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

I'd get a builder quote for a partition wall upstairs to create a corridor from the walk through room. If it's smaller but genuinely a self contained room (presumably it has a window), then it would definitely be a 4 bedroom house then.

I don't think the bathroom needs ripping out at all. Just needs a tradesman to improve the finish and it needs warming up. I'm still not convinced that's a shadow behind the toilet though on the tiles.

There’s some awfully rude up their own arse people on here, the OP just asked peoples views, she didn’t ask for a ‘what on earth possessed you’ kind of response -there’s a way more nuanced way of suggesting without making it personal - woukd you say this to their face? Probably not - personally I see nothing wrong with the kitchen at all - I quite like the injection of colour- it’s not a corner sofas and Dunelm decor type of house . If something isn’t your taste that’s fair enough - but far too many get very personal - put your house on here and get it ripped to shreds and see how you feel. I think the main reasons are probably who your market is OP - who buys houses like this in your area? If it’s a young couples area then yep it may not be the current vogue taste for young couples , who is buying into the area?? slightly older family/couple may not be ok with the not really 4 bed arrangement or the lack of a drive or being near the football ground - these things are hard to change though - the only thing on decor I would say is your lounge looks maybe a bit sofa heavy cluttered. Personally I would drop it below £500k and promote as a 3 bed with a bonus room - I think the decor isa red herring - for everyone on here who hates it, others love it -

Your last sentence - spot on 👍🏼

On reflection and reading others comments here - I wonder if it is absolutely necessary to have two reception rooms. You have a dining room/breakfast room and a study - if you were to turn the second reception room into a bedroom - you would then have the four bedrooms you are trying to sell but with the added flexibility that prospective buyers could imagine if they were to live in the house. If both reception rooms are used equally but differently - say to watch different channels on TV or listen to music then I see the need for them but sometimes turning things on their head brings the results you want.

Lovely house, just Farrow and Ball those kitchen cabinets, blue or green.

Well not everyone likes open plan houses. We’ve just moved and we immediately discounted any houses that had been made open plan, whereas a perfectly functional kitchen like this one wouldn’t have put us off a bit. As far as decoration is concerned, we had multiple offers on our house, two of them above the listing price, in the first week it was on the market, and that was with a bedroom with black walls, a very dark green dining room, and a dark burgundy living room. The work thst some people would like to do on the OP’s house isn’t beyond anyone with reasonable DIY skills. Woukd the colour of the walls seriously put anyone off buyibg a house if it was right for them in other ways? You could turn the blue and black room into a featureless grey room in a weekend.

Well not everyone likes open plan houses. We’ve just moved and we immediately discounted any houses that had been made open plan, whereas a perfectly functional kitchen like this one wouldn’t have put us off a bit. As far as decoration is concerned, we had multiple offers on our house, two of them above the listing price, in the first week it was on the market, and that was with a bedroom with black walls, a very dark green dining room, and a dark burgundy living room. The work thst some people would like to do on the OP’s house isn’t beyond anyone with reasonable DIY skills. Woukd the colour of the walls seriously put anyone off buyibg a house if it was right for them in other ways? You could turn the blue and black room into a featureless grey room in a weekend.

And to all the people commenting on the exposed pipes in the kitchen - surely most people could manage to box them in themselves if it was a real problem?

A lot of people like a kitchen/dining room. I would decorate the breakfast room and the kitchen in the same colours. It would give a feeling of it being one larger space. Make sure the door between them is open before a viewing. That way there isn't a physical barrier between the two rooms. This will help them visualise what it could look like if they knocked through. If they like the kitchen and dining to be seperate then no problem, it already is.

I would seriously consider putting a wall upstairs to create a corridor. I know there's a cost to this but you're missing a chance to sell this as a four bed. You can access the back bedroom without having to walk though the study. The study would then be a legit fourth bedroom. Put a bed in it and dress it as a bedroom.

Yes but that and 20 jobs that need doing (downstairs loo sink, pulling down lean to etc) need to be reflected in the price.

Very true.

I suggested the corridor earlier on and thought that’s the best way to get close to the asking price.

Of course people could box them in, but it’s the overall impression it gives. An exposed boiler and pipes look ugly and make the kitchen feel unfinished, which can leave buyers wondering about the standard of work elsewhere and what else might need changing. It doesn’t prove anything is wrong, but it raises questions. And if it’s such an easy fix, why hasn’t the seller done it herself, especially when she says she’s redone the kitchen several times? Some buyers will simply see a kitchen they’d want to redo, at a cost they don’t want to take on. Being able to fix something doesn’t mean it won’t put you off buying the house. It puts me off completely.

Yes, which is why you'd question the quality of the overall work the kitchen fitter did. It looks like a DIY job.

The boxing in in the loo doesn't look particularly well done.

and we all know that means any new buyers are going to find tons of more problems when they start digging. Everything looks bodged together. The house is a renovation project.

Just to add - if your estate agent couldn't help you with any constructive feedback, they don't deserve their money!

It looks a bit crowded. My friends had a house very much like yours does it have a very steep staircase with quite narrow steps. Theirs did and it’s a reason I would never buy this style of house also coupled with the fact that as fuel is so expensive now period houses are an arse to heat. Plus that road will be a nightmare to park on.

It is a lovely house - but the issues for me as a buyer would be:

On street parking ( I assume)
One bathroom
Price

It's a difficult house to value relative to other houses as it has a lot of factors where the scale of how much it would bother someone is huge (eg football stadium).

So as an example, people who say "I would never buy a house next to a football stadium" would almost certainly buy it if it was 100 quid, but then you might find some people who don't really mind it so long as it's not a "direct route to the stadium" road, and wouldn't need much of a discount at all, and then there's everyone in between.

Similarly, you might find someone who wouldn't mind the adjoining bedrooms as plan to use one as a playroom or have DC who would be happy with one having a walk through bedroom to the other's. And for someone education focused with a DC in Year 5 and currently living in a shitty catchment, proximity to Watford Girls might trump everything else, or if you work at the hospital you might value the proximity.

Also, I think these threads can be slightly biased as the kind of people who hang out on the property boards are more "into" property/ decor than the average person, so they are less likely to be prepared to "live with" things while they save to renovate than the average person. That said, there is an affordability crisis impacting both sales prices and renovations so people are wary of buying money pits.

I think OP probably does have to reduce because there are some things that all buyers would likely want to address- convert lean to to proper extension and the lack of wash basin in downstairs loo and those things are weirdly expensive - just done the work to get hot water to downstairs loo and it was kind of disproportionate.

I haven’t read the whole thread but if I was trawling the internet looking for a house, my immediate reaction is that the kitchen would need redoing, including the flooring and the lean to at the back looks a bit ramshackle. Otherwise it’s a lovely house.

I think, rather than redecorating, you'd probably benefit from a slight de-clutter and having new photos taken. Their photographer clearly isn't great, and for a house with this kind of decor the wrong angle, bad lighting, and a poor quality image can make or break it. The living room and kitchen are really your problems... they are the worst offenders and also the first rooms you see.

Living room: The picture with the four faces in the top right corner... take that down or replace with something else. Take the red throw off the sofa as it's competing with the rug (or find a rug with colours that don't clash). Add a couple of well chosen cushions with colours that compliment the room. I'd take the largest plant out of the window too, as it's blocking the light a bit and making the room feel crowded. Remove the pot plant from the mantelpiece, and the large black speaker from the top of the cupboard. If possible, I'd also remove the weird 90's leather sofa (sorry) and replace with two armchairs that are a bit more traditional. Nothing in front of the radiator. I would also arrange something on the coffee table - some artistic books and a pretty candle, something like that.

I can't see what the floor is like in here but it looks grey, which I think is why people are coming for the wallpaper... the wallpaper on its own is nice, but it's warm toned so it doesn't really work with the grey floor, the grey armchair, or the solid black sofa. If there are original floorboards under there somewhere then exposing them could make a world of difference.

Kitchen: Can you repaint the pipes in the corner? The issue is that the boiler, the tiles beneath it, and the cabinets to the side are all at different angles which makes it look like the fitting wasn't done well. Painting the pipes white and removing the magnets from the boiler will make that less obvious. Also remove the speakers from the tops of the cabinets. Some of the pot plants from the living room could be brought in here and arranged on the counters to make it look warmer.

Whoever takes the next lot of photos needs to do a better job with the kitchen because everyone seems confused by it! The first image makes the room look rectangular (one of those funhouse mirror photos which estate agents love and everyone else hates), but it's square in the next, and no pictures of the cooker or anything. It's confusing and makes it seem like you're trying to hide something/present the room as bigger than it is.

I have no issue with the lean-to, but the fact that there are no photos of the inside of it makes me wonder if it needs work, or needs removing altogether. A utility room is an asset, so why aren't you showcasing that? Again, a good photographer could make the world of difference.

The rest of the house is lovely, and anyone who doesn't like the colours can simply buy some paint - no big deal - but many people will have made their decision after looking at the first two rooms. If you were to repaint only one room to try and sell it, I would make it the blue one. It's a bit violent. You don't have to go magnolia, but perhaps a slightly more muted blue. If you can also find wooden chairs that match the table instead of the current officey ones, that would make a difference.

You also cannot market it, or price it, as a 4 bedroom when it's not (yes, even if you have used the study as a bedroom in the past).

It's true that the market is rubbish right now and you have to be realistic. A house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. If nobody wants it at the current price then, bluntly, it's not worth that.

If there's no hand basin in the downstairs toilet, I'd consider getting one of those toilets that has a basin on the top of the cistern.

The house is lovely. You could probably have 2 kids sharing the interconnecting rooms

its not you, its the market. It will take months to get an offer

It's nice when people can have a go at DIY and make a "nice enough" kitchen or bathroom for the house they're living in, but when a "full refurbishment" is obviously DIY you just know you're likely to find lots of things that need doing properly, so it has to be priced like a project, especially in this market.

ETA, I'm not being snippy, I'm sure whoever did it was pleased with their achievement, and rightly so, and that it's made a nice home for you to live in, but it's naive to think that means it's "done" as far as buyers will be concerned.

Well that would not be a good idea on here ...