House too small

[Emily2023]

So I've been searching online and this group seems to come up on this topic.

Me and my husband put our house on the market this time last year, sold the first day of viewings but then the buyer pulled out after a month as it was supposedly taking too long but we'd had an offer accepted on another house who also needed to look for another house.

We resold in May last year (again within the same day as first viewings) but again, once the chain was all sorted in September (5 houses), our buyer went AWOL a week before completion on 13th Jan this year. It turns out he used cheap solicitors that outsource to sri Lanka and they didn't deal with something from the searches properly (or at all).

Now we've have had to remarket again, we've dropped our price by £10k already and absorbed another £20k to the mortgage as the original buyer offered £11k more. However, after 16 viewings, one really low offer £30k below the price which we declined, everyone is saying it's too small even viewers where it is just one person. Prices for other 2 bed houses near here without a garage go for more than ours and some a lot more. It's really frustrating us as we don't know what more we can do, we've decluttered and tidied as much as possible.

I wondered if anyone had any ideas?

Thank you, I think that's the main thing that's come out of this is the bed being stuck in the alcove... and yes it has been a right pain for my husband as he's by the window. Just need to work our where to move my drawer unit.

Not everyone has the same opinion on decor so no point spending money when someone might change it anyway.

Hubby of Emily here, I was reading the thread so thought I may as well join as well . Thanks all for the inputs and whilst I don't necessarily agree with all of it, it's always helpful to consider all viewpoints at once and it's worth a try if we don't get dropped from the chain.

The Main bedroom as has been highlighted is a problem we knew about - it's actually quite big really but the bed position doesn't help. We had to move the bed because of both working at home and needing a desk each and that was the only place to put it, also during Covid our neighbours had a little one who was teething and it was really loud all through the night (bless the poor thing!) so it was dual purpose. However can't fit a desk and the drawers in the alcove. Drawers could go in second bedroom which is my work from home area, but then we'd need to move one of my drawers out somewhere (not sure where but still). Agree the bed in a normal position might help, but honestly, I foolishly thought people viewing would be able to see the size.

The piano can't go anywhere as it's my second job - it is where it is because there's nowhere else I can put it. They don't like radiators and we don't want to block the windows.

The garden underwent a bit of a reboot last year so obviously nothing had grown back yet in January when the pics were taken.

Regards the price, there's always differing opinions and often they are based on different reasons as well - we may well have to lower it, but we know of three houses literally in our road that have sold in the time it's taken us to sell ours with our two buyers dropping out. Two were semi detached the same as ours, for £265k in what, autumn time maybe? And another one sold a day or so after we had an offer come in and was mysteriously retracted ;) for between £245k and £250k, that one looks much more dated than ours in my opinion. Only difference is it has potential to extend I suppose.

I'm not sure I agree that every first time buyer would want to splurge £20k on a new kitchen and bathroom though, what would be done differently enough to warrant that kind of outlay when they are both already fitted in? I accept responsibility for the yellow wall and can change it, it just made me happy to sit in front of a cheerful colour after a long day and then cooking the dinner. I'm not sure moving the table away from the wall would make it look bigger, in fact it would make it surely much worse because then you can't walk past it to get to the back door!

Lots to think about but I think we just ran out of luck last year - top tip, when sales memos come through, check your buyers' and vendors' solicitors on google and don't let them proceed with Muve.Me or any of those cheap option firms, as it will make a bad process even worse!

I’d put the piano in storage and put another sofa/ lounge chair in the living room. Turn the double bed around so it’s on the other wall if it fits and move the drawers/furniture into the alcove (I would totally be put off having to crawl up the bed to get into it).
maybe put a single bed into the second bedroom to show one actually fits.

Do you have a bed in the 2nd bedroom?

Never assume that viewers can see that a bedroom is a bedroom if it doesn’t have a bed in it or assume anything with regards to viewers

You have to set out exactly each room for its purpose. Couldn’t you use the alcove to put your desk and work stuff and shield it with a pretty screen. Is there space to be able to use the set of drawers as a bedside cabinet on one side of the bed. Or move them into the alcove with the office stuff.

2nd bedroom put in a single bed (one that can be pulled out to a double) if there isnt a bed already in there already and make it as a spare bedroom /home office and having the pullout bit in the bed it will look like the room can take a double bed.

The two desks and the piano are needed though, we use the desks for work every day and I need to practice piano for my second job (think about how happy you'd be if you were paying a pianist for your wedding who didn't even have a piano to practice on :) ), and sadly you can't just quickly pop a 200kg piano in the garage when a viewing is on.

Putting a single bed in the spare room would mean I also couldn't work from there, nor could the room also house any of the drawers that we store our clothes in. So it's just moving the problem. We've done a bit of amending in the spare room so it's less of a "tunnel" of furniture (you can't see the drawers on the right hand side of the room in that photo, which previously had my music setup on top but has since been hidden). We don't always get much notice for when we are to have a viewing so I don't understand how we can hide all evidence that we work from home and still actually do our job haha

The cost of storage for a piano is quite high as you need specialist companies to move them, they are also extremely heavy and can be damaged if done correctly. As this has sentimental value, we would have to look at a specialist and store it somewhere specifically for that as most storage units say not to keep anything of value or sentiment that cannot be easily replaced. My husband also uses it for his job and there's no guarantee on how long we would need to be without it considering we have already had 16 viewings sporadically over the last 5 weeks.

Agree with the bed, we just need to move some furniture out which can be done. We do need to keep our desks in as we work from home and there isn't anywhere else we can move them, which would make it hard to put a single bed in the spare room given that viewings are not block, they are random and can be at any point.

The living-room/kitchen/garden are OK but the layout of the main bedroom is just odd and you really need to move the bed around so it doesn't look so awkward stuck in that corner.

I don't think clutter is the issue as there isn't much there anyway.

It is an OK house but rather bland in term of the way it is decorated.

I would not viewed the house because of the bedrooms, but if you found a way to improve how the furnitures are set up there and take new pictures you will get more viewers in.

At the end of the day it is back to the price: priced correctly it will sell.

You are close to a train station, it is semi-detached and in a cul de sac (so no traffic) which I always like so there are positive points but you need to improve the overall look of the house a bit.

I think it will make a good first time buy for someone so don't give up hope!

I know its hard to visualise room layouts but surely people think if a piano fits there sofa would fit.

If that is the case then the issue is that you are selling a 2 bed house that you yourselves can’t fit a second bed in. Unless you invest in proper storage. (The floor to ceiling kind or just tall wardrobes with lots of drawers and hanging space and maybe get a free bed off fbmp to store things under the bed and every book and cranny you can find and get rid of the random chests of drawers that are taking up space and look at everything in terms of how many square foot it is taking up then you will need to price it as a 1 bedroom place.

if you are struggling to provide a 2 bed house then why would you expect other people to think they can get their 2nd bed in it.

I did joke that we should leave a tape measure out and put tape around to show where a bed etc would go... maybe that's something we could do or would that look odd

I get what folks are saying about it not being a bedroom without a bed, but honestly do people think that a small two bed house is going to be able to provide a bedroom and office and clothes storage in one room which is 2.03m x 3.35m? Putting a bed in here as well as an (actually quite small child sized) office desk will 100% make it look smaller and more cluttered. Surely people realise it's an either or thing? like if it can fit an office, wardrobe and two small ish drawer units in it, then it could easily be visualised as a spare room with convertible sofa bed type thing and some clothes storage?

@doormattt No, but your market probably isn’t people who need two WFH spaces – those that need that will quickly see it’s too small for that. And those that don’t need that won’t see past it seeming too small because of the WFH set-ups you have. Even if you can’t move the desks and piano out for viewings, I think it would be worth it for photos to stage the bedrooms as bedrooms, and the sitting room in a difference way, so viewers have that potential in mind as they walk around.

It’s the fact that it can’t is the problem

I had a friend who was selling a 5 bed house. One of the bedrooms was a home office and one was a living room to the flat she had rented out for a while.

Her feed back was similar.

She put up a cot in the bedroom and got a desk that looked like a chest of drawers. With a slide out bit for her to work from. (Everything office looking put away in the drawers for viewers) and a set of pretty pictures and baby related decorative stuff put out and a wooden painted chair that could double as something to work from and look not out of place in a nursery and transformed the smallest bedroom and the upstairs living room she pushed the sofa to the side of the room, added a double bed, wardrobe and bedside cabinets and 2 pots of paint and one weekend later she had 5 bedrooms with a bed in each.

You could also set out your 2nd bedroom as a nursery and disguise the office desk as a chest of drawers and have a drawer to house all the office related stuff when you swap it out for the baby related stuff

That way it has a bed in it all be it a cot.

Remember yours isn’t the only house they will be viewing and if you can’t fit a 2nd bed in the 2nd bedroom then why would they think any different.

People can’t visualise. They want to see it

If they don’t see it it doesn’t exist.

you might say your property has a 2nd bedroom but without the 2nd bed then it doesn’t exist.

I agree with much of what's been said by other posters re: bed 1, living room etc. In an ideal world you'd replace the piano with a second sofa but I appreciate that's not easy for you. However, I do think many buyers are a bit dim and automatically assume piano = no space for more seating.

The main bedroom definitely needs rejigging so the bed can be seen to be accessed properly and dressed with bedside tables, lamps etc.

When we were selling a five bedroom house with a couple of attic bedrooms we had our office set up in the larger of those. Our EA recommended moving the desk (we had to buy a smaller one from ikea but just as easily could have found one on Facebook marketplace or ebay) into a cubby hole between the two rooms. It was awkward to work in, but as we sold very quickly after this and exchanged/completed within a couple of months, so the pain was worth the gain. We dressed the old office with a single bed found on ebay which we later resold for the same amount of £££.

That said, I'm not sure in your case it's worth dressing bedroom 2 with a bed. Buyers can surely see there'd be space for one without the office stuff???

I'd definitely lose the yellow wall (sorry @doormattt ) and fit a fabric 'skirt' to hide the washing machine. I don't think I'd bother trying to change the appearance of the fireplace as the new owners will no doubt have their own ideas regarding that.

Overall I'd try to lose the slightly 'studenty' vibes by moving the furniture so it looks more intentionally placed as opposed to everything being pushed against the walls. Dress the spaces aspirationally - nice vase of fresh flowers, one or two larger ornaments as opposed to lots of little bits and bobs.

I'd then get the pics redone and - probably - lower the price a bit more to reflect that some updating is required....sorry.

Finally, I found the room dimensions as written by the EA confusing - apart from a personal preference of having them on the floor plan - in that some rooms are in metres and feet, whilst others are metres only.

Good luck - I'm sure with a few tweaks and once the spring buyers appear, you'll find another buyer. I just think more patience and effort is required right now.

It’s actually really difficult to accurately judge the size of a bed. And buyers will be caution and probably overestimate the bed size and so they’ll imagine the room is very cramped

Your estate agent is doing you a disservice. These recent sales don’t show up on RightMove, the last thing in your road was nearly 2 years ago for £201k - and that was towards the end of the Covid housing boom. It’s just not realistic to buyers that your comparable home is worth 25% more in the current stagnant market.

I think your downstairs looks fine but upstairs looks a bit jumbled. It looks like the second bedroom is too small for a bed. can one of you work from the kitchen table and stage the second bedroom as a nursery with a cot? I think a new set of photos with better framing might help, but ultimately it’s price. You both work from home and your buyers might too so the station is potentially less of a selling point. You can get a 3-bed on the Pineapple Estate for less than your asking, or a 2-bed period terrace in Kings Heath for the same price.

You are selling the house, you need to take on board some of the things posters have said.

You need to stage the house, you need to sell a lifestyle, people need to know that they can get a bed and a wardrobe in the second bedroom.

When I was selling my house we throw all our stuff into the car when we had viewings so the house looked airy and spacious.

You are selling to FTB most do not have the vision or confidence to know things and looking at the pictures I would not view the house as a FTB.

If you want to sell you will need to make sacrifices about how you live, once it's sold go back to putting the desk where you want it, looking at your responses you have seemed to dig your heels in and not taking the advice that was asked for.

It's a ftb house. Your house is very similar layout to mine (downstairs is identical) but I suspect mine is slightly wider, difficult to say as they dimensions aren't on the floor plan. Mine is also 3 beds. I bought last year as ftb with 2 kids. I wouldn't have bought yours because I was worried about negative equity and kids potentially having to share as teenagers (I hated it!). So perhaps others are taking a similar view to me given the current economy.

Overall not much more to add other than it looks a bit dated and needs some tarting up which is a cost potential buyers will be factoring in.

We are taking things on board :) and have discussed them with the agents. There are things we agree with which we plan to do, but there are things we can't do - that's not digging heels in, it's just they can't be changed. Work is sadly not a life choice! Working from the dining table is not practical or healthy as it's the wrong height and seating is not comfortable - we know this from 2020. Also we'd have to keep moving all the IT kit every time there's a viewing, and put it where?

There already is a double wardrobe in the spare bedroom, and the dimensions for the room are there (2m wide is enough for a bed, so the 3m+ length is definitely fine).

I'm aware my writing style can come across a bit blunt so I'm sorry if that's the case and I'm coming across different than I'm intending to.

Hi OP. I have 2 streams of thought:

1. the house looks very magnolia, dated and sparse - I actually don’t think it looks cluttered, just very insipid. It needs some warmth and colour. It’s very plain and doesn’t look loved.
2. The market is really different from how it was 6 months ago, and even more so than a year ago. Houses simply aren’t selling as quickly or for the high prices they used to. You may need to accept a realistic offer and get this by dropping the price.

Good luck.

I see where you're coming from (albeit the £245k house is still on Rightmove as Sold STC), but at the same time this isn't the Pineapple Estate nor is it Kings Heath - Bournville and Stirchley are regularly voted the best places to live in news articles and having driven around Pineapple and Kings Heath, it's certainly a lot more peaceful, green (surrounded by trees and the Cadbury stretch of the Canal up on a hill away from the humdrum) and less run down (certainly in the case of pineapple, I know kings Heath varies massively). Those places also don't have a railway station, Kings Heath terrace is unlikely to have car parking, that's why our agents have pitched us where they have.

We are reducing the price a touch this week and having a new main photo taken, as well as updating the photo of the big bedroom this week so hopefully something gives.

I don't care if our yellow wall goes, if it helps haha I'll always know deep down it was way more awesome than the beige it'll probably get replaced with 😉

For the sake of a couple of weeks I would work from the dining room, change the furniture to make it look like a bedroom.

Once you have an offer then change it back.

If you want to sell the house, and move on I think a few minor inconveniences are worth it.

Is your next home not worth making a few changes or are you willing to lose it and stay where you are for another year or so?

I think you've had some really helpful suggestions re rearranging/ decluttering a bit.

I'm afraid I think it is the price. You do say it sold very quickly twice relatively recently. The market has fallen since then, a lot in some areas.
These are the two properties that I can see in your road:
Sold in 2021 for 201K. Has the market seriously risen nearly 25% since then? Perhaps it rose 15% or so but it has now fallen back significantly.
www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/details/england-99222293-12535924?s=6430e8a62cef7c9ddeace7bb3d958560a47879b6f07f630e89b18039e7bb182a#/

I think this is the house you referred to. It's on for 245K but it has an extra room downstairs (conservatory) and is much further away from the other property so looks more desirable.
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/129551207#/?channel=RES_BUY

Based on these two comparators, I would think 220K would be more realistic.

Do you have some different houses that you have been comparing with?

Yes we've taken on board some of the ideas.

Yes that's the house - I'd say that was a lean-to or verandah rather than a conservatory (house next door has a "Proper" conservatory and it looks a million times better). It might be further from the maisonette flats next door, but it's near the entrance to the road so gets a lot more cars and parking outside it than we ever do - we have no houses opposite us and instead have a nice tree to look at with the wider view, and a more typical front garden. Also, if our house decor is dated, surely that one is even more so? And definitely requires the bathroom and kitchen doing way more than we do here. You could add a lean-to on to ours for cheaper than doing the bathroom & kitchen in the other one.

It's looking like it's too late anyway as our onward house is going back on the market tomorrow and i don't think they'll have too much trouble selling.