Why is this house so cheap/not selling?

[mumarooni]

I've been keeping my eye on houses in this area for a little while, and this one seems like an outlier. Other 3 beds of similar stamp/condition seem more like 350-400. I can see the rooms aren't huge, but still can't quite understand why it didn't sell at 335 and has had a series of reductions. I'm new to houses though...anyone see what I'm missing? I'd be fascinated to hear your thoughts! Ta www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/61485157/?search_identifier=b43641523cafb99b48903e150f486393

Now I look again I agree. I remember the living room as well, and the layout.

I saw odd shadows on walls which looked like damp, darker patches round edges- I expect the condition of the roof is causing damp too, it's extremely expensive to keep thatched roofs looked after, and the damage with the damp could have gone too far by now, beams needing replacement etc

If you look at the roof on the aerial video tour - it does very much look like it needs replacing, there's patched-in bits etc.

I think it's lovely. Road looks quiet.
But I'd not want to buy a thatched roof

I was going to say this!

Who on earth pays 25k every 25 years to re-roof a tiled house?! You wouldn't. I remember my parents thinking it was a big expense to have 2k of work done on their house after 30 years, and before that the roof hadn't had serious work done since the 1930s. My house has a tiled roof and I bloody hope and trust I won't have to spend that sort of money every 25 years - my surveyor certainly doesn't think it's likely.

It looks as though a wide-angle lens has been used for all the photos, which implies v small rooms (rightly or wrongly).

Why do estate agents do that? Surely they know that people aren't fooled by it any longer? and even if they are, how good is it for business to effectively say "Hey, why not come and look at the house properly and be disappointed when you discover that it's much smaller than in the photos!" ?!

I really like it. Half the price of our similar sized house. If thatch isn't a heads then no idea why it's not sold

What puts me off is the number of portable radiators, even though there is central heating. Also, why is the cooker missing?

It last sold in 2017, which must have been when the then owner posted it on here.

Room sizes aren't clear. Small?

My last house was 150 years old and still had almost all of the original tiles…

Same with our house - 200+ years old.

Thatched roofs do look beautiful, but to me, they're the equivalent of buying one of those glorious veteran cars from the 1930s, when you could have just got a boring low-mileage used VW or Toyota and not had any of the additional hassle or worries.

Considering how risky they are with even just a spark of fire, the insurance costs must be astronomical. Plus, as PP said, if animals can easily wreck them, how easy would a tooled-up human burglar find it?

Grade II listed - really affects what you can do to it
Thatch, as PP have explained
Looks like some broken stonework in the kitchen
Picture 20 looks very odd
Rooms look small
Maybe a dodgy survey?

It is charming though. I love the fireplace.

I wouldn't buy a listed house again.

Interesting you mention the portable radiators PriamFarrl. Our 1847 house had single glazed sash windows and open fireplaces in every room. It was a railway station and built up above the road, the cellar ran the full length. We'd stripped all the floors and just had rugs and even with the central heating on it was freezing. My daughter loved to paint, and I liked to sew, so we had a few electric oil filled radiators near our table I had a viewer that said 'oh an oil filled radiator, I assume the boiler doesn't work!'.

Downstairs layout is odd, with the shower room at the opposite end of the building from the ground floor bedroom. I guess that, the utility and the kitchen are in the tiled extension.

I spent ten years in a house with storage heaters. I had oil filled radiators in every room. It says to me that the house is hard to heat.

The dining room is really the hall….the layout is bad…thatch a definite no no….there’s a house near us with a thatch roof…..cost 25k to repair

It’s the busy road. I live fairly near and I wouldn’t consider because of that. And the garden is too small

(plonk it on half an acre and down a country lane and i would love it)

Yes our house was hard to heat, I was very lucky to sell it when my husband died. I used to buy 600L of oil per month October to March for the heating and Aga, plus three dumpy bags of kiln dried wood and kindling for the two woodburners. In 2018 with Beast from the East I did also light the open coal fires as well. Absolutely freezing, I used to wear my coat in the house most of the time.

Well, we bought our house when it due a full rethatch properly 10 years before. The previous owners were elderly and had left it. We did some research and then offered at 10% under asking. We didn't know it at the time so took a risk, but that will cover us for years to come.

We just have a sink fund that the roof money goes into and save a lot on heating because of the free insulation from a foot of piled up organic matter. I don't work for Big Thatch or anything, just putting our perspective that it has been less of a faff than we thought.

Looks lovely but if it needed rethaching that would be a major expense.
Also no front garden so people walking directly past your window and road may be busy?

I think if a human burglar wanted to break in, they would be more likely to try the French windows than to cut through the best part of a foot of highly compressed organic matter 😀

Fire does worry me though. We are in a cluster of thatched or previously thatched buildings, all of the others of which have burned down at one point or another. Fireworks night is a bit scary and our insurance is expensive.

Zero daylight. Hickledy pickeldy out buildings. Crickey it would scare me to death.

The walls are probably solid stone and three feet thick. Stone cold in fact. A distant relative of mine once went to live in an ancient thatched cottage with thick walls, and we went to stay with her for a few days one summer. It was cold and damp inside the house, and I think we visited in June. In winter it must have been as cold inside as it was out.

I think if a human burglar wanted to break in, they would be more likely to try the French windows than to cut through the best part of a foot of highly compressed organic matter

Not if their felonious commuting vehicle of choice was a helicopter with no ladder hanging down

Where has the oven and plaster gone?!