What is wrong with this house?

[ButterPiesAreGreat]

Saw this house on Facebook last night.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/160791941#/?channel=RES_BUY

Sent it jokingly to DS as it’s not far (15 mins walk) to our team’s football ground and that was highlighted as its selling point. Then I looked through the pics and realised it’s a hell of a house.

Now the area it borders is not great but it’s not awful and a good mile from the really rough parts of town. It’s well away from the ground with most fans staying well away from the house taking different routes back into the centre. It looks out onto the park so it has a lovely outlook and the road in front is not a through road so doesn’t get loads of traffic. It’s also about a mile from the uni, where there are a few purpose built student accommodation places.

The more I thought about it, the more I was curious about the price because the house is in apparently good condition, even if not all of it is all to my taste. You could easily move straight in.

So I looked back at Zoopla price history and discovered it was listed 3 years ago, for £800K! Then it was listed last December for £650K, then listed again in June for £590K. There’s been 4 reductions of price since then, the latest just last week. It’s not sold any of those times, it was last bought in 2006.

Now I completely get that the area is not completely salubrious, and that interest rates have affected house prices but a 50% reduction in 3 years seems excessive. As it stands now, the owners are selling it for £50K less than they bought it for 20 years ago so they wouldn’t get back what they have clearly put into it.

I can only think that there is something structurally wrong or there is a legal problem of some sort, because if you wanted a 6 bed house in Preston, surely £400K sounds like a bargain. Our house is not much cheaper than that and it’s an OK size in a nice but not super expensive area.

What do you think? What do you think is wrong with this house?

There's a problem I expect. Maybe subsidence or risk of flooding but the price reductions are certainly strange.

Since they posted the exact same comment on another property thread and similar style one liners on many more I should imagine they are.

I like the cornices and the fireplaces.
Once the furniture was out I;d use the cellar as storage not a bedroom
Make the kitchen and dining room one large space
A couple of those rooms would need to stay closed until I could get them re-decorated ( the dark blue )
Get one of those car turntables in the garden so I coud drive in and have the car turned round .
The fake grass would go and the ivy panels
I like the back garden , especially with the schools in the road , it'll be busy

Love the bannisters and I could have several Christmas trees

Maybe a Mumsnetter bagged it based on your thread!

A quiet park! It was the venue for the Radio 4 party in the park last year. Although for me that would have been an advantage as I could have heard the music without getting wet.

'Unfortunately'?

Why unfortunate that it's up North?

It says "investors dream" so I assume its unmortgageable for some reason. Japanese knotweed, subsidence, some crazy covenant or mining rights....
It says its sold now at 400k. It looks beautiful.

So did I ! It's too far away, is the comment ! Lay off for heavens sake, unnecessary over sensitivity

It's a semi detached house and the adjoining property:

• has been subdivided into at least 5 flats (according to Royal Mail address finder),
• has a three bedroom house being built in the garden (spotted on google maps where it looks like it's been under construction since 2000, plans found via Preston Council)
• And there's another building accessed from the rear of the property with its own address (23 St Thomas's Road) which looks like it could be more housing (spotted on google maps)

So basically attached to 6-7 other homes. I think most people with that kind of money to buy a family home would be looking elsewhere.

Looks like a lovely house. Including the basement and attic gives 8 bedrooms. Also, they have plans drawn up to convert it to one bedroom flats (8 I think).

It is a beautiful property. Why would anyone not want it?

It could be built over coal mine workings. Check if there was bombing in the war. Check if the area has ever been flooded with water.

Look up the BMD register to see if someone died in it - or worse.

It could be the energy efficiency rating. Perhaps the central heating - if there is any - needs to be completely replaced. The house is huge.

It could need rewiring. That would involve a lot more work and probably cost in the region of £60K.

You don't know what the wallpaper hides. A surveyor of mortgage lender might know. Have you looked up the address on google earth? Records in the local records office might show something.

Probably hoping it will be sold to the government as an HMO. Even if that is a slight probability, it is not impossible.

Where I live,you'd be lucky to get a garden shed for that amount!

Go and have a look. As you know the area you have a head start, maybe others are fearful of the football ground or area from rumour.
if it’s structurally problematic then see how that can be fixed . For instance if vendors have house insurance most things can be fixed and then are stronger than usual

If you look on rightmove at the postcode and other houses up for sale it’s more than double the size of some but also double the price. It’s probably now the correct price for that size house in that area.

Wonder if people have bought it assuming they would get permission to turn it into an hmo but been refused because of a cap or something

Maybe the vendor needs to sell and has reduced it for a very quick sale. They were never going to get £850k in that area - they were wildly chancing their arm and the fact it didn’t sell at any of the higher prices proves that.

Deffo haunted 👻

I think it's stunning. No idea the issue. I'd want to take out the ugly curtains and carpets, paint a few rooms, and likely dig up the back garden bricks and replace with lawn and flowers, but the ceiling heights, fireplaces, and other architectural details are wonderful.

It's one of those houses that I'd be in the cellar putting things away (I'd have that as my storage room) and there would be A Noise .
On an upper floor , like a door would slam , or pipes would gurgle . I'd be torn between "stay here and hide" and " Feck this, it's MY House" and investigate .

I'd imagine in the dark it might be creepy and possibly noisy from next door . ?