New "Have a Look at This" thread

Skiddaw1

That red line is awful isn't it?

I agree re the third bedroom.

Green_hopeful

It looked better when first marketed. A bit more clutter but draws the eye away from the actual house. I suspect they asked the agent why it wasn’t selling and they said to remove some of the belongings and drop the price from £380,000 to £379,995. https://www.zoopla.co.uk/property/uprn/148029387/

lincroft1710

FreeBear said:

EssexHebridean said: The layout issues are what occurred to us - and yes, a good question about the building regs aspect - again, we strongly suspect that something isn't adding up on that front, and perhaps it's not possible, or at least straightforward - to get a mortgage on it? 

Looked at the first photo and though perhaps non-traditional construction (Wimpey no-fines ?). But would need to do it bit more digging to be certain.

I think the house may be too old to be Wimpey "No Fines"

Patr100

I'd never heard of Wimpey No Fines but Wikipedia says , rightly or wrongly:

" Most lenders will consider these for mortgage purposes without issue."
Though the discussion mentions possible issues with equity release.

FreeBear

lincroft1710 said:

FreeBear said:

EssexHebridean said: The layout issues are what occurred to us - and yes, a good question about the building regs aspect - again, we strongly suspect that something isn't adding up on that front, and perhaps it's not possible, or at least straightforward - to get a mortgage on it? 

Looked at the first photo and though perhaps non-traditional construction (Wimpey no-fines ?). But would need to do it bit more digging to be certain.

I think the house may be too old to be Wimpey "No Fines"

Post WWII. OS maps suggest it was built around 1945. Maybe not a Wimpey house, but certainly around the time when alternative construction methods were being adopted.

thegreenone

EssexHebridean said:

OK forumites - let's see if we can solve a mystery. This one came into our own property search when we started looking 2 years ago, we dismissed it because of the location at the time, but a number of other properties on the same road have come onto the market and sold in that time, for similar prices (that is actually quite a decent price for a property of that size, in that area) so it's not a problem for everyone. Why do we think this has now been on the market for in excess of 2.5 years - seemingly with no interest either, it doesn't even seem to have had offers which have fallen through.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/122142404#/?channel=RES_BUY

Downstairs bathrooms are normal for properties in that town too - so although again that put us off, it wouldn't deter everyone. 

The bathroom opening directly onto the dining area.  Noises from the bathroom when people are eating.  Bleugh!
Loft room clearly doesn't have BR and may be expensive to rectify.
A shower in bedroom 2.  Why??????  There may be damp issues.
A toilet upstairs with some wall configuration, would have been a better option than a shower.
A lot of work for many buyers.

EssexHebridean

The comments on this have been really interesting to read - I think because we dismissed it pretty fast from our own reasons (location, and a form of layout which while standard for the area, was for us)  I’d not looked in the level of depth that would have made some of this stuff stand out.

Price - yep, for a 3 bed house of the size in that area it’s not bad, but once you take into account that it is in reality a 2 bed that definitely comes up high.
Layout issues - these we had spotted but to an extent it’s always difficult to work out whether this is a personal thing or a market thing - the downstairs bathroom is absolutely normal for older houses in that area, originally a lot simply would not have had bathrooms, just an outside loo in a lean to type arrangement, and so in many cases rather than losing a bedroom upstairs a building has just been built onto the back of the house to accommodate a modern bathroom. It’s not an arrangement that I like at all, but someone who grew up with a house laid out like that wouldn’t think anything of it. 

Layout issues and planning - again, this was one of our contenders for why people were running away from it - the very odd knock-through of downstairs, and the loft room that clearly isn’t really a room, and which also impedes on the second bedroom. I can see that ANY of this appears on the local planning site, so that almost certainly breeds uncertainty.

The possible experimental construction aspect hadn’t occurred to me at all I have to say - I’d assumed that it was probably a 1930’s house and in this area that largely pre-dates any form of experimental constructions that I’m aware of. If it was immediately post war of course though that puts a different complexion on things, and at the least might add more uncertainty. 

My take on it is that the owners don’t really want to move, and are stringing things out for as long as they can by declining to reduce the price and just letting it sit on the market. That combined with not just “blandifying” the place by covering up the more outlandish decor would in itself serve to put a lot of folk off - as pointed out, when it was originally marketed it actually looked better - had we seen the listing then we’d have been far more inclined to at least go and view. 

Dandie89

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/156084380  Well, I suppose if you have a nice car you might want to sit in the drive admiring it.

FreeBear

Dandie89 said:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/156084380  Well, I suppose if you have a nice car you might want to sit in the drive admiring it.

So where are the cats ??

Bluebell1000

FreeBear said:

Dandie89 said:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/156084380  Well, I suppose if you have a nice car you might want to sit in the drive admiring it.

So where are the cats ??

I spotted one in the living room, but I'm not sure it'd be using the scratching post...