House what should we do to sell

[Vs123]

Hi,

We want to sell our house. We have been there 15 years and the house has lots of good memories. We now want to sell it but not getting a lot of traction. The houses in the neighbourhood have sold for similar price or more. Any suggestions of where is it We are missing the trick here?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/159203675

Thanks
Vanya

It was looking good until I got to the picture of the bathroom. That discloured grout by the floor looks manky. Makes the bathroom look dirty.
Otherwise, it is what it is.
Drop the price.

It doesn't look like it's 5 bedrooms? Is the small one a dressing room?
Also how do you get to the kitchen breakfast room? From the plan it looks like it's only accessible from outside.

The other comment would be to declutter places like above the fridge.
Edited to add - it's usually the price.

Your back garden looks rather unloved. There's a pile of leaves on the patio ( not swept up since the autumn?).
I'd have a good tidy up, dress the table and have some pots of colour. If possible, add some trees or larger shrubs (can do these in big pots) for some structure.

It is hard to picture the house, could your estate agent do a virtual walk through?

the bathroom needs cleaning and the kitchen needs declutterring.

Did you extend at the front? There’s something very odd about the downstairs layout, with a weird corridor at the front of the house and internal windows. It looks like the kitchen is entirely enclosed, although I’m assuming that the floor plan is wrong!

I would definitely want a second upstairs bathroom in a five bedroomed house. That would be the main thing that would put me off.

Back garden looks unloved and dull - needs a spruce up and new pictures

the floor plan must be wrong - suggests your agent is incompetent

it’s not 5 beds - people needing 5 beds will not consider it. Four beds plus a home office might get more attention if at a 4 bed price

I think some people would be worried about the creeper plants growing on the roof at the front.
The table and chairs looks to block the way through from the kitchen. Get a white grout pen and colour the bathroom grout in white! Sweep the leaves on the patio and set up the garden furniture to as if you were about to have a lovely alfresco beverage.

The layout is interesting - is it correct? Can you only get into the kitchen from outside?

The price is very high. It’s not a 5 bed. The layout downstairs doesn’t make sense, do you have to go outside your house and re-enter every time you want a cup of tea? It needs more pictures of the rooms. I wouldn’t worry about the interior decoration, most people would change it all anyway to something that suits them.

Location unfortunately. Does your garden back onto the motorway?

Front garden needs a tidy up.
Back garden - fake grass?
Interior looks a bit tired in places eg kitchen floor, retake the photos.
Move some of the beds away from the wall and add side tables, so they look less like teenagers rooms.
Floor plan is missing a door from kitchen to living room?

Its a very odd shot of the kitchen. I'd want to see another angle.

De-clutter. Clean.

Its not very modern, so I think you'd be better reducing the price to reflect this.

The artificial grass would definitely put me off. The bathroom looks tired, a bit grubby and the photo is an odd angle. I'd also want a pic of the 5th bedroom to make sure it wasn't a box room.

Swirly ceilings. Massive turn off for me, as are the fake beams in the kitchen.

The other houses on your street that have gone for the same price, have they been modernised? Yours is a good space but kindly, it’s dated - needs a new bathroom, the artex gone, beams gone etc - would be quite expensive. And I’m not a fussy person but for 800k I wouldn’t want to spend money to bring it into the 2020s.

Get rid of the two red items in the photo of the kitchen as my eye focussed straight on them & paint out the ceiling beams. Redo the photo of the dining room as all I was looking at was your dining table & chairs. Put some cushions on your sofa and buy a few houseplants. Tidy up the garden and definitely sort out the floor plan. As others have said, it looks like you have to go outside to get to the dining room which appears to be miles away from the kitchen. I’m sure it will sell as it looks spacious & light.

Drop the price.

Five bedrooms (one v small though) and only one bathroom upstairs? It doesn't look like a full length bath either - is there room for one? The downstairs shower is not much use unless one of the reception rooms is used as a bedroom for an elderly relative.

Garden is small and unloved, but nothing you can do about the size. I'd sweep up the leaves though.

I love your decor though!

People like en-suites nowadays. One upstairs bathroom is unusual in a 5 bed house. And the 5th bedroom is really a dressing room with all those cupboards. I’d market it as a 4 bed and drop the price.

Get the floorplan fixed and then do all the tweaks suggested above and get new photos done.
Apart from that the problem is that it's a slow market and prices are falling (where I live ... but I would guess Maidenhead is the same.) Unless they are really special, round here houses are only selling when they are reduced by 10 or even 20 per cent.

We’ve recently been looking at properties in a similar price range in Essex, so I wanted to share some honest thoughts based on what we’ve seen.

I’m not sure about typical prices in your area (so apologies if I’m being ignorant), but £800,000 for your property does seem quite high given what’s being offered. It’s clearly a well-kept, spacious home, but when compared to other listings nearby at the same price point, it’s worth asking does yours really stand out as stronger value?

Yes, it’s a 5-bedroom house, but from a buyer’s perspective, that alone doesn’t quite justify the price if other areas need attention. A few specifics that stood out to me:

The bathroom looks like it needs updating, at the very least, the grout and ceiling need attention. It looks like there might be discolouration or possibly cladding(?? Or whatever that is on the ceiling ) affected by moisture. It’s quite noticeable and not just a minor detail. And where are the further picture of your bathroom, is there any storage space?

• The galley kitchen feels limiting for this price point, where many buyers would expect something more open or high-spec.

• There are three reception rooms listed downstairs, but there’s no clear living room on the floor plan. As a young family, we’d ideally want a defined living room, a dedicated dining space, and possibly a home office not just multiple undefined reception areas.

• And lastly, while I understand astro turf is low maintenance, but artificial grass tends to get a lot of hate due to it being plastic...

This is just my perspective as an active buyer. I hope it’s helpful and not taken the wrong way. Best of luck with the sale!

I can’t find an online listing for the nearby house that recently sold for 850k but was it comparable? Your house will probably need some updating and that costs so much money now, so don’t underestimate people pricing that in when they look. And did it have a second upstairs bathroom as I agree with others that an en-suite or second bathroom between five bedrooms would be something I’d want. Downstairs shower rooms in a house that size are a bit of a pain.

Price.

Your house has a lot of potential but for that size many buyers would expect at least one en suite upstairs alongside the family bathroom, and a big living kitchen rather than multiple separate reception rooms. Those are both expensive jobs.

The photos aren’t great, odd angles and all the furniture looks pushed up against the walls.

The floor plan looks really odd - what is that blank area to the right of the front door? Is that an internal window in Pic 3? Why isn’t a window shown in the dining room? Pic 13 - looking through the patio doors you can see a bookcase with an opening (window or hatch?) through to the kitchen not shown on the plan.

You need much better photos, especially if the kitchen and bathroom.

Agree that the 5th bedroom looks to be taken up by a lot of storage, although there’s no photo of it? Better described as a study / 5th bedroom.

Garden looks very unloved (astroturf, unkempt patio area) plus is that the motorway embankment at the bottom of the garden?

Can the beams in the kitchen be removed? Assume they are not structural on a house that age? They make the ceiling appear very low and closed in.

The downstairs layout is not good - did you extend into the hallway or something? Looks like a bit if a rabbit warren having to go from room to room - provides no privacy downstairs and a treck to get anywhere. How do you access the kitchen? Your agent needs to wake up.

Rooms are light and airy bit filled with dark, heavy wood furniture and overbearing rugs. Don’t really have a style. Too much clutter - posters on walls and things hanging everywhere - all feels like too much work.

Yes, I agree the photos are poor. It’s impossible to get a proper sense of the kitchen layout or space for example (coupled with the bad floor plan). In the bedroom the desks and monitors are very prominent. And there’s not a huge sense of what all your reception space is used for.