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Getting House Viewings

135

Comments

  • seven-day-weekend
    seven-day-weekend Posts: 36,755
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    The house is nice, although bedroom four is tiny and I would advertise it as a study/occasional bedroom. As others have said, I would also try to fit a table in and I would also have a photo of the garage.

    The garden is terrible and the pizza oven debatable. I wouldn't want it, but some people might. Maybe it would be possible to say in the text that it will be removed if someone doesn't want it? It might encourage someone who likes the house but can't bear the thought of the pizza oven to buy it.

    The main thing that would put me off however is that it is so overlooked. Although you can't do anything about this, maybe you could screen it? There are large bamboo plants in Homebase at the moment for £27, buy a few of those and some plastic pots and stick them along the wall to make a screen. Also put some colourful shrubs or bedding plants in containers. You can take them with you when you go.

    https://www.homebase.co.uk/golden-or-fishpole-bamboo_p614640
    (AKA HRH_MUngo)
    Member #10 of £2 savers club
    Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology: Terry Eagleton
  • LandyAndy
    LandyAndy Posts: 26,377
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    The house looks nice and I'm going to go against the grain on the garden.

    It would appeal to me far more than bl**dy flower beds.
  • gream0604
    gream0604 Posts: 28 Forumite
    LandyAndy wrote: »
    The house looks nice and I'm going to go against the grain on the garden.

    It would appeal to me far more than bl**dy flower beds.

    At least someone likes it :)

    Might see if the agent can add something to the description about removing it if not wanted though!
  • Davesnave
    Davesnave Posts: 34,741
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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.

    Even more work to extend it, though! :rotfl:

    The garden is going to stay small, but at least it's child-secure and they wont get messy. Kids these days don't go out much anyway; they're all on their X Boxes and 'phones.

    Agree totally that the garage needs to be more prominent in the listing. As an almost 70 year old, I could have that pizza oven down at the tip inside half a morning, so I don't think it's a big issue.
  • tori.k
    tori.k Posts: 3,592 Forumite
    I think its lovely, especially the pizza oven you hit the nail on the head for making the garden another usable room of the house it just needs dressing with some Mediterranean plants and cushions for the seating.as it looking a little unloved after the winter.
    Getting more in about the parking/ garage is a must. I know it was one of our biggest concerns as with the kids being at home longer we alone have 4 daily cars to find parking for and discounted a lot of houses due to parking complications.
  • My thoughts:
    1. A 4-bed house needs off-street parking for at least two cars, IMHO - it's not clear from the listing whether there's even parking for one
    2. You've got to really like pizza to want a fixed pizza oven in the garden
    3. That third bedroom is titchy
    4. Get the agent to title the pictures properly
    5. Two viewings in a fortnight seems fine. I only had one viewing in 7 months on mine (but they bought it, so :))
    6. The garden is just so very beige - it looks like ennui and ambient despair
    7. Only one downstairs room other than the kitchen (and downstairs loo) - separate dining room would be a must for me, and no storage for all the coats/shoes/etc, but then we'll never know without a picture of the hall

    Basically for a couple with a couple or three kids, for whom a 4-bed is a must, there's just not much space - or so it would appear from the listing as presented.
  • davidmcn
    davidmcn Posts: 23,596
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    A bugbear of mine is vague addresses in listings - this just says "Meadow Place". No town or any other clues about which of the hundreds of Meadow Places it might be.
  • hazyjo
    hazyjo Posts: 15,466
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    As others have said - the garden! It's such a let down after the other pics.


    It's not the fact there's no grass or the 'beigeness', or that it's more of a Mediterranean garden, it's just so 'lacking' and unloved. Needs dressing. It could be beautiful.


    Try Pinterest for ideas.


    Scroll down to 'Sit in comfort' heading http://www.idealhome.co.uk/garden/garden-ideas/garden-decking-ideas-48539


    Also agree the first pic should be of the front of the house.


    Good luck.
    2023 wins: *must start comping again!*
  • burtbot1
    burtbot1 Posts: 44
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    edited 10 May 2018 at 9:23AM
    I echo what some others have said about who it's aimed at. A 4 bedroom house would surely be aimed at a family? And, as lovely an idea as a pizza oven is, is totally impractical when you have kids.
    Kids can play in a small garden, but that oven would put me off massively, it's totally in the way. How easy is it to remove? If it's really simple then put that into the listing, or make that clear somehow. For me, as a current house hunter with kids, knowing it would easily be removed would be the difference between booking a viewing or not.

    Actually - one other thing too. Are the sofas in the living room against the walls? they look very big for the room, but also don't look like they are in the best position? This wouldn't necessarily put me off viewing, but it does make the living room look smaller than it probably is.
  • ReadingTim
    ReadingTim Posts: 3,970
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    Any ad for a house that doesn't feature the outside as the first picture makes me automatically think the vendor is hiding something so I approach the rest of the ad with more scepticism than I usually would. Even though your place isn't some pebble-dashed 1950s nuclear bunker, the unflattering angles and wonky exterior shot does it no favours.

    The rest of the photos are similarly awful and convey a general feeling of it being cramped and small - the "bedrooms" which do have beds in can't seem to fit much else, one room can't even seem to fit a bed, and the remaining room is an unloved space used for drying clothes. Whilst there are 4 upstairs rooms, so technically it's a 4 bedroom house, the lack of space conveyed by the photos makes that claim seem a little fraudulent...

    As stated elsewhere, the garden looks like a building site and there's no indication of the garage/parking - I'd suggest a snap of that, or including of it in the floorplan - the streetview view isn't very helpful in this regard.

    Dunno why you knocked the conservatory down, but the photos of it when you bought it are (to my mind anyway) considerably more flattering than the current ones. Furthermore, given you've removed a room, a c.£60k price rise in 4 years might be chancing it....
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