House sellers -Have you done a HOUSE DOCTOR makeover

Your only bathroom is in the cellar. This is a major negative and will put 99% off people off. Who wants to walk down and up 2 sets of stairs to go for a wee in the middle of the night.

Your house is nice but nice with a major issue will not sell unless there is a major positive. Then you can say the bathroom is in the cellar but I couldn't resist because:

The kitchen is amazing

The garden is perfect

The house is super insulated and doesn't even need radiators on in the winter.

Is is so cheap

You get so much land with it I could build a side extension.

The woodburner and Bifold doors look so lovely.

Simply put you have no positive and a massive negative. No house doctor makeover is going to sort that out.

I wouldn't worry about the agent, most with a list are lying about its effectiveness or are rubbish leeds. I am on the books of 3 agents and after 3 months they haven't sent me a a single house I have been interested in viewing, yet in that time I have bid on 2 houses both at prices significantly over asking price. My brother in law listed a house with an internet agent 2 weeks ago. He had 5 viewings booked in within 24 hours and within 7 days the house had sold at £5k over asking. I think a good agent is massively over rated. Most people can do everything they do themselves for much cheaper. His house sale is £495.

I wouldn't be put off by a bathroom in the cellar.

To be fair if you do a cellar conversion then a bathroom is the best thing to put down there.

Any other room would feel dark and un-inviting, but most people want privacy when in a bathroom so it's much less of an issue.

It would be nicer upstairs, but if it's only a 2-bed semi you'd loose one bedroom up there for a bathroom and thats not really acceptable.

As it stands I would consider the layout the best use of available space.

I agree with Onlineo, having the only bathroom 2 floors away from the bedrooms is a huge negative for anyone buying and intending to occupy themselves (possibly not so much for a buy-to-let?)

The only way to mitigate this is price accordingly. Or else the rest of the house has to really provide a 'wow'. At the moment it looks fine, but without furnature and accessories there's no wow.

I didn't check the layout so didn't notice the cellar bathroom issue. That's a massive turn-off for most people. A ground floor one is bad enough, but 2 floors away from the bedrooms is too far. So you have to either install one somehow on the 1st floor (which may not be possible) or reduce the price to reflect this issue.

It is a very nice house but has a few flaws, the major one being the location of the bathroom as many have stated. None of these issues will be fixed or hidden by filling the property with furniture.

Having looked at the layout the only thing you could do in regards to this is to install a bathroom upstairs and move one of the bedrooms in to a loft/attic conversion, leaving you with a usable space in the cellar, perhaps for a third bedroom or den/study area. I'm not sure if this would be financially beneficial as it will cost money to move the bathroom and still probably leave your house in the £110k price bracket.

You have already addresses the bath panel which is good. I think you should remove/paint over the wallpaper in the bedroom. I would also suggest updating the flooring in the kitchen to something more neutral. The fact that it looks similar to the kitchen worktop is strangely off-putting.

I would also consider having the photos re-taken as they do not properly show the house off in my opinion. A couple of examples are the picture of the garden from upstairs is at the wrong angle and in a photo of the bedroom one of the drawers in the foreground of the photo is slightly open making the room look untidy/uncared for.

Some of these things may seem trivial but all went through my mind when looking at the listing so it will certainly be going through the minds of potential buyers.

Lastly I think the best thing you could possibly do to garner interest is to drop the price. Comparing it to similar properties that have sold in the last two years one went for £110k last year (3 bed, 2 bath end terrace) and the other went for £110k (2 bed, 1 bath, end terrace with lower extension) in 2015.

Lowering the price to £99k would bring it up on searches up to £100k and drop it further in to the first time buyer market. If it is worth more than £100k then someone will pay more than that to secure the property.

Best of luck with the sale, I think it is a very nice house and at the right price should sell quickly.

I didn't notice the bathroom was in the cellar. Is there room to install just a small room for a toilet with small wash hand basin on the first floor? It can have an extractor fan and perhaps a sunpipe (or similar) from the roof to bring in natural light. It would save a trip down two flights of stairs, especially useful for kids, the elderly or when someone is ill.

I have my property on the market but it isnt getting any interest. It could be a little over priced but it may also need some sprucing up.

 

Has anyone ever given their house the House Doctor treatment if it hasnt sold? Looking at my property on right move it doesnt really stand out and maybe it does need a coat of paint in a couple of rooms to bring it up to date.

I have looked on Pinterest at upcycled kitchens and living rooms and it is amazing what a coat of paint can do.

 

Do you have any experience of updating colour schemes and then selling?

I did actually, we were selling our old property that had been let out for 18 months, so it was unfurnished.

It didn't sell for a long time, 6 months maybe, so I bought some old furniture, some cheap pictures and hired a decorator.

Painted it all neutral, did all the gloss, generally tidied it up as much as possible and whilst I didn't go as far as getting a sofa, I put in a table and some chairs.

Sold it a month later.

It's not conclusive obviously, but it felt like the spend of maybe £500 was worth it to get the sale.

I didn't notice the bathroom was in the cellar. Is there room to install just a small room for a toilet with small wash hand basin on the first floor? It can have an extractor fan and perhaps a sunpipe (or similar) from the roof to bring in natural light. It would save a trip down two flights of stairs, especially useful for kids, the elderly or when someone is ill.

Given the location of the current bathroom and looking at other properties it looks like they all have bathrooms round the back, so you'd end up putting the toilet into the second bedroom.

The room is only 10x10 to start off with, so taking space outa that for a bathroom is going to leave it as a box room.

I think having one proper bedroom and one box room would hurt the value more than the current setup.

Really it needs extending or the loft converting to get a good bathroom location, but thats alot of money and time.

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Lowering the price to £99k would bring it up on searches up to £100k and drop it further in to the first time buyer market. If it is worth more than £100k then someone will pay more than that to secure the property.

Good advice. It's a difficult property to sell because of the layout. But someone with a budget of 100k may be very happy to buy it. I doubt it's worth your while trying to fit a new bathroom on the 1st floor etc. Just accept the house's limitations, get the best offer you can and move on. Let someone else sort the layout issue out if they want.

Hi all

I will stick to my thinking that the layout is bad and is probably not rectified easily.

The remedies are to give a buyer a reason to buy it, such as I listed above

Install an amazing kitchen - your is fine for a £100k home but it is not a selling point, this look is very dated, white or grey handleless seem to be on trend or painted wood shaker style in bland colours.

Spruce up the garden - your garden is big but your would need a mini digger for a few days and some beds/ decking/paving and outdoor lights.

Insulating your house well can be done for free if you are on certain benefits it could be a selling point. Otherwise it will cost more than anyone suggests.

Drop price.

Build rear extension and install bifold doors and woodburner, or possible loft conversion.

Realistically these are probably all going to cost you a lot of money. I would drop the price, paint a few walls and add any insulation I could get for free.

Adding loads of loft insulation makes a noticeable difference, but on the energy report that the buyers will see it doesn't have such a drastic effect.

That takes into account age and type of the boiler, age and type of the windows, age and design of the house and then insulation.

I get the feeling it's more unfairly skewed towards promoting new boilers and windows than simple insulation improvements.

To sell the house the best bet is probably drop the price to 99K

Given the location of the current bathroom and looking at other properties it looks like they all have bathrooms round the back, so you'd end up putting the toilet into the second bedroom.

The room is only 10x10 to start off with, so taking space outa that for a bathroom is going to leave it as a box room.

 

I think having one proper bedroom and one box room would hurt the value more than the current setup.

 

Really it needs extending or the loft converting to get a good bathroom location, but thats alot of money and time.

I haven't looked at the layout again but location of plumbing isn't an issue, it can be done with a macerator toilet. I was thinking of taking a bit off a bedroom near the entrance. I haven't looked if this is feasible due to layout. I didn't say a bathroom, I said a toilet. You would only need the size of an average desk for a toilet and small, corner mounted hand washing basin.