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)

Do you think your ex is deliberately listing it poorly because he doesn't want to sell? Downstairs to me looks fine I'm currently house hunting and for me things that would put me off are the jumbled order of pics making it hard to follow the layout, busy wallpaper and the small room with 2 beds in I just wouldn't consider as a bedroom with the odd angles. Could the beds be removed?

I'd also get the description re written it looks very unprofessional with lots of unnecessary capital letters etc and it is hard to see the text for 4th bedroom on floor plan. These might seem small things but if I was buying my perception would be listing isn't professional will the purchase/sale be handled professionally

How long has the listing been up for? And do any potential viewers get told about the situation by the EA?

I think it’s got lots of potential, and the open countryside outside the back is great. It just needs to be marketed as more of a doer-upper and less of a ready to go family house.

I also know the situation might put some people off. My friends were trying to exchange and the seller didn’t really want to sell, following a divorce, and made it really hard work. In the end after 5 months they pulled out.

I know you can’t do anything about the situation, so it’s more about the marketing I think. Good luck.

I would not consider it a 4 bed. The fourth looks too small to be a bedroom really, I would consider it a study and the playroom is a living space, not a bedroom. So if I wanted four bedrooms, I would dismiss it.

He's chosen purple bricks deliberately. They are only free if you do your own pictures, floor plan and viewings. I'd guess this was deliberate to further sabotage things.

Are you named on the deeds? If so how the hell has he marketed the property. I own a miniscule amount of my mum's house and she wasn't allowed to put it on the market without my signature.

Looks like you might need to go back to court and explain that he's doing this and see if you can get an order for a full agent to take on the property.

Also look at the listing from when your property was bought in 2017 - the odd shaped room isn't even included. People make snap decisions sometimes better to show less of potential "issues" let buyers come and see the good aspects and decide if they can deal with the negatives

Which odd shaped room? The empty one?

The plan is poor and states it is not to scale.
I would sack the agents if I was OP and go with someone else.

He's chosen purple bricks deliberately. They are only free if you do your own pictures, floor plan and viewings. I'd guess this was deliberate to further sabotage things.

Didn't notice it was on with these.
We viewed a property that was being rented out and the owner had mover much further afield and decided they wanted to sell.

We viewed twice and each time it was pretty obvious that the tenant wasn't going to let it sell easily, the amount of negatively was so noticeable.

It’s pretty standard size for the 3rd bedroom of most older 3 bedroom houses. Very slightly larger than the one in the house DS sold recently. I’d agree that its appeal would be more for someone looking for a 3 bed, with the extra box room as an added bonus, but that may well be reflected in the price.

I don’t think most people want a downstairs bedroom. I wouldn’t count that as bedroom space if I was viewing and the small upstairs room, although fine for a toddler, is more of a box room.

Depends what people are looking for. If it’s being viewed by people who want five bedroom they may be moving on because of that.

Id put some plants outside as it doesn’t look very welcoming at the mo and some in the garden or at least tidy the garden a bit.

I'm confused over the divorce situation.

Is the divorce finalised?

You're not in a refuge- you're renting privately- yes?

If your divorce is finalised, how is your ex getting away with not selling the house? Is this not part and parcel of the settlement?

He will have to buy you out. That means he will need to get a loan to do that. When the house is sold he can clear the loan.

It obviously suits him NOT to sell but your legal team should be giving him deadlines and pushing this along.

Sorry if this has all been tried but I think the state of the house is a red herring. You can't do anything to change it.

But you can work on the legal side of him paying you half its value or whatever you're owed - that should be the average of 3 independent valuations.

Wow, so many comments! Thank you.

Yes Purple Bricks, and yes I agree it should be on with a local agent.

I don't think he's actively blocking the sale?? I just think he's tight, stupid and miserable.

I'm going to message his stepdad later with a list of suggestions to get the bloody house sold!

Also, we've been through court, done all that shit. It has been valued by three different local estate agents. The three valuations were 190k, 200k, 210k. We agreed to go with 200k.

It looks like a children’s home, sorry.

She doesn't live there. Read ALL for the whole situation.

No kerb appeal
no back garden maintenance to make it more appealing

decor looks tired.
pictures are dark
doesn’t look lived in
definitely not a fourth bedroom as such. More of an office sized.

As pp said more of a doer upper and purple bricks don’t do any favours in making things look attractive or professional.

Why can't he buy you out?

He's being let off the hook.

Court is done, divorce is done.

He won't buy me out.

He doesn't have a legal team.

I think people looking for a 4 bed won’t consider it due to the size of the fourth room, unless they really are desperate and can’t afford anything else.

he should be ashamed though, I can’t beleive the difference between what the garden looked like on the last listing pics and the state of it now. I guess he doesn’t go out there.

as the beds are all stripped I’m guessing rhe kids don’t stay there, so he should just get rid of the beds, sell them if he can, split the money and present it with empty rooms. It’s sad, I feel for you op. Just more shit for him. The only plus is it’s neat and tidy,

He doesn't have the money I assume?

Doesn’t matter if she lives there or not she has a financial share in it.

I know she doesn’t live there but she wants to know why it’s not selling/what would make it sell. Otherwise thread is pointless

This makes no sense.

When someone divorces, the money has to be sorted as part of that.

If he refused full stop to sell, what come back would you have?

Why did your legal team not push this along?

The 1 with the 2 bed in. Or perhaps it's just the angle of pic

He never bothered with the garden anyway.

I once spent 7 hours straight making it look beautiful on a blistering hot end of June day, at 9 months pregnant. It soon went back to looking like shit.

No, the kids don't stay there. He also took all of their things to a charity shop in August. I can't let them know. They'd be gutted.

My thoughts, @CinnamonSwirlLatte ...

Firstly, I'm sorry you're going through this. It sucks being stuck in your situation. Your ex is a prat.

The photos are awful. They make rooms look dark and uninspiring and show no consideration of staging, lighting or angles. They need re-done by someone competent.

The 4th upstairs bedroom is very small. It might be more attractively marketed as being a study (with the bonus of being big enough for a single bed if needed).

Irregular rooms would put me off instantly but can't really be changed, but they could have the furniture arranged in a more attractive way.

The playroom looks like it's only accessible through the utility room, which would be off-putting to me and detracts from its potential use as a bedroom. If there's scope to reconfigure it with a door off the hall (by purchasers, not you!), a picture showing that there's space to do so could be useful.

The garden is depressing. It's described as beautiful in the description but just looks like the ex cba to do anything with it. While there's not a huge amount that can be done, some external staging with potted plants, even, might help. And change the description from beautiful to one that says it's a good size and has potential.

The description is awful and needs completely rewritten. Preferably by a professional or at least someone who understands how to write to present something in a good light. Keelby's in a good location - balancing access to beautiful countryside and outdoor activities with commutability to Grimsby, Lincoln, Immingham and Hull. You're about a 10 minute drive from Caistor Grammar - why not put that in?!