Lack of viewings

Owain_Moneysaver

The house doesn't actually have ANY reception 'rooms'.

The sun room has the front door in, door to the garage, and is basically a corridor.

The library is a passage through to the lounge.

The lounge is open plan to the stairs.

The dining room is open plan to the kitchen.

The floor plan and photographs don't show the layout to its best, but it's idiosyncratic and there are a lot of other houses out there with much greater appeal to the mass market. There are plenty of 4-bedroom detached within 3 miles at around £200k - £300k and they'll sell before yours.

Indigowolf_2

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

The house doesn't actually have ANY reception 'rooms'.

The sun room has the front door in, door to the garage, and is basically a corridor.

The library is a passage through to the lounge.

The lounge is open plan to the stairs.

The dining room is open plan to the kitchen.

The floor plan and photographs don't show the layout to its best, but it's idiosyncratic and there are a lot of other houses out there with much greater appeal to the mass market. There are plenty of 4-bedroom detached within 3 miles at around £200k - £300k and they'll sell before yours.

Take a closer look at the floor plan, the glass stairs from the living room lead to the library. The house is on 4 different mini-levels, to flow with the gradient of the slope. Non of the sets of stairs are more then 6 steps.
This house pays homage to the modernist movement, it is unique but as I told my EA, it WILL NOT appeal to traditionalists or the unadventurous! As I said in my original post, this is a one-off and therefore comparisons to the 'mass market' are pointless!

StumpyPumpy

LandyAndy wrote: »

Er, am I missing something? I was expecting something really unusual and all I'm seeing is a very pleasant but very ordinary looking property. If it isn't even getting viewings then it is because it is overpriced. It's always the price.

I have to agree with LandyAndy here. I don't think it is "unusual" enough to attract the quirky crowd to pay over the odds for and the "ordinary" crowd will look at it and see little scope for changing it around to match their "ordinary" taste.

Indigowolf wrote: »

This house pays homage to the modernist movement, it is unique but as I told my EA, it WILL NOT appeal to traditionalists or the unadventurous! As I said in my original post, this is a one-off and therefore comparisons to the 'mass market' are pointless!

To be brutal, if this house "pays homage to the modernist movement" then you need to get some photos up that show that because no modernist architecture enthusiast would recognise that description in the photos. I'm a big fan of modernism but I can't see anything of Le Corbusier, Gropius, van der Rohe or the rest in what is shown.

To me it comes across as a house designed in the late 60's early 70's. With a knocked through kitchen and relaid floors. I could easily see the lounge's windowless end in bright, bold patterned wallpaper and a florid carpet, though I'm not quite sure what to do with the log burner. I'm not saying it was built then, but if it wasn't I'd bet the architect was at college around that time.

You say comparisons with the "mass market" are pointless, quite the reverse, I'm afraid. You are trying to sell in the mass market so comparisons have to be made. I think your unique selling point (unique homage) is flimsy at best and it looks like the market agrees. If you want to sell your house you need to price it at a value that someone will pay, and no one seems interested. That must tell you something about the price.
Just as a "for instance" why would someone view your house in preference to http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-39927749.html ? If your only answer is "because mine is unique\better\modernist" then your listing needs to be written to show it.

I'm sure you will disagree with me - that is absolutely your right, but if you have counter arguments to what I have said then before writing them here, ask yourself if they have been addressed in the listing - because I am only going on what the listing says and the listing tells me I wouldn't be interested in looking at your house. Despite me being a prime candidate for "unique", "unusual", "modernist" building purchaser.

ETA:
I've just looked at the EPC charts for your house - being in band E might put a lot of people off too.

SP

barryboris

citricsquid wrote: »

I assume this is the link: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-45535825.html

I really like this

TBagpuss

I have to agree with Stumpy - the house is unusual, but (from the photographs) it doesn't come over as having any 'wow' factor - the impression I get is not 'homage to the modernist movement' it's 'trying to build in an awkward space / trying to marry up a botched extension' It also comes across as quite dated.

It may be that you could address that by looking at how it is presented - get the photographs sorted so that they follow the flow of the house, rather than jumping back and forth. Pic 5 is particularly offputting - the combination of the stairs, the doors to the right and sofa and woodburner on the left make it look as though you've wedged furniture into a corridor to try to use it as a room. The plan and measurements suggest that the room is actually rather bigger than it looks, but the photo and the way the furniture is ranged makes it look cramped.

While I love the fact that you have proper amounts of books, I would also suggest removing the bookcase which is on the non-straight wall in the library (the tall shelf on the right of pic 8) - for some reason that particular one looks as it it's been added as an afterthought and makes the room look cluttered.

make the floor plan clearer (which of all those stairs gets your from the ground floor to the first floor? it isn't clear.

I think if you want to market it as a unique, modernist property then you need to work on that and look at updating the decor and furnishings to show that style.

booksurr

gut reaction:
- 4 bed house but no downstairs toilet, walk in larder suggests very old fashioned house with no kitchen space and the larder would be better if it were a toilet

- lounge pic 5 looks like a corridor, not the main room of the house. Once you realise what it is, the focus on a wall and log burner suggests alpine chalet where keeping warm is the prime problem. Should have a pic taken from the stairs looking down so we can see the window/view out

- kitchen pic 3. I want to see the rest of it, oh wait that's at pic 10 (and then duplicated at pic 11)

- sun room pics 6 and 7 are initially confusing as to what it is. Only after looking at the floorplan do I understand it is basically the gap between the house and the garage which is now covered over, hence what is obviously the previous external walls are now inside. pic 6 gives a feel that this is the real lounge, but then you realise the room is also the front door, so wet coats and dirty shoes have nowhere to go

pic 16 does not sell a lifestyle, it suggests I'd rather sit in a garden shed than use the "sun room"

summary
Marmite indeed, a house with a lot of space but no sense of how it could be used for a family. Looks like a designer's test piece for glass banisters, not a home. Not worth the premium price compared to the competition.

Mojisola

booksurr wrote: »

gut reaction:
- 4 bed house but no downstairs toilet, walk in larder suggests very old fashioned house with no kitchen space and the larder would be better if it were a toilet

It depends on the buyer - I'd love a walk-in larder!