House has been on for sale for nearly a year with no offers. Would love some feedback and advice!

[Veebie86]

We bought our 1850s 3 bed cottage in 2021 and although we absolutely love it, we got pregnant last year trying for our second and ended up having babies 2&3 in January! We have no family too close by (my parents are an hour away) so we sadly put our house on the market in early August last year to move closer to my family for support and to have more space than what we have currently for 3 under 3. In 9 months we’ve literally had just a handful of viewings with no offers. People constantly tell us how beautiful our home is (and we honestly love it, just wish it was bigger and closer to family)! We’ve tried two EAs who have both said it’s priced right for the area and the market and we can’t afford to drop any lower anyway to avoid making a loss (we’ve done work since moving including adding a downstairs toilet). We’re honestly getting so down about it now as our babies are just getting bigger so quickly and starting to feel like we’ll be stuck here forever. Link below and if anyone has any tips or feedback I won’t take anything personally and would just appreciate the help!
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146014529#/?channel=RES_BUY

If you scroll down, it shows you “property sale history”.

It's a lovely house. I think there's more than enough space for the size of your family.

I know the area OP and sorry I think this is way overpriced for a quirky house.

It looks like you have to walk through the ‘master bedroom’ to get to the other rooms? So really it’s just a bed on a mezzanine?

and no parking for £600k, that’s a big ask isn’t it.

it’s lovely, you’ve done a great job decorating But it won’t suit everyone and you need to price accordingly. Look at your competition in that price range..

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145206956#/?channel=RES_BUY

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145587074#/?channel=RES_BUY

A small point but your cooker seems like it would not be fun to use because of the wall beside it. I want to be able to reach to the side to grab ingredients I don't want to have to reach around a wall to do so.

Like others have said there is no way I would consider sleeping in a mezzanine bedroom.

Agree with others on the floor plan issue. It’s a lovely house but personally as someone looking at properties around that area with a view to eventually moving, it feels overpriced.

This 4 bed detached is very close to yours. Why would you get a 2.5 bedroom with no private parking when for £25k less you could have this right round the corner?
it’s the price OP sorry.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146541608?utmcampaign=property-details&utm_content=buying&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

Looks like it has a lot of sales history going up and up in price and may have reached its ceiling. Might be worth putting for just less like 595- 599k to appear on more peoples radar.. It such a lovely house, and presumably it's in an area you liked in 2021, schools etc. Alternatively would your parents consider traveling to you on a regular basis to help out/ nanny? I'm just thinking what an upheaval moving is and you have a beautiful home.

The first thing I noticed was all the moss. If you are not taking care of the outside do I think you maintain the inside?

I can't see a floor plan even looking at the history of the sales.

From the pictures I find a mismatch between the cottage beams and the modern furniture.

The bathroom picture looks cold to me with the bare brick.

The room with the cot looks like it could only be used for a cot, I think rearranging so it looks bigger would help. I'm not saying it is small it just looks like it is.

That’s a beautiful home but it’s leasehold, and it looks like i’d spend all day mowing grass before queueing for a wee in the 1 toilet.

Also the back garden is uninspiring... Maybe get some new pics with the sun beaming on it (if your estate agent can coordinate that!)

That makes no sense, why would you queue all day?

I’m not recommending you buy it, just showing what else is on offer 😂

for some reason in this area leasehold houses are a thing. I pay the massive sum of £9 a year for mine. This one is £16 per year for 936 years so I wouldn’t think that’s a dealbreaker. It doesn’t go up.

Hardly a massive lawn either. But I guess you could always astoturf it if you cba 🙄

It does show what's on offer, @Pollyannamex and what you can get in the same area for your money.

I don’t know the area but most people looking for that type of house will expect a drive or garage. I think it’s likely to be the parking situation plus being straight onto the road.
To mitigate, you might want to say it’s on a quiet residential street where parking has never been an issue. But ultimately, you will just have to reduce the price.

I think it’s lovely. Maybe get a new agent.

Beautiful house and understand it's an expensive area but the price seems a lot. We looked in this area and we were comparing with other much cheaper parts of Manchester so you really have to catch people's attention.

For that I would want some more wow. I would focus on the outside and curb appeal, the garden is also not very interesting. Parking and access would be my main concern. Really beautiful house though but perhaps still over priced.

We rested off the market for 3 months then dropped the price to the minimum we would take (none of this £600-£635 malarkey) as that apparently means you come back on RightMove as a new instruction and not a reduced price. We changed agents to one who was local from one who was national. We had new photos done on a sunny day. Then we had an Open Day (just estate agent there all day for scheduled relay of buyers) all advertised on RightMove and then got 3 offers (one was £100,000 below asking but still an offer - and we took the asking price one). It was crazy after we had had 91 viewings and no offers with previous EA. Imagine trying to be 'viewing ready' 91 times for no reward.

1 toilet/bathroom in a 4 bed house.

You've had lots of good feedback here. But sorry, if you've gone through the usual spring property market boom in Feb/March/April and had virtually no viewings then it's the price.
I'm in a very popular area where things sell quickly and houses are selling for less than 2 years ago

It's a lovely house,I love it!. However usually it's price that is the sticking point.Also a year is a long time and may put buyers off. ?Maybe take it off for a couple of months and relaunch at a slightly lower price .

The exit from the street goes onto a B road and the fact that there is a mirror suggests it is probably be a bit of a hazard!

I would love this house but I am a single person household and prefer compact houses and happy having no parking. Is it listed as that would put people off?

There is a new estate across the road and there 'maybe' be more building work/traffic.

Could you add some colourful pots either side of the front and back door? The first impression I got from pic1 was a beautiful house but probably directly opening onto a (busy?) street- adding some plants around the door could really soften that feeling.
The garden looks an amazing size and I love the high brick wall- on my quick scroll through it gave me the feeling of a walled garden in a country estate, lovely …but it felt like you didn’t really use that space much, maybe adding some pots around back door and chairs if you have them, space out the kids toys abit around the garden.
If pots/gardens aren’t your thing you could get plastic ‘pots’ that look like pots but a fraction of the price, planted up with something colourful will give the same effect and not cost much.

also like others said no floor plan would really put me off- without it it’s hard to put the pictures into their proper context.

I really like it. I would buy it if it was in area i needed. Although it’s too expensive really for us.

The main few things:

I would retake front photos. Take from right hand side more so you don’t include neighbours carport parking. As it’s misleading and looks like it belongs to yours. Add a little front greenery if possible

Take another photo with two cars parked where you normally park and highlight free space easily available on street to park.

I think I would re jig that mezzanine bedroom. If it’s staying as main can you dress the lower part as a proper ‘suite’? With Small bedroom armchair, side table, or dressing table with nice mirror. Rug and lighting so it seems cosy rather than just dark. It would actually then really appeal to a family with older child who gets own ‘living space’ or play area.

Another main bedroom dress with double bed. Make this your 2-3 year olds bedroom for now. Hiding ‘kids’ stuff in lidded baskets or cupboard for pictures
Then third with two cots is fine to have one room kids related. Then it looks properly like two double bedrooms and one kids.

You need a few more fluffy cushions and soft furnishings, take some more photos, and stage the house better………

No seriously when a house doesn’t sell the problem is always the price. Reduce the price and it will sell.