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

I live in a dormer bungalow. It’s a normal 3 bedroom house. All 3 bedrooms and the bathroom are upstairs. The bedrooms are full sized and not funny shaped either because of the eaves due to the dormer parts sticking out of the roof to make it a proper room.
Anyway, it was marketed when we bought it as a dormer bungalow. It didn’t put us off buying it and we were looking for a family home.
In your situation I think the problem is the price vs the amount of work that needs doing. If I was paying that price for a house in that area I’d want a small amount of painting and cosmetic work. I wouldn’t want to be ripping out and replacing kitchens and bathrooms and that is what this house needs.
Also the photos are terrible and the house looks very cluttered.
Stripping out a lot of the furniture, painting the walls a more neutral colour and retaking the photos will help. But I think it’ll still come down to the price

For the record i am getting to the stage i want something about the size of this property for my last home. I look at this property and others have said, i would price it allowing for a new kitchen, bathroom and changing most of the flooring. Plus redecorating everything. Possibly pulling down the conservatory too.

There could be £100k worth of costs in there at current prices. I wouldnt consider this house. People who appreciate its condition and style are allready in properties. Its my generation who are looking to downsize who are looking and this doesnt appeal in its current form.

it may not be in their garden?

I agree that it looks expensive for what/where it is. It does also look dated - you'd want to redo the bathroom and the laminate looks cheap (sorry!). But mainly I was surprised at the price - I'd have expected around the £500K mark - so I'd imagine that's the issue. It's a difficult time to sell at the moment though anyway, and people aren't looking for doer-uppers - they want places that are already done. And that house isn't, to modern standards.

She’s still in denial. Sometimes you just need to accept a lost cause and wait for the repeat thread in 6 months time.

We are selling/buying atm and are a young family with a similar budget. I would not go an see this, it is a 2 bedroom and puts me off when agents mess about calling downstairs rooms bedrooms if it's a 'house' not a 'bungalow'. It's like me putting a bed in one of my reception rooms downstairs and calling it 4 bedroom instead of 3 bedroom. Over £600k is large budget so those people will have a large pick of houses. Your agent has to market it properly. I agree, it's a dormer bungalow that should be marketed towards 2/3 people perhaps of the older generation or people with mobility issues...the downstairs bathroom, separate downstairs room as potential bedroom, and sun room are a big plus for this group in case of mobility issues. Photos from the back of the garden would be useful. It's nicely presented, no need to re do bathrooms and kitchens. The only think quick change I would suggest is to paint the living room walls white.

OP, have you shown your in laws all these lovely comments? 😂

My first thought was ‘dormer bungalow big garden’

As has been posted roughly 1008 times, it is a dormer bungalow, and should be marketed as a dormer bungalow.

First sentence in the wiki entry: "A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is typically single- or one-and-a-half-storey."

Second sentence, c/- the Cambridge dictionary definition of a bungalow: "If a smaller upper storey exists, then it is frequently set in the roof and windows that come out from the roof."

its overpriced - knowing the area £500k is pushing the top end am afraid

OP, I don't live far from here (also South Coast) and this is INCREDIBLY overpriced for the size and the area. Sorry 😬

I'd be very interested in the price per square footage of this house and the price of other houses from similar distances to the sea. Large garden doesn't add masses unfortunately unless you can separate the land off and build something else on it. I dont know anything about the area but in Kent houses one road closer (other side of a 40mph road) to the sea jump ridiculously in price

In other words, it’s a poor example of a bungalow, because the downstairs bedroom is small.

It’s also a poor example of a 3 bed, because the 2 upstairs bedrooms have limited head height, and one of the bedrooms is downstairs.

It won’t appeal to people who want a bungalow (as you have defined it) and it won’t appeal to people who want a house.

Stop obsessing over semantics. It’s too expensive for what it is however you describe it.

Shame them over the bath panel 😊

Alright, calm your britches. A key characteristic of a bungalow is a "single storey dwelling". This house has 2 of the bedrooms and a large shower room upstairs, thus making it unsuitable for people looking for a single storey dwelling. 🤷 Usually people want a bungalow because they can't be doing any more with stairs, and this property has stairs. How is it beneficial to market it as single storey when it isn't?

Where's the second storey?

Look at the height of it compared to the house on the left.

Or even the van in the drive!

I do this for a living.

Immediately take down the union jack. It is sending a very definite message in today's world and that is not a message of "this is a lovely place to live with a family". It gives the impression that your in laws are racist and that will alienate potential buyers.

Pay for a storage unit for a couple of months. They are moving anyway so packing now just saves them a job later.

Starting with the front the tile looks nice. The astroturf will put people off but it's not a massive area and so it won't cost a fortune for buyers to rip it out. I'd add a couple of hanging baskets and some larger pots.

Living room - remove brown chair and red cushions which don't go with the room. Put all dog pictures in storage. Put treadmill into storage, pack away glass ware in sideboard and just keep a few pieces. Put floor lamp into storage. Remove photos.

Kitchen - remove all stuff on top of cupboards and put into storage. The table is tiny. It makes it look like you can only have a tiny table in there. So either remove the table (they can use the dining room table for eating) or get a bigger table.

Dining room - remove the sofa and red cushions. Paint the glazed doors white.

Hallway - remove all stuff under the stairs.

Bedrooms - remove all books etc. Beds should have duvets which fit the beds If the bed is a double you should use a king sized duvet so that you don't see the divan and it looks more luxurious. Prop up the pillows. The throws don't match the decor of the rooms very well. Even though the bed isn't staying it's what people focus on when they look at a photo. All bedroom curtains look cheap and flimsy and they are on plastic track which looks cheap and makes them hang poorly. Appreciate they might not want to invest in new curtains but if they do then all curtains should be floor length even if the window is not floor length. It looks far more luxurious and put together. Clean the pale carpets since they look dirty around the edges which makes buyers think they will need to replace.

Conservatory. Take down green fabric unless the roof is appalling. If it is, get it cleaned.Remove table and chairs. Remove the cane furniture. It will look far better with only the greyish furniture in it (although that does look like outdoor furniture). Is it? If it is then put this outdoors where it belongs. Remove the weird ballon/ ball thing. Remove the excessive number of lamps (your PIL may well need them but this is only temporary).

If possible get the whole house painted internally to freshen it up and neutralise it. At the moment the best colours for sale are warm stone/beige colours. Something like deluxe egyptian cotton is safe and on trend.

New photos with better angles and showing the garden and garage. Possibly a back view of the house if that is pretty. You should show the patio area in garden photos since its the greatest (external) cost to fix if it isn't good.

Then market is as a bungalow. Bungalows sell at a premium. It will be why the estate agent has priced it as they have. However I would probably get another couple of agents round to check the valuation since it may well be toppy (I don't know the area).

I am looking in a general way, at bungalows too but for me, I'd want a bigger downstairs bedroom for myself plus one for guests, because if you struggle with stairs then having to go up them to clean, and so on doesn't take the problem away. Its actually a bit of a funny conformation, loads of living space yes but only one tiny bedroom on the ground floor.

😂 can’t wait for the update once she tells them

OP lots of people downsize well before they can't manage stairs - this is just future proofing. They would be happy with a dormer bungalow.

As couples get older and can't manage stairs they move to the ground floor bedroom but still need a couple of rooms for able bodied relatives or potentially sleep in carers to use. They can access the upstairs rooms without a problem.

There are also stairlifts. Whoever told them to remove it from the bungalow listing on Rightmove has caused this problem.

😂

Whoever told them to remove it from the bungalow listing on Rightmove has caused this problem.

Sounds as if it was the OP...

A property can to all intents and purposes be marketed on all the right platforms, and there could still be something underhand going on. As per my pp, I have personal experience. Very pleasant EA who showed me around, but who then rejected my offer (not much below asking) for what did seem a weird reason, but I didn’t pursue it.

Checked sold prices a few months later - sold for around £185k IIRC.

My offer was around £220k. A clear case of brown envelopes.

Not long after that, someone I met at a friend’s lunch do told me quite openly that he was a developer who had ‘arrangements’ with local EAs. And I dare say the best targets were often elderly owners, very likely the types who are a bit naive in believing that everyone else is as honest as they are.

Have to be honest, I thought I'd misread 'house' because from the kerb that looks like a bungalow.
It looks 'very busy' in the interior and I would struggle to see through that. Plus I hate astro turf for anything bigger than a very difficult to grow anything area, let alone the amount shown.
Very over priced but the space of garden would push it up abit, but for what is essentially a bungalow that needs some modernisation it is still over priced and I wouldn't buy it personally.

From the size of the garden it looks like it. But either way, even if it's not, might be worth cropping out of the photos. There could be a potential buyer who'd be put off by the listing, but would come and view without it and might not view it as the same dealbreaker if it's the house behind.

Lovely garden. But that’s a bungalow to me. And it’s more expensive than the bungalows in my sought after London postcode. So I’d say it’s very overpriced.