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

I don't like it, which would be my problem. Listed AND thatched is a ball ache. The rooms are weird shapes, photos are terrible, it looks pokey/oppressive, the road, you enter the house in the dining room.

Ah ok. Mentioned in details...

It’s in the arse end of nowhere! Totally beautiful but very narrow roads leading to okehampton and then still a drive to anywhere of size. No employment unless you work at home/farm/want to work in the one pub. No shop, nearest is the coop in Hatherleigh, several miles away. Nearest hospital is Exeter or Barnstaple about 45 minutes away for the emergency ambulance to get to you. Fire fighters turn up though as first responders.

unlikely land will be built on, there is no infrastructure to support it. Unlikely it will flood too. the road is REALLY quiet.

I would buy that house in a heartbeat if I wanted to move back, spent lockdown near there and monkokehampton was on my daily cycling route. Truly beautiful countryside, but with huge downsides of being very rural.

It needs re-thatching and so my guess is that it will be unmortgageable. Unless you are a cash buyer with plenty of spare money to spend on it, you need to forget it!

Looks like a money pit, very small garden

Might not be houses being built ? might be a solar farm or similar, still same level of noise and lots of HGV traffic. Just odd that in the ariel shot , all the houses appear to have had a high new fence installed along the back of their gardens ?

Yes, this.

Ceilings look very low, thatch is tatty, poor light in most rooms, peculiar layout and rooms are small.
Ony access to back garden is through the house.
Too isolated for me.

The whole house looks cold and in disrepair, but I’m not sure if that’s just because of the way the walls are presented. Plus the ceiling height, it would be a nightmare to heat and keep warm.

@antidisestablishmentarianism you might be right about planning, just had a quick look through their Parish council minutes and can't see anything.

I agree with others:
thatched and listed
inefficient - these days everyone is more focussed about what a house is going to cost to heat. I live in an old listed house myself and this has become a real problem for me.
Roadside position
The photos do it no favours.
I also wonder about the brand new fence at the back of the properties - it’s the sort of thing house builders put up for you just before they build 100 matchboxes behind your house!

The attached house is called ‘The Village’ and has been sold 3 times in 10 years. Suggests to me it’s not an easy place to live in, or there are problems afoot.
The Old Stores last sold for £230k in 2017. I think it may go for the same price this time.

Thatched
Listed
Floor plan showing no door into bedroom 2 or upstairs bathroom.

Perfect for the next Omaze raffle prize!?

I assume this is exactly the reason for it not selling. And off topic, but this kind of bullshit is why the UK has so many damp, draughty, poorly insulated and difficult to heat properties which go without necessary repairs and maintenance because their owners can’t always afford to pay for the expensive artisan materials. We aren’t in the 18th century anymore, insisting that period residential buildings must remain identical as when they were built into perpetuity is ridiculous. The idea that it would have been somehow preferable for the building to fall into ruin because the repairs were uneconomical than be upgraded with the “wrong” kind of modern damp proofing, render and paint is a nonsense. This a relatively low value residential property in an obscure part of the UK, not fucking Salisbury Cathedral or the only moat and turret Norman castle left in the Western Hemisphere.

I tend to be put off by masses of beams and indoor half timbering which this one has. I also loathe decoration which is part exposed bricks and part plastering with the plastering uneven as if you ran out of plaster. I think even at that price those factors combined with the road and the thatch would put me off.

Looking at Google Street view and comparing 2011 to 2022 it looks like the roof might actually have been replaced fairly recently.

Otherwise it does look like it's possibly cold - oil filled radiator in one room and I can't see radiators in some of the bedrooms.

If I were you OP I'd go and have a look anyway, if it is of interest to you. Looking at property listings online is nothing like viewing it in person.

I saw a house online that I absolutely loved. I was so disappointed when I walked around it as, although it looked like the pictures, the reality was that I just didn't like it and couldn't imagine myself living there.

The road would be my biggest issue with this property though. You have a parking space alongside the kitchen/bathroom block, but to get your shopping out of the car and in to the house would require you to walk along an unpaved part of the road.

Thatch
Listed - makes it harder/ more expensive to make improvements- alterations
Right on the road - front door literally opens onto it
Attached- possible noisy/ problematic neighbours

Lots of speculation here which is probably rubbish!

I think it’s the roof - plus it’s shared with the house next door.

I would try to look into getting it changed to standard roof tiles, although it’s listed perhaps under some sort of energy saving scheme the planners would allow it!

I would try to look into getting it changed to standard roof tiles, although it’s listed perhaps under some sort of energy saving scheme the planners would allow it

that speculation is definitely rubbish @Quitelikeit! In my experience the listing always trumps any modern adjustments even if they are sensible.

The thatched roof looks like it’s end of life and needs replacing now. And it’s shared with the neighbour. Which could be problematic

as much as tnr current owners have made a first stab at renovation it clearly still needs a lot of work.

Not RTFT.
Nowhere to park.
Needing to go through several rooms to go to a different one.
Thatched roof.
Wide angle shots don't make sense to me and it seems a bit higgledy-piggledy.
No front garden.
Several 'front doors'
Low ceilings can be a pita if tall (ask H&M)
etc

In no particular order

Proximity to the road
Damp
Thatched roof
No parking
Hard to heat
Front door opening to the road
Listed

Tiny windows at back

This. Has no kerb appeal either. Ugly

If you look at it in right move you can see how close to the road it is in street view, i also suspect it’s substantially over priced, likely the current owners are trying to get their money back they have invested so far.

looking round about it on street view I can’t work out where you’d even park close by

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85315188#/?channel=RES_BUY