Honest opinions on this listening

[Whytoday23]

House up for sale for a couple of weeks but only one viewing. The feedback was that kitchen is in the small side (fair comment, but potential for extension is there) and the fact that a nearby property is for sale at 650k (note that the said house is a 3 bed as it doesn't have a proper loft conversion). Is it simply the time of year or price. Note that the house had full rewire, every wall replastered, plumbing/new boiler/ heating system, a wood burner added and a garage conversion downstairs. Front and back garden with the potential for a double story extension (if more space is needed) as well as a lift conversion. So more value can be added over time.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/142007819

This. People looking for a 3 bed will be pleasantly surprised. People looking for a 4 bed will be disappointed.

My personal opinion. Back garden is lovely, really lovely.

Inside less so. You have murdered the staircase by painting it dark matte grey. The dark walls and the ceiling in the bedroom are nothing short of horrific. The dark wall in the sitting room also needs to go as does the teal half a wall in the bathroom. The indoor plants that are everywhere also need to go as they are cluttering up the place.

Dress the beds in plain, light coloured fabric as the patterns are distracting.

Paint the entire inside in pale neutral colours and avoid grey.

The general overall feel is that it's cluttered when it isn't it's just all the plants and lots of different prints that are drawing the eye here there and everywhere. It doesn't look restful or relaxing.

You have murdered the staircase by painting it dark matte grey. The dark walls and the ceiling in the bedroom are nothing short of horrific.

Bit rude to call someone's home style horrific

I agree with PO that you are limiting your options by marketing it as a 4-bed. The only people who will see it are those who have put minimum 4 beds as a filter — and that’s because they NEED 4 bedrooms. And while I personally don’t mind the idea of a downstairs bedroom, if it was in permanent use I’d want another bathroom downstairs.

Market it as three bedrooms with a possible fourth (as a guest room or teenager’s room) downstairs and you may get more attention. Even more if you were to lower the price.

It is a lovely house but a difficult market, and you need to put yourself into the shoes of the potential buyer. Not think about how much you have put into the house or even what you need to move on.

Depending on how serious you are about selling, one idea might be to re-dress those two bedrooms as proper doubles (take out the desks, add proper dressed double beds with bedside tables etc) for new photos. This would be a hassle but it might help you sell it as a 4-bed as people might not be able to visualise the space.

I live not too far from you OP. It is the price I'm afraid and I reckon the busy Shipbourne road isn't helping; albeit set back from it. When we were looking 3 years ago we viewed a few houses nearby but we disregarded all of them due to the road noise.

I also reckon the timing is not great either but many houses are lingering on the market round here.

Potential to extend is a massive expense many can't do. We would like to do a single storey extension 5x4m and the quotes coming in are all over £100k so I can only imagine a double storey extension will be a lot more. People will factor this into the price. There is a couple of other 4 beds where the extensions have already been done asking for 750k and they too aren't selling so who knows.

And I actually don't mind the downstairs bedrooms; I'm in a dormer bungalow wit two bedrooms downstairs but we do have a bathroom downstairs too.

This is an interesting illustration of the trap a lot of people fall in to when selling their home.

It seems to be a common belief that the way to achieve the best possible sale price is to ask the maximum sum it is remotely possible to get away with and go from there, reducing the price if no success. Problem is a lot of buyers then look at the listing and say to themselves "are they joking?? that's significantly overpriced." this results in little viewing activity.

However, often the sellers who have most success are the ones who adopt a far more realistic pricing strategy, where the reaction from buyers is "that looks a decent house at a sensible price, i'll go and view that." Which tends to result in a significantly higher number of viewings, and often more than one offer, which can sometimes lead to offers exceeding the original asking price.

TLDR: Don't overprice your house if you want to sell, it's almost always the wrong strategy.

It's a nicely presented house apart from that room with the desk, bed and outdoor hanging chair! Is that the downstairs 'bedroom'? If so, style it as a home office maybe with a day bed/sofa bed to show the option for guests but basically you're back to it being a 3 bed which affects the price.

Really like some of your decor and dark walls are fine: anyone who buys can repaint if they want. Perhaps thin out a few objects?

This is a significantly bigger house and is properly a 4-bed and yet it's on for £25K less than yours, so I don't see how that counters the argument that yours is overpriced.

Everything priced similarly to yours in the general neighbourhood is a real 4-bed not a converted 3-bed.

Personally I don't think that it's a 4 bedroom, more like 2 full bedrooms, a single room and a study. Plus all the rooms look very small/cramped so I wouldn't be willing to pay that price, I think its too high for what you're actually getting

I can see that you have done a lot of work comparing to the pictures of what it was like before, however I notice the bathroom is the same and needs updating to bring it up to the rest of the standard of your house, also the downstairs WC still has an old avocado suite, people who are seriously looking will notice you have just done a quick paint job on these rooms. The house being marketed and priced as a 4 bed is the problem, it doesn’t have what most 4 bed detached houses have these days, 4 upstairs bedrooms, one en suite and a utility, so I’m afraid it boils down to price, it needs to be priced as a 3 bed because that’s what it is. Other than that you have a very nicely presented home OP.

Definitely, you have a 3 bed. Marketing it as a 4 bed is misleading and many people won't go beyond the floor plan as a result. If I'm in the market for a 4 bed house, this absolutely isn't a 4 bed.

The house is beautiful, I love the decor, but it's very taste specific and the colours will be very hard for someone to paint over should they want a less dark palette.

The smallest bedroom is the same size as my spare room. You can get a double bed in and absolutely no other furniture unless you shove it against the wall, and even then any wardrobe or desk make it unreasonably cramped. That's a small room tbh.

And garage conversions always split the room - for me we need a garage for daily use. A converted room is deeply offputting to many as thru are often very cold irrespective of building refs, but you'll never please everyone on that front, so don't worry about that!

The kitchen would be a lot better without that monster fridge in it.

It's a nice house. Can't comment on the price as I'm not familiar with the area.

I’d agree that to me I’d look at that floor plan and think “two doubles, one single, one converted garage”. I also think the layout isn’t what many families are looking for - large open plan kitchen/dining room with sitting room separate.

The second house you list has a perfectly decent sized garden for most people and is larger with all bedrooms upstairs and an en suite.

Seeing that you’d only bought it last year as a potential buyer I’d also be concerned as to why that is and whether there’s something about the house or its neighbours that is unpalatable.

That’s really a 3 bed. And the dark paint is very offputting. It seems very cluttered, I’d remove as much as you can, for new pics. But it is the time of year as well, plus general economic situation.

Do you have a genuine reason for sale and is the agent aware of that and conveying it? It’s the first thing I’d ask, if I saw a house being sold a year after purchase - and if your agent is giving a wishy washy “oh, they just fancy a move” type answer when it’s clear you’ve done the sort of work and decorated to a very personal taste which suggests you originally saw it as a medium- to long-term home, people will get suspicious.

This house is cheaper than yours, is 200sq ft bigger, all 4 bedrooms are upstairs, it has an additional bathroom and also has a downstairs study. It is way better value than your house.

Following on from my previous post about the layout being great for us- but possibly not families with younger children I would be tempted to market as a 3 bed plus office/guestroom
And knock £40k off if you can. Anyone comparing with the other one may compare unfavourably- as no en-suite/utility etc - factors like better garden and non shared drive may not even feature in their decisions - and I wouldn't push the thing about extensions- people can see that if they view - but anyone wanting to extend to that extent will be looking at getting a house for far less than this given the costs these days

Anyone setting their parameters on Rightmove as a 4 bedroom may well be disappointed in the layout -especially if they have younger children and yet anyone looking for a 3 bedder may well think 'oh that's good extra room'. I disagree with others about the kitchen- I like a reasonable size kitchen (which this is) but also want a good sized lounge (which this has)

It is a lovely house though OP - as I said, but would suit specific family set ups rather than necessarily the average family with 2 kids at home

I am selling as I have 2 kids who have been diagnosed with ASD since I bought the house, I don't need more space, it's complicated to explain without going into too much details... absolutely nothing wrong with the neighbourhood/local schools, if anything most neighbors have been here for 10 years plus and they are all v nice/friendly. We need more of a specialist provision sadly and fighting for EHCP/potential private schooling, so need to free up equity from the house for that. It's a tough one.

I bought it with th view to stay here at least another 10 years...was planning to add an ensuite to the second bedroom (where the dressing room is as that's on top of the downstairs WC) and also was extend the kitchen at some point... Life throw different things at you unfortunately!

I might be the odd one here and say the single/box room upstairs is actually a perfectly good size for the area. We viewed several houses in the area and most houses had the box room of similar dimensions.

But it is definitely the price and possibly the worst time to be selling. The only places that I have seen sold have been priced aggressively low or the price drops have been great.

IMHO a real four bedroom house needs two bathrooms and if I were searching for one that would be an issue for me.

I live in a part of the country where many 4+ bedroom homes are converted bungalows, so having 1-2 bedrooms on the ground floor is not that unusual. So I think the current listing of 3/4 bedroom is appropriate. But calling bedroom 3 a double is pushing it.

Price-wise you don't have a garage, utility room or en suite so should be priced slightly lower than any nearby houses that do.

The bedroom sizes are fine. If you can get a double bed in the smallest one it's a double bedroom. It looks small but the others are big.

My inclination is that the people looking for a 4-bed won't view it because it's a 3-bed 2-recepts.

I think it's the 3rd/4th bedroom issue as a down stairs room isn't really a bedroom to most people.

The garden is lovely and I like the decor.

I also think that whilst it might have potential re extending the kitchen the cost of doing work now is prohibitive to many people.

the 3rd bedroom upstairs is a perfectly decent size for a child teenager with single bed calling it a half bedroom is rude it is bigger than a box room ( which means a single bed just fits but nothing else) it has a large deak and a big chest of drawers with a smaller desk plenty of room for a wardrobe., Some people might think the 4th downstairs bedroom would be better described as an office or playroom but the description could say good size room downstairs suitable as a double bedroom an office or playroom

however the other one you shown did look better for 650K 4 bedrooms upstairs one with ensuite and a downstairs office, the garden is not as nice as yours by a long shot but it is still a perfectly decent garden size for most people so probably 625k is going to be where it is at . Unfortunately moving quickly within a year almost always ends up losing money because of stamp duty moving costs and not enough equity

I can see past your decor choices they are not mine but then neither are all the grey boxes I see I prefer yours to the grey