Small bedrooms

[BeckiW93]

Hi everyone, our house has been on the market since mid May, we have had 11 viewings and reduced from 450 to 400. Every single viewing except one has said the bedrooms are too small. I agree they are small (we debated wether they were workable or not when we viewed). Wondering if anyone has any other ideas on how to make them look better (bedroom 3 and 4 specifically). I'm debating setting up a toddler bed or single midsleeper in bedroom 4 instead of the desk and instruments, does that seem useful? Any other advice gratefully recieved!

I found this property on the Rightmove Android app and wanted you to see it: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/135327521

I’ve just done the video tour. The photos make the bedrooms look bigger than they are.
That console in the upstairs hall makes that look pretty narrow too.
I know the wardrobes in bed 3 are used but it might be better to remove those and put a small wardrobe in to make it look more spacious. A bed in bedroom 4 would be better because people might not image you could get a bed and drawers in there as it is.
There is so much downstairs space it seems to highlight how small upstairs is.

I agree, the people before us did the extension and were going to extend bed 4 but didn't, we never needed to as we only have 1 child. But it is definitley the difference between upstairs and down. Thanks for your ideas!

My two pence worth : the house has masses of space downstairs plus massive outbuilding suited for a large family but the upstairs doesn’t match the downstairs so i can see the buyers caught in that dilemma.
looks like the downstairs has been extended , if it hadn’t it been extended it would cater for a small family who may not mind the upstairs small rooms but now the house is neither there nor here , sorry just my opinion ; not sure if you can do anything about it as people look at the floor plan how much ever it is dressed to look spacious byt perhaps you can get rid of that big white wardrobe 🤔

We were put off any house who tried to mKe bedrooms look bigger with toddler size furniture tbh. Families need to know the bedroom is big enough for a preteen or teenager, not a toddler.

I think the issue is that the bedrooms are disproportionately small for the size of the downstairs.
Could you set up the box room as a dressing room instead?

I think its a lovely house. The bedrooms are small but thats the compromise with built in storage and ensuites.

The bedrooms are fine.

How does it compare price wise to other properties in the area? I wonder if the amount of work done and associated cost has massively exceeded the ceiling value?

Downstairs is stunning but unfortunately for most people it wouldn't balance out the issues upstairs.

Having it advertised as a 2/3 bed with study and dressing room might attract more buyers who aren't looking for that bedroom space and where downstairs is more important.

I think setting up bedroom 4 as a single bedroom will help people visualise it as a bedroom as it is very small.

Is it much more than 3 bed houses in your area?

Could you set up bedroom 4 as the nursery and put a double bed in bedroom 2? Then you will see 3 double bedrooms and a single. The front reception room I would set up as a cozy tv room rather than a playroom to make the room look more useable

I would advertise it as a 3 bedroom house.
That way bedroom 4 would be seen as a bonus for a family who doesn't need the extra bedroom.

That's a really interesting idea thank you, we'd not thought of that. Will bring it up with the estate agent.

If this house was down in Sussex where I live I would buy it at that price! Can’t even buy a flat for that amount down here - I think your house is lovely though 👍

We have recently just gone through this from a buyer perspective. Bedroom 4 is not a bedroom. Even if it was suitable for a nursery the cot stage is the shortest in a kids bedroom phase. If someone needs 4 bed they are not going to want to buy your house. I second marketing it as 3 bed.

Beautiful home, but I think the problem is the downstairs doesn't match the upstairs in size, when you look at other £400,000 houses in the area do they have large downstairs like that then a corresponding upstairs? I wonder if you need a bigger upstairs to correspond with the asking price and downstairs, or, as always, lower price.

It is a really challenging market though, this will likely appeal to upsizers who already have a home and mortgage and they are the ones not moving atm.

Any chance you can swap bed 4 and study?

On the floor plan the biggest bedroom is labelled as bedroom 2. I think I'd get them to change that.

Objectively, bed 4 is a study not a bedroom. Bedroom 2 appears to have twice the storage than the master which seems off.

Can it be marketed as 3+study.

In fairness, all 4 bedrooms are pretty small.
I'm guessing bed 1 is grey, bed 2 with the yellow single against a wall, bed 3 the nursery and bed 4 with the desk and guitars?

Do you need the office space upstairs? I think I'd make the guitar room a nursery, the yellow room a double, and the aqua room a single if you can bear it.

But I'd agree with others, it's a bottom heave house.

I'd probably do 3 beds upstairs and a study/nursery, then downstairs as a reception room/bedroom 4. Then it can be listed as a 4 bed and in the description say 3/4 bed property, and say the reception room can be used as a separate living area or a 4th bedroom.

FWIW OP I have similar size bedrooms and obviously we bought our house as did the people before us. Your house is beautiful and I would buy it. Someone will be along soon and fall in love.

We viewed a similar house recently. Stunning downstairs but small bedrooms. We obviously knew the bedroom sizes but wanted to see whether 'in real life' we could compromise the bedrooms for the downstairs. We just couldn't. That might explain the feedback from viewings. However with your house, if there was money left in the pot I would consider dressing bed 4 as the study and converting the downstairs study and utility into an en suite guest room. Then you have 4 proper bedrooms and study, and still have loads of other space downstairs.

4 bed detached in this neighborhood with modest downstairs sold last year for 240k so need to think about ceiling price for the road
this same house was bought for circa 300k in 2019 has the house value gone up in Barnsley by 100k in less than four years🤔

As others have said, the issue is that the upstairs is too small for the downstairs.

For what it's worth, I would get rid of the ensuite & make bedroom 4 larger. I'd rather have 4 equal sized bedrooms than an ensuite. I don't know how easy it is to do but thats what I'd want if I lived there.

It's a lovely house, just a complete mismatch of sizes

As others have said, the house is just too bottom heavy so that will really limit the market it appeals to. Am I right in thinking that there was a double garage but that's been converted to a gym?? Lack of garage would also be an issue for me. It feels like the house is very confused. It wants to be fancy and luxurious downstairs but upstairs is small cramped new build box style.