Why is my in-laws' gorgeous house not selling?!

[irisetta]

What is wrong with this listing? Some back story - my in-laws have been desperate to sell up for a while to be nearer to us. They live near Portsmouth, we are in St Albans. They have a beautiful house! It's 5 minutes walk from the beach in Lee-on-Solent, it's right next to the High Street but super quiet. Huge back garden. Beautifully renovated home, when they bought it it hasn't been touched in at least 30 years. It looks immaculate. No it doesn't have the open plan kitchen diner, but what there is, is perfect.

For the first 7 months while they were listing the house, the estate agent was effing up the RightMove listing quite badly - they were only appearing for people looking for bungalows, when it is not a bungalow 🤦 I noticed this recently. 🙄 After pointing it out, it's since been amended to appear to anyone looking for a 3 bedroom detached property in Lee-on-Solent.

Anyway, now that it's appearing to everyone who might want it, AND they've reduced the price (too much, IMO), my mum-in-law is somehow still convinced that the lovely estate agent is now doing his level best for them - still no viewings after a couple of weeks. And they've only EVER had 3 viewings, ever since it was first listed those 7 months ago - none of which were even proceedable. Thoughts, lovely ladies of Mumsnet?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/173477669

I think it is over priced. An attic converted bungalow that is energy efficiency D?
The ´upgrades’ are only cheaply done paint and laminate.
No real modernisation of bathrooms or kitchen.
If that is astro-turf out front that is a big turn off.

The pictures are all at the wrong angle and make the rooms look smaller somehow

I would change estate agent, get better pictures taken and relist

a lot of properties are not selling due to state of country, war causing food and petrol increases, houses are getting harder to sell atm. i think the staging of it could be better, i would remove the tiny table from the kitchen, take the blue rug up as far to much blue downstairs, declutter and de personalize

Price needs dropping.

It’s overpriced

yeah no that’s not a “beautiful house” it’s a bog standard house and for £630,000 I’d expect a lot more! Yes I’m I’m in the north east so it is a lot cheaper but ffs 🤦‍♀️

There's a war on. That is an expensive house. Not saying its not comparable with sold prices in the area, but selling a house in that bracket right now is going to be challenging.

its always always price

Hard agree

Astro turf, yes! Used to have rose beds but too much to maintain for older folk. All the electrics are new though! And windows.

My only thought was thats a lot of money for a 3 bed bungalow (or a house without a loft)

It looks very crowded to me. Agree with pp to declutter. There’s a lot of furniture and a lot of stuff. Lose the small table and chairs in the kitchen. Also the extra chair at the desk in the dining room along with the rug, and is that a sofa in that space as well? Retake the photos after doing that.

I quite like it but it’s not very big for the price

Truthfully it looks like it needs a lot of modernisation. At that price point, I’d be thinking I still need to pay to get the kitchen and bathrooms all done, and painting etc which is a lot of money on top. Cost of labour and materials are really high at the moment too

Rightmove says it is worth 613,000 so the price is still a bit too high. It's a difficult market. If they really want to move this year, they could drop to 599,000. Or they might wait a long time to sell. Hope it all works out for them.

That's what I thought, but similar properties are selling well at similar prices. It does have a MASSIVE garden. Should we start pushing the extension potential?

Yeah. Actually, the photos make it look worse than it is, the colours are NOT that garish in real life. BUT yes, it would need work.

Electrics and windows is maintenance not an upgrade.
Astro turf lowers the value of a home to most buyers.

I forgot to mention that being 5 minutes walk to a beach in Lee-on-Solent is not a plus in today’s environment where the seas are rising and will continue to rise even if the whole planet goes net zero tomorrow.
The Solent continues to face severe threats from overuse, erosion, poor water quality and sea level rise,
https://solentseascape.com/project/

Are they really similar in level of modernisation, energy efficiency and so on?

The artex ceilings are dated and make it look like it might need more modernisation. The bold colours don’t help either as it means it will most likely need repainting by whoever buys it unless they happen to love the colour. I’d consider getting someone in to skim the ceilings and repaint it in more fashionable neutral colours if you don’t want to drop the price.

I have inputted their actual address into Rightmove, it comes out as higher than 613... I think this is a classic issue of making a home that you love, but not a home to sell 🥲

Excellent question. I'm beginning to fear that my in-laws bought a very old house, then turned into a slightly less older house with new paint and laminate...

Tbh, most folks looking for a beach home are not looking at global warming levels are they. 😆

Depends when they bought it. From appearances it looks late 90s/early 00s since it was last updated. They could have bought it, fully renovated it and then just lived there for twenty years doing maintenance. Sellers then don’t understand the house has technically become a fixer upper because it’s been 25-30yrs since it’s been renovated.

We did when we bought our beach house in Florida.
There is more awareness here perhaps? And we have hurricanes.
It got to the point in Florida that you could not get home insurance for some coastal areas.
We sold it ten years ago and won’t buy another property near a beach again.
The salt air also makes exterior maintenance more expensive as everything corrodes faster.

Oh god! Yes, indeed... (I know!) I'm going to be selective in what I show Mum-in-law (I'm sure you all understand) but this comment yes, yes... This is the kicker.. 😭