Why has no one viewed my house?

[CinnamonSwirlLatte]

Previous marital home has been on Rightmove for a month. Thousands of clicks but not one viewing.

Already reduced by 15k.

I'd love to know what's going wrong - although it's going to be very difficult to amend/improve anything as my controlling ex husband lives there!

Thanks

4 bedroom semi-detached house for sale in Maple Avenue, Keelby, DN41 (rightmove.co.uk)

I’ve looked twice and I can’t see the forth bedroom. I also think in feet not meters. I’m struggling to work out which room is which and whether the house is big or pokey. I’d suggest ask agent to get a clearer floor plan with Ft label the photos.

I’m sorry OP 💐

Well done on getting out. You’ll get through this and you and your children will flourish. His attitude will catch up with him, he may end up with a few more £k than he deserves thanks to his sheer bullying, but you wait a few years and see who lives in the happier, lighter, brighter, more secure and loving home ❤️

Can you speak to your solicitor about equalising costs? If you’re spending £££ on private rental while he lives in your joint home, you are owed more of the proceeds to compensate for that.

It looks perfectly saleable to me, but you need a better estate agent, who will market it proactively.

Sorry for what you've been going through.

And yes I can see how little you can do about this. However, I would think that you can change to a better agent. I didn’t realise it was purple bricks, honestly, a lot of people would see that and go no further. It doesn’t save you money.

Even if you can’t change agents, or get photos re-taken, you can do something about the floor plan I’m sure!

I actually found the 4th bedroom easily on the floor plan. However, I agree with others that it's really a 3 bed with a box room.
It's such a personal choice buying a home and honestly my first thought was that it looked like a very bland and dated house with a horrible garden.
I'm sorry OP. I'm sure you made it lovely but there is nothing appealing about the pictures at all.
Having said that, some people like a challenge and are more creative than I am so if the area is right for them they might see lots of potential.

Looking again, the drawing is really poor. Some of the sizes (even though I can't do meters) just don't make sense. How can the downstairs loo be one meter? It's drawn the same size as the utility which is three meters. And the lengths are the same, but listed different.

Same with fourth bedroom and main bathroom. Shown the same size in the drawing but the bedroom is listed as bigger. Not sure how it can be though unless walls don't line up. So either the picture or the size listing are wrong. Or both probably.

It doesn't make sense, I wouldn't view it if I had other options and it's currently a buyers market still.

Are you allowed to list with a second agent

Yes, but how without photographs etc

Does your ex actually want to sell?
How long has the property been on the market - do you know, I saw the first thing you knew of it being for sale was finding it online for sale.

Its a strange area for purchasing houses, there are a few others in the price range but all 3 beds, not 4 beds. Anyone looking can also go back and see it was the same kitchen in 2014.

Once you find the 4th bedroom on the plan and then look at the bedroom in the photo, its a decent sized box room and could easily be a pleasant office.

I think for many its the shapes of the rooms, and as you said yourself it wasn't easy to live with.

You need to find a buyer who wants or needs 4/5 bedrooms, live in the countryside and is happy to decorate.

Surely that makes an even worse place to post, not better? A local agent is the person to ask, not MN.

Not read full thread. Seems a complete bargain for me but I’m in London. I do think people might think there’s an awful lot of cosmetic decoration to be done as it’s quite drab and old fashioned. The garden doesn’t add anything. But if you liked the location can’t see why that would be a deal breaker.

If a bedroom is so small that you can’t even label it properly then I’d question if it counts as a bedroom, Study might be more accurate, so three bedrooms although presumably someone could convert the playroom if they wanted to.

@CinnamonSwirlLatte you can sort this with minimal £. It’s about staging the house.

1. Tidy up the front by weeding, pressure washing the drive/path and put some posts outside the front door.
2. Tidy the back garden by weeding the corner patio and dress with a couple of chairs and table.
3. Bedroom two, remove one of the twin beds and put the bed with the headboard against the wall with the mirror. Put nice bedding on the bed. Put the mirror on the wall width ways,
4. Bedroom 3, pink walls, remove the floor bed and put a standard single bed with nice bedding. Put the dolls house on the drawer units.
5. Bedroom 4/study leave the bed with desk under but remove the drawer units. Again nice bedding.
6. Bedroom 5/downstairs dress it with furniture - could it be a dining room? Possibly remove the wall paper and paint a light colour.
7. Dress each room. Look at instagram, minimal but comfortable. Plants can make a difference.
8. Get the photos re-done and make sure the lights are OFF nothing screams dark house like the lights being on. If you can take the photos when each room is at its lightest with natural light. Take photos from different angles to make the rooms look as big as possible.
9. As pp said redo floor plan.

But it isn’t really a 3 bed and box… the floor plan isn’t even drawn to scale! The sizes aren’t right and they even bloody say so on the drawing!!! The fourth bedroom is bigger than it’s drawn. Look at the dimensions given!

OP - a thought - can you scan and draw over the floor plan from when you bought it? And use that? Can you access it online?

The photos are crap. The floorplan is confusing, it's not clear that it's a 4 bed as the fourth bedroom is so tiny in comparison to the en-suite which, according to the measurements is smaller.
The house looks unloved and would be better either dressed to make it look like a home, or if it was completely empty.

100% this - It should be viewed as a 3 bed with extra space which is a bonus.
People work from home so its 3 bed and an office / poentially 2 offices, its now attractive to those looking for 3 beds

Why can't you class the 4th as a bedroom?

My DDs in a box room and it has a bed and dressing table and a cupboard that's over the stairs for her clothes.

People calling that room a cupboard is rude. Most use a "box" room as a bedroom.

Me and dh stared one when we first got together.

The market is VERY slow at the moment

The photos look a bit dull and dark. When our house was listed I think the EA turned up the brightness/saturation on the photos and they looked really nice.

Bedroom 4 doesn't look like a bedroom, can you get the playroom changed to a bedroom, makes more sense.

You can't just pick a downstairs room and call it a bedroom though. It doesn't work like that.

It could be used as a bedroom, granted but calling this a five bed is disingenuous. That room should be called a study/playroom and be done with it.

As for the rest. It's a serviceable house but to sell and get top buck, you have to have it all immaculate (including the garden) and a homage to neutral colours.

I would get 90% of the furniture out of it and into storage and have a blast with a pressure washer front and rear too.

First impressions count. Filthy guttering, rotten facia board, flaking paint over the porch, drive has weeds growing, rear patio dirty, fence could be better. Just looks unkempt.

It looks like a bedroom to me, on account of the fact it has a bed in it. And drawers.

The full particulars aren’t any better than the photos and the floor plan. Just a muddle with, again, no measurements! Also 4 spacious bedrooms is simply untrue, it has 3 double bedrooms and one single. The single not being found without some effort.

OP, can your solicitor not do more to enable you to speed up the sale? Like instructing a competent estate for a start!

Sorry, I've got a lot on this morning but I spoke to PB and apparently my ex took the photos... explains a lot. I'll be messaging our third party later to try to get something sorted out

It may not say 5 bedrooms but the details that I can see definitely say 4 bedrooms and the upstairs floor plans state that that 'cupboard' is a bedroom....

No mention of 5 bedrooms because there isn't 5 bedrooms, despite what you say on here or how you utilised the rooms people interested in a 4/5 bed property will see a playroom downstairs and the 4th bedroom as a very small room, nothing you can do about the size but if wanting to keep the description, it's maybe by people aren't interested.

I feel for you OP. A relative had a situation recently where her controlling exH refused to move out and sabotaged viewings (and even the initial listing, by messing the house up for photos). Anyway - she got there in the end but they had to drop the price. And she is now free, so hold fast.

I saw the fourth bedroom on the plan no probs, although fair to say it doesn’t jump out.

The house looks very clean and tidy, but the lighting is a bit of an issue. They’ve obviously photographed it on a dull day because the inside feels dingy and gloomy (sorry), backed up by all the lights clearly being on. It doesn’t make me feel like I want to live there.

Other than somehow organising a better listing/agent, with brighter photos and a shout-where-the-4th-bedroom-is floor plan, I think you’re very limited honestly. If you can bide your time, he’ll eventually realise that the price needs lowering.

I appreciate you can't do anything to the house itself so my comments will focus more on the listing (that hopefully can be changed?)

• Four Very Spacious Bedrooms...It's not though is it? It's 3 and an office/box room
• The Driveway will accomodate several cars alongside a large Front Garden.- Will it? Could just be the angle but it looks like 1 maybe 2 comfortably
• Large Family House In Keelby- I wouldn't describe a home that 900 square feet a "large family home"
• Spectacular Views To The Rear- it's a drab garden and some falling down sheds? That part is just straight up false advertising.

And you definitely need new photos from better angles.

You probably had your reasons for this but I feel like the space hasn't been utilised properly. I would put the twin room in bedroom 2 (Room with pink curtains and a dollhouse), the beds would at least then sit flush against the wall and be a better use of space rather than being crammed into a room that is such an awkward shape they don't really fit in.

You've put it on for 70k more and without sounding rude you've made it worse from when it was sold in 2017... Adding the utility room and making that the entrance to the playroom is just a bit of an odd way to utilise the space and has probably negatively affected the value. The way I would've done it is to have the WC and utility off the kitchen as you did but have it as a solid wall and had the door the playroom going off the hallway. It becomes more of a useable space that way.

But I think you need to really look at the price, currently my first thought was it was a fixer upper...just for reference we bought our house two years ago as a fixer upper and spent around 30k doing it up. So people will be looking then thinking they'll need 30-50k to do it up which will need to be knocked off the price.

Thought as much... You can pay for a photo pack. Did he do the floorplan too?!