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)

Personally I don't care for the decor. If I bought it I'd have to decorate most of it.

To me, that's a fun thing to do and wouldn't put me off necessarily.

God, I really am worried about this sale now 😂 I haven't even mentioned two quite off-putting things about the house.

No response from the third party re suggestions.

How long should I give ex to put things in place before taking further action via solicitor do we think?

Yes it is!
In the awkwardly shaped room you could use the bit next to the bathroom as a dressing area. Be great with a nice dressing table to do your make-up as it has a window.
Is the box room 2m x 2m? That's a decent size and assume you can fit a single bed in there?

I think you need to see past decor as everyone has different tastes.
What I see is a spacious home, in a lovely street and even has a field to look out on.
I think it's a bargain personally!

How long has it been on the market?

I think a judge would feel that it’s appropriate to give it a bit of time at the current price before ordering that the price be reduced. Especially in this market where things aren’t going quickly. I’d probably say at least a month before reducing.

But I would probably try to speak to a local estate agent and get their feel for it- they might be able to give you a better sense- I.e if we’ve had no viewings after x weeks we’d be retaking the photos/ after another week reducing the price. Try to find a GOOD local estate agent with a good record of local sales.

That said, I think things like doing the floor plan properly, marketing with a proper estate agent, redoing the photos and writing a proper description should be fine asap, so nothing to stop a solicitor writing in very firm terms that these things should be done now, and if still no offers a price reduction will be sought.

Your ex should also be under an obligation to let you know when any viewings take place.

Sorry, yes, I meant as an outsider viewing the floor plans to purchase the house, I would be put off. I of course don't think the OP is hiding anything! If anything, from what I've read, the rooms are better proportioned than the drawings. I just meant that the phrase itself would put me off on any floor plan, and make me think that :)

True! And yes, you can fit a single bed in there

I don't want to reduce the price anymore.

It's been in for a month.

Purple Bricks will let me know if there are any viewings

It's SUCH a bargain. Killing me that he can live so much cheaper than me, even when he moves! Oh well

Two weeks.

The previous floor plan looks better but doesn't have room sizes on.

Thank you x

@Negroany @CinnamonSwirlLatte
Easily fixed!
This looks so much better! You do get a feel of how specious it is by adding dimensions.

Can you change it to square footage too?

I am wondering about this government thing. Is it the law that when selling, you can't call a room a bedroom unless it meets size requirements or what? I get there are rules about HMO's and room size, is that what is meant?

I agree that the outlook is worth it. A lot of people, not just me, won't look further than the decor especially if they have a tight budget. Something isn't ticking the box of prospective buyers and it may be a factor 🤷

That previous floor plan doesn't look right either. The 4th bedroom should be wider than the bathroom, but doesn't look it on the floor plan.

Also, the plan should also have feet and inches.

I had always thought that minimum room sizes only applied to very specific circumstances like new builds or if you want to start a HMO. As many have said in older houses such as 1930s houses the third bedroom was always pretty small but it’s still perfectly adequate. In this case also the floor plan is a bit misleading- the picture of the room with the high sleeper bed shows that the small room in this house is really not too bad, especially for a child. I’ve certainly seen worse.

Yes if you look at this floor plan from a house with the same footprint of the OPs (without the wedge) it shows the bedroom slightly wider. It’s just SO LAZY of the fuckwit ex not to have just done a half decent job (or got an estate agent in).

I bought my house late 90's shortly after it was built. It was sold as a 4 bed. the smallest bedroom probably (haven't measured) wouldn't pass the Government thing and similar houses on this estate are still sold as 4 bed. They have a wardrobe space with sliding doors on which makes half of the room wider which might make a difference.

I worked as a housing officer for local authorities. If we discovered that a bedroom didn't meet the minimum standard for a bedroom then it was redefined as a box room. We had 3 beds which were 3 doubles, 3 beds that were 2 doubles and a single, and 2 beds with a box. From the outside they often didn't look much different, but the measurements of the bedrooms told a different story.
This house has been advertised as 4 double bedrooms, it really isn't. If the downstairs room is advertised as a downstairs bedroom then that's fine, but I would not say that the small room is a bedroom. As I said earlier, a study yes, or box room to actually be precise about the size.

I don't think it is the price as such as it looks like a doer-upper, plus couldn't find sq ft for the whole house.

I'm surprised by the number of posters who say the smallest bedroom isn't a bedroom. A room that size is common in Edwardian and interwar houses. Generations of people have grown up sleeping in a bedroom that size (as has one of the OP's children).

The housing standards apply to new builds. They're not applied retrospectively to existing housing stock - that would result in downgrading the number of designated bedrooms in hundreds of thousands of homes across the country, even though many of those rooms are, and would continue to be, used as bedrooms.

The photo of the room shows a high-sleeper bed and furniture, so obviously it can be used as a bedroom. The only thing I would query is whether a freestanding single bed would fit, given there's a radiator under the window.

The floor plan ruins this for you OP. It's absolutely shit.

I know it says not to scale but considering you've got a single bed the width of the narrow part of bedroom one, compared to how tiny bedroom 4 looks. It looks like you can't fit a full length bed in bedroom 4 from the floor plan which will make people assume you've got a custom built shorter bed in the pictures.

If they could do a decent floor plan that more accurately reflects the space, that will help massively.

Also some of those photos could be edited to add warmth and balance out the colours. You could definitely do that.

If you could agree with ex, I'd say he needs to rearrange some furniture to maximise the space in each room rather than showing people how you actually worked it. Could you dress the playroom to look like a dining room?

Or make it look like a second reception room? A TV room or large study/home office? It would be an ideal home office actually as it has its own toilet and is sort of separate from the rest of the house.

In bedroom 1, I'd swap the furthest bed with the wardrobe and push them together to look like a double. Remove the chest of drawers too so it looks more spacious. Take out some furniture in bedroom 4 as well.

Also, either go with white doors and door frames, or wood. You have both which look really disjointed.

This is great, thank you! Is there any chance you could do the downstairs, too? I'll get them sent over to Purple Bricks