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 seen properties in our area with similar rooms to your 4th bedroom—they were described as “nursery/office”. Not “bedroom”.

In terms of feedback I think it’s purple bricks, garden is not great, floor plan in meters, 4th bedroom looks very small. But there are loads of positives- good space downstairs and obviously in move in condition so it will sell if it’s on with a decent agent at a realistic price.

It's such a sad post, a domestic victim lives in a refuge with her 6 children but her violent partner has a comfortable life! The world has gone mad.

I know. It's heartbreaking. If there was justice, he'd be evicted and the OP and children living there. I despair at the justice system sometimes.

I was also troubled by the photo showing the two single beds with almost no space at the bottom.

i would remove one bed completely (sell it or give it away if you no longer need it) and turn the remaining bed so it lines up against the long wall. That will give it a much better impression of space.

ETA sorry I didn't see the sad circumstances around the house sale re removing one of the beds, I was thinking only about how to improve the photo

You really need the floor plan updating. At first glance it looks like 3 bedrooms and it is amazing how few people will look at it carefully. playroom / bedroom 5 should be used too.

The fourth bedroom is over 2M x 2M - that’s not a bad size. But the floor plan is atrocious as it’s not labelled.

I am really sorry about this. It sounds horrific. I think, sadly, this is part of the problem with the house.

before I read this I was going to say that the house has a nasty vibe because the wallpaper and the rainbow mural and the bunnies picture look feminine and child- friendly, but the house as lived in shows no sign of an actual woman or children. It looks as if a horrible controlling man lives there and doesn’t tend the garden and hasn’t bothered to update the decor and somehow his horrible personality has even made the sun go in.

that house has far too busy wallpaper and far too cosy carpeting to feel so empty. It looks like a tragedy happened there, and a lot of posters have already picked up on this, saying “bad vibe”. And “weird and cold”

wishing you the very best x

Could your ex be difficult about arranging viewings. My friend wanted to view a house where the couple had split and the wife was living in the house. They contacted the Estate Agent but he could never get hold of the vendor. My friend walked past the house whilst walking her dog and could tell it was occupied. She posted a note through the door saying she was interested and could be flexible on time, left her contact details and asking her or the estate to contact her to arrange a viewing. She never heard back so gave up. This house was unusual as all others on the estate sold relatively quickly but this was up for over a year.

Change estate agents and accept you may need to pay a bit more commission - but it will be worth it for decent photos, floor plans and description. This is so badly done.

Looks like there's a lot wrong with decor that would be expensive to fix being a large place. Every room and the garden needs sorting. It needs a dooer-upper price tag to be attractive.

Just as an example of a well presented house with a decent agent OP look at this one on your street- maybe you could get these agents round? I know you can’t change the decor but this is what makes people want to view a house.

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/details/england-132820478-40720836?s=d04f4cf19b10cadd4b943c6e8a8a45a7219243e8467fee47205c58a6ee4e0159#/

it isn't 4 bedrooms, or even 5.

Its 2 reception rooms, 3 bedrooms and a box room. Trying to sell it as anything else when those photos are so awful is not going to invite people in.

You need to address those floor plans, they should be to scale, because if that box room is bigger than it looks on the floor plan, it should be drawn as such. I was in the market for a 4 bed a while ago, and i would immediately have dismissed your property because i wouldn't put a child in a room that tiny.

between your ex and the estate agents, they've done a number on you trying to sell it.

I suspect he doesn't want to move but is going through the motions, which is why the house is being presented in such an unappealing manner + He has signed up an estate agent that can't be bothered. You only have a few minutes to grab a potential home buyers attention. They don't want to hunt to find information they want to be grabbed. If you have any local friends on Facebook I would get them to share the hell out of the picture with a link to the original sale - it looks so much better.

The downstairs bedroom is a reception room which can easily converted to a downstairs bedroom not a bedroom. By calling it 5 you immediately alienate people because its misleading. You want them to think its a bonus. If there is space for a shower to be installed somewhere downstairs, even better - it would be ideal for someone who have an elderly parent or mobility issues.

Sorry to be blunt. It looks pretty awful. Every room looks cramped and rammed full of furniture. Lights are on so I guess it’s a dark house. It has zero appeal for a family wanting to raise children there.

Wow that’s such a great counter example of why the op’s photos are so bad.

the vibe here is so sunny and lovely and a family really love here. A woman has put those rooms and garden together and tweaks them every day. Sure it’s staged too, but there is love in that house. (And the sun came out)

It's barely above the minimum size for a child under 10.

The field behind house also makes buyers nervous as in all likelihood a newbuild estate may be built.

Haven’t read all of the comments but

• floor plan not being to scale (and an en-suite you can’t get into)
• purple bricks = hassle/cheap
• photos are awful. Why isn’t there one of the rest of the kitchen? Is there no room for a fridge in the kitchen?
• no pic of the “amazing view to the rear”?

Photos are terrible, a bit bleak to be honest and very confusing. Take photos on a sunny day so you get plenty of natural light.
Could you put the twin beds lengthwise one against each wall?

There is a lot of furniture- think you need to put some in storage.

Which bit of the garden is yours? What is that rough concrete section?

It's 3 bedrooms and a study. Not everybody wants a bedroom downstairs unless they're really pushed for space. I think it needs to be listed as a 3 bedroom.
I could say my house is a 4 bedroom if I included the downstairs toy room.

Your floor plan needs amending too, no wonder no one could find the '4th bedroom'

I can't see the 5th bedroom - can anyone point it out?

Sorry OP, don’t want this to sound mean

1. The photos are bloody awful. It looks dark and uninviting (which from what you’ve said about your ex, it probably is).
2. The floor plan is worse than the photos. The dimensions on the floor plan don’t meaningfully match the shapes. It looks like it was drawn by the work experience kid. Get one drawn to scale.
3. lose the furniture from the bedrooms - it’s not demonstrating the use of the space well
4. label the playroom as a family room instead.

This may be controversial, but I’d market it as a three bed with study as the fourth bedroom is a box.

The description includes:
Off road parking for many cars
Four very spacious bedrooms
Beautiful private garden
Spectacular views

Well the parking isn’t demonstrated anywhere and “many” is subjective, the bedrooms comment is very much at odds with the pictures and floor plan. The garden - well you’ve said yourself what the hell has he done and the views? This honestly looks like the agent stuck “sell 4 bed house” into Chat GPT and it’s come out with word salad.

Edited to say I’ve noticed it’s purple bricks - if you really want it to shift, go with a proper agent.

I do suspect your ex is being deliberately difficult here (is he making the house unavailable for viewings or limiting when they can happen I wonder) so I sympathise.

The odd shaped rooms would just be a straight no for me. If you get find anyway to get rid of the twin beds you just do that as it’s just so incredibly off putting and highlights the odd shape.

The garden is really, really bad. You need to get him to agree to at least have the crap taken away.

@MagdaLenor , the 5th bedroom is the ground floor room labelled Playroom.

It doesn't have a lot of curb appeal. Is there anything you can do to make the front look nicer? Potted plants, maybe?

is the front garden shared? No fence would put me off

that fourth bedroom looks like a cupboard. It doesn't look like a usable bedroom at all. It would be better to have some blurb about flexible space, office/study/walk in wardrobe/dressing room, downstairs bedroom space/play space, etc., and really emphasise that there is a lot you can do with the available rooms.

some people really can't see past the decor so there will be that too. neutral is really best but it's just not always possible to totally redecorate in order to sell. When you have prints and patterns, it can be a marmite thing.

Ideally people would be able to see their ideal flooring and wallpaper in place of what's there but some people even talk about not liking the bloody sofa and shit like that as reasons idiots so actual wallpaper and flooring might be an issue for some.

You need better photos. It's like the estate agent rang someone up and said I need you to come out and take some awful photos that really make this house look tiny and unappealing.