Please Critique these details?

ElsieMonkey

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

Hi Alchemilla,

I remember your previous thread from last year and am sorry to hear your house is still not sold. I stand by what I said then that it's a lovely property, but have to agree with other posters that in such a niche market - larger house with tiny garden - you will need to be priced to reflect that and sadly the fact that you're getting no viewers indicates you're still not priced correctly.

We've had a few such *niche* period houses in the past so know how hard it can be. Our last house was beautifully restored (imho and that of the five EAs we had round to value ), but, sitting as it did adjacent to the A30 - albeit on a third of an acre - and being thatched, we always knew it would have the marmite effect and would be worth less than a similar house in a quieter location. Despite pitching it at the lower end of those valuations it was also historically the highest priced house in our village, in an area where higher - think £1m+ - and the lowest - circa £250k - houses were selling but the mid-priced like ours were hanging around for 12 months.

After only a few weeks at our initial asking price and with only one viewing - the day after our ad went live on RM - we dropped the price and suddenly - 5 weeks in - had a flurry of viewings resulting in three offers. The sale went on to complete at our new asking price.

Another period house sale - not rural this time - back in 2011 involved a house rather like yours, garden-wise. A previous owner had sold off the extensive grounds in the 1990s, leaving a garden that wrapped around the four sides of the house but was a max of 20' deep in any direction. It hadn't bothered us as empty nesters taking it on as a restoration project, but with five bedrooms we knew our target market was likely to include families expecting more outside space.

From the outset we priced to reflect this (in fact we priced below what we had paid as we were very keen to relocate) and did get a handful of viewings in the first week - all from couples with no kids, either older, retired or younger, no kids yet- but no offers were forthcoming and although they all loved the house itself - and feedback from our EA didn't mention the garden - you could tell that *something* was letting the place down. Ten days in we had a viewing from a couple in their late 30s with three kids and two dogs. We assumed that the garden would definitely be the stumbling block, but having extensively debated (in front of us) the pros and cons of dog-proofing and where to site outdoor play equipment, they put in an asking price offer as they fell head over heels for the house. Five years on they are still there (and now have five kids), so I guess they've somehow made the odd garden work for their needs.

So in both my examples the houses were niche - but well restored and presented - and both sold within a matter of weeks. In both cases our buyers admitted they could not have afforded the house had it been in a quieter location (house 1) or had a larger garden (house 2). We used a high street EA both times as having considered an online one we came to the conclusion that a niche property needed the extra services a high street EA could provide. In particular the company we used at our last house were fantastic!

Imo your presentation is fine, bordering on very good (odd little things like moving those coats, making your courtyard more *aspirational* etc!) and the issues are mainly stuff you can't change - small garden (not everyone will want to buy the paddock etc and it's not adjoining the house iirc?) and unusual kitchen layout - so it has to come down to price/slow market. At the right price everything will sell, and as we found, sell relatively fast. Unfortunately unless you are prepared to stick it out for what could be years, you may have to drop your price even further. Such a shame as I still think it's a lovely house for the right people Good luck.......

Completely agree with this. I don't know your area, I'm in London suburbs, but it ALWAYS comes down to price. Everything sells if at the right price. We had ours up (with eMoov - I COMPLETELY advocate the online EA route by the way) and sold in 2 weeks, due to exchange in next few weeks. Last year we tried to sell via a trad agent, and 3 months and 2 buyers later we were still unsold (messed up appointments, estate agents lying through their teeth to viewers in answer to the simplest questions, bulls**t valuations, I could go on). And we are selling a fully refurbed/restored period apartment in a highly desirable area. This time around we priced ours competitively but fairly. Nothing else on the market at the time, and still now, compares for value for money/condition/location IMO.

We are now shopping for a family size home outside of London, but are in the situation where our budget seems to get us a family sized house but with small courtyard garden, much like yours. A smaller house with a larger garden costs more. I started off with a dream of a large garden, this quickly got adjusted to any size garden as long as it has some grass, and NOW I have had to adjust to accepting a courtyard garden will have to be good enough and I'm going to have to make it work. As a result I've been on Pinterest looking at child friendly ideas for courtyard gardens, and with some imagination I can now see their potential. My point is, your viewers may well be in a similar predicament to me but you can't rely on them having the imagination to see how it can work for themselves, you have to do this for them.

You need to price yours very competitively against similar properties in the area that have the garden, so then yours becomes financially worth making the sacrifice for.

slowpoke_rodriguez

DRP wrote: »

Families also tend to like open-plan family room / kitchen. Hard to tell from the ad, but the kitchen layout is a little strange, with most of it around the corner out of the way from the diner area.

...

A little strange?
Forgive me , but that is the daftest kitchen layout I've seen in a long, long while! Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to stick the sink and work surfaces in a separate room to the cooker?
Use the room round the corner, where the sink is now, as the utility room but move some work surfaces, and the sink, dishwasher, fridge, etc into the kitchen proper. Move the table into the middle and get rid of that diner bench seat.
If you need to move the bathroom upstairs, then do it! It's the perfect excuse to fit an en-suite.
It's a lovely looking house with good proportions but it just needs the kitchen and bathrooms sorting.
I can't comment on the price in that area, but if it was a bit cheaper I might be interested...

franklee

ElsieMonkey wrote: »

Can you make more of the courtyard garden? It's a family sized home so I'd imagine a family with children would view it? The fact that it only has a courtyard may be off putting, but if you can make it feel more like a space they want to spend time in an can imagine their kids being in then it may help them view the space differently and consider something different than what they otherwise would have preferred (they may ideally have wanted a lawn etc.).

Agreed.

The brochure picture of the front is IMO better than the rightmove one as it shows the front garden. Although there's practically no back garden the front garden is quite big and extends to the right hand side so I think you could make a small family garden there with a bit of planting to give more privacy.

However I'm still stumped by the outside space. In the brochure picture of the front of the house the left hand side wall looks to run from the front left corner of the house. Presumably that's the property boundary? The ordnance survey map seems to indicate the left side of the house forms the boundary and the other side of that is the neighbour's garden. However that can't be right as the floor plan shows windows in that wall so it looks like you would be able to pass the neighbour standing in their garden a cup of tea out of the kitchen sink window.

Alchemilla

swingaloo wrote: »

Not helpful at all but my advice- Dont move! I love the house.

You are so kind! I don't care about nice house any more...I care about more ponies!!

Alchemilla

AdrianC wrote: »

Definitely not a bad set of details. It really is nit-picky to get too critical on them - they'll more than do the job of getting people through the door.

If we're going to be nit-picky, though...

The one potential showstopper for a viewer is that the floorplan makes the bathroom look tiny. A pic could dispel that.

The kitchen pic - the Aga/Rayburn is far more worthy of inclusion ina photo than the cupboard door.
Are both bedroom pics the same room? There's four to choose from...
The upstairs landing pic doesn't add much.
Where's the garden?
The garage - single? double? It's not on the floorplan.
Only three of the pics have captions on them.
Why only give the floor area in Dibnah in the main description? If you're only giving one measurement, it should be metric.

Is Dibnah slang for something?!

I will add a bathroom pic. And more garden.(pics!)

Alchemilla

The answer to the kitchen layout, the numerous light fittings and the left hand boundary is history.

The house was built on the site of a cottage that was also the village sweet shop and caught fire.

The methodist minister had it built as his "vicarage" (manse?)

He/the chapel had a champagne taste with a lemonade budget, and the house is what happens when you build a house in 1927 with the new fangled (Victorian!) building methods that have just reached Devon.

The prep area was the scullery for the maid. Her room is bed 4 (no fireplace).

The three light fittings on the reception room ceilings are showing off (One of the first houses in the village to get wiggly amps, look at us!).

The garden to the left was sold to the neighbour mid last century.

[Deleted User]

Problem is, that is history.., you are trying to sell it now.

phoebe1989seb

I think your current 'kitchen' - the former scullery area - is lovely and tastefully done, but if that had been my home I would have continued the cabinets into the kitchen/diner area where the Aga is. I would hazard a guess that most family buyers would do the same.

Apart from the issues with previous houses to which I referred in my previous post, we have had some non-conventional kitchen (and other rooms, lol!) layouts as we always choose to buy quirky, characterful properties. One such (late Victorian) house had a small scullery type kitchen that was further compromised by a chimney breast in a corner, floor-standing boiler plus three doors - to conservatory, living room and walk in larder/pantry - so there was limited space for a run of cabinets. We replaced the boiler with a walk-mounted type and opted to go unfitted with 6' dresser, free-standing butler sink unit, standard size oven and small 'island' made from a workbench where DS (then 2) sat drawing etc whilst I was cooking..... That was back in the mid 1990s and were I doing it now I'd convert one of the three reception rooms to an eat in kitchen, but as it was we had a big pine table in the adjacent conservatory plus a formal dining room.

All this is to say that if someone loves the house enough - and we didn't btw, we bought it on the rebound because it had a humungous garden - they will find a way to make it work. It wouldn't be too hard to replicate your current units in the kitchen/diner to make a typical country house kitchen complete with your aga, while the current kitchen becomes a classy utility.....but once again the price needs to reflect that

Not sure if you've changed it now, but when I perused your ad earlier you had two identical shower room pics. I'd still try to dress up the outdoor space and try to retake the outside pics on a sunnier - if we have another - day!

franklee

Alchemilla wrote: »

The garden to the left was sold to the neighbour mid last century.

Long shot but is there any chance you can buy a bit of it back?

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Check the spelling! Full oil fired!

Also, use a local estate agent, not someone based in Essex. Just because it us cheap, does not mean it is value for money!