Interested in making an offer on this house, seems relatively long time unsold

hodd

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-39817131.html

This seems a decent place, good area, good condition and OK price.

It's been on the market for ten weeks, which isn't a long time, but similar places in the area are receiving offers in a much shorter timescale as far as I can tell.

The estate agent says there have been other viewings but no offers. He mentioned the concrete back garden may be a factor or the three storeys making access tricky for the less sprightly.

It's a freehold property, not on any flight path or flood plain and on a quiet street.

Again, ten weeks is not a huge time, but in view of other nearby properties being sold faster, should I be wary or asking particular questions?

Cakeguts

As far as I can see there are several things about this house that might put people off. It is being sold as a 3 bed but it looks to me to be a two bed with a loft conversion. So how does the price compare to purpose built 3 beds? Anyone sleeping in the loft will have to go downstairs to go to the toilet in the night. Some people don't like this arrangement.

It says garage at rear but it looks as if someone is building a new house at the rear so can you still access the garage?

Because it is technically only a two bed the living room is small. You will have to look very carefully at where to put your furniture because there will be a passage needed across that room to get from the kitchen to the stairs and also from the front door to the stairs. This is caused by the front door and the kitchen door being on opposite sides of that room from the stairs. In most houses I think you will find that the stairs are opposite the front door not on the other side of the room which makes me wonder if they have moved them for some reason.

The sofa in the photo is not back against the wall because access is needed for the cupboard under the stairs and and you couldn't push it back against the wall because of the headroom under the stairs. The layout just seems very odd to me including the fireplace at the bottom of the stairs which means that all the heat would go up them.

What would worry me is that if you had a fire in that house the fire exit from anywhere upstairs would be across the living room so you would have to be very careful not to put any furniture across the exit needed from the bottom of the stairs to the front door. I am wondering if they moved the stairs to make a place to put the stairs up into the loft conversion?

So how does the price of this house compare to houses built as 3 beds with gardens that haven't all been covered in slabs and garages that you can actually use? My suspicion is that it is overpriced but I don't know how this price compares to others in the area.

moneyistooshorttomention

I'd agree - I'm not keen on that sitting room layout either. I have a thing about not liking stairs being in sitting rooms anyway - but that does look a particularly bad example of this.

Agreed that so-called bedroom 3 is actually a converted loft - probably done with all appropriate regulations abided by - but nevertheless not "quite" a normal bedroom iyswim in effect (headspace for instance).

Kitchen tiles to rip out (bar them being your choice of colour) = that's minor.

Back garden to turn into a proper garden - but it's going to be a very small one (whatever is done with it).

One plus point I think - putting that house up for sale whilst that scaffolding is up might mean they are pretty desperate to sell. Anyone that wasnt desperate would possibly wait to put the house on the market until the scaffolding is down - though I guess they might have just done the back garden photo from a different angle (so it didnt show up in the photos)??

Davesnave

I agree with much of what cakeguts says, but I don't think it's an attic conversion as it would have had a mahoosive landing as a two bed.

I just think it's a design to get the max number of houses on a plot of that width, with all the shortcomings that creates.

As to the garage, it's obviously not contiguous with the house plot. The commercial yard behind is being developed as residential, so it might well be new and part of that, and being built. It's hard to see where else it might be 'behind,' except in that block behind the neighbours.

Other than that, there's a short, east -facing garden, which will see little sun later in the day. No good for a G&T on the terrace after work.

hodd

Many thanks for the replies.

The living room is odd I agree, although the kitchen is a decent size. It is indeed an east-facing garden, but we're not into gardening.

The "loft conversion" is part of the original build. The three other houses in the terrace are similar. My only major concern would be escaping in the event of a fire so maybe having a ladder installed would be an idea.

A row of six two- and three-bed houses (£180000 to £200000) is being built to the rear, hence the scaffolding. The builder advises utilities for these will be connected in July, so building work behind is nearly done.

AnotherJoe

My concerns - minor one, no picture of bedroom two (is that just an accidental omission) , and more importantly the back garden and only one toilet would make it less easy to sell ( I presume it's not an issue for you or you wouldn't be looking. But there's nowhere to add one in.

westernpromise

As a general rule, a house billed as a 3-bed where the 3rd bedroom is in fact in the loft and hence there's no attic any more, will sell for roughly the local 2-bedroom price plus the cost of a loft conversion. Because that's what it is. The house can be called a 3-bedroom if one likes but it still has the ground floor footprint of a 2-bedroom. A genuine 3-bedroom would have a bigger ground floor.

The second bedroom upstairs looks tiny on the plan and I wonder if you could actually fit anything in it once the single bed is in there. The top bedroom appears to have stairs that open right into it - is there even a door?

The best feature is the good size kitchen but the very odd and restrictive layout, including a front door opening directly into the living room, would put me off.

gardner1

Looking at details bedroom 2 is 2.21m x 2.79m......not exactly spacious

westernpromise

So that's 7'3" by 9'2". There's room to swing the door open at the bottom of the bed and there's room for a double bed, but only a small 4'6" one if you wanted a set of bedside drawers. The only possible storage would be in the divan and this would have to be at the bottom of the bed opening towards the door, as there's no room to pull a drawer open to either side.

It looks like the stairs to the attic intrude into that space still further.

lincroft1710

That is definitely loft conversion not purpose built 3rd bedroom. I bet the huge dormer looks ugly. If you buy need to check building regs

artyclarty

My question is where is the fire door into the attic "bedroom"? At a stretch I would say perhaps the door into "storage" is a fire door and that was originally supposed to be the third bed. Although looking at the floorplan I would say that is barely a 2 bed house let alone a 3 bed!