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 don’t think posters are being mean. The OP was either misleading or naive in the first post to describe this house as perfect and immaculate when it is clearly not. To be fair she has taken some direct feedback pretty well, but was rude to the poster @Ilivehere2026 who took the time to give tailored advice that was likely very accurate. And stubbornly not acknowledging the perspective that potentially buyers will all see this as a bungalow.

Bottom line: it’s a small ugly bungalow which is overpriced by at least 20% in a shit housing market.

Wow! The difference in price between this and @irisetta's ILs house 😳

The issue with this is that one of the bedrooms is downstairs. This is a 2 bed with an extra reception room. A lot of families do not want to be on a separate floor to their children.

Accessing the conservatory through the utility is also something you cannot do much about. The artex ceilings really date it and it is a messy job to scrape it or expensive to get a plasterer in to skim it.

The kitchen lighting appears to be those 2 sets of 3 lights plus a weird bonus light. Anyone looking will be adding the cost of a new kitchen to it.

If this is languishing on the market it is the price. As much as they want the asking price no one is biting. They need to look at what is on the market to see what they are competing against.

I think the house is lovely. I would probably repaint a few rooms but I would factor that in as a taste issue not a house issue. It may well just need a new estate agent , when we sold my husbands old house one estate agent seemed to have a lot of “cancelled” viewings, so we changed estate agents and they sold it on their first viewing. Some are better than others at maximising interest.

It's still detached though. I know it's a bungalow! A bungalow is, also, a type of house. It's a style of house. And it is detached.

"A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is typically single- or one-and-a-half-storey. If a smaller upper storey exists, then it is frequently set in the roof..."

Bungalow - Wikipedia

Zoopla thinks they bought it for £375k in 2012 and it’s now worth £613k.

Zoopla thinks my house is worth £600k, but I know if I tried to sell it today I’d be needing to list at £550k and hope for £500k.

Sadly that’s the market.

Yes, the house can be titivated and that might get more people viewing, but it probably won’t change what it sells for much.

Its quite dated, personally theres alot i would want to do eg: new flooring, decorating and there would be a plan for a kitchen and bathroom in the future. Not sure on the area in terms of comparison however for a similar price this is on the market, which is more inline with current trends

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/172628102

The Astro turf decision is weird too - what did they do that? Anyone who wants astroturfing won’t take it on cause of the huge back garden and people who want the back garden will hate the astroturfing

To me it's very old fashioned needs new bathroom, dccorating throughout plastic grass, shudder. Stuck in the 80s. I could overlook all that tho for the right location. So as always it's the price.

You say it's not a bungalow but it is one with an extra conversion. It's extremely bungalow- esqe.

Extremely dated kitchen and decor. Angles don't make rooms look big enough. Too much clutter. And yeah the fake grass is awful.

And yeah it's too expensive.

Agree and this one is so much nicer and more practical too.

It's overpriced. It's on for roughly £250k more than they paid for it, have they done that much work to improve it?

There's no clear target audience for it - older people might be put off by the stairs, families will be put off by the bedrooms and I imagine everyone will be put off by the 90s stylings and the amount of work that needs doing.

There's better houses in the area for less £££

We've got a number of bespoke estate agents popping up here who do much better photos, videos, pro active marketing. I think they'd be better finding one like that and dropping the price by at least £100k

Gosh op,I think you love it so much you can’t really see it. I don’t think I’ve seen such responses as you’re giving. It looks like a converted bungalow to me too, but if you’re saying it was built to look like a bungalow and no one went up into the attic to extend fair enough.

its quite cluttered and dated, but in good nick. The issue is clearly the price, it is significantly over priced And thats why no one is even viewing.

they need to make a decision if they sre willing to sell for whay it’s worth, or keep it on at such a high price it won’t get views, which is rather pointless but that’s what they are doing.

part of tne problem maybe none of you can see it right, oddly enough, so you can’t see thr reality of it, I was expecting something very different when I started reading your description, then I saw the link and thought ok. Bog standard bungalow. Must be inside its lovely. And then when I opened it, I thought, ok she’s seeing something very few others can see.

my previous house was a chalet bungalow - it had 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and an airing cupboard upstairs. It still, however, was listed as a chalet bungalow and the general feedback was that it missed every audience - people who wanted a bungalow hated that so much was upstairs, people who wanted a house hated that it was clearly a converted bungalow which just aren’t that pretty from the outside usually.

BUT to give you hope - it eventually sold to an older couple with a big family, who loved that it had a bathroom and 2 bedrooms downstairs too, so when they eventually lost mobility they could live downstairs and then their family could stay upstairs but it had to be dropped in price to get to their attention. Point is, if the price is “right” you’ll find the right buyer!

If you look at the sold prices of properties nearby its obviously overpriced.

It's a dormer bungalow, isn't it? The bedrooms upstairs are in the roof, hence the sloping ceilings.

There are 3 bed detached houses going for less than £500k in the area.

It's the price, as many have said.

Apologies for honesty here but this is a very typical boomer house. It’s stuck in the 90s. The kitchen and bathrooms are particularly dated. They may keep their house and garden well, you can see that from pics, but it is crying out for updating. I live by the sea myself and am trying to upgrade - SO many houses that I see are like this. I don’t want to have to put in new kitchen and bathrooms, I’m moving to avoid doing that to my own house 😂

It’s a dormer bungalow. That’s what houses like that are called. Dormer bungalows have 2 floors, one of them being in the dormers.

I'd like to know if the garden is south facing or not. There isn't enough garden photos. The green thing in the sun room makes it look like a wedding marquee. And it is a bungalow.

As above. There is a lot of uncertainty at the moment and think people are staying put for now. It is a lovely house and garden.

I'm in the building trade, knowing what my customers look for now, the whole interior would be coming out.
The bathrooms are very clean, but realistically look old fashioned, so they would be out. The pine stair rails would likely be gone too. The vivid colours likewise out.
The art ceilings contain asbestos and many people would want then removed professionally (even though we can just plaster over them, people worry)
Astroturf is now a big turn off.
As to new electrics, when were they new, we had big changes to the regulations in 2018, 2022 and just now in April, doesn't make them in need of replacement, but they won't be up to date if they are say 15 years old, so its not a selling point.

Yes, Zoopla has ours at around £100k more than we’d actually get if we were to sell.

Wow! Not my taste at all, and very cluttered, but so much more house for so much less money!

I think it’s too cluttered, doesn’t do the house justice.
Also, for me, kitchen is off putting, that paint colour does nothing for it.

This is a good point actually. Seems a bit odd to turf one but not the other.

We have astro in our back garden and pebbles in the front, not attractive to keen gardeners but may appeal to families.