did!

I’m afraid the issue is price OP.
You are the most expensive three bed within a half mile radius by about £40k and are more expensive than the four beds in that radius also.

Paint the kitchen cream
Take stickers/toys out of bathroom and off tiles
Stickers off kid bedrooms
Take down the green curtains
Possibly an appliance in the gap in kitchen or photo from angle where not noticeable
Tidy up front and back garden. Add some colourful potted plants.
Just suggestions it's a lovely home, good luck xx

Empty houses don't sell as fast - when you remove the furniture and the homely touches, you expose differently painted walls, grubby paint, dents in the floor where furniture has been and the whole thing just feels more tired.

And yes, I think it is over priced. There are 2 4 beds within half a mile, and whilst very different in style, if you want 4 beds, yours won't cut it.

Factor in the main road, and it doesn't look great. It is nicely presented though and you can tell that you have loved it.

Sadly I agree with everyone else. It looks insanely overpriced, and I’d be pretty put off viewing for that reason, but I’d maybe come and see if I wanted to put in a more reasonable offer...

Add in that it’s an empty house and if I’m honest, I’d steer well clear of it. I know you’ve got a good reason not to be there, but it just seems odd...

I don’t think you’re going to get a four-bed price for it, as a three-bed...
Can you afford to drop the price? Or rent it out, maybe?

A 33% increase in that time is huge. And you have lost a bedroom (easily reinstated, but of course would cost £). The bedrooms do look tired.
Do as the pp above have suggested, wait another three weeks, then lower your price.

@Overtherainbow12

Paint the kitchen cream Take stickers/toys out of bathroom and off tiles Stickers off kid bedrooms Take down the green curtains Possibly an appliance in the gap in kitchen or photo from angle where not noticeable Tidy up front and back garden. Add some colourful potted plants. Just suggestions it's a lovely home, good luck xx

Again, the agents pictures have completely changed the colours. The green curtains are actually a pastel blue colour.

We gave away all the appliances which I am kicking myself absolute, especially in the kitchen as we gave them to someone who was ruined an ungrateful. Unfortunately being out of the country makes it difficult to put anything in now.

I agree on stickers in the bedroom, we just ran out of time.

I can see another house on the row has just sold and was up for £200k. Tbh, the finish inside that one seems a much higher spec and the yard is nicer (although it is a mid rather than an end terrace, which is where you have an advantage).

Also, things like the stickers on the walls and the gap in the skirting board stand out.

If it was me looking to buy, I’d think it would cost much more than the £15k difference to get it up to the same standard. And ‘offers over’ is always a bit ambiguous.

I think it’s an attractive house and it’s not been on the market long so it might just be a matter of waiting it out.

I think part of the issue is that you’ve (understandably!) spent money doing it up to your taste/needs/preference when the plan was to stay there long term but now you’ve had to move, so the buyer is having to purchase a house that’s done up not necessarily to their taste but where all the decor/fittings are fairly new. It’s the style of house I really love but personally I would want to do some very different things with it - and therefore wouldn’t be interested in your property because its interiors are too new and I wouldn’t want to be wasteful. So you need to price it for people who are happy to have someone else’s taste OR people who will do it up to their own taste - which probably means dropping the price.

I agree that having furniture in there would help, if possible. I like the colour of the kitchen and don’t agree it needs painting. I’d take the kids toys/magnets/stickers out of the main bathroom and bedrooms, and try to get a better photo of both bathrooms so you get a better idea of the space.

Without furniture it’s not clear which room is which either, which doesn’t help. I can’t really get a feel for the space/size of the different rooms or the layout.

Good luck! I hope you get it sold 😊

Is renting it out not an option?

Thanks everyone.

It was originally 3 bed turned into 4 bed, it felt so cramped and there was a huge waste of space in the middle of the 2 rooms which we wanted to get rid of. I did worry how loosing a bedroom, no matter how small would impact it.

I didn’t want to put it on the market when we’re living it it as I was on my own with 3 kids trying to get things sorted while my husband worked away. I was really drawn at the time to do it or wait. Then we got covid and it kind of made my mind up to just leave it until we moved out.

I understand the increase looks big, but got it for the price after the surveys showed how much essential work was needed to make it liveable. The originally wanted £150 for it. We put almost £20k into it before we moved in. The kitchen wasn’t even usable at the time.

Renting it out is definitely an option. We considered doing that originally. I will definitely talk to my DH and see if he thinks we should do that instead.

We can afford to drop price if we have to. We are in no rush to buy here at the moment as we are tied into a lease so wouldn’t even start looking until next year.

Thanks again everyone.

You really have not done yourselves any favours by taking away the kitchen appliances. It ruins the look of the kitchen. Also you are down a bedroom. These are your answers I’m afraid. Basically you’ve reduced the value of your house by taking away a bedroom.

It will sell just give it time. But the price will be key.

** I’m afraid the issue is price OP.
You are the most expensive three bed within a half mile radius by about £40k and are more expensive than the four beds in that radius also.**

Your house is completely overpriced. It also looks a bit unfinished and the quality of renovation looks poor.

I'm confused to which are before and after pictures!

Could the fact that it's leasehold be putting people off?

I quite like the blue door! I'd definitely take the stickers off the walls and bathroom and get rid of the garish curtains though

Is the back garden fake grass? That would really put me off, I'd have to rip it up immediately

It's pretty much always price. People can overlook stickers on a wall or a gap where the washing machine goes.

You've increased the price by 33%, seems a lot when avg is 2.2% per year.

I think some bits obviously look better than the original listing but some actually look worse. It’s a massive hike in price and still screams ‘needs a lot of work’. The fake grass is the worse bit though- looks like green carpet.

Do you think it’s worth having the agent switch the lounge picture for this?

I don’t have any pictures of the dining room. It was mainly used as a play room so was always so messy I never got any decent pictures of it.

We still have the bunk beds for the pink room so can put those back up and get DH to paint it when he goes back.

Would any furniture be fine? A relative took our couches and I think they still have their old ones. I could ask them to put them in the house for us so it’s got something.

@DaphneduM

Could the fact that it's leasehold be putting people off?

I don’t think so, it’s like a 1p a year and has over 900years left on it, It’s owned by the church. If it was up to the parish priest he would release all the lease holds.

@Vetyveriohohoh

I think some bits obviously look better than the original listing but some actually look worse. It’s a massive hike in price and still screams ‘needs a lot of work’. The fake grass is the worse bit though- looks like green carpet.

I get what your saying about the fake green. We did it for the kids to be able to play in the back and not injure themselves. It’s definitely something we could pull up.

Old leasehold houses are quite common in the north west, certainly not something most people who know the area would be put off by.