Trying to sell this country cottage, any advice?

Geenie

It looks like a lovely cottage to me OP, similar to many where I live in Devon. The condition or lack of facilities wouldn't put me off, if it is priced right for the area and this price reflects the need for upgrading. All my previous homes have been in disrepair/dated, but we saw beyond that and transformed them. The pictures shown are not helpful, and the outside being the first thing a buyer sees should be well kept at all times.

What does put me off, if I was viewing this property as a buyer is water.
I wouldn't buy anywhere that had a stream/river at the bottom of the garden etc, despite how lovely it may appear on paper and your assurances it has never flooded.

phoebe1989seb

Whilst it appears to be quite a cute little cottage from the outside, it definitely lacks appeal in the form of character features internally - although personally I detest exposed stone walls (and we live in a 200+ year old stone house, lol!) - but a feature fireplace with obligatory woodburner would be a good place to start. Obviously these are not cheap, so maybe just some other 'cottagey' type dressing of the rooms may give an impression of what the potential is to prospective viewers and you could always buy a much cheaper electric 'woodburner' type fire which would create a similar look......at the moment it looks like a very basic holiday home......

Regarding the price, I agree with other posters that whilst it doesn't seem expensive - in fact quite the opposite - it doesn't look as though enough money has been spent on renovations to warrant that much of an increase from the price paid only a year ago. We've been in the position where we spent over £40k tastefully renovating a house - handbuilt kitchen units, granite worktops, high-end bathrooms, rewiring, redecorating etc - to the point where it was so appealing we sold within a fortnight last year........but for less than we had paid three years previously......and we too believed we had bought at a good price

We have also (like the previous poster) always bought run-down properties with potential and also always manage to see beyond the current decoration etc - indeed our current house wouldn't have been touched by most and was unmortgageable to boot - but the asking prices have reflected this.

With regards to the stream, we have one at the bottom of our current garden - it is 250ft from the house and the garden slopes down towards it. We know for a fact that there has never been any incidence of flooding in the past, and unless the watercourse was very close to the house or the house was known to have flooded previously, it wouldn't put me off at all.

I do think though that better pics will be a step in the right direction and hope you manage to find a buyer soon!

property.advert

It looks like an estate sale, where the owner has done nothing to the property in years. The photos are quite frankly, terrible.

Drop the price or spend money making it appear more habitable.

johnnyredgate

Thanks for the comments all.

Price - at this stage we will stick with the local agents valuation and feedback from locals, so have not asked for advice on this. Have lowered the price it a bit to allow that anyone buying is likely to spend further on the kitchen, woodburner etc, although the valuation of £165k is based on the current condition not on any further improvents and we have scope to consider lower offers , as I stated last year the value was at £187,000 just prior to the purchase, this is based on the previous selling price when the house was purchased in a more dilapadated condition. Appreciate that valuations are always harder to do when there is a row of similar houses with regular sales, obviously it will be reviewed further down the line, but it sounds like the pictures could be offputting so will try and get those improved and get the agents to add the bathroom and kitchen pictures.
A range of views, yes the current state provides more of a blank canvas for someone to add their own tastes to, ie choice of woodburner if that is what they want, new kitchen, shower as their is the space. To be honest if there is room for a shower I am amazed that lack of a shower would put of a potential purchaser for this type of property, however if it is to be relet then this obviously becomes a more important feature for letting.
We could spend a lot more money adding a super new kitchen, but it may not be to the taste a potential purchaser anyway, so I feel it would be of little benefit to continue to spend any further money. It is however a shame that despite having being fully redecorated inside and out, had renovation works carried out, new windows, door, new carpets fitted (aparet from one bedroom which sounds like that will need doing) that it looks like nothing has been done to it for years, My parents do not have sufficient funds to continue spending money on the property, if they had gone ahead with the sale of their property and moved in they would have released funds then obviously further additions, such as kitchen units and rayburn installation, would have taken place to their tastes, which as older people may not have been to everyone's tastes anyway.

I put about a friendly community as it may be of interest to incomers searching a wide area to move to. We were particularly struck by 2 very warm letters of thanks in the village notice board from 2 people who had spent several years living in the village and recently moved, expressing how kind people had been to them while living there - I have never seen anything like this in a village notice board and people living there had clearly been very happy there. Obviously this is not at all relevent to local people who know the area anyway, but to someone thinking of moving from another part of the country it might be. I think it would make it difference to me if I was moving to a small community from outside to know whether I was likely to be welcome there or not. We would obviously prefer it to be sold to locals though, but at the end of day it is whoever puts in a resonable offer that it goes to.

Some good tips re taking pictures will try and get hold of a tripod, thank you.

Re the garden, if fully tackled this year I think it would then need time to look established, with creepers etc growing up the house, if the house doesn't sell this summer will see what can be done. Would seriously offer a moneysaving free holiday for an enthusiastic gardener to tackle it though - best place to advertise for this? Have considered woofers as the garden is organic so that may be a possibility but not exactly a farm.

Anyway thanks all think we can pick out some helpful comments re the pictures and the text etc, and see what we can do regarding the garden. Cheers

johnnyredgate

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

It's just that older people like to travel free with their bus passes. If there's no local service, they might rule out your cottage in favour of one that is on a bus route. The cottage might appeal to retirees who want to get away from the stressful town life they had.

I'd love it as a weekend retreat, but sadly the distance from the station rules it out. Well that and not having the readies at this moment lol .

What Council Tax band is it in?

It is in council tax band E

There is a bus service and the cottage is near to the bus stop so I will check the transport direct for bus services and add info about this, the bus service should link to 2 different train lines, ie Newtown, or Knucklas, but whether the timings of the are helpful for the train times I do not know. Thank you

DVardysShadow

johnnyredgate wrote: »

A range of views, yes the current state provides more of a blank canvas for someone to add their own tastes to, ie choice of woodburner if that is what they want, new kitchen, shower as their is the space. To be honest if there is room for a shower I am amazed that lack of a shower would put of a potential purchaser for this type of property, however if it is to be relet then this obviously becomes a more important feature for letting.
We could spend a lot more money adding a super new kitchen, but it may not be to the taste a potential purchaser anyway, so I feel it would be of little benefit to continue to spend any further money.

I think you are right to stick with the blank canvas. Yes, the lack of this or that may put some people off - but if they don't see the potential to sort those issues to their own taste, then frankly, whatever you put in is more than likely not to be too their taste anyway.

mildred1978

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

It's just that older people like to travel free with their bus passes. If there's no local service, they might rule out your cottage in favour of one that is on a bus route. .

I believe free bus passes have been scrapped.

justjohn

My tuppance.

first 2 pictures of the front SCRAP THEM IF YOU CAN.

tidy the back garden,If you can get it looking good, use that photo instead of the front. That will hopefully get the ones that are putt off by it being on the road, to view. Someone may fall in love with it even though they dont like it on a main road.

Davesnave

mildred1978 wrote: »

I believe free bus passes have been scrapped.

You believe wrong, then. The grey voters would punish those brave enough to remove it.

However, retired people intending to live in the country would be stark raving bonkers to buy a house where they'd rely upon an infrequent bus service, free or not.

girl_withno_name

Just to note that you're providing a lot of additional information and explanations here, but potential buyers don't see / know this from listing... The listing needs to sell the property enough to get viewers through the door, when they'll start looking for more detail.

Keep the listing succinct - "bus service to Newtown and Knucklas" would suffice, potential buyers won't be expecting the listing to tell them whether the bus timings are aligned with train timings and this is something they can research themselves if important to them.