Another why is my house not selling post

[Alldressedupnowheretogo]

I have a mid terraced house on the market in the most desirable street in St Albans. Priced at £600k which exactly fits (sold) comps and reflectsw we I spent renovating it + average valuation gain in the area since i bought it.

Must have had 30 viewings. Two offers on the first open house day at £5k below asking. Both fell through. Another FTB then offered and pulled out.

It’s all freshly decorated and staged. It’s a cottage like most in this area - disadvantages of these structures are downstairs bathroom and no hallway - but with the addition of a fully tanked basement with spare room/reception and home office. The moisture levels are the same on each floor so no damp in the basement. The doors and windows are beautifully re-done. The kitchen is De Vol.

It’s been on for three months. What do I do?

I think it’s my target market (FTBs, divorcees) not being able to get their mortgages as they all keep coming and people are offering and then pulling out.

But these are the things that maybe make it hard to sell?

Lack of parking spaces for residents (city centre issue).

Extra 300 ft of basement space not worth much?

People freak out about basements even when fully tanked?

Can’t do the loft as it’s Grade II listed.

Price??? Not sure about this one as the fallen-through offers were v close to asking.

Viewer feedback is mainly that they think basement will flood (not in flood zone) and the stairs need repainting (yes but srsly??)

Help?

It's pointless discussing the pros and cons of a downstairs bathroom!
Buyers are either happy to have one or not.
If they're not, they won't view.

It's hardly a debate!

Almost all Victorian houses like this one have a downstairs bathroom unless there is a) an 2-storey extension or b) a bedroom upstairs has been converted to a bathroom.

Buyers won't waste their time viewing if they don't want a downstairs bathroom.

It limits the market a bit because anyone older usually doesn't want one but then this house isn't aimed at retirees or the elderly.

It's a young person's house, mainly a FTB, without a family, who'll move up in a few years.

I think that the issue with this house is that there will be a fairly small pool of buyers who want and can afford this particular type of property. We have just sold a lovely town house, it took 4 months to find a buyer. The estate agent said the market is really slow right now even for good properties. St albans is expensive and there is a lot of competition at your price point.

@coffeesaveslives How do you think people in bungalows cope?
The bathroom is very often right next to the kitchen or living room.

Okay, you don't have to walk through the kitchen.

The more general points about the cost are from people who live in the north or where property is cheap.

There is no point banging on about the price (except relative to other properties in the same road or very nearby.)

This is the price for St Albans!
Everyone knows this!
You don't go house buying in St A unless you have the money to do so.

And it's a prime commuter town so there are many couples working in London who earn £100K and who can afford £595K.

The bedrooms are on the same floor in a bungalow.

@CornishCreamTeas my own point is that there was a house which had an upstairs bathroom AND en suite, plus 2 beds upstairs on the same street which sold for 50k cheaper not long ago, plus there are a number of examples linked in this thread which have upstairs bathrooms and better (bigger, lighter) kitchens. So it’s not a given that you have to accept a downstairs bathroom for this type of property- hopefully this thread might have given the OP an insight into why lots of people consider them a deal breaker.

Of the (good) bungalows I’ve seen they are very carefully arranged so that the bathroom(s) are close to the bedrooms, away from the kitchen and usually have a good hallway in between so basically none/ most of the issues here would apply.

The thing is how many people earn that kind of money. Most of us don’t earn anywhere near that. I know there are lawyers etc on MN who (or their husbands) earn mega bucks but most people don’t. Even the council house I grew up in is now marketed at nearly half a million.

The thing about small houses selling for say £600k today is what are they going to be marketed at if put up for sale again in 5 or 6 years, £700k, £750k? are people going to have to buy tiny Coronation Street type houses for a million quid in ten years? Will only the top 1 percent be able to buy a studio apartment? I mean where will it end?

Yes, I appreciate your points and I'd seen those other houses too.

The point I was making was that the floorplan shows where the bathroom is. So anyone viewing it accepts that or is wasting their own time!

And the OP had 2 offers that fell through. I don't think she's come back to say why.

So clearly there are buyers out there who were happy with it initially but pulled out for reasons unknown.

The housing market is so tight at that moment with very few houses available that buyers will compromise.

I don't think that 2 offers in 3 months is anything to panic over, really. It's not being snapped up but a lot of people may be waiting to see what happens with the budget and all the uncertainty around interest rates.

Must have had 30 viewings. Two offers on the first open house day at £5k below asking. Both fell through. Another FTB then offered and pulled out.

The downstairs bathroom is not deterring viewings if it's on the listing.
Neither is the price.
They're also not deterring offers.

But we've had several pages on these topics!

It's something that potential buyers are seeing when they're physically in the house, or are discovering through survey.

I've been reading your posts here.
That is what the housing market is like in the SE.
St A is one of the most expensive places to live in the UK (and everyone knows that if they watch the housing market.)

More people are moving out of London now they don't have to be in the office every day. House prices in commuter towns reflect this.
There will obviously be a ceiling to all of this but at the moment there are enough high earners to buy these houses. Some have had help from their parents, or inheritances, or a City bonus.
The only way to stop the rise is to build more houses.

I agree.

OR it's another house that comes onto the market and is better value.

“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”
Ian Fleming

Three buyers haven't all come across a better option. It's a problem with the house.

As a downsizer the things that put me off are lack of parking, plastic grass and exposed bricks. I would have to factor in getting the house plastered.

The bricks might appeal to a young couple, but we loathe them.

I suspect that any mortgage valuer would put a much lower value on the house, probably £525000-550000. Cash buyers are rare at that price.

Out of interest, as this is one of the more unusual posts on this threads, why would the bricks appeal more to a younger couple?

Have I missed something in terms of decor in houses where exposed bricks are a yoot thing?

(I like them myself)

We don’t know the reasons why the previous buyers pulled out and it could be nothing to do with the house itself but more a change to their personal circumstances or not being able to borrow enough.

The sale could get to completion next time so I find a lot of the debate about downstairs bathrooms etc irrelevant to this house because OP is not struggling to get interest despite the floor plan & price.

Cash buyers are rare at that price.
I'd like to see some stats on that. I live nearish, but in a cheaper area, and both my neighbours' houses went to cash buyers for not far off that. One was a father buying for his child, and he then paid for additional renovations!

Totally agree

Somehow I doubt that a quote from James Bond (or at least the author) can be applied to buying a house. 😂

In three months three offers have collapsed on the same property. That's impressively bad ju-ju.

We have clairvoyants on the thread now.

They all know the reason the buyers pulled out.

Do reveal!

Yes, the reasons for the pulling out are key really. It's sold three times, so it's not price, pictures etc. Something's put them off at a later stage.

If the third buyer has only just pulled out, it may be only a matter of time before someone else snaps it up, except it's now October, and there are a lot of houses on the market at the moment.

The house everyone is talking about does not have a DeVol kitchen!

So unless the OP has changed that detail, it's not that house.

This is a DeVol kitchen in St Alban's:

https://www.devolkitchens.co.uk/kitchens/shaker-kitchen/trinity-blue-kitchen-aka-st-albans

DeVol cabinet doors have a very specific construction and look.

The doors in the kitchen of the house everyone is discussing looks like one from DIY Kitchens to me. There are lines on the shaker panels.

So this is all a bit pointless.

The usual reasons for pulling out are

Unable to get finance (you'd be amazed at how people offer on houses without having a cast iron mortgage offer - especially for a Grade 11 listed house.)

Unable to sell their own house for what they need to.

Total re-think about the area, cost of commuting, parking issues etc.

Sadly, in England, where offers aren't binding, loads of people make offers without having done any real thought over all kinds of things or got their mortgage sorted.

Well its a process of elimination isnt it

None of the potential buyers were put off by the layout, price, location and facilities it has or doesnt have. If they were, they wouldnt have offered

So either they get to survey or valuation stage and something else occurred, or they all, all 3 of them, coincidentally got cold feet/changed their minds

Out of those possibilities, which is the more likely?

I agree it could be a complete run of bad luck, but my bet is that the mortgage company has come back with a much lower valuation and won’t lend the full amount- probably based on some of the issues flagged here. For lots of buyers this is not just a financial issue (you have to put more money in yourself or have a higher LTV which can mean a higher interest rate) but it also causes you to question the purchase, the price you offered and and look at comparable houses/ past sales.