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 installation of 1-2 new bathrooms would cost the buyer extra money so it’s not worth it. You have to lower the asking price, and it pretty much sounds like you won’t make a profit then.

I think the previous owner must have done the kitchen/bathroom etc, so invested in it while they owned it. Might even have been a developer?

Unfortunately the property market isn't great, we live in a 2 bed bungalow in a picturesque north dorset village, lovely countryside on your doorstep, a driveway for 3 cars and 180 garden, ours sold after 5 months but fell through twice because the start of the chain collapsed - you'd think ours would be ideal for downsizers or for a single person yet had very little interest and took 5 months to agree a sale 20k under initial asking price. We've taken a break for a year and hoping the market picks up!

I see sale boards up that have been up for months and even a year in some cases!

Hopefully yours will sell, just need to be patient.

I would be put off by all the above. I would rather a 4 bedroom and 2 bathrooms. Off road parking a must for me with dogs as is a good size garden. I'm looking in the Cambridgeshire/Suffolk area and honestly 720k buys me all of those options.

I don’t actually find £720,000 buys much these days . We are looking for a three bed house with decent sized garden , in good order and preferably in a semi rural location on Gloucestershire, Wiltshire or Worcestershire and can’t find much that appeals in that sort of budget. All seem to be generic new build types or have a weird layout, need loads of work or on a main road.

But no one does at the moment. They haven't had even one viewing in 6 weeks.
I'm sure that many would be happy to live in this location for the right price but 720k is obviously a long way off that.

It's obviously not correctly priced, but people who are saying "it's not worth it because we paid £200k less to live in the suburbs" are missing the point. It's not in the suburbs.

Hi @Wallawallawallaby1 . I’m new to Salisbury and doing a lot of house hunting. I’ve found it to be a very funny market, but what I’d say for your house is that many bedrooms with only one bathroom of going to put a lot of people off and whilst they can be helped to see the potential the price doesn’t allow for that work to make any sort of return. Again the outside space and no parking is likely to be limiting the market because people buying somewhere with that many rooms will have several kids who want to run around or even worse teenagers with their multiple cars.
Whereabouts are you in the city?

Opposite the "new manor" as opposed to the old manor, very swanky there now.

Ahhhh.

So rather than the old advice to buy the worst house on the best street, OP has the "worst street" so so speak, and is trying not to factor that into the pricing...whereas all the buyers will. If I'm spending 3/4 mill for somewhere my children will be living, then I've got better options than a house with no garden, one shared bathroom and opposite a mental health institution.

I also don't like the decor. The house next door has all it's original charm. OP's has taken all of that out and retained little original features other than the shapes of the rooms/windows. If it wasn't for those things, it looks like generic new build decor.

Plus, where do you put anything? One under stairs cupboard and one airing cupboard that's in someone's bedroom and presumably has a tank taking up space. No utility? Where are your coats, and hoover, and shoes, and Christmas decs, and cleaning stuff, towels, ironing board, bedding, suitcases, sleeping bags and....well all the stuff that a family with 2+ children has?

Exactly, its not the worst street by any means but the care homes are there opposite, out the door 50 years to the right is a very busy roundabout on the ring road, turn to the left and there is a big site occupied by a private prep school, which has just changed hands and the future of such is no means guaranteed, there is huge potential at some future point for a lot of development.

I've worked (electrician) in both the houses to the right (viewing from the front), and they are not as big or grand as many houses in Salisbury - I think you could easily find better for the same or less money.

I agree on the original charm, I go in and out of salisbury houses all the time, and what typifies them is victorian / Edwardian style, often reflected in furnishings too, I have a friend who is an antique dealer in the city who won't touch art deco or mid century because its very difficult to sell in salisbury!

One bathroom is an issue, I often work with a very good local bathroom fitter renowned for quality work, and he's charging £15K - £20K for a good standard bathroom (inc. fittings) so a couple of en suites is going to be £40K - £50K with building works, and the house just isn't worth that.

If anything there has been a small drop in prices locally since the OP purchased, I think just know they would be lucky to get their money back. The agents are all over the place in valuations. My house, 2 mins away is valued at £400K, an Identical one in need of TLC went for £360K, so then another carbon copy in OK condition went on for £500K reducing to £475K and guess what, didn't sell - and that was at an agents suggestion.

Yes, found it too. I had seen it on right move but dismissed it as for me I want parking, but agree that when considering location and characteristics it just isn’t worth he price for me. Seen plenty of others like it where the proposition stacks up better. Those care homes would strike it out for me to be honest.

I've just had a look at the facility opposite and I don't think is any risk of people wandering around and disturbing others in the road. I'm pretty sure Dunraven House is a care home rather than a facility like John Baker House in Rollestone Street, where that poor woman who got poisoned with the novichok was from. Admittedly, it isn't a positive factor but perhaps not as bad as some seem to think.

If you look at the previous page you’ll see that they do get out and they do disturb residents and visitors.

Gosh @Snoken. I've found that post now! 😮

I really wouldn't spoil the rooms by taking tiny en suites off the corners of them, you'll lose bits of cornice, spoil the shape of the rooms and still have tiny grim bathrooms with no windows. It would make more sense to turn the bedroom beside the existing bathroom into another bathroom(bedroom 3?) And market the house as a roomy 4 bed. You could fit some extra storage in there too.

You could be right.

I think what I would do is turn one of the rooms in the attic into a full bathroom.

Then you have a 4 bed/2 bath house with downstairs cloakroom.

Perfectly balanced.

That'll probably explains the odd 10 out of 10 crime rating, and certainly validates my use of Area360 for an initial screen

We’ve got 4 bathrooms in a 5 bed so the 1 would be a deal breaker for me, sorry. Love the idea of having top floor as master and adding a bathroom up there though. That might get me looking at it. I think I’d add an en suite or bathroom on top floor either way as each floor needs a loo I think

I was surprised at the size of it for a 5 bed - the lack of living space would be a problem for me. But i think the real deal breaker, especially when comparing it to next door, is the garden size.

It's a large 5 bed family home with no off street parking, 1 bathroom and a small garden.
There ^ are your issues.
Price it accordingly and it will sell.