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

You need a floorplan , I look at that more than photos tbh so I know what I can do with the property. The fact there's a mezzanine in one photo but with no indication of which room this is in/is it what you're calling a third bedroom (seen the floorplan on the other listing so know it isn't). I would actually get a photo of two cots in one bedroom or something so that people flicking through think "ah yes, more bedrooms than children, that's why they're selling so soon after buying" rather than wondering if it's the expense of bills etc.

My penny's worth: it is marketed by the Express Estate Agency.

I was buying last year and I found them impossible to contact. So I filtered out all properties marketed by them. They had the weirdest booking system. My advice: only use a traditional EA. No Express Estate Agency, no Purple Bricks.

No off road parking would make it unattractive to me

And even more unattractive when it cliams to have this but turns out not to

I'm only too aware that EAs lie all the time, but this one's pretty fundamental

Yes, for 600k I’d expect the same. This isn’t central London, this is a city suburb where drives and garages (even if only used for the kids bikes and the freezer) are the norm.
Getting in and out of that close looks like a right PITA also.

i know this area really well… and honestly didn’t bat an eyelid at the price, it’s not unusual for a 3 ned detached house in such beautiful condition.
lots of houses hanging around longer… I think that’s just the market and your EA needs to work much, much harder on your behalf. Good luck OP!

OP, I think the market for period properties is being impacted by the cost of heating them. I suspect more and more people are checking out the EPC of properties before viewing — and yours is an E, which would disappoint me given that it's been renovated and presented nicely. I think perhaps buyers are getting better at seeing past the refurbished bathrooms and kitchens and wondering how much it's going to cost to change the original single-glazed windows and insulate and heat the place adequately. On top of this I've heard that many mortgage lenders aren't offering mortgages on single-brick properties (period properties built with walls a single brick thick) and it may be that your home falls into a hard-to-get-a-mortgage-on category.

Shame, it looks nice. Though I wouldn't be thrilled at having to navigate that narrow, winding staircase every time I needed a pee. Sometimes it's just down to practicalities and layout, and that's why the lack of a floorplan isn't helping matters.

I think the front looks fine. I don't share the obsession with hanging baskets and tubs that most of the rest of MN does. If you can stretch to very large real terracotta pots with mature box spirals, or an artfully planted galvanised trough then maybe. But plastic tubs of pansies and naff hanging baskets would be a turn-off for me.

1000th to say floor plan then to say better pics.
I would also say you must have overpaid because as a buyer I would not shortlist even for a viewing. Just seems like a beautiful bur overpriced 3 bed. Rightmove suggests you can get a 4 bed with parking I.e. better suited for families.
Leftfield but ever asked if your family wanted to move closer?

I think you are right.

Funny my response was exactly the same as so many others. No floorplan, I'm moving past it. I want to see if the layout is weird, if the 3rd bedroom is just a box room or a real bedroom, etc.

Plus terrible energy efficiency rating. In today's cost environment this makes me think it'll be a nightmare to run.

At least one of those things is easily fixed!

The paved area infront of your house, is that yours or is it pavement?
If it is in anyway yours I would stick a car on it to show off street parking.

Having looked at up to £600,000, minimum 3 bed, detached houses on Rightmove all of them have off street parking and most have a garage.

I think you are looking for a buyer who probably doesn’t have children or a car and is wanting a beautiful home.

Having spent the past 2 years in a rented house with on street parking it is something I don’t want to repeat

Buyer here currently looking in Cheadle Hulme, Cheadle and Bramhall 🙋🏼‍♀️. As others have said the lack of floor plan is very off putting and not something I’ve seen before. I think it’s especially important for yours since you have the mezzanine and it’s hard to figure out the layout! Most also have a video tour and I think you need to be more specific about what the off road parking actually is (is it the carport pictured? Is it shared and you only get one space or exclusive and both spaces are yours?).

From the houses I’ve seen I disagree with your EAs. Most houses in Cheadle Hulme at the 600k price point are 4 bed or have a more spacious living space. The character of your house adds will add value but many people can’t afford to choose character over space and I think £575k is a more realistic price for this house. Search on Rightmove yourself so you can see what you’re competing with at that price.

It is a beautiful house but I agree with another poster about giving the outside a bit more curb appeal with hanging baskets and maybe even painting the front door a brighter colour.

People who paint oak beams should be shot. Far too many people buy period houses and then wreck them with 'shabby shit' decor and ikea furniture.....just buy a modern house if you want a white box.

1. As everyone else said, first thing I noticed was no floor plan
2. 600k seems a lot as the house doesn't look that big, but a floor plan with dimensions could help justify the price
3. In picture 12 it looks like the wall is damp near the ceiling (this would be the biggest concern for me, yes it's a lovely house, but I would be worrying about it becoming a money pit
4. The first pic is very underwhelming, I would scroll past that. The pavement needs a clean and maybe taking the pictures when the sun is on the front of the house would help. Pic 2 is a bit better
5. The parking situation isn't clear

If I was buying I would also want to know the age of the property. I've also just had a look on Google maps and it seems quite hidden which is a bonus but not mentioned in the listing, so perhaps mention that it has the added bonus of being private. Good luck with your sale OP.

I think your image of the North might be a bit antiquated. I sold a 2 bed terrace for £450,000 last autumn, and it took two weeks/two mornings of viewings to sell! Even if it’s cheaper up here it’s not dirt cheap, and if the location is desirable then you tend to pay a fair bit whichever part of the country you are.

No street parking. The road it's on is almost a "mews" style road, and is only the width of one car.

So, I don't know where you park, or how far away you have to walk.

That would be a pain in the bum carrying shopping back from the car. Very inconvenient.

Your home is really beautiful, but the photos while not terrible don't do it justice. They don't capture each room as a space, they don't frame it all properly, so you can't visualise yourself in there. I think you could do more with staging and photography. Also maybe just me, but I don't think the kids stuff in the garden works. I'd rather see a beautiful, stylish sitting area.

A 3 bed for )600,000?!???

First impressions, I'm first looking at a picture of the outside, before reading a brief description. In the first photo the house looks like a semi-detached tiny cottage. So I would possibly scroll past without stopping.

I think you need to clean up the pavement outside, put some large troughs and pots along the front, take a photo on a dry bright day and ensure that in all four windows the blinds are the same, no odd lights on, or as now one side of the house lit, the other not.

And a floor plan.

It's a beautiful house, it's lovely home, I'd buy it :)

Our house is worth about £1.2 million and there is nowhere to park except on the street. Depends on the area.

I agree it depends on the area. Unfortunately for the OP there are a lot of other properties of a similar size with off street parking, and many of these are also cheaper.

OP did you pay for the floorplan along with the EPC when it was on with the previous agent? If so it belongs to you and the previous agent should send it to you and you can ask the current agent to add it to the rightmove listing.

Is there any parking? Is that garage yours? It's not very clear. For that kind of money I'd want space for 2 cars.

There's no designated parking, and the garage doesn't belong to the OP's house. (Despite the listing saying it has off road parking.)

The only parking is on the small street, and relies on the goodwill of neighbours.

It looks a lovely house, but I don't think the photos do it justice. Some of them are very odd and make the rooms look an odd shape.

I do think that people are a bit uncertain at the moment, but I would be going to a better EA even if it costs a bit more.

Gorgeous home OP, lucky you! I can think of worse places to be stuck unable to sell for year 🙂

Definitely take a photo on a brighter day after jet-washing the algae off the pavement and wall.... looks very slippery!

At first glance I'd wonder if it was the whole house for sale or just one side of it, as they don't match up in the photo (blinds down in one, lights on in the other). I'd also wonder why blinds were down in daylight? Suggests a privacy concern.