House on the market for 3 weeks with no viewings...

Adventureisoutthere

I can't post a link due to being new here, but the property is located in CV23 9NA and is a white end terrace on at £300k.

Quick bit of history - I bought this property late 2018 after a divorce and it needed gutting, all walls and some ceilings re-plastered and decorated, new carpet, new doors, number of new radiators, new kitchen inc flooring, log burner put in and huge old inglenook style fireplace removed. Garden completely stripped and fence built to modernise the courtyard, and also stripped out the front and put a small patio in to catch the morning sun - great place to sit with a coffee. Even had a cupboard built for coats and the hoover

My circumstances have now changed and I've met someone with 2 kids. We need somewhere bigger so they can have a bedroom each and this place has got to go. It's a popular village with good transport links and is right in the countryside. Houses sell quickly, except for mine! It's a large end terrace, the biggest by far in the row as it was extended years ago. I had 2 EAs do a valuation and they both said £300k or thereabouts. There is no garage, but none of the other houses have them either and everyone else seems to manage. It's on street parking and never any issues with this as there's plenty. Mine is the only one with a private outdoor space. I'd love some feedback please if you have anything constructive to offer as I would have expected at least some interest, even in the current climate.

davidmcn

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-72638532.html

Adventureisoutthere

That's the one thank you

Grumpelstiltskin

Looks very sterile. I know people always say declutter but that looks as though it isn't lived in.

Adventureisoutthere

Grumpelstiltskin said:

Looks very sterile. I know people always say declutter but that looks as though it isn't lived in.

That's fair - i just don't have a lot of stuff!

[Deleted User]

For just 25k more you can get this in the same village, three bedroomed and a lovely garden - https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-87365597.html 

You also have this in the nearby village of Wolston - https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-71114925.html 

And this in nearby Ryton on Dunsmore - https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-83032030.html

TBagpuss

I think it could do with better photos - the ones you have are obviously done with a fish-eye lens which gives a distorted view of the rooms and makes it hard to asses what size they really are. They also don't give a very clear idea of the layout of the property.
They photos also show very little of the outside space which makes me think that there is little or no outside space - is the decked area in  pic 9 the only outside space?  Maybe take a photo from the kitchen doors to give a better idea, and if there is other space, make it more obvious. Street view makes it look as though there are flowers and shrubs in front of the house separating it from the road but your pictures don't show that.
I think you may have gone a bit to far with the decluttering and that 'dressing' the house a bit may help - could you setup the dining room as a dining room, for instance, rather than just having the lonely little office chair and PC in there? 
I have to admit that my first thoughts when I looked at the pictures were that it was a shame, as from the outside it looks as though it would have a certain amount of character and maybe some period features, but inside it seems to have had everything of that kind stripped out.

Also, looking at rightmove sold prices it does look as though the removal of the brick fireplace and faux ceiling beams in the living room are the only substantive change you made - which I wouldn't expect to add £40,000 to the value. The other changes seem to be decorative / cosmetic, which I wouldn't expect to add much, if anything to the value.
Have house prices risen significantly in the area since you bought? If not, then I think a 15%  jump from £260,000K to £300,000 is perhaps over optimistic.

It doesn't look as though there are many recent sales of similar properties so I would guess that the agents were to some extent pulling a number out of the air. 

If you aren't getting viewings, particularly if it is generally a popular area, it is almost certainly down to the price. 

Adventureisoutthere

Deleted_User said:

For just 25k more you can get this in the same village, three bedroomed and a lovely garden - 

You also have this in the nearby village of Wolston - 

And this in nearby Ryton on Dunsmore -

"For just 25k more you can get this in the same village, three bedroomed and a lovely garden" - this is on the side of a dual carriageway about 5mins away which is incredibly busy - I don't think you can compare though agree people may use it as a comparison. It's not in the village at all.

The Wolston one, I agree, internal floorspace is very similar so you're paying for the garden and driveway, perhaps the extra bedroom though they're smaller all round. Is that worth an extra £25k? I don't know having never done this sort of thing before and no idea what people think is value for money!

Ryton on Dunsmore, you'd need spend money doing it up and I think for that village it's probably at/near the top end of the market for the cap price/type of house. I can probably find a counter-debate for everything 

AdrianC

There's nothing wrong with the listing.

It's a very odd layout, though, with the kitchen down the end of a long corridor. That's going to put people off. I presume the kitchen is at the end of the plot, so the only garden is that enclosed courtyard in pic 9?



Looking at the google aerial shot, I guess that the rest of that dogleg, behind the lounge, next to the corridor and kitchen is part of next door?
https://goo.gl/maps/7KFcxGnuoWGauJo88

As well as the comparables posted by Oozle...

Same price, 2 miles away, three bed plus garden.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-72686091.html

£235k cheaper, 2 miles away... unsold since December, reduced from £250k in May.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-76351819.html

Adventureisoutthere

TBagpuss said:

I think it could do with better photos - the ones you have are obviously done with a fish-eye lens which gives a distorted view of the rooms and makes it hard to asses what size they really are. They also don't give a very clear idea of the layout of the property.
They photos also show very little of the outside space which makes me think that there is little or no outside space - is the decked area in  pic 9 the only outside space?  Maybe take a photo from the kitchen doors to give a better idea, and if there is other space, make it more obvious. Street view makes it look as though there are flowers and shrubs in front of the house separating it from the road but your pictures don't show that.
I think you may have gone a bit to far with the decluttering and that 'dressing' the house a bit may help - could you setup the dining room as a dining room, for instance, rather than just having the lonely little office chair and PC in there? 
I have to admit that my first thoughts when I looked at the pictures were that it was a shame, as from the outside it looks as though it would have a certain amount of character and maybe some period features, but inside it seems to have had everything of that kind stripped out.

Also, looking at rightmove sold prices it does look as though the removal of the brick fireplace and faux ceiling beams in the living room are the only substantive change you made - which I wouldn't expect to add £40,000 to the value. The other changes seem to be decorative / cosmetic, which I wouldn't expect to add much, if anything to the value.
Have house prices risen significantly in the area since you bought? If not, then I think a 15%  jump from £260,000K to £300,000 is perhaps over optimistic.

It doesn't look as though there are many recent sales of similar properties so I would guess that the agents were to some extent pulling a number out of the air. 

If you aren't getting viewings, particularly if it is generally a popular area, it is almost certainly down to the price. 

Thank you, this is really helpful. The kitchen was also completely stripped out and redone, but again when it comes to value-add I guess that's not necessarily a consideration.

I never got around to buying dining room chairs haha - we were about to put the finishing touches to the dining room and then never bothered as we had to use it as an office due to being forced to WFH.

I did think the photos may be an issue as I saw them and raised an eyebrow regarding the width. The same with the outside space, it's actually quite a decent size and I call it the gin terrace. I think it might be useful to get photos of the hallway and landing too, to give a feel for layout.

With regard to lack of character, when I bought it there was nothing you could really say that was an original feature. There is an open fireplace in the dining room which looks nice, but it was newly installed. The things that were added (the fake beams and the old fire surround) were done about 20 years ago and made the room look so small an dated. It's actually huge.

Anyway, really appreciate the feedback and I'll get on to the estate agent about changing the photos and see if we can dress the house a bit better.

Adventureisoutthere

AdrianC said:

There's nothing wrong with the listing.

It's a very odd layout, though, with the kitchen down the end of a long corridor. That's going to put people off. I presume the kitchen is at the end of the plot, so the only garden is that enclosed courtyard in pic 9?



Looking at the google aerial shot, I guess that the rest of that dogleg, behind the lounge, next to the corridor and kitchen is part of next door?

As well as the comparables posted by Oozle...

Same price, 2 miles away, three bed plus garden.


£235k cheaper, 2 miles away... unsold since December, reduced from £250k in May.

The layout is due to the whole place being extended over the years. It's a row of terraces at the front and then the lounge backs onto another cottage (the frosted window in the lounge faces the courtyard which is at the back of the houses next door to mine). It's unusual, but I like the charm of it. 

The kitchen was an old outbuilding and the corridor runs along the back of the cottage mentioned above. The whole place used to be a farmers cottage and then changed to a haberdashery years later, prior to becoming residential. It's got a lot of history!