No viewings on our house - would these things put you off?

[Wallawallawallaby1]

We've had no interest at all...is it the market or is our house just priced too high? We're in the South West (Salisbury), and I'm told by the EA the house is a tricky one to value. It's a 5 bed detached Edwardian house over 3 floors. We bought it for £675k just over three years ago, and it's on for £720k. Interestingly next door is on for £750k, and they've had little interest as well. Identical houses in build, but they have an added bathroom and a much larger garden (although their house does require a fair bit of modernisation).

I'll list a couple of the negatives - could you tell me if the following would put you off viewing?

1. 5 beds but only one bathroom (and a downstairs cloakroom). The rooms are large so there's plenty of space for an ensuite (or two), but my DH doesn't want to do it. I was hoping though that potential buyers would realise this opportunity. Would the 1 main bathroom put you off?

1. Very small garden. Large-ish patio that extends round the house, but grass space quite small. We have a sofa set and a small climbing frame on the grass, with a massive trampoline on the patio, so it's perfectly functional...just small.

1. No garage, and on-street parking (but very quiet road, so no issues with parking)

The positives though: very grand house, massive amounts of curb-appeal, large rooms with high ceilings, close to good schools, 10 minute walk into town.

I desperately want to move as I need more downstairs living space. I could also really do with another bathroom (DH just hates the idea of any work being done in the house).

Please help!

Thank you

The price is too high if you haven't had a single viewing. I found the listing by doing a Google lens search of the floorplan.

You need better photos of the outside front of the house because the tree obscures so much of it. The fake grass is off putting for many. I'd move the trampoline - store it away temporarily - and put the furniture on the patio.

It has also has an EPC rating of E - that alone would put many people off.

They actually haven't. The ONS stats are nonsense. They have even realised this and apologised for their poor quality data. They have recently adjusted decades of prices down and keep revising the more recent data downwards at nearly every revision and then compare the latest month of unrevised data with prior months which have been revised downwards. You only need to look at the volume of threads on here from people who are struggling to sell and go on RM and see the number of reductions to know that the market didn't rise anywhere near this amount if at all on average. 2022 was the peak in many places. This year and 26 are likely to be worse.

I wouldn't view a house with only one bathroom either!

The floorplan feels more like a semi than detached. Partly because, as you know yourself, there’s not a ton of living space downstairs for the 5 beds upstairs. Perhaps ironically it’d work better as a 4 bed with only one bedroom, a bathroom, and perhaps an office on that top floor. Having all those bedrooms, only one bathroom and just the standard downstairs rooms doesn’t make it feel like a grand house for a big family. Especially not when you factor in the small garden and no OSP. So yeah, it’d put me off, as like you I wouldn’t want to do the work and would want more space same as you do. I don’t mind a small garden but I would want parking and at least a shower room adding. Maybe you’ll shift it for what you paid for it.

It really is. Our renovation of an existing bathroom took 3 weeks of builders in every day, dust that took another week to remove. And they did a properly great job on schedule and to budget. They were on time and worked hard. That result is not guaranteed!

No one should take on major work like it's nothing. 'Getting the builders in' to add a room is a big deal - you can end up with a fabulous new room or a giant, expensive mess.

So... no. No houses with less than 2 bathrooms already in.

Beautifully presented house. The garden is bigger than I was imagining from your description and wouldn't put me off. If driveways are uncommon in that area/parking easy then I doubt it is a problem for people looking to buy in that area.

I think a bigger issue is the bathroom situation - houses with that general layout in my area are all 4 beds with a master ensuite on the second floor rather than two bedrooms. Installing a new bathroom can be messy and expensive - probably why your husband doesn't want to do it. Many potential buyers will think the same. Having only one bathroom wouldn't in itself be a deal breaker for me, but for the same price I would much rather buy a 4 bed with ensuite than 5 bed without. For me, the 5 bed would need to be cheaper. Of course some people do need 5 bedrooms but that's a minority of house buyers. I think many buyers now only want to buy the space they need, rather than a big house, due to rising utility bills, council tax, maintenance etc.

I don't think the description states what work you've done since buying the house - if it's freshly decorated/new carpets/kitchen/bathrooms/boiler etc then highlight that - otherwise it seems a big increase in 3 years.

@rainingsnoring

Well they have round here. Properties are trading way over 2022 prices.

There’s hardly a volume of threads with houses not selling. There’s a trickle of people with hard to sell properties asking for advice. This one is on a main road with a small garden which will out many buyers off.

I’m used to renovating properties so 1 bathroom is no sweat if there’s plenty of scope to install ones to my personal spec.

3 weeks is genuinely nothing. Good builders ensure you never end up with a mess.

They really didn’t, as pp stated ONS are unreliable they change the data and compare this year with a new revised lower figure for last year !

Go look at some sold house prices, a block of flat or a housing estate where all the houses are roughly the same and see how sold prices are dropping. Go look on rightmove or on the market and see how many properties are for sale and how long they’ve been on the market, and look for those reduction stickers.

Whether prices have risen over the last 3 years or not is area dependent not a fixed answer Yes or No.

It's a lovely house OP. Not having two bathrooms wouldn't put me off because you also have a cloakroom. Parking could be an issue though. I currently have driveway parking and would think very carefully before I moved to a house without so I get it could be a deal breaker for some. The garden is bigger than I thought from your original description and quite nicely done but I don't like the fake grass. What's most off putting for me is the tree in the front it kind of overshadows the whole house. You say you want more downstairs space is there anyway you can add or configure rooms to give you this and as for a second bathroom can you redo the cloakroom to include a shower. It's such a beautiful house and when you factor in the cost of moving you may be financially better off staying put and working with what you have as you seem to be happy enough with the location.

Your house is stunning and it’s beautifully done. However it isn’t a true 5bed as you have taken away from other rooms (i.e. another bathroom) to have that extra bedroom. We just bought a house which is similar to yours but has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms - the loft has a master and an en suite. Ignoring the three concerns you have listed for a moment, my biggest issue is that you don’t have enough living space downstairs. Something you have found yourself. I would not view it for that reason only. Our house has the same layout as yours downstairs but also has a large garage that we will convert into living space. I would not have bought it if it didn’t offer that additional opportunity for another living room for the kids, a utility room, a downstairs toilet and the opportunity to have a proper dining table in the kitchen. These are all the modern living requirements people are looking for nowadays in houses of your size. So the house either needs to have them already done or you need to price it appropriately.

I like trees too. The tree at the front doesnt look in any danger of falling in a storm as it looks healthy. It could well put your house insurance up as it's getting too big and if I was interested in the house I'd get a drain survey in case the roots were going to be a problem. It's very unlikely to get a preservation order, not big enough or significant enough.

A tree surgeon could shape it nicely and it's easily accessible to work on. . They might charge £400, though. Removing it would cost more as there is a lot of growth, You dont have to get the stump ground out, that is more expensive.

One of these things would put me off but all of them unfortunately means I wouldn't even consider it. That being said someone will see it and love it (for the right price).

Same layout as my house, same parking issues. I wouldn’t be put off by the bathroom issue or the parking (though if we ever move it would be to solve those issues!), but the small garden would be my deal-breaker. You can add a bathroom, add parking if there’s a front garden but I also don’t really care; you can’t add more garden. I like to spread out and my kids like to RUN.

Great idea - that’s never occurred to me. It’s because I’m familiar with sold prices that I can say with certainty that properties around here are trading at significantly higher prices than 2022. It can be area specific, and not necessarily representative across the country, but even the revised ONS lower estimate is 3.5%.

I'm afraid I disagree on all those points. Most people won't think that putting in another bathroom is 'no sweat', especially if they are a family of 6 like ours, who need to manage with one bathroom in the meantime. The downward pressure on the housing market is pretty obvious if you are observant, not in every area or for every home, but in general.

Very true and, as I said above, I keep an eye on the Salisbury area and prices there have held up pretty well and much better than some other areas but I think this has changed in the last 2-3 months so the OP's timing is a bit unfortunate.

Here are the facts as far as we can get from otta property. Detached's have almost recovered to their 2023 peak. But @rainingsnoring local knowledge suggests that recent economic changes may have put a dampner on that.

@Wallawallawallaby1 the price has only just dropped to £720k, what was it originally listed at?

Ah beautiful Salisbury ♥️ I was born there! To answer your question, yes having a 5 bedroomed house that only has 1 bathroom is not great, but you do have a downstairs cloakroom. I have 1 bedroom less, but with the 1 bathroom and downstairs cloakroom but there's only 3 of us living in the house. However, if a family moved in with 3-4 children, having 1 bathroom would be an issue. No off-street parking would be an absolute no for me and again if a family moved in with several children, the small garden would be an issue. The garden and no off-street parking is something you can't change. You could have another bathroom or en-suite installed? You may need to lower the price. Salisbury is a desirable place but the housing market is swamped with properties. Many landlords are selling up too. It's a Buyers market, at the moment, not a Sellers.

Thanks @XVGN
I like otta too but he does use data from the LR so it is at least 6 months, often more. Therefore, the 'recent' prices actually represent sales around the end of '24/early '25 when I think the market was better, especially as many were rushing to beat the SDLT rise. Obviously, I could be wrong wrt prices flattening/falling but that's my recent observation.

If I were @Wallawallawallaby1, I would look at ways to make the space work better for me rather than moving now. It's a lovely house, you obviously like Salisbury and I'm not convinced that it's worth paying £££ on SDLT, etc.

I’m sorry I’m not interested in whether you agree with me or not. 🙂

It takes 3-4 weeks to put in a bathroom, for a family of 6, the benefits far outweigh the short term hassle.

I think you forgot to say in my opinion @Mirabai
The thing with opinions on topics like this is that people might not share yours! Clearly lots of people don't.