Why is my in-laws' gorgeous house not selling?!

[irisetta]

What is wrong with this listing? Some back story - my in-laws have been desperate to sell up for a while to be nearer to us. They live near Portsmouth, we are in St Albans. They have a beautiful house! It's 5 minutes walk from the beach in Lee-on-Solent, it's right next to the High Street but super quiet. Huge back garden. Beautifully renovated home, when they bought it it hasn't been touched in at least 30 years. It looks immaculate. No it doesn't have the open plan kitchen diner, but what there is, is perfect.

For the first 7 months while they were listing the house, the estate agent was effing up the RightMove listing quite badly - they were only appearing for people looking for bungalows, when it is not a bungalow 🤦 I noticed this recently. 🙄 After pointing it out, it's since been amended to appear to anyone looking for a 3 bedroom detached property in Lee-on-Solent.

Anyway, now that it's appearing to everyone who might want it, AND they've reduced the price (too much, IMO), my mum-in-law is somehow still convinced that the lovely estate agent is now doing his level best for them - still no viewings after a couple of weeks. And they've only EVER had 3 viewings, ever since it was first listed those 7 months ago - none of which were even proceedable. Thoughts, lovely ladies of Mumsnet?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/173477669

Sorry OP but to me, that's a doer - upper. (And I've done a few and am currently doing another one).
The decor is very dated. I'd be wanting to redecorate throughout and put a new bathroom in.
The kitchen looks like a works canteen and I would replace that.
I have no idea what's going on with the conservatory. Conservatories should be light and airy spaces. That's looks like a tent is falling down. The roof blinds would be one of the first things to go, but for marketing purposes they should go as they dont work in the photos.
The astro turf at the front is a big no.
The price is too high when you think how much it would cost to do all the things I have mentioned above.

Sorry.

I agree, but this one has two (not one as I wrote) of its 3 bedrooms upstairs - which is going to put off a lot of bungalow buyers, even those who would go for a chalet with one upstairs room.

Sound like you have a plan OP:

Get it off the market
Complete declutter (they'll need to have a sort out and start packing if they're moving to you anyway)
Lick of paint if needed
Better photos with non crap agent
Significant price drop

I'm assuming they're mortgage free? Even seeling it for the price they paid when they bought it would be a win surely.

The thing is, it’s not a bungalow, but you are comparing it to a house, and it’s also not really a house. There are a lot of compromises to be made. The upstairs bedrooms are difficult spaces because of the sloping roof, and personally I would look at a downstairs bedroom as a compromise as well.
I live in an expensive area, and it’s priced at what 4 beds (that are all upstairs) and 3 bathrooms go for here.
It’s too expensive for what it is, and you need to stol
thinking of it as a 3 bed house, because it’s not like other 3 bed houses

It looks very much like a bungalow. Indeed, it was a bungalow but the loft has been converted. The floor area of the upstairs rooms might be decent, but there is no head height above the bed in the second bedroom!

Land registry shows it definitely sold for 370 last time, so 650 is massively inflated.

This

Stop being hung up on fighting it's not a bungalow.

Looking at the photos it is not a house. There windows are in the roof, not in a wall.

A dormer bungalow is very common. Bungalows tend to go for more money.

The photos need redoing. The green curtain thing on the ceiling is hideous. If the outside is so amazing where are the photos to show this?

Move the van off the drive.
Declutter as much as possible.
If possible change some of the colours.

Look at photos of beautiful homes at over £600k and see what good looks like.

I dont know the area so can't comment on price but it looks like it needs a complete makeover. Cream/grey/white walls. It's too personal.

£1000 for a decorator and new photos. Not a lot of effort to hopefully get some viewer this summer.

That’s not upgrades though, that’s maintenance

Needs a lot doing and it is essentially a bungalow. A very simple thing to increase curb appeal would be to replace that awful plastic grass with turf.

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Sorry OP but it's also quite obvious that the pricing your in laws are going for here is based on what they will need for an onward move to St Albans, not what this house is actually worth.

It sounds like the reality is they can't really afford St Albans - it's a much more expensive area, so if they only have a 3 bed to sell outside Portsmouth they are going to struggle even to buy a flat in St Albans.
They can't just inflate the price of their house to match the figure they need and hope someone is stupid enough to pay it... It doesn't work that way, for one thing when a mortgage is going through for a buyer no way will the bank valuation be high enough on this. So even if they find someone stupid enough to offer 600k the deal will fall through at bank valuation.

Hello, and I think some really smart things your in-laws could do would be: rent a storage unit and move out ALL of the little tables, extra chairs etc. At the moment it looks off-puttingly stuffed and cluttered. 2 clear all loose bits off kitchen worktops and get rid of that tiny cheap-looking table. Then kitchen will look clear, clean and new. Rip up the astroturf and lay slabs or something - it will cost a grand, but to me the fake grass would rule the house out immediately. Stage it for the new owners, make it as bland and clear as possible. And yes, the price does seem huge. Good luck - it's nice that your helping them to move closer to you.

Get rid of the flag, stat. Very offputting, as is the astroturf, and the campervan thing in the driveway.

Also, there's a treadmill behind the giant brown armchair in the blue loungeroom! It really needs emptying out of quite a lot of stuff before the next photos.

Drop it by £100,000. It’s way overpriced.

Dorma bungalows, I believe don't have a typical market.

People generally by bungalows (non dorma) to downsize so it's easier to manage and maintain.

People looking for a 3 bedroom house, would not typically buy a dorma bungalow as the rooms are generally smaller than a 3 bed house. Especially the first floor dorma rooms, ceiling heights are not the best and doesn't fit with a growing family.

Are you being sarcastic?

To me, it’s a 2 bed house. The lounge/diner looks like a strange shape although I think that’s more to do with furniture position. The sunroom off the utility is odd - utilities are rooms families want to dump dirty clothes in, so walking through it to get to living areas isn’t good. It could become a great pantry but then there’d be no utility.

The decor is old fashioned but not sure that’s a deal breaker, it’s an easy weekend job to do. But if the flooring and woodwork is older cheap (not sure?) then that would be a bigger deal breaker for me as it’s expensive.

Then housing market is the worse it’s been in decades so I’m not surprised they’re struggling. The only houses selling our way, SE, are cheap houses and those already fully renovated that don’t need spending on.

It is what it is. If it was beautiful and well priced for today’s market, it would have sold.

My in laws had a similar plan but decided not to move, partly due to the gap between what they’d realistically get for their house and what houses and flats cost in the costliest places to live - like St Albans - where their DC live.

Some properties aren’t selling at all and the in laws’ house has some issues meaning a chunk of people wouldn’t look at it - like yours does.

Much depends on how much your ILs want to move, their wealth (or otherwise) other than the house, and if they’re wealthy how much of their wealth they don’t mind spending on and being tied up in a new house or flat.

Aww, it’s a lovely home. But yeah, it’s a bit dated and chintzy.

It was built as a bungalow and then the loft extension was added.

I wouldn’t want this as a family home, the upstairs isn’t big enough. So I think you have a catch 22 of the stairs putting off the original audience (older people who want one floor) - and the fact it still is a kind of bungalow putting off those who would want a more traditional house.

You can deny it is a bungalow all you like but it won’t help!

Assuming they purchased much cheaper and some time ago, if they really want to sell, drop the price.

It's too much fir what it is. Prices have fallen since 2022.

The whole bungalow/not bungalow thing doesn't matter that much. For a family, they won't mind the loft conversion for extra bedrooms. I was talking with DH about a potential future move and we concluded that a two story house that had a bedroom downstairs wasn't an issue. As long as we could live downstairs and ignore the upstairs if mobility was an issue, that works for us as we get older.

The common ground is also 'knock the price down'. Other PP have explained it feels overpriced for what it is, and it is overpriced compared to other 3 bed properties with gardens in the area. If your PIL bough for 350k ten years ago, then a 100k profit isn't bad! I think they are pricing based on what they need to buy in St Albans, because they don't want a flat, but that's not a realistic approach.

It looks from the plans the biggest bedroom is on the top floor which therefore most people would consider being their main - rightly or wrongly it appears to me this ‘main’ has its bed under an eave and you need to be careful raising your head in bed. Few people want a downstairs bedroom due to family noise - if they do they would get a cheaper bungalow as upstairs not needed.

Its a bungalow, no matter how often you insist it isn't. It has bedrooms in its loft space, not a full height first floor. As a result, it has difficult height bedrooms with sloping ceilings, which limits where furniture can go. At some point in its history, it will have been converted. If I am looking for a detached house, I click and see that, I am clicking away.

It was also clearly extended to add utility and sun rooms, which has led to a strange layout, which cannot easily be changed.

They can't change the pillars out front, but those are hideous, especially in the second photo which makes the porch look ridiculously over imposing.

It falls between target markets. It isn't a true family home, as if you have more than one child, at least one is sleeping on a different floor. And it isn't a true retirement property because it has 3 bedrooms and a huge garden.

Based on the other properties linked in this thread, you can get all of the above without the Southfork porch and plastic grass for at least £100k less.

The cosmetics/colours, I don't care about when buying. They can easily be changed. I want a sensible layout, at a sensible price. Other than the astro, none of the other flaws for me can easily be fixed.