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Getting House Viewings

245

Comments

  • gream0604
    gream0604 Posts: 28 Forumite
    franklee wrote: »
    Apart from being unhealthy and ugly it takes up too much room and dominates the small space. You would be better off with some flower beds IMO.

    Back indoors, where is the dining table? Maybe you don't want one but if you are selling a lifestyle there should be room for one.

    Thanks for your opinion on it being unhealthy. It is only like having a BBQ in the garden.

    Indoors is a lounge diner. There is a dining table which isn't shown in the image is behind one of the sofas.

    Would it be acceptable do you think to retake some of the photos and ask the estate agent to update the right move advert.
  • franklee
    franklee Posts: 3,867
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    gream0604 wrote: »
    Thanks for your opinion on it being unhealthy. It is only like having a BBQ in the garden.
    At least a BBQ is portable and you take it with you. I was charged one pound fifty to drop a small bag of rubble at the tip. It would not be so bad if the garden was bigger but as it is your taste dominates the space whereas what you want is a flexible space the buyer can see their stamp on.

    In addition I'd remove the decking seating and get some plants in. The paving slab area and gravel is fine to provide the hard landscaping IMO.

    Perhaps if you are handy you could make the decking into planters that you can then take with you. If you plant with some plants with a bit of height that would take the focus off the hardstanding and surrounding houses.
  • I definitely think the garden needs a bit more colour. It shouldn't cost too much to buy a few plant pots and some bright petunias or pansies that can be dotted around. First time buyers and young people like an attractive garden too. I'm a bit ambivalent on the pizza oven, you might find some buyers want it removed as part of the sale, others might want to keep it.

    The other thing is the "craft room", it looks extremely small, like you'd struggle to fit even a single bed in it. I'd try and remove some of the storage on the right hand side and take a photo from the door, perhaps with a wide angle lens to show the space properly. It also took me a few moments to work out that the last internal photo is the dressing room.

    The bedroom at the top - was the house originally built like that, or is it a loft conversion? I'm sure I've read on here that not having building regs stops a loft conversion from being counted as a bedroom, no one wants to buy a four bedroom house only to discover it's a 3 bedroom!

    I'd reshoot the photo of the front from the other side as I was wondering why you had a weird satellite dish on the roof, and then realised it's a street lamp XD Could you maybe add a hanging basket or two to the little porch cover to bright up the front?

    And last but not least, the garage is mentioned, is there any additional off-street parking? Is there space in front of the garage to park a second car? If so then this would be a big bonus in what looks like a high-density environment and is worth highlighting in the description (I'm a bit 50/50 about whether you need a photo of the garage but it might encourage people who just scroll through photos to move down and read the description).

    Looks like a very nice house though!
    "You won't bloom until you're planted" - Graffiti spotted in Newcastle.

    Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind - Doctor Who

    Total overpayments in 2021 - £901.28!
  • jonnygee2
    jonnygee2 Posts: 2,086
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    Would it be acceptable do you think to retake some of the photos and ask the estate agent to update the right move advert.

    Perfectly acceptable - they work for you! But I don't think it will make a huge difference. Overall I think it's a well presented advert and anyone in the market for that type of house would probably take a look at it.

    I doubt a pizza oven is going to influence anyone too heavily. It's easily changed and relatively inoffensive even if you don't like it.

    It's a slow market. You'll probably have to be patient.
  • gream0604
    gream0604 Posts: 28 Forumite
    I definitely think the garden needs a bit more colour. It shouldn't cost too much to buy a few plant pots and some bright petunias or pansies that can be dotted around. First time buyers and young people like an attractive garden too. I'm a bit ambivalent on the pizza oven, you might find some buyers want it removed as part of the sale, others might want to keep it.

    The other thing is the "craft room", it looks extremely small, like you'd struggle to fit even a single bed in it. I'd try and remove some of the storage on the right hand side and take a photo from the door, perhaps with a wide angle lens to show the space properly. It also took me a few moments to work out that the last internal photo is the dressing room.

    The bedroom at the top - was the house originally built like that, or is it a loft conversion? I'm sure I've read on here that not having building regs stops a loft conversion from being counted as a bedroom, no one wants to buy a four bedroom house only to discover it's a 3 bedroom!

    I'd reshoot the photo of the front from the other side as I was wondering why you had a weird satellite dish on the roof, and then realised it's a street lamp XD Could you maybe add a hanging basket or two to the little porch cover to bright up the front?

    And last but not least, the garage is mentioned, is there any additional off-street parking? Is there space in front of the garage to park a second car? If so then this would be a big bonus in what looks like a high-density environment and is worth highlighting in the description (I'm a bit 50/50 about whether you need a photo of the garage but it might encourage people who just scroll through photos to move down and read the description).

    Looks like a very nice house though!

    Thanks

    It was originally built as a 3 story town house, so the top floor is all original.

    We have in fact added some hanging baskets to the front since the photos were taken. Your help and advise is really appreciated!!
  • Lavendyr
    Lavendyr Posts: 2,554
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    edited 9 May 2018 at 11:11PM
    If the loft is original then market it as a townhouse (in the heading) - otherwise people will be suspicious it's been converted inappropriately.

    There is no picture of the dining area in the kitchen/dining room. From the pictures it looks like there is no dining space. That would be my primary concern.

    I think calling it a 4 bed is v tenuous - the size of the 3rd bedroom on the first floor is tiny. If you want to sell it as a 4 bed, take out the furniture and put in a single bed. Make it look like a bedroom.

    One spare bedroom looks to have a sofa bed in. Suggest presenting it as a bedroom...looks a bit studenty at the mo.

    Picture of the main bathroom is very yellow - suggest retaking with better lighting/camera. Also remove the bits by the toilet.

    Ensuite - can you get a pic without the door? Door makes it look small.

    I'm sorry to agree with others that the garden looks unpleasant. Definitely needs more greenery. Try some potted plants on top of the hanging baskets.

    There is no picture of the parking and garage?

    Hope this helps.

    PS In a nutshell, if this was in my area, the key things that would put me off would be a) no picture of parking, b) no apparent dining space and c) the garden.
  • Davesnave
    Davesnave Posts: 34,741
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    Putting on my Mr Bean hat, I'd observe that you don't often get 4 toilets to clean in Somerset for that sort of money!

    It is what it is, just like thousands of others in the area, so maybe that's part of the problem, but commuting to greater centres of employment from there is something many younger folk do, so you're pitching to the right market, which could also be landlords.

    Personally, I'd get some big, green plants into the garden space, which even to my OAP eyes, looks quite fun. Try to block out overlooking windows when you re-shoot, and maybe even do one at night with it lit up and the oven in use. Would make your property stand out against a sea of others.....

    Oh, hang on, sea at Weston? Well, one can always hope!:rotfl:
  • AnotherJoe
    AnotherJoe Posts: 19,622
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    edited 10 May 2018 at 7:40AM
    My impressions looking at it in order of concern;
    Where do you eat ?
    Where do you park ?
    What a faff getting rid of that ugly great big pizza oven in the wasteland of a garden. The garden is small and it takes up a fair chunk and its position has been imposed by the owner, unlike a BBQ (to answer a point you made upthread).
    Why isn't the front of the house the first picture ? Is parking a problem ?

    EDIT: It has a garage? I genuinely missed that. Why on earth isn't there a picture of it? I am looking at the pics first rather than reading, after all the text is usually just guff anyway, so if i dont see a garage I just assume there isn't one. I'll read the text later if i like what i see.

    I think there's a very good chance many potential purchasers of your house may have missed that as well and moved on thinking no garage / difficult parking.

    SECOND EDIT:

    I think there's an even more fundamental issue with your house, which is, who is it aimed at? Its advertised as a 4 bed. I'd have thought a high proportion of people looking at 4 bed houses have kids. But this doesn't strike me as a family friendly house, the garden isn't one where you will be sending the kids out to play. Indeed you've said its aimed for FTB's. Fair enough i can see it would appeal.

    So, how many FTBs even look at 4 bed houses? (And they would likely have 2 cars - so that brings us back to parking).

    So worst case you could have families looking at 4 beds for kids discounting it as the house doesn't really work for that, eg where do they all eat together, and FTBs not even seeing it as they are looking at 3 bed houses not wanting to pay the extra for a 4th they dont need. I dont know how to fix this unless it can be advertised as 3/4 bed and thus anyone who is looking at 3 bed houses will come across it?
  • gream0604
    gream0604 Posts: 28 Forumite
    Thanks everyone. Its really useful to have someone look over as a critial eye, as I hadn't even considered some of the things that have been mentioned.

    I think I am going to do the following:

    1. Change one of the lounge/diner pictures to one that shows the dining area
    2. Add a picture of the garage/parking space.
    3. Pull out the sofa bed in bedroom 3 and stage it as a bedroom so you can see that a double bed will fit.
    4. Try and get some cheap planters in the back garden, and maybe consider taking some photos at night with the pizza oven lit up.

    Anything else I am missing here?
  • ciderboy2009
    ciderboy2009 Posts: 1,147
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    I wonder if you're aiming at the wrong market.

    People looking for a four bedroom house would normally be families rather than first time buyers. For them your garden is totally wrong and it looks like it would be a lot of work to rip it out and replace it.

    I would also ask your estate agent to title the photo's properly rather than just leaving them as 'Picture 1' etc - I'm struggling to work out which rooms the upstairs photo's are.

    Also get them to sort out things like "Recently Installed Modern Kit" (some people might not realise that it's short for kitchen) and "Master/Dressing Area/En-Suite" (I assume that it means the Master bedroom has a dressing area but it could be read as Master Bedroom or Dressing Area).

    As previously mentioned - add a picture of the garage (even if only from the outside). Some people just flick through the photo's and don't bother reading the description if they don't show what they're after.
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