No views on House

[Fimilo]

First time poster long time lurker, sorry if not in the right place. We have put our house on the market, in Scotland the home report determines the market value. We have put it as offers over but £5000 under the market value.

House has been on the market for just over 2 weeks with not one viewing, last house in the street sold for £10,000 over ours current market value. They are very rarely available, ours is a blank canvas for someone to walk into and make their own.

At a loss as to why, unsure if we should reduce the price, change estate agents, take it off the market completely just now. So disheartening.

Any advice welcome

I think it is unusual in the grand scale of the housing market overall. Whether or not there ate lots of simular locally. It is undeniably going to cost less than an equivalent where the 3rd bedroom is upstairs, near a bathroom and not almost next to the front door. Calling it unusual is not an insult! At least I never thought that about my old place.

The kitchen is the biggest sticking point for me. In a kitchen that small, you really can't afford to have freestanding appliances sticking out. It needs to be completely sleek.The washing machine should match the cupboards with a door on it. The white sink clashes with the sleek look, the colour literally doesn't match the rest of the kitchen. Personally I dislike kitchens that don't have at least a 1 and 1/4 sink. By putting in a range cooker you have removed what I presume to be X2 15cm cupboards either side. That kind of storage is key in a small kitchen.

It's kind of strange to have a kitchen with a massive cooker but no dishwasher. I have looked at loads of houses with kitchens this width and they all have 60cm integrated ovens and an integrated hob so you get more work surface space, and almost all of them have a dishwasher. So the kitchen is saying 'our family life centres on good food cooked in our large range but you are going to have to wash up... In a single sink.' I am sorry OP, but I don't want that kind of work in my life. I want a dishwasher.

Most of them are also new builds that are kitchen diners so you at least have somewhere else to put a sideboard for storage. Yours doesn't have that, so access to store other kitchen related items is problematic.

In short, I am looking at this kitchen and thinking 'I'm going to have to rip this entire thing out immediately and redesign to include a DW and a better sink' BUT there isn't even your usual kitchen/diner space so you can put microwaves and kettles somewhere nearby, there isn't a utility room to put a microwave in during a kitchen rip out, so any kitchen redesign is going to involve cooking in your dining room, access to which is not easy from your kitchen (and is carpeted), and washing up in the bath (I can't see a garage? People often use garages to cook in with limited space during a refurb).

I have seen 3 bed houses priced 215k with very small kitchens with no DW. I can't remember any others without. Not in a three bed family home.

Also, if you are backing onto a main road (??) your house needs to be priced considerably less than those that are not. Doesn't matter what the actual noise level is like. Resale risk is the bigger problem. People looking on Google maps.

It's really nice but it will be the price in this market.

I've noticed in my city loads are falling through after being sstc months ago.

If you want to sell I'd drop the price.

I like it and it's well presented. It will sell at the right price point - but you have listed it a bit too high considering the constant avalanche of bad news about the market and its direction. Offers over £249k should get some interest.

I think it’s really lovely. I just think people are SO wary of the market atm the the rises in interest rates they are holding off.

I agree about the kitchen . A more modern layout would know through to the dining area in the lounge and separate that from the lounge. Maybe with double doors. Then you lose the kitchen door and design much better storage. I think the room might still end up quite small so clever design needed to fit in dw, washing machine and if you can manage it, also a range. I think most people would want to modernise like that over time but it's perfectly liveable with until then. DW is an issue but probably not stopping people viewing. Will lower the price but OP may already have factored that in.

The walls are a little blank/devoid of pictures and the dark hall flooring and dark bathroom may be a problem. Also, the area of gravel in the garden is rather bland. It could do with a little more staging (outside furniture etc), but overall it's a sweet looking, nicely presented house. I think that it will just be down to the market. I can't see anything particularly wrong with it. Overall it's appealing.

We live in Scotland most people I know have a downstairs bedroom, we do, it never crossed my mind some would consider it undesirable
OP I hate “offers over” combined with the bidding system it so stressful, personally I think you should say what price you want. Maybe it should say in the estate agents blurb that it’s £5k under valuation price?

I can't see anything off putting about the house.
If you have had no viewings at all in 2 weeks, it is v likely to be the price in the current market.

You do want certain elements in place for a certain price point. A family home without a dishwasher and no obvious way to live in the house while you get a workable kitchen put in is a problem.

Potential buyers are factoring in what they will have to spend to make a house work for them. So the seller needs to consider a drop in price to reflect drawbacks and make the house a more attractive prospect.

I live in an area where downstairs bedrooms are common. They are always marketed as flexible rooms.

I've noticed that the kitchen doesn't connect to the dining area. There's no table in there, so it's not a kitchen-diner. There's no hatch. Do you carry your meals through the hall and into the dining room? Sorry if I'm misunderstanding your floor plan!

After reading these posts it's clear a room downstairs being classed as a bedroom is completely normal in Scotland. Elsewhere it's either the seller or EA pulling a fast one. Also a downstairs toilet isn't a bathroom either. So that's two fast ones. I wouldn't bother viewing as I wouldn't trust the EA to do their job properly without trying to screw me over. But that's only my opinion.

Otherwise it's a nice house but is being sold in the summer holidays when everyone is broke, even before the mortgage hikes.

Eh? Scottish born and bred and don’t know anyone with a downstairs bedroom

Chalet bungalows, which there are loads of round that area, always have a downstairs bedroom.

Cumbernauld has a lot of “upside down” houses as well with bedrooms downstairs and living room upstairs.

It may be normal in Cumbernauld but presumably OP is not just trying to sell to other people from the same estate but rather to appeal to a wider audience.

Aye but presumably she might want to cast the net a bit further than just people living in Cumbernauld, if she wants to sell it. I am disputing the statements that it’s apparently super common in Scotland as I’ve never seen a house like this. It’s a 2 bedroom house with 2 reception rooms. I’d use it as a playroom, or an office, but it wouldn’t be a bedroom. For safety reasons I wouldn’t want one of my children sleeping on the ground floor, and I’d prefer not to also. A lot of people will feel the same!

@berksandbeyond aye but would anyone not from Cumbernauld want to live in Cumbernauld 😝 sorry OP 🙊

Downstairs bedrooms are pretty common in my part of Scotland. I wouldn't have my child sleeping on a different floor but no issues imo for a spare bedroom.

The point is that anyone looking to buy in the town will knows it’s a very common style for there.

Interesting and I’m no where near Cumbernauld!
Thinking about it Ive come from England and downstairs bedrooms are unusual I’ve just got used to it here. Quick back of an envelope calculation 60% of my friends have downstairs bedrooms in houses of all ages a few have upstairs sitting rooms for better views and 20% live in bungalows which are very common where I live. When we were looking for a house downstairs bedrooms seemed pretty common and upstairs sitting rooms/kitchens particularly those with stunning sea views.

This ^

A few years back we sold our house that had two upstairs bedrooms (and one bathroom), but which had seven rooms plus a further two bathrooms on the ground floor -

#1 was obviously the kitchen
#2 was a dining room
#3 was our study
#4 was a sunroom.
The remaining three rooms (which ranged in size between 15' x 10' and 20' x 11') were additional living spaces for us as our only DS was at uni, but when we marketed these were described as (for example) 'reception three/ground floor bedroom'.

We sold to a family with three young DC (and who went on to have a further three) and they planned to use several of the ground floor rooms as bedrooms.

That said, and it's my opinion only, @Fimilo your house is quite bland/dated (sorry!) - there's nothing that jumps out as memorable and sets it apart from anything else available for sale. I'm afraid I would be scrolling past if looking to buy in your area as I'd be wanting to change the kitchen and bathrooms as well as the flooring, not to mention the garden which is seriously devoid of life. We have taken on several project houses previously, but whilst I don't think yours is in that category, I also feel the price doesn't reflect the amount of work required.

I'd say it's clearly a 2 bed as well. A quick rightmove search within 1 mile of Cumbernauld shows 121 3 bed properties and apart from OP's and bungalows, all the others are traditional layouts with 3 beds upstairs, so I'm very confused about all those saying it's very common, it's clearly not.

I'm not disputing it's a lovely house, but it's way overpriced as it's the 4th most expensive in the search for 3 bed houses when people will think it's a 2.

So you put the master downstairs and the kids rooms upstairs.

Grubby estate? I just Street viewed the whole thing...
I know nothing about your area but it's clear as day to me that you over-value your lot and under-value what others have.

I wouldn’t want my bedroom downstairs either!

Could you change it to 'offers in the region of' - that generally signals to buyers you are looking for around that price.