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

Neither physical nor visual barrier between the house & pavement, so people can walk close to your windows.
That would stop me even viewing.
Is it possible to change that in any way ? Perhaps large planters if you're not allowed to erect a fence?

M20, M21 as well @zingally you’ll figure it out!

Does anyone else want to suggest some pots outside are going to help? Anyone?

Came on to say “floor plan” but can see that’s been covered 😂

Londoners can spend £2 million+ and still not get to park outside their house.

It’s a nice house, if it’s not selling it’s either the agent or the price or both.

No floor plan
Poor photos
No details of parking
Photos make rooms seem smaller than they probably are.
Its a two bed unless you have a divide between the two bedrooms.
It is beautiful by the way and love the light airy rooms.

I think it’s a house for 2 professionals - can you take out the baby things for the photos and add a home office set up? Add dining furniture to the garden?

i thought the photo with the garage was to show it was your garage and could fit a car in. Once you find out it isn’t, I does make me wonder why the garage door is open. Does the owner faff about all the time in that garage (and therefore near your window). Get rid of any photos with the garage on.

I think you need to keep next doors garage out of the pictures somehow as people are wondering if it’s yours - potential viewers probably are too .

Floor plan definitely needed and the pictures feel dark - need better pictures .

Parking will always be a problem too for some .

It’s a sticky time in general to sell - certainly round us houses aren’t moving as they were when interest rates were lower

This! I’d get a new estate agent if they haven’t done this….

It is a beautiful house but I think you bought at the top of the market and unfortunately high interest rates mean there has been an adjustment in the price

The lack of floor plan also means you can’t compare square footage with other houses on the market

Is one of the bedrooms a mezzanine?
Viewers do dismiss bedrooms if they aren’t shown as proper bedrooms. Could you put up a wall and door or something to enclose the room otherwise I think people only see 2 bedrooms. I know it sounds an inconvenience but I would put double beds in the other bedrooms to show they will take a double bed

I think you are up against houses that don’t have the history behind them and for many viewers they are looking for standardised rooms and space and the beams and stunning interior are something that are a bonus but like you have found, the house lacks space and doesn’t work for a family of 3 children and even 2 children makes it tight

I think you have to ask yourself, would a reduction to £499,000 or £525,000 or £550,000 etc have an immediate sale. In which case it is the price.

You might make a loss on the sale but if you can buy your next property for an equally reduced amount. Have you really lost out and it has moved you on to where you want to be

Don't paint the beams white!!!!!!

I would jet wash the pavement out the front too to clear the moss and re take the pictures on a lovely day . It just makes it look a bit murky at the mo

I don't understand how there are 2 staircases on the 1st floor but only 1 on the ground floor.......am I being really dense?

Sorry haven’t read the fullthread. But my thoughts.... would take it off the market completely and then research a much higher end estate agent who are prepared to do brand new photos on a sunny day plus floor plan and video walk through. And then market to a wider audience nationally who have the budget to not see your house as too expensive. Meantime, all your personal nick nacks to be removed out of sight, take off bits stuck on fridge (why?), remove that rustic twiggy dried flowers thing hanging in kitchen, fire places clear, removes baby bits from living room and even baby bedroom. People want to see clear depersonalised spaces they can see themselves in. Even the wire on your lamp showing is a bit jarring. A higher end photographer would have gently moved these things out of sight. At the moment your house is nice but not aspirational. Little tweaks could raise it up. But your EA should have told you all this so sack them first. Good luck.

I think it's lovely. I remember visiting Cheadle years ago and thought it would be nice to live in. That was last century though.

£600k is a lot for a home right on the pavement though and a floor plan would help.

Absolutely gorgeous and my type of property but are there lots of new builds in your area for similar prices?

I’m an hour train ride from London, in Essex and we have had a huge drive in new builds in our area. In our village alone we have many lovely large new builds for the same asking price as your property. I notice similar older houses for the same value are just sitting there unsold for months. If you have a similar situation in your area then this could be your problem.

Many people are drawn to a new property with as little maintenance as possible and not having to redecorate over someone’s else’s taste.

OP I live very locally and am looking to upsize at the moment (and also have twins, congrats!) - for me this would be a veto because of price (for that price I’m wanting 4 bedrooms) and parking.
It’s a beautiful house and the catchment schools are brilliant but the price and parking would put me off even making a viewing.
Just some honest feedback from someone currently looking!!

I'm not sure if you're still reading op .... But you really do have to accept that you won't sell for the price you want. Could you look at renting it out and then you renting somewhere near your family for a while?

Even if you drop the price, I would simply be scrolling by as the first pic is so off putting and I wouldn't want to deal with that agent you've chosen. If you fix those things and the price is right - you will sell. But so many will be put off by it being right there on the road and crap parking. It's too much of a compromise for the price point.

The layout also wouldn't work for us.

However you obviously fell in love with it, so I'm sure someone else will too (when the price and listing is right).

The original pics are so much better! I really didn't like the interior in the recent pics but liked it in the older pics!

In all honesty @Veebie86, my ds and dil have relocated to "the north". If anything happened to DH, it's just the sort of house I'd buy just for me. That's because it's near the station, has good transport links, is in a nice area/locality with amenities and I'd only one car to worry about.

However, I'd want to upgrade the bathrooms and the kitchen and would want more information. I assume it isn't listed.

We are in Surrey so I understand high prices. On that basis, if I absolutely loved it and was buying with my heart, I wouldn't offer more than £525,000, having had a squint at what else is available in the area.

That's a lovely amount of living space with 3 tinies, spacious yet contained.

You show an office and a double bedroom in what I would consider a generous stairway with nooks.

I'd abandon the pretence of a third bedroom and make it a reading/play/craft nook with sofa bed, or move the office upstairs.

Set the nursery up as a bedroom for multiple young children, remove or rearrange that long run of units.

Rejig to enjoy while you are waiting to sell as a generous and characterful 2 bed+.

The earlier listing shows the space much more clearly.

It's saying "used to be a pub" to me, with the way the downstairs was originally configured ... was it?

It's now gorgeous inside, but apart from that the issues for me are the same as most others:

Massively overpriced given the competition
No parking - buyers ignore "neighbours are great" as that can change
The front exterior looks a bit tatty
Query over glazing / heating
And yes, the lack of floorplan

For me it would definitely be the parking.

I can’t imagine paying £600,000 for a house without even a drive to park my car. And it’s all well and good you saying you have lovely neighbours but you can’t put that in the listing and even if you did there is nothing to ensure that your neighbour doesn’t sell up next year to a knobhead with six cars.

You need to sign up with someone like Andrew Snape who has a shop in the village.
Your house is beautiful and in a gorgeous position and should definitely be selling. Your estate agent is the problem.

although if it had disgusting double glazed plastic windows, I would never touch it.