Selling houses with loft conversions

Jolly_Roger

We own a reasonably modest 1930's mid-terrance house that has had a loft conversion, giving full width stair access to a good-sized double bedroom with en suite shower/loo/wash basin.

The house therefore has three double bedrooms, a small single (really an office, but is currently used as a bedroom/study), a lean-to utility room and an enclosed porch, in addition to a kitchen-dinner and sitting room. There is also a family bathroom on the first floor. The living room is 12.6 feet by 11' and the kitchen-diner approx 16.6 feet by 11.6'.

We are situated in a really nice area close to a commuter station into London and fabulous local schools.

Although we have attracted about 20 viewings over 7 weeks, not one offer has been made, despite at least 5 estate agents initially assuring us we would be able to sell easily within 4 weeks.

We have reduced the price twice, but still no interest.

We think the problem is that people come expecting a huge house, but really this is a town-house layout, with space over three floors.

Has anybody else with this type of property had similar problems? Most people seem to want semis with lots of space on the ground floor, rather than considering a house over three floors.

Any advice appreciated.

rosie383

Does your listing have a floor plan? Then people would know before they come what they are going to see. Personally it doesn't bother me not to see a floor plan, but it is helpful if the house has an unusual layout. But there are posters on here who will not even view a property without a floor plan.

Jolly_Roger

Yes it does. Do people coming to view the property ever look at it? No!

From what we can make out, most people never actually get beyond the photos. They clearly don't read the description of the property and quite a few come wanting a garage or off-road parking, which of course we would bray about were we to have them.

Annie1960

How many valuations did you get? What do similar houses sell for in your road?

Usually, in a good area, if something does not sell it is due to being overpriced.

There are a couple of estate agents near me who over-value by £75,000 to £100,000, and their properties take ages to sell, and have to be reduced several times.

Look on Property Bee to see what proportion of properties your EA reduces. Most properties near me sell for near the asking price within 2 weeks. Anything that does not sell is overpriced.

Mojisola

Jolly_Roger wrote: »

We think the problem is that people come expecting a huge house, but really this is a town-house layout, with space over three floors.

If you think this is a problem, get the EA to amend the particulars so the first thing buyers see is "Town house with three floors" - make it the title and in bold type.

If you're very brave, you could post a link here and see if people can offer other advice.

Otherwise, I'd be badgering your EA. You are paying them good money to sell the house. If it isn't selling, they need to rethink what can be done.

Ultimately, though, most people will say it's the price that matters.

bouicca21

When I was looking for a property I saw lots of little terraces with loft conversions. I was only prepared to look at them if the rooms in the rest of the house were in keeping - what's the point of beautiful big loft bedroom even if it has an en suite if the rest of the house is poky? Also I found EAs were reluctant to be answer questions about building regs ...

westernpromise

We saw a lot of this type of place when we bought a few years ago and FWIW my heart always sank at the dreaded words "arranged over three floors..."

the drawbacks are to my mind sixfold

1/ all the development potential has gone
2/ notwithstanding the ostensible "4 bedroom" tag, what you still have is a house with the ground-floor footprint of a 3-bedroom house. So it is smaller downstairs than something built from the get-go as a 4-bedroom house would have been
3/ very often the first-floor ceilings have had to be lowered to allow a decent area of standing room under the sloping attic roof. This makes the whole house feel smaller
4/ it is usually obvious that the conversion's a conversion because the angle of the stairs to the attic is typically steeper than the stairs up to the first floor
5/ insulation is often poor making the attic room hot in summer and cold in winter
6/ the conversion is often very ugly seen from outside.

Whenever we looked at such a conversion, my attitude was therefore that the correct value was not the full price of a 4-bed, but of a 3-bed plus about £20k, reflecting what the conversion probably cost to do.

Given that where I am, the local difference between a genuine 3-bed and a genuine 4-bed was about £200k, you will deduce that we were never able to agree on price with any seller.

It will get you a lower valuation, but you may be better off - if you are serious about selling - describing your house as 3.5 bedrooms plus a converted loft.

PasturesNew

A sub-set of people won't like: two sets of stairs, or, sleeping on a different floor/above where the kids are ... in case they go walkabout in the night and can't be heard.

The house will suit somebody .... just not everybody.

For pricing, houses with a loft room are usually worth the cost of a house in the street that doesn't have it +/- about the cost of doing the work. No more.

westernpromise

PasturesNew wrote: »

For pricing, houses with a loft room are usually worth the cost of a house in the street that doesn't have it +/- about the cost of doing the work. No more.

Agreed.

Offered as a 3-bedroom it exceeds the expectations of people who want a 3-bed and find it is slightly more. Offered as a 4-bedroom it falls short of the expectations of people who want a full 4-bedroom on the usual number of floors.

The first group is likelier to buy.

Someone who wants a house with 4 beds, one of which is in the loft is better off buying another house in the road and doing the conversion themselves, than paying more than that to own yours.

Doozergirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

A sub-set of people won't like: two sets of stairs, or, sleeping on a different floor/above where the kids are ... in case they go walkabout in the night and can't be heard.

The house will suit somebody .... just not everybody.

For pricing, houses with a loft room are usually worth the cost of a house in the street that doesn't have it +/- about the cost of doing the work. No more.

I agree entirely with the first para.

The second one isn't true - it totally depends on where you are. In some places you won't even recoup the cost of the conversion. In London, you really should see benefit.

Houses in a particular area have a general guide of price per square foot. A house with a loft conversion, or indeed a purpose-built three storey would be less per square foot than a similarly sized house over two floors. It's what you're getting at, but allows for regional land values.

makeyourdaddyproud

westernpromise wrote: »

...
3/ very often the first-floor ceilings have had to be lowered to allow a decent area of standing room under the sloping attic roof. This makes the whole house feel smaller [Totally unfeasible: destroy all bedroom ceilings, lower all roof joists including recalloping brickwork to accomodate joists new positions, resuface ceiling, plaster, cornicing etc]
...
5/ insulation is often poor making the attic room hot in summer and cold in winter [Eh? so long as there is a void between plasterboard skin and roof, it can be insulated]

6/ the conversion is often very ugly seen from outside. [Maybe Velux but not dormer window version]
.

You say development potential has gone but if going into the roof is the only option of extending the property then it does have some value.

May I remind you that some house developments have the same foundation footprint for both two and three floor houses, three floor ones even suffer a reduced size first floor bedroom to accommodate stairs into the second floor.