4 months, 2 agents, 0 viewings

[Deleted User]

I sort of feel like no viewings in 4 months indicates a bigger problem than not-great pictures. Looking at your house the following jumps out at me: a single bathroom in a 4 bedroom house is... untenable for most families, I would certainly never dream of living in a 4 bed house with one bathroom... and then just over the road for £15,000 less there's a new(ish) 4 bedroom house with ensuite and well presented: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-46376504.html

What was the price range given to you by the estate agents? I'd guess that one of them told you ~£180k, that's probably what you need to be looking at when you're competing with new houses.

browneyedbazzi

The lack of a floor plan on a listing is never good - and it's even worse when the house isn't a straight forward layout which this one isn't. When there isn't a floor plan the first thing that comes to my mind is 'they haven't put one up because it's a bad layout and the floor plan would put people off'. The end result? I don't bother with a viewing.

TrickyDicky101

PasturesNew wrote: »

Details are a bit wordy/hard to follow... I lost the 4th bedroom for ages
No floor plan.
No upstairs bathroom or loo.
Picture 12 with the bunkbed without room to get into the top bunk makes the room look small.... so then two of the upstairs bedrooms start to look small ... viewers are picky.
Driveway/steps look a bit tricky .... bad drivers might be put off by having to get their car down there in the dark without hitting the steps.

Although no conservatory, if I wanted 4 bedrooms, I'd look at this first ... £15k cheaper and more "regular" http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-46376504.html

And a little further away is this 4 bed house, with master en-suite and a ground floor playroom. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-41625211.html for £15k less too.

Neither of those two alternatives are detached though which, round where I live anyway, would be a significant difference. I agree on comments about OP's house.

tigsly

Issues:

no floorplan - I've read some of the blurb (I got bored) I cant work out your layout easily.. i've given up!

The 'breakfast room/kitchen - is too buzy with that paper - it needs 'painting - plain', the cupboard doors are too dark too IMO

The bedrooms look small - because the bunks appear to be blocking windows and hitting celings

I suspect no views - means your over priced tho..

thequant

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Even if wasn't in Newport that's going to be a very difficult property to sell

I guess OP paid £162k back in 2006 and did the work of conversion of attic into bedroom(s?) and put in the drive.

TBH it's very hard house to understand - with the very different decors there appears to be two rooms in the attic used for small children??

Where is there for a family to eat? The tiny table in the kitchen struggles to get two chairs and a high-chair.

No garage



TBH, I'd rethink the marketing as a 3-bed all on ground floor and box rooms/study/home office in the attic space.

I'm surprised they didn't stick a bed in the conservatory and try marketing it as 5 beds.

suzeesu2000

Just had a look at your photos. Looks lovely and clean and tidy.

Personally I would remove the table and chairs from the kitchen as, in my humble opinion, I think it makes it look smaller.

The office/bedroom would, perhaps, be better shown as a dining room? Just a small table nicely dressed would show an eating space, you still have three bedrooms.

Also, a hint from Anne Maurice, depersonalise the space. Neutralise the colours on the Walls, especially in the kids rooms as potential buyers will initially see a need for redecorating. Also, if you emulsion over in a light colour it will make the rooms look bigger and lighter.

And, (I am not being horrid, I hope some of this may help) could you possibly get rid of one of the wardrobes in the bigger bedroom? As it is there is no space for bedside cabinets and most people like to have somewhere to put their morning tea or nightime glass of water. As you want to move you will have to pack anyway! Just get a head start on it and show some wall space - again the room will look much bigger.

As a plus, the bathroom is lovely and you need that shown better. It looks new- does your blurb state that?

Good luck

PasturesNew

TrickyDicky101 wrote: »

Neither of those two alternatives are detached though which, round where I live anyway, would be a significant difference. I agree on comments about OP's house.

Well, detached isn't all that important to everybody ... and if you push the search area out a bit more there's even more choice and a lot cheaper too.

For many people it's the number of bedrooms and overall accommodation in the property that's key. "what do I get for my money" - choosing detached is another level of expense.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Housing: Enough bedrooms? Enough space? Nice layout? Got all the extras I'd like.... then it's whether it's adjoined or not. If you are struggling to afford the first items in the list, you won't get to that choice.

Mobeer

I got confused by the pictures without a floor plan; can't tell how the place is laid out

The lounge photo takes a while to appear, and looks very small; much smaller than the measurements

A lot of pictures could be replaced with wider angle versions

One bathroom is not enough for 4 bedrooms

A total area in square feet \ square metres would be nice

ClareTeaches

This definitely needs to be marketed as a 3 bedroom (and priced accordingly), I'm afraid. As others have said, 1 bathroom isn't enough for 4 bedrooms, plus a lounge and a kitchen-diner with room for a very small table isn't enough living space for 4 bedrooms - it's out of balance. Also, many people are put off if the only bathroom is downstairs.

As Suzeesu2000 (hello again!) has suggested, I'd show off bed 4 as a dining room. The kitchen looks small because of the dark cupboards and busy wallpaper (can it be painted over in a light colour, perhaps?), the table makes it look cramped, so removing that would help open it up loads.

The upstairs rooms seem small, too. It looks like there's not much head room, so as a potential buyer, I'd think that's why they're being used as children's rooms - they're not big enough for adults. Can the bunks be separated and the large chest of drawers moved? That would make the room seem higher and I'd see it as more of a potential double bedroom.

I get annoyed if sale listings don't have a floorplan, and perhaps that's just me, but when you have a less than usual layout, you do need one.

The above, to me, seem like the most important things. Other, less vital niggles: photos aren't very good (unclear, dark, some bad angles - the living room looks nowhere near its listed size!), get them to come back with a decent camera, a wide angle lens and turn all the lights on and hope for a sunny day; bathroom isn't being done justice, looks like it's probably a bright room, but the pictures make it look dark and smaller than it is; in general, some rooms look a bit busy/dark/cluttered (How can you make the lines cleaner everywhere? Hide any clutter - lots of hanging kitchen utensils, a little too much stuff in kids' rooms, a lot of patterns. Have you got plain duvet covers for downstairs double and bunk bed room? Can you remove the rugs in kitchen and bunk bed room for the photos?); garden looks nice, but I think a couple of colourful pots would help brighten up the patio area, also the set up of the garden isn't immediately clear - I'd lose the photo of the step front garden, as at first I assumed that was the back garden and thought that looked like a nightmare.

Hope that's of some help. Let us know if you try any of this out! Best of luck!

amma2451

Thank you to those who provided constructive feedback.

The floor plans seem to have disappeared, I will tackle that Monday along with the wording of the room descriptions. The room sizes are going to be double checked; those are double high sleeper bunk beds upstairs and head room height is adequate. The office/bedroom 4/dining room is currently set up as an office as we work from home so I will think about what I can do here. The decor I was told not to change although I can easily look into this again.

The number of bathrooms and fact that its in Newport is not going to change and its not a development gone wrong, there are planning reasons why there is only 1 bathroom aside the fact it was a bungalow so wouldn't have had an upstairs originally. It was going to be our forever home rather than a get rich quick house.

For the number of bedrooms we went with the recommendations of the professionals. Yes it is absolutely true that one EA on valuation did suggest that he could market it as a 5 bedroom using the living room as a bedroom! No idea what he had in mind, it gave us a laugh.

If I go with the majority of responses then this would be marketed as a 3 bed, + study and 1 bath which is more acceptable anyway.

Thank you again.