Seeking opinions on property #2

[5thWisdom]

After my first property went down like a lead balloon, I'd be grateful for an objective, experienced beady eye over this one. Potential questions to ask? I know I'll get distracted by the view.

I'm not sure when it was first listed but it was reduced at end of Aug. Other properties on the street seem to have sold for much less in 2021.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85817922

It's beautiful inside and lovely from the front but the garden would worry me. Is it multi level?

Some great features and some not so. Nicely decorated in the main, great views.

Is the kitchen in the basement, ceilings seem low, room seems dark.

I also think that maybe an ‘old’ kitchen with a paint job. Looks ok in the photo but may not be great IRL. Check inside the cupboards for condition. Is the painted kitchen a sign that other parts of the house have been ‘tarted’ up cheaply rather than replaced.
Garden needs some serious changes too. Do you have kids? Is it safe?

I actually quite like the house and the street although it does look a bit like you’d scratch the surface and find a fair bit to do. Kitchen looks not great (does it have a very low ceiling/ is it dark), lounge ceiling looks like swirly artex which would need skimming and only 1 loo, plus no pics of the bathroom which is a bit worrying. It’s also obviously on quite a steep hill so I’d want a full structural survey to check for subsidence.

The worst thing by far though is the garden- what an earth is going on with that? Looks like half of it is built on top of a subterranean garage? Not only utterly depressing but also pretty dangerous. If I was seriously considering it I would need some money in the garden budget to sort that out. But obviously depends on you and your lifestyle, if there’s a park nearby I guess you could just ignore it and save up? But it will definitely put buyers off if you need to sell in the future unless you sort it out.

Sorry I’ve seen the shower room which looks ok, but no bath which might put off some families. The other thing though is that because of the level of the garden you’d also need to check for damp at the back on the ground floor, as it looks like the level of the garden is higher than the foundations.

Gorgeous house. I agree that that outside area will need some investment and it's hard to see the detail of the outside setup from the photos. Looking at Rightmove for that street will allow you to view inside photos for similar houses sold in the last couple of years and you should be able to search for actual sold prices too (on Zoopla I think) to decide if that is a good price.

I can't work out how you actually access the garden. Is it straight from the house? If not, that is going to bother people with young children in the future if not you - I don't know if you have DCs or how old they are. It looks dangerous at the moment though.

Also only a shower room ATM which might not be a deal breaker for you, but might concern others.

Pretty sure the kitchen is painted - you wouldn't pick that floor and those tiles alongside cabinet colours. It lo

Sorry ...... pressed send to soon.
it looks ok but isn't new.

The garden is pretty normal for South Wales town houses I would have thought. I'm sure you could make it nicer.

It was going to say it looks like Stacey's house and then I looked on the map and it's literally on the next road!

I was a bit at the size of that giant crack in the block wall out the back but it looks like that belongs to next door. I'd want to know if it could be filled/painted to at least look neat, since fixing it would be the neighbour's job. The back looks tatty & would prob cost a bit to neaten/fix up.

Thanks all.

So viewed the property earlier and gosh, it just goes to show how important it is to get inside and view places (not just go by photos)

The house needs a lot of work - and the photos in no way show how much. The work that has been done needs redoing if that makes sense.

The view is amazing.

There is a house further up street - walls in better condition, boiler down stairs, flatter, neater garden - sold for £225,000 two months ago. But was clearly marketed as a do-er upper. This house is being marketed as having had a lot of the cosmetic work done - but it's been done badly (wallpaper, paintwork etc). Needs new kitchen, hallway has been stripped of wallpaper but vendor now no longer finishing that job, needs replastering.

The agency say the owner bought it last year - but no record on Zoopla of that sale.

It was reduced from 300k to 290k. Agents say vendor will accept an offer. How do I offer £60k less that reduced asking price when vendor and agents think it's worth £290k?!

Do t offer 60k less, do t offer at all.the garden is pretty much unusable, and you'll be entering retaining wall hell with no side access.
I've been following your journey, tell us what you want and let us look, I love a Rightmove snoop.

If you really are prepared to do the work, provided you get it for the right price, what I’d do is email the estate agent setting out what you’ve said to us and backing it up with costs- a do-er upper costs X, fully done costs Y, in this house a new kitchen will cost X, sorting hall/ decoration will cost Y, garden will be at least Z, we’ll probably have to move out so rent might be A etc. If they can see the calculations they will see where you’re coming from. That said I’m not sure it’s completely fair to offer the same as a total do-er upper and expect that to be the market value as some bits do look ok (upstairs bathroom for example) so at least you can get a mortgage and possibly live there for a while and save up if you want to. Also bear in mind that whatever you offer they will try to negotiate. If they won’t accept then move on unless it’s your dream house and make sure the estate agent knows you’re still looking.