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

drone photos would really help show the layout and garden size, give a truer first impression.

It looks like a bungalow, which will be off-putting. It’s not particularly suitable for families and seems like an older person’s house, rather than suitable for a young/growing family (kitchen set up, one bedroom downstairs, sunroom, astroturf). The sloped ceilings in the two upstairs bedrooms make it feel claustrophobic.

Both the kitchen and bathroom need to be upgraded. The laminate floor looks quite cheap imo for a pricy home. The blue in the main room is cold and unwelcoming.

It’s not a bad house, but I can see why people skip over the listing.

P.s. I quite like how it looks from the outside and there’s a lot of potential, but it costs an exorbitant amount of money to renovate nowadays, so that’s off putting too!

There is no point dropping by 25k ish each time. They are not reaching any new buyers as every buyer will be looking in that bracket. It needs to drop enough to bring in new buyers. In addition, those people with the history addition to the rightmove app will see each price drop and know that there is a problem with it and probably avoid. Go for a bigger price drop if they actually WANT to sell. If numerous people come out of the woodwork, then they go to best offers. If only one person makes an offer, then that is clearly the price of the house.

In addition, it is a bungalow with rooms in the attic.

I hate plastic grass and I’d rip it up the day I moved in but it isn’t a deal breaker. What you can’t change is the bedrooms upstairs. That is what would put me off. It’s overpriced. People wanting a bungalow aren’t getting a bungalow. People wanting a house aren’t getting a house.

So do you think it should be marketed as a bungalow? When two of the the 3 bedrooms are upstairs? Is a bungalow no longer a 1 storey property then, just somewhere with limited loft space?

It's very, very expensive. That's the issue. A house like that would be £400k tops where I live and I don't live in a poor area by any stretch.

All this tells me is, thank god I live up north! I can't imagine how or why anyone buy a pokey little house like that for £600k. My house and garden are 3 times bigger than that, mine doesn't need any work, is on the cusp of beautiful rural areas whilst being 10 minutes from a big buzzing city and would sell very quickly...but you'd pay less than £600k for it.

Digressing from the point here but I sometimes look at properties owned by celebs when you see them on insta - their homes are very swanky (and often quite wanky) from a decor point of view but they're tiny! I just can't imagine why anyone would live in London or these crazy priced southern areas.

I think this house is a bit tricky, to be honest. I rather like a bungalow and I wouldn’t feel the need to immediately rip out the kitchen and bathroom - nothing wrong with them, from my point of view. So I don’t viscerally hate it, like some people
seem to 😆

But, it IS a bungalow, OP. And there’s no issue with that, it’s not a bad thing, but it is what it is. Traditional elderly bungalow buyers might not want an upper floor or large garden. Some people don’t like the sloping ceiling of the upstairs rooms, so wouldn’t be interested. So the pot of potential buyers will be smaller, I suppose.

With a big garden it might appeal to a family with young DC, so the garden needs to be made much more of a feature of with photos and description in the listing.

It does look like an older person’s house, because that’s exactly what it is. You can’t change the furniture, but decluttering and taking up the rugs might help it look less fussy, so people can see the underlying potential easier without being overwhelmed by ‘stuff’. Definitely remove the blinds in the conservatory, they might be practical but look really ugly.

I don’t know how old the house is, but it doesn’t have any nice original features to draw a buyers eye, while at the same time needing quite a bit of work for buyers who like a modern aesthetic.

If at all possible I think the plastic grass at the front needs to go - some buyers will see it and be instantly put off. Might you be able to convince the in-laws to change that, at
least? Get some real turf laid and it’s one less tick in the ‘cons’ list for potential buyers.

I don’t know the area, but a quick google shows that the price is a real issue. There are larger (perhaps nicer, depending on your personal preferences) houses for sale in the same area right now that are significantly cheaper. It might be difficult for your in-laws to change their mindset from “we’ve lived here for years and have made perfect for us”, so they’re more able to view the house in a coolly detached way, as a potential buyer would. But they need to try to understand how the house presents and what its current actual value might be, or it simply just won’t sell.

Best of luck!

My first thought is that it's a two bed, not three. Putting a bed in a downstairs room does not a bedroom make. To me, that's the biggest issue as it's then very expensive for a two bedroom house.

How can it be a bungalow when it has rooms upstairs? A bungalow is by definition a one storey property. Am I going mad here?

Sorry to side line. How did you find out the worth please?

Yes, I have lived most of mt life in and around that county! A 3 bed 2 bath for £210k will be either unlikely or undesirable. Maybe in one of the areas that flood?

For £630k photos like 13 etc with all the books on the side isn’t acceptable

I’m 5 ft 3 and was ducking in the conservatory and bedroom. Take the sails away snd see if you can move the bed somewhere so you don’t wake up feeling you’re in a coffin

Did they get the house appraised by multiple estate agents? Some aren't very good. When I sold a house last, three estate agents came back within £20k of one another while the fourth was £100k over the highest other estimate. He was young, and new to the job but working for a very reputable estate agents.

It is clearly a converted bungalow. It is definitely not a house. The agents have got around your issue by calling it a property. Technically it is a dormer bungalow. Or even a chalet bungalow. But definitely a bungalow with an attic conversion.

If you market it as a bungalow, people will be expecting a property on one floor. Market it as a house.
There's no need to redecorate, people will do that to their own taste.
It's the price.

And obviously it’s a bungalow

I don't like the look of the house. The astroturf is offputting, the decor is old fashioned and there is too much furniture stuffed into every room.

The campavan or whatever it is does not make the outside of the house look very appealing, the photos should show that space either empty or with a normal car in there.

Agree with pp that it looks like in the main bedroom, you can't lift your head for reading in bed etc because the ceiling is too low. The EA has done them no favours with the photos. I think they should declutter like mad (especially if they are downsizing when they move), and get a new EA who can do better photos.

I would imagine the green drapes are to cut the glare from the sun, otherwise the room will be as hot as Hades and unusable six months of the year.

Maybe 'chalet bungalow with huge potential' would be a good marketing phrase if that is the lingo that is going? It is about reaching a market rather than exact description.

I don't understand how it is a bungalow if it has stairs, that lead to the second storey...! If I were looking for a bungalow, I'd be deliberately looking for somewhere with no stairs.

They call everything properties. Agentspeak is its own jargon.

This is probably the main sticking point for many. What actually is the property? To me it’s a one bed bungalow with an awkward loft conversion

Yes you are. It is a chalet bungalow. My mother was very proud of her chalet bungalow with ong sweet (deliberate misspelling) and was adamant it wasn’t a dormer because it had all veeluxe (deliberate again) windows and no flat roof extension to the roof line. But a bungalow it definitely is.