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?

I was going to say that! Not busy at all. Tiles lovely, blue wall is great.

Exactly, everyone's having to spend time searching and guessing which property it actually is...

No point speculating without the link really, is there?

If it is the most recent link, I’d decline based on the only toilet in the house opening direct into the kitchen.

It’s a great location, but I’d rather be further out with a bit more space.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/153288095

assume this one?

I think it’s a tricky market & buyers are being more sensible about what they are paying because the extra interest is ££££ & in this climate they will need to stay put a while so future proofing is sensible.

It’s anecdotal but 2 of my younger colleague’s have skipped the flat stage & moved a little bit further out to get a house & another one is looking to do similar. My sibling was looking at 2 bed flats but has gone for a 3 bed in a less desirable area. People want value for money.

If it is this one then it is very lovely so if it is not selling then it must be price. Appreciate St Albans v expensive but it is small, has no parking, no hallway, directly on the pavement, downstairs bathroom etc.

It is pretty much what I would want if I were a mature single lady but I'm not sure how many single people could afford it.

I think it sounds like Lower Dagnall St too, actually on at £595k but listed in July which fits OP’s description.

The fact there are so many similar listings as we’ve seen trying to find it shows how many are for sale. It’s a tricky price bracket for FTB but really too small for a family.

No, that one has an upstairs bathroom.

Hi

Ive been in the moving chain since January

My observations are, that price point is tricky right now

There are first time buyers looking at the £400k houses but nobody is looking in the £600-750 price range

In my town houses at that level are not shifting

You received two offers at £595k assume you accepted one of these? It’s less than 1% off asking price. Drop the price to £595k?

It's on at £595k - that's a detail the OP changed. That reduction in the listing on a house at that asking price will make next to no difference. It's not that there haven't been offers either!

Assuming it’s the Lower Dagnall one, things that would put me off are (in order of importance to me):

• If I’m a couple buying for £600k, I probably want to buy something I can start a family in. There are no pictures of the second upstairs bedroom which, along with the floorplan, leads me to believe it’s too small to fit a bed in. I wouldn’t want my child two floors away from me in the basement, so I’d rule it out purely on that.
• The front door opens straight into the lounge - where do you store coats and shoes?
• no off-road parking (but I appreciate if someone is looking in that area then they probably won’t expect that anyway)
• the fake grass. I’d want to instantly change that which would mean extra expense.
• It’s very close to a pub so I’d be wondering how noisy it is at kicking-out time or if they do live music/football screenings.

I appreciate that some of those things you can’t do anything about, but I think the listing would benefit from some photos of the missing rooms (study in cellar, bedroom 2).

That is NOT a DeVOL kitchen!

If it’s the lower dagnall road one I think it’s the size, lack of ability to extend and the downstairs bathroom.

I agree that the decor is a bit busy and the lounge looks like you’ve got just too much furniture in it. Everything is a bit squeezed in. The kitchen is also really compromised by the bathroom so it feels a bit like everything is jutting out and you haven’t got a nice clear line of sight to the garden.

Personally I would have planned the kitchen to have the bathroom as soon as you walk in from the lounge on the right and then a bigger open kitchen with garden views at the back.

I think most people would want an upstairs bathroom, and not even sure if you’d get permission to extend your house. Even if you did at the moment it would cost a fortune and compromise bed 2.

For the same price the one in Culver Road is semi detached, looks bigger room sizes, bathroom upstairs, kitchen much better and it looks like the loft could be converted. I know it’s probably a slightly less desirable area but it’s still city centre. If that’s your competition I think you need to reduce the price.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/153570332#/?channel=RES_BUY

When I sold my house a couple of years ago the agent told me that lots of 1st/ 2nd time buyers are now buying with parental help so they aren’t doing “stepping stone” house buying, they are basically getting something for 10 years which is more expensive but which will last them, rather than buy for 5 years and move. To me your house looks very much like somewhere a couple could live happily but if they had kids pretty quickly you’d need to move, so for that reason it’s likely to be less desirable than the culver road one.

Agree re the missing photos. Really need to see second bedroom and home office.

Why call it a Den if it's set up as a bedroom? I imagine it would be better served as a tv room?

And remove tv from lounge, and that furniture rearranged accordingly.

Is bedroom 2 too small for a bed? If so, I'd have made it a bathroom.

Is it really a 1 bedroom house and you are trying to make it 2 by saying the Den is a bedroom?

If it's that one with the green plastic in the garden it would put some people off as that's extra hassle and money to relay as a lawn.

Comparison 2-bed properties on Lower Dagnall Street sold in 2022 for £525K and £555K. The market everywhere has cooled not increased so I’d expect this property would sell if it was on the market at £575K and expect to get close to asking price.

It’s a niche property with a small pool of buyers. You’ve got to price appropriately once you’ve been on a while.

Would be useful to know why the initial 2 agreed offers fell through.

And yes, first time buyers not getting a mortgage probably means that they mortgage company valuation is much lower, or they’ve realised they can get something bigger/ more practical long term.

For me the basement space wouldn’t be that much of an advantage. I’d prefer not to wfh there (dark, dodge connection would be my worry), and I wouldn’t want to have a young child sleeping so far away from me. I’d much rather have a loft conversion which is usually light and airy and much more usable. I know you can’t change your house but these are things you might need to consider.

There are a loy of 2 bed terraces way under the 600k mark when you look so you definitely need to look at the price.

2 bed is either people looking to downsize or FTB and 600k is alot for any FTB. Especially given that appears to be the ceiling limit for the house so they will probably never get any increase in value.

You need to be more realistic about the price unfortunately

£600,000 FTB or post divorce?

There are lots of similar small terraces with no parking in my commuter town in Surrey. People often buy them and spend tons of money on expensive kitchens (and bathrooms) that would be more suited to a big detached property. They then go on the market for unrealistic sums as the owners want their renovation costs and more. Remember your expensive kitchen is no longer brand new, it's now second hand and not necessarily what someone else would have chosen. I think it's easy to forget that the value of a property isn't what you've spent on it, the value is what someone will pay for it.

I think it is a difficult property as the parking and downstairs bathroom would put a lot of people off. If it's the one linked to above then you might want to go through the photos again. Some of the downstairs do look a bit cluttered. The closeup of the flowers on the bedside table is the sort of estate agent photo that just makes me roll my eyes as it doesn't show anything useful !

I hope this isn't too rude, it's just what I've seen in a similar (but not quite as expensive!) town

This. You can have more for 600k in Barnet, too, all without Grade II issues.

That one doesnt say its listed, I discounted it for that reason, why wont OP just give a link, or one of the other posters that thinks they found it

This one sold for £555 in December last year and has a much better layout (and I don’t think the market has moved up since then)

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/details/england-125424839-17267743?s=4a446721e4a000f52224029444fc46a8a458066cbb4e976e461d0cbafeb62f75#/