Riddle me this...

[WednesdayWhen]

Hi all, hoping you can help :)
Have put in an offer on a house
it's a weird one - unusual layout, quite dark bedrooms, one is up in attic.
North facing courtyard garden and....massive allotment style tree lined lawn down a long path, away from the house.

It's a 'wild card' but appeals to me...is in rural area but a terraced conversion.
SO - here's the mystery. I knew it had been on market for over a year. at 425,000
My offer met 400,000.
BUT - have just seen it was listed on an archived file from 2017!
feeling panicked - do I assume it's been languishing on market for all that time, circa 4 years....and it's basically a very unappealing, unsellable house which is a gamble too far?

OR could it be that it was listed in 2017, then taken down, or off the market, etc and there's no real cause for worry. Clearly a massive price difference as was listed in 2017 at 485,000
I can't ask agents as it was listed with a different one back in 2017.

My two biggest bug bears - am I buying an unsellable house, that no-one else will want in future, clearly
Or is the price the reason it wasn't selling all the years (?)
it's a 4 bed. spacious but really quite weird. Kitchen on first floor, bedrooms next to courtyard. Oh god I'll ever ever sell it if I need to, will I...
What would your views be?
Thanks all really grateful to have this forum for support. xxxxx

Becoming clear I won’t ever sell it easily...

[quote Doodar]looks like its near a sewage plant www.google.com/maps/place/Cranbrook+TN17+4PS/@51.0374442,0.6400913,228m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x47df2224c45c9359:0x7d6b23e92edec1cb!8m2!3d51.0384705!4d0.6394783[/quote]
I can’t see a sewage plant close by? Where is it?

No I'd hate having to walk through other peoples gardens and they'd probably walk through yours.

Shared service charge would annoy me immensely.

Too much forced interaction with neighbours

Living room windows are too high.

Can you not offer less, explain reason and make sure your offer accounts for switching the layout around.

move kitchen n living room
downstairs, does make it a project. But explain to agent that it's only way you could buy it and would need to make offer lower, but need builders round to quote for moving everything around to put in new offer.

My mum used to live near a sewage plant and omg..... THE SMELL 🤢🌫

Far too many worrying negatives, from the lack of views out, accessing your garden via a right of way through other properties, costly electric heating, proximity to a sewage plant, £600 per annum maintenance fee, the bathroom nowhere near any of the bedrooms, one shower room only between three bedrooms and only a sink in the upstairs bedroom. And as someone else said, far too much enforced interaction with the neighbours because of the outside layout. I’d also be worried that I would never be able to sell it on because potential future buyers would be put off by these issues. It would be a big ‘no’ from me, sorry.

Well, it wouldn't suit me. In addition to the comments others have made, bedroom 3 is very small, bedroom 2 seems to have a tiny window, and where would children play outside? I anticipate trouble with the neighbours over ball-throwing kids (yours and theirs) rampaging along the path to the "secret garden".

Ok I’ve now read the agents notes section on the property following various comments n this thread.

Having to access the garden through adjoining properties plus the maintenance fee that will no doubt increase year on year isn’t great.
Electricity is far more expensive than gas so heating will be high.

These aspects plus the community style of living is going to obviously limit its appeal to future buyers. Add in the quirky layout plus the dark bedrooms and it does all add up to a lot of compromises for a future buyer. Now I can see more why the price has been reduced.

The compromises would be too many for me to be fair. You have to weigh up really whether they are too much for you and what else you could get locally for similar pricing.

The house we recently bought turned out to have been on the market for over 5 years, which we didn't know until after our offer was accepted. I think we were the only people stupid enough to buy it.

We're uncovering problem after problem, but you shouldn't have that issue, OP, with it being a conversion. Ours is north facing so very dark inside and a slightly odd layout. I think ours will be a pain to sell. We can't move on until it's fully renovated though or we'll lose money.

What are the little black arrows there for?