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

What ones 🤣

OP I'm sorry if you thought my post was nasty, it was meant to be helpful!

Here's the TL:DR version:

To sell at the top of the price range in a slow market you need to be selling something which is truly on point and/or aspirational. Other than that it's overpriced... And sorry but your house and the way it's presented are neither of these.

Also note... there is a difference between ' blank canvas' and 'soulless'.

@Fimilo I understand that but it shouldn't be the first picture

Wow souless, that's harsh. But whatever it's been a house with very happy memories, raising two children in it and still very in the mix of that. When you are told to have your house as if no one lives in it when you have 2 kids is bloody hard to do. I should possibly have left all the kids shit out, the slide in the garden etc might have looked less souless.

No, I think you did the right thing - it has to appeal as broadly as possible, a blank canvas is a good idea. Everyone redecorates anyway.
Is it in a catchment for a good school?

Firstly I think you've done am incredible job of making the place look tidy for the photos! I couldn't do it nearly as well when we moved house last year.

How does your house compare to other 3 beds or even 2 beds in the area? I ask because we were looking to move to a 3 bed from a 2 bed, and yours is 88 square metres, which is only 5 square metres bigger than my 2 bed was. So I personally wouldn't have viewed it.

Is there a chance that although it is a 3 bed, because it is a smaller 3 bed, you're actually better off trying to attract people who want a 2 bed and marketing it that way? When we moved to our 2 bed we only had one child so looked at both 2 and 3 beds and chose the 2 bed because it was on a good street etc and that made up for not having the extra room. Hope that makes sense.

Mostly though I think it's the price and the market.

Though I'm in Scotland too and hate offers only houses as the bidding process is so stressful. When I was house hunting I would only view OO houses if they were really special.

I’ve just looked at the photos again. This probably wouldn’t bother most people, but I’m itching to put a pot of flowers on your decking around the back.

It's the price x

OP please don’t get worked up about the bizarre comments in this thread.

I have bought and sold a lot of houses. Buyers look at the kitchen, the bathroom, room sizes, garden size and of course location.

They add up what work they think is needed and then decide if it’s worth it (or if they can be bothered to do the work).

That’s it. Potted plant or personal touches or different coloured walls don’t impact it. They may make it nicer for lookie looks on the internet.

if it’s priced right it will sell - in my market houses aren’t going as fast now as they were a year ago and prices have dropped a little (not much).

the only person who can give you informed advice is your estate agent - who you pay for this service.

You seem to be dismissing the comments about it being a 2 vs 3 bed but this could be the crux of the issue. It doesn’t matter if you think it’s a 3 bed and that’s how it was sold to you. If there are two bedrooms upstairs and downstairs has a lounge/diner plus another room then many people will not think of that as a bedroom. It might be how you use it, and it might work fine for some people, but it sounds like your average potential family buyer looks at this house as a 2 bed house.

Personally I have two young children so I would be looking for a three bed house but would discount yours as one bedroom is on the ground floor. I would not want to be sleeping on a different floor from one of my young kids. A teenager is different but for security/fire risks etc it would make me uncomfortable having a preschooler or toddler so far away. Mine also wake in the night so I’d be schlepping up and down the stairs at god knows what hour.

Yes some people have been rude but you need to listen to the feedback about bedrooms. If a whole group of people are saying “this is a 2 bed house not a 3 bed” then this tells you something. You might need to reduce the price accordingly as the pool of people willing to see this as a 3 bed is evidently quite small.

There isn't anything obviously wrong so it is most likely price. I do think that a lot of people who want 3 bedrooms would be out off by one being away from the others as lots don't like having young children on different floors to them. It just shrinks the pool of people who'd look.

I don't think any changes would make a difference but I'd out seating etc in the deck and a tall bushy plant in the corner/on the edge to hide the patch of sandy gravel or whatever it is - I saw the photo of the living room and thought the garden was a bomb sight, which is absolutely isn't!

People buying in Cumbernauld will assume that a chalet bungalow has a downstairs bedroom (other examples in tbt area were posted earlier in the thread) so if she lists as a 2 bed then people looking there will assume 1 bed upstairs and 1 down.

I’m also slightly puzzled by your insistence that “it just is a three bed”. What makes that downstairs room so definitively a bedroom? What is it about that room that makes it undeniably a bedroom? Just because you have a bed in it? It’s right next to the front door for a start, so not ideal positioning for a child’s room. There’s no en-suite to it. So it could just as easily be a second lounge or a study or a separate dining room.

FWIW my current house actually has a similar set up, although we have 3 bedrooms upstairs, then downstairs by the front door there is a room in a similar location to your “bedroom 3” and then we have a big lounge/diner and kitchen out the back. We use that room as our lounge/snug but the sofa is a sofabed so that we can use it as an occasional spare room for guests. If I were to sell then I would never list this as a 4 bed house, I would maybe consider saying “3 bed with potential for additional downstairs room to be used as a 4th bed if needed” but it’s not a 4 bed. I don’t see how this is any different to your situation. Immediately when people look at the floor plan lots will go “oh this isn’t a 3 bed, it’s a 2 bed with a second reception room downstairs”. That’s why you’re not getting viewings IMO. Doesn’t matter if the rest of the street is the same.

@YetMoreNewBeginnings that’s quite niche though and assumes that buyers have already looked at several of this same style which they may not have. Would there not be potential to list as a 2+1 bed?

For us, having a room which we could use as a downstairs bedroom would be top of our must have list. What would make it even better is if the downstairs toilet was a shower room.

I love the range in your kitchen. I assume it's against the wall to the dining room? I think that would make me think twice about the house as I'd want to open up the wall between the two rooms and make a large kitchen diner, and close off the living room with with a wall or double doors.
I don't think there is anything wrong with your home, I think it's just a bad time to be putting houses on the market. My friend has her house on and still hasn't sold despite two price reductions. There are a lot I see when browsing Rightmove which have been on for almost 6 months. People just aren't buying.

I hope you are able to move on and into the house you are interested in, and soon.

It might be niche UK wide, but it’s not niche in Cumbernauld

@YetMoreNewBeginnings no I’m saying it’s a niche trend that is specific to that location. Not everyone who is browsing will have in-depth knowledge of the specific types of common layouts within particular small towns. So people who are very familiar with the local market will know that this style of house is common, but not everyone looking to move will be particularly familiar with specifics like that because they may be considering several areas.

also just because something is common in a particular area doesn’t mean people like it any more. Around my area there are a lot of Victorian terraces that are listed as 3 beds but in actual fact the third bedroom is off one of the other bedrooms so IMO it is not a proper third bed and that feeling is shared by many other people. Therefore these properties sell at lower prices than other three beds because it’s not a desirable layout. So even local people who know this information and know it’s a common layout are still put off.

People looking in Cumbernauld will very quickly get used to that style of house and listing, just as anyone looking for a townhouse in Cumbernauld will quickly realise that it’s a town where lots of houses have a flat roof.

If the OP changes her listing to 2 beds then, given she won’t be able to change all the other listings, she’ll lose out because people will assume it’s a one up one down bedroom set up.

I wasn’t commenting on the popularity of it. Just that the constant suggestions that it should be listed as a 2 bed won’t work in that specific area (unless the Op manages to have every single listing of that type changed as well).

I agree it might not be best to change the listing but perhaps take a more careful look at what other 3 and 2 beds are selling for locally. It can’t be priced at the same level as other 3 beds (other than those with a similar layout) as many people will discount the third bed. The price probably needs to be reduced.

It’s usually the price

More than a quarter of a million pounds for a 2-bed new build in the glaswegian countryside?

No way!

Sorry its totally not your fault and I think your house looks OK, but just on principle I think a lot more people will be thinking the above now, I think the market is beginning to very slowly correct itself and places like where your house is will be the first to feel it.

I think you'd have had some very different responses on Scotsnet where everyone is familiar with the Scottish offers over system, the freehold/leasehold thing, and chalet bungalows.

The thing is: if it's not the 2/3 bed thing, and not the price because the home report has already valued it, and not the lack of potted plants () then it has to be the market. Which cannot be helped - all you can do, OP, is wait and see.

Common here too
I remember these being built as I drive past them and they've always been listed as 4 beds

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/137317811#/?channel=RES_BUY