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

Several things. The colours - that blue and black for a start would be a lot of work to paint over so I'd change that, and the green room and the yellow room. Empty it of loads of the clutter and pictures -even if just for the photos. Clear all the stuff growing over the lean to. The front room furniture doesn't work - it's a period house, definitely (and a lovely one) but that furniture isn't period. Try and lose the chair at least, but ideally the black sofa.

I do like it. The only thing I don’t like is the separate toilet doesn’t seem to have a sink. I get that houses of a certain period weren’t into hand washing like we are now, but tbh it should have been remedied.

I disagree. I think it's very nice indeed. I hate that minimalist miserable grey/beige look. It's a bad market in a lot of places. Only downsize is there isn't much of a garddn. But that would suit some people. Not noticed the conservatory roof. I doubt it's Japanese knotweed though.

I think it's lovely.

The one thing I think would cost me lots of money and hassle is the lean-to at the back. That's crying out to be knocked down and replaced with something sturdier. And the kitchen upgraded while you're at it.

Have you honestly priced with all that work in mind?

I couldn't be bothered with the lean-to replacement so I wouldn't view. Others will see an opportunity there and won't be put off, but it does reduce your market.

And another voice to say it's 3 beds, 3 reception rooms, 1.5 bathrooms. That's super quick and easy to change the listing.

1. its a 3 bed with a room that has potential for an en-suite / dressing room / study
2. the strong colours will put some off
3. the kitchen cabinets…
4. the lean-to is off-putting
5. you are the wrong side of Watford (and definitely not 20 mins from the Met Line!) for commuters.

Nice house though!

It’s NOT a buyers market unless they are cash buyers. Most buyers have to sell too.

It's lovely. Nothing wrong with it at all as far as decor and having 2 reception rooms goes. But some (boring) people like everything painted magnolia and no original features, sadly. Also, it only has 3 bedrooms since two rooms are interconnected and you would have to put in a partition wall and door to make a fourth, very small, bedroom. Market it as 3 beds with original features and it may do better.

For me, it would be the lack of garden for children to run around and play in. It's a fine garden for an adult only or teenagers home, but not for younger kids. It's a lovely house though!

I like that your house has personality. There are a few things I'd change to appeal to more people.

Front reception room. Loose the armchair and the cupboard next to it on the wall. There's too much furniture in there, it makes the room look small

Second reception room. Make this into a bedroom

Kitchen. I know you said you've just redone this room, but the green cupboard doors in a different style and colour to the bottom drawers make it look bodged. Get new doors for these. They can be colourful, just match the style of the bottom ones. Get the boiler pipes boxed in.

Dining room. Paint it a less bold colour. Blue is fine. Just go for something more desaturated. (at least paint 3 walls in a less in your face blue). It's such a jolt and doesn't fit the rest of the downstairs

Downstairs loo. Sort out the pipe boxing in

Don't call the study a bedroom. It will get people's backs up

You said your garden and ivy on the roof has been cut back since the photos were taken. Get new photos taken!

If you don't want to do any of that then reduce the price

How are house prices decides in England? Does the estate agent value it? Or do you decide yourself the asking price? We have home reports in Scotland and the surveyor prices it and folk generally stick with that price.

Aside from the bedroom and bathroom issues, it just looks like an absolute tonne of work to me. For example:

Kitchen: mismatched cabinets, immediately need to remove doors and replace with matching ones. Bottom white ones are too modern for the home so those are the ones that would need to go and there’s more of them, plus I’d need to paint the green ones. Also need to sort the cooker issue as it sounds like it’s in a terrible location and have someone in to fix whatever is going on in the corner with the exposed teal-painted pipes.

Blue room: colour must go. Black wood must go. Glossy navy hearth that terribly clashes with other blue must go. So for the black wood, options are: 1) Repaint white. Will need many coats and may not look good with that much paint built up. 2) Strip black paint and potentially stain wood once done. Extremely messy and time consuming. 3) Rip it out and replace it. Expensive and time consuming. Then the navy hearth! Same thing. 1) Paint it all over white. Will take lots of paint. 2) Strip the navy paint. Again, extremely messy and time consuming.

And that’s just the first two rooms on the listing. Not to mention the flooring issues or the inconsistent moulding/no moulding between rooms. I’m afraid I have to agree that it needs to be priced in line with a bit of a doer-upper. Not a full on job but definitely a fair amount of work.

I love it! Well everything but the kitchen. That really does look cheap and half arsed. I’m sorry! I love the colours you have and think they’re so much nicer than drab grey or boring white.

Honestly, it is over priced for what it is.

It is a 3 bedroom house

The colours are...a lot...you need to tone them down

The rooms are over furnished and cluttered, they look small

It’s an elegant house with plenty of potential, but to be blunt, the lounge, whilst elegant looks cramped and cluttered with too much oversized and mismatched furniture, the dining room needs repainting in a neutral colour, the kitchen looks cheap and the cupboards are mismatched. The downstairs toilet looks bodged with that unsightly boxing in. One bathroom isn’t ideal for a family home. The fourth bedroom isn’t really useable so I’d market the house as a three-bedder priced accordingly. Sorry if that sounds a bit brutal, they would just be my thoughts as a potential buyer.

Agree. I HATE grey, and will be put off a house instantly if it's all grey. I don't mean the decor, I mean like flooring, doors, tiling, kitchen units etc, things that will be very expensive to replace.

I love all the bold colours in the OP's house!

The curb appeal is good.

The living room is dated, old fashioned and cramped and some people cant see past that.

The kitchen looks cheap and unfinished. The cupboards don't match in style or colour. The exposed pipework looks hideous (same in the down stairs toilet) and you can't see the full layout, where is the hob, oven, washer etc.

I love the blue and black room.

The bright colours in the other rooms wouldn't put me off, I think they look nice.

The description says 4 bed, but the floor plan say 3 beds and a study.

I would hate walking through one bedroom to get to another.

The garden looks over grown and very small and all that ivy (or whatever it is) would definitely put me off, because its a nightmare to get rid off and will have caused damage to the fence and maybe the roof too.

I personally like an eclectic style and wouldn't want a modern, grey house.

The furniture combined with the paintwork in the living room makes it look smaller than it is i suspect. I could get over that though.

However overall your house is lovely but it looks a bit bodged in parts.

I still can't see your hob, there's random dark green pipes down the side of the boiler you haven't painted. The kitchen looks useable/charming but you've got two styles of units and I would want to replace that.

Some of walls look quite lumpy, I think the blue in particular emphasises any flaws.

A walk through bedroom isn't a fourth bedroom, I would rethink that. Ignore the estate agent and keep your downstairs bedroom as a bedroom.
I mostly like your over grown, romantic vibes garden but also look at it and think what's it hiding. I'm a gardener but I find it a bit off putting.

Unless it was the the cheapest house on a street I wanted to live in I might well be tempted by another house that seems less work.

It's a tough market to sell in, good luck.

No 17 sold last year for 520k - same size, rental property condition. That puts you a bit north of there price wise. The sweet spot seems to be 550k - lots of 4 beds in Watford sold were on at this price. The ones that sold and were on for 575k seem to be the fancy townhouses. Can you afford to drop another 10k? Also you will then show in rightmove searches up to 550k. You are currently showing in searches up to 600k.

We are also on the market and if it consoles you we have dropped our price three times since spring and still not sold.

You'll see it in the diagram. It's really just a study. Or I suppose one of the reception rooms could be a bedroom. Lovely house, nevertheless.

Honestly just paint the rooms a neutral colour . Think that will make the biggest difference.

There are some real oddities about the listing- why are there no photos of the oven and why isn't it shown on the floor plan?

You might be better off calling the lean to the utility (assuming that's where your machines are) and calling the breakfast room the dining room.

Using a downstairs reception room as a bedroom doesn't make it a bedroom, it is a reception room. I think you are more likely to get the buyers you want by calling it a 3 bed with multiple reception rooms and study (you could reference "flexible living space") than calling it a 4-bed as most families don't want someone to sleep downstairs away from everyone else.

I have a Victorian terrace which I love and I hate sterile interiors BUT if I were looking at your house I’d be factoring in all the things I’d need to do which would include: sanding and sealing floorboards, painted ones look tatty and don’t wear well, replacing the radiators with ones more sympathetic to the period, new kitchen yours feels mismatched and cheap looking, UPVC windows - dealbreaker for me unless they’re v close to originals, removing wallpaper redecorating, adding a log burner. It’s a long list and I would hesitate if house was at the top of my budget. It’s got great bones but looks like it needs a makeover.

Forgive me, because it is a lovely house in lots of ways, but I can see a lot of work and things that look poorly finished, especially in the kitchen - the cork board in the corner of the picture looks chipped away at, the tiling up towards the boiler isn't straight, the pipes are not boxed in and seem to have had some paint splashed on half of them, the windows look single glazed and old (I know this is part of the character, but energy is expensive at the moment). Wallpaper looks like it is bulging and not lying flat above the window in the blue room. White bedroom with guitar also has badly applied wallpaper with visible bulges and joins, ceiling looks like it has a paint effect, possibly artex? The wall in the yellow bedroom, what is happening there, is it also plaster or badly applied wallpaper? The plaster also looks bad under the window in the second yellow bedroom. The extension at the back looks like the wood is rotting. I would think that if I could see that much visible work in the photos that there would be even more in real life, so possibly it needs to be cheaper to account for this? - plus the market is rubbish at the moment anyway and building work expensive. For full disclosure, you could probably look at my house and spot just as many issues!

Op has literally asked for criticsm!

It’s cluttered but of course it won’t be once you move out.

Colours are right in your face but easily changed. The garden is odd. I would cut down some of those branches.

It’s always the price but the market is very slow at present. What does chain free mean?