What’s wrong with my house?

[Blueysothermother]

House been on the market since Easter, it’s in the catchment for the much sought after local grammar, well priced, was valued originally at £595,000. We had an offer for £575,750 which we accepted during the summer hols but then fell though due to reasons unrelated to the house. We need to relocate, so dropped the price, even though much larger than most houses in the surrounding streets and better parking. Estate agents can offer no constructive feedback that I can act upon. I get that it’s not all grey etc but it’s a period house and has a wealth of features intact. Any ideas?
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/91344150

Plus the hospital is awful for parking and costly. Is you parking permit daily?. House prices even with the catchment are dropping

Yes I have indeed, brought my family up here, all three kids and they all went to the lovely local schools. Was really great being so close to school and town because they were able to be more independent instead of having to rely on mums taxi to meet friends, go to cinema etc.

no but you can remove some of it while you are trying to sell?

genuinely, I’m adding these so you can see what I am seeing

I don’t expect pristine in an old house but I’d be factoring in the cost of fixing these at a minimum as well as the mismatching kitchen cupboards and worktops.

(I had the lament for Icarus on my wall when I was a teenager, nice to see him again)

its zoned permits for residents only down our streets about £40 per year and you can have up to two cars. I only have one I think maybe the second permit is a little more. Then visitors/workmen etc it’s just a few pence per hour via an app.

Some responses about wall colour and furniture are just … walls can be painted and houses don’t come with the furniture!

The layout is a bit weird with the two attached rooms. There is a single bathroom and the downstairs toilet is tiny. There is no dedicated parking and the garden is pretty small.

But as others said it’s a very tough market, so houses just don’t move. With interests looming over 5% not a lot of people can afford to buy anymore.

Oh pics didn’t add

OP why do you think it’s not selling?

Your house is coming across as full of extreme opposites. You have a very cluttered lounge with too much furniture or at least furniture that is too big for the space that it is in. Your colours are (to me) too bold or not to my taste but that wouldn't stop me as I would just redecorate.
But then your kitchen is almost minimalist but conversely too busy with clashing floors and tiles. (but tiles in that format just remind me of the London Underground!) Also given the size of your kitchen - it seems odd that the washing machine, fridge etc are in the lean to. This needs to be a proper utility room or used as a conservatory/green house not as somewhere for surplus items to be stored.
I understand the house has period features but these have not been complemented with the right furniture but has a mish mash of different furniture none of which follows a particular style.
Sorry OP, for the money I feel like I would have to spend loads to make it the way I would like it but then we all have different views and tastes. But given that you need to sell fairly quickly - I do hope it happens for you soon.

This is the kind of house I would buy but the photos are bad and the furnishings and decor are so ‘busy’ they are off putting. Make the beds properly, dial down the pictures on the wall, get rid of some sofas. The dark blue room is horrid - is it a dining room? It looks like a corridor…
and if you don’t actually have 4 beds don’t say you do.

Thank you. Very useful and fixes I can make. Except the white room, I’m not sure, was it the scuffed painted floor boards or the radiator that need fixing?

OP please don't follow this advice. I live 50 mins out of London and your house is what a terrace or semi of that age should project stylewise. If people want a home with no style or character there are plenty ruined period homes out there.

It's beautiful.

We have sold two houses over the last 10 years & both have went 10% over the asking price. Everything was done on a budget & they were colourful. I think the difference was consistency of colour across the house. We removed any family photos too & had minimal art on the walls.

your garden doesn’t look like a ‘fairy garden’ in the pictures. You need to get the photographer back if this is an actual feature. It looks overgrown and not ‘fairy garden cute’.

I love the cosy living room! You’ve done it up very nicely.

In their heads people know this stuff, but for many/most people house buying is also about how a house makes them feel. Why would you want to do anything to put people off, especially if you are struggling to sell? My house is one massive messy arts and crafts studio and the garden is beautiful controlled wildness. Its how I like it but would make the average buyer run screaming. I know when I do sell I will need to make massive changes.

Thank you! ❤️

Yes I have ideas but you're not going to like it.

Your first offer was likely a fluke and doesn't reflect the true current value of your home. This topic comes up so often on Mumsnet that I started a thread just for it -

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/property/5406571-why-isnt-my-house-selling-is-this-you

No one wants to accept the possibility that their house has been overpriced and you've been lied to by the estate agents. Sure, maybe you can add a grand or two by tidying a place up or decorating if it's really ugly, but you're not going to achieve a 50k extra value doing that.

*Your house isn’t selling because -

a) Your estate agent is not replying to people when they should. No buyer should have to chase & chase just to ask a question or book a viewing.
b) You've entered into one of those 'modern methods of auction' contracts, which puts off a lot of buyers
c) Your house is too expensive for what people are willing to offer in your area's market.
It's usually the last one.
From tracking the market in my own area for a while now, people massively over estimate what their expensive kitchen or decor taste is worth to a buyer, when buyers might want to put their own stamp on somewhere or might want a hard floor instead carpets everywhere. A seller might love grey neutrals & modern style the house, but many buyers might think it looks clinical or prison-like. You might love your large kitchen and island, but a buyer might prefer a larger living room and think the island is a bit awkward where it is. One person's 'low maintenance garden' is another person's drab yard.

It also seems very common for sellers to underestimate how much renovation and fixing things is going to cost their buyer, so instead of reducing it by 30k compared to the general market, they reduce it only by 5k.

Don't just look at how much people are listing their houses for (they could be listed for a long time), and be aware that estate agents might inflate the realistic selling price in order to get your business. Go on GOV.UK and look at how much houses are actually completing for. There is often a few months' lag before sales prices are uploaded onto the site which is not as useful in a fast changing market, but it will give you an idea of longer term trends*

But if it doesn't give people the feels, they won't wanna set foot in there. I don't feel like the poster on the previous page who laid into it, but it did make sense when they said 90s student house. There was a room exactly that blue in a skanky student house I lived in and it's what I mean about the painted floorboards too, that it doesn't feel like it's going to be nice unless you throw a ton of money at it, in which case you'd want to pay less or buy somewhere else. It's a lot of walls to paint. OP cba and neither can most families. Moving is a big enough hassle.

As for the intricacies of the parking permit - my road is just only 30 house and not one of the two perpendicular roads to us it’s actually not bad at all - that feels like a microcosm of the bigger issue. OP has lived there so long that she sees the minutiae, comparing it to two other local roads, same as she sees her style as her personal art curation, but buyers won't see or care about any of that. They just see no OSP and the aggro of having to find a space probably not right by their house, just as they see all the walls that will need to be painted and flick onto the next potential home that is cheaper or doesn't have those drawbacks.

Its always price

The people who would want this house, todays version of you 24 years ago, they can't afford it, not at 5% interest rates. Theur wages haven't rise as much as you think the house value has. If no one can afford the house, its too expensive.

If it was well priced, it'd sell. Quickly. Honestly.

Couple of things that jumped out at me - baskets on top of the shelves makes me question if there is enough storage. Living room looks tiny with all the sofas.

Edit the cars out of the opening photo

looks gorgeous love everything apart from leather sofa which dominates and doesn’t fit the style

It's been said many times before but it's the price.

I sold a house in the spring, which hadn't been decorated for at least 20 years and the kitchen was fitted in the 90s. Chain free as it was my parents home. (I hate to say it but the kitchen looked in better condition than yours despite being considerably older!) Every room needed to be redecorated, it needed a new bathroom, needed new carpets everywhere but the kitchen and appliances were solid so not an immediate priority for a new owner. I used a local, family owned agent who was prepared to show me their RightMove sales statistics. They sold 90% of the houses in the area and they were up against 6 other agencies who are all part of big chains. The agent acknowledged that the house needed redecoration but was structurally sound. He put it on the market for £10k more than he said it would sell for - that £10k allowed someone to feel they got a 'deal'.. There were 11 viewings in the first week and 8 or 9 booked for the second week. The third couple to see it viewed twice in the first week and offered £10k under the price so it sold for what the agent said it would sell for. 10 weeks later they moved in.

Study your local agents carefully, listen to the feedback above, particularly about the dodgy areas in the kitchen, downstairs toilet and not being a 4 bed and adjust the price. Personally I'd leave the bold colours but thin out some of the artwork as it's the kitchen and downstairs toilet look expensive to fix to potential buyers.

You are kidding? Completely different era, soulless decor with weird fireplace situation, strange white floor tiles, bed squeezed up by the window