What's wrong with my friends house?

[Moonflower12]

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/134607254?utmcampaign=property-details&utmmcontent=buying&utmmedium=sharing&utmmsource=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

This is a friend's property. She has dropped the price but still not getting any interest. She has tracked the interest in the property using the Rightmove tracker.

The most interest has been when it's been on a Facebook period property page.

She had 4 EAs value the property and took the lowest valuation.

Is the Estate Agent being crap or is there another reason?

It’s a beautiful house, OP, and beautifully done. Good luck to your friend.

oh my...I ve had one or 2 gins so a bit emotional but that house is soooo lovely. I could cry with the lovelinessof it all

"That house round here would be around 2 mil I think! "

Probably not TBH, it sold for 380k in 2018?

Yes, seems very overpriced, the market has changed, you can`t do a refurb and pop 200k on the price you bought for any more.

Beautiful, but it’s big old and cold.

it’s gonna be Baltic in the winter and the gas bills will be fearsome.

I don’t think many people are feeling it in the “expensive to run” house front at the moment.

It’s stunning.
is the picture of the kitchen accurate? It looks like there’s not many cabinets? Unless I missed something

Beautiful house, undesirable area.

Lovely house, but I'd imagine a 6 bed, with an 42E-rated EPC isn't that high on most people's list at the moment. I dread to think what the heating bills must be like. Then there is the question of why it's deemed to be worth 220k more than it was in 2018. I'm sure some work has been done on it which may have added some value, but that's a big uplift in 5 years, in a now falling market.

So either it's not selling because no one is looking for that kind of house at the moment, or it's not selling because it's overpriced. If she doesn't need to sell it right now then she can stay put and maybe sell it in a few years time. If she really does need to sell it then it needs £30k cutting off the price every few months until she finds what it is worth (it's only worth what someone will pay for it)

The only other thing to do is to counter people's fears of the bad EPC by either doing a bit of work to make that rating better (insulation usually being the cheapest quick fix) or getting a breakdown of the quarterly heating costs so that any people viewing can be reassured that it isn't a money pit.

@WolfFoxHare
@KievLoverTwo
Thank you both. That's cheered her up no end. It's her birthday today so she feels it's a sign!

She needs a ruthless declutter- I live in a 7 bed victorian.

Suitcases on top wardrobe simply imply the house is too small for a family and the storage too sparse.
Similarly the open cluttered kitchen shelves emphasise that there is not a full kitchen
The chair on the landing with a case under it implies that there is no room for furniture and stuff has to be shoved under chairs to fit in
In the bathroom- not enough cupboards and so stuff has to be on top etc etc

The house isn't cluttered at all, the suit cases are clearly a design choice rather than holiday suitcases bunged on the top of a wardrobe die to no storage, the kitchen would look ridiculous completely clear.

I agree. I can't see any clutter at all in that house. Just some beautiful rooms.

The open shelves full of stuff highlight that there isnt a full kitchen.

I thought open shelves were super trendy. Or is that over now? They are always being put in in place of cupboards in makeover shows.

These suitcases? This is very clearly a decorating choice!

I doubt even the most vapid browser of Rightmove would think a 6 bed Victorian villa would be too small for a family.

Looks fab inside and from the back. I love all the period features in the reception rooms and bedrooms. I would prefer a more practical/modern kitchen for day to day life.

In terms of kerb appeal, the dark window frames look a bit off for the period and combined with the colour of the brickwork make the whole house look a bit dark, but that's a minor detail. The main issue from the front is the odd arrangement with the front door round to the side and especially the external steps up to the first floor bedroom window. I haven't read the whole thread, but what's going on there? Did the house used to be split into flats? Combined with this being by some margin the fanciest house in the street, the steps would make me a bit nervous about security.

Personally, if I bought a big house like that I'd be looking to remodel the back around the kitchen to give a more open layout for modern family living. The layout here doesn't make that easy, as the stairs are, unusually, in the middle of the back of the house. It's already a big building so it seems unfortunate that I'd have to add a sizable extension to get the layout I'd want.

As always, in the end the fundamental issue must be that the price is too high for the house to sell now in that location. All the other issues would melt away if potential buyers could see the value in overcoming them.

The house isn't cluttered at all, the suit cases are clearly a design choice rather than holiday suitcases bunged on the top of a wardrobe die to no storage, the kitchen would look ridiculous completely clear

Agreed. Love these nit-picky posts!

As if a pile of nicely arranged suitcases on top of a wardrobe is going to put people off! 😂

The price is wrong. It's almost always the price.
In this case, two factors stand out:

1. it is the most expensive house on the street. Its value is being dragged down by its neighbour's. It is far better to be the cheapest house on the street.
2. based on photos from current and last time marketed, minimal work has been done since prior sale. Not clear why asking price should be 58% higher. (Land Registry suggests that prices in April 2023 were 40% higher than February 2018, and I suspect prices have fallen in the past few months.
   Sorry - but that is the way of the world.

I would immediately demand a 100k discount.

Suitcases on the wardrobe ? Horrible and pretty much irreversible.

Is the pin on the map in the right place? I live not too far away but not in Wolverhampton, I’ve been to that SEAT garage nearby though and god it was rough, I was scared to park up and leave my old run down car. But (I think?!) Tettenhall is just down the road? And that’s a lovely area, is she just on the cusp of the two areas?

Lovely house, honestly. Why is your friend leaving?

BUT

It’s over priced in this market. Many detached, large houses are just not selling in most places.

Now use the mortgage calculator at the bottom of the page: imagine a buyer with max 20% deposit coming along (10% is more realistic). Then change the mortgage term to 30 years. Keep the rate at 6%. Now can you see how much this house is really costing someone?

It’s also over priced for the area. The main road doesn’t look great in the photo of the front of the house tbh. It’s near an A road too. Can the road be heard? Has your friend not read in recent news about pollution harming people (Ulez)??

People want something for their money right now. In addition, you have more millenials and some gen z in the market. They are a different type of buyer. They want quality, substance, something that makes financial sense given the shit they’re putting up with (low wages, crap pensions, born into a crappy world). Imagine the entire roof needs replacing on such a large house, it would cost a lot, why would anyone want to buy such an expensive house when it’s actually a money pit in today’s market.

This is the future of the market. Millenials and Genz Z know it.

Also, I just realised your friend bought it only a few years ago for 380k. Why is it 600k now? What justifies that? Nothing as far as I can see. As a buyer, I’d laugh because I’d think your friend is deluded and would be a difficult seller that I can’t be bothered with. Then I’d just move onto the next property.

Your friend will have to keep reducing the price until someone finds it attractive enough.

@KievLoverTwo Didn't Jonathan Creek live in a windmill? It might be his. Lovely associations.

Did Lovejoy live in one? Showing my age there.

Yep

Would sell for a fair few million in my not so great area of SE London.

Its a beautiful house.

I don’t know how many times locals have got to say this. It’s not clutter (there isn’t any!), or the kitchen layout, or the windows. It’s because it’s in possibly the roughest area of Wolverhampton and is the very epitome of the “best house on the worst street” trope.

The owner 100% knows this.