Same as above. You say you've got a paddock area at the back. Do you have an actual back garden or did the extension take most of that up? It's a fairly big, family sized house, therefore, people are expecting a safe place for the kids to play.

The outside frontage has 'immediate, on the face of it problems'. One- the side does not match the front in style, and doesn't blend with the old country cottages around it. Two, it seems to have a back door and a front door on the same frontage, and the front door is where the back door should be, so it's not balanced.

The fact that the back door is also on the front makes me suspect that there is a problem with the 'garden area'.

If at all possible, you need to remedy the front entrance, it's just not appealing.

Remove the back door, maybe we can come up with a plan to hide it / amend it, change it to a window. However, the Front door, not being in the usual front door position and not being imposing, isn't helping at all. An open porch, a nice front door, remove vertical blinds, etc

Rough sketch - back door removed for artistic impression:-

Obviously, rendering the whole frontage, and finishing it in a similar colour to the natural stone on the side would be the best all round look, but that's going to cost more.

Doing the render will certainly make the biggest improvement and will help with the whole ' This is the front of the house' issue:-

Here's another impression of where i'm going:-

This now looks like an imposing family home, and more of what people would expect in a property of that size in a little village full of period properties. The front has to grab buyers and make them think 'Wow' this is a fabulous house compared to others around it.

Love to see some more pics!

Also, if you are going to make improvements.............have it re-assessed by the estate agents, take new pics and re-market it. The longer the house stays on the market it will show up in the searches. Zoopla and Rightmove show how long homes have been for sale, and how many people have viewed it online. You need not to be at the bottom of the list, as it just implies that there's something wrong with it, lots have people have viewed it, why hasn't it sold etc.

Thanks thanks for the feed back, it's frustrating as the red brick was at the insistance of the planners when we built this 25 years ago. We have a farm across the road which is red brick, it wasn't so prominent before the redevelopment as we had a row of stone stables in front of us, thus the stone frontage. The village is a real mismatch of buildings etc. We do have a garden with a lawn and patio areas and amazing views. I think we will take it off the market do a refurbishment and then put it on the market next year. It is a big house that's our reason for moving into something smaller but wanted to stay in this village as its so nice and the people are lovely! Thanks again to all your advice at least I have somewhere else to live while we do the work.

I know what you mean about the planning department, we've all had issues with them. I think if you make the most of where the front door is and change the other door on that frontage to - preferably no door, or just a window, it will improve the look immediately. The stone is lovely, the steps are beautiful, it's just that you look like you're pulling up to the side of a house and wonder why there are two doors.

Have a look at something like this:-

I'm totally intrigued now as to why this hasn't sold. I'm a seasoned property developer..........If this has been reduced a few times in price and still hasn't sold, there is more to this than meets the eye. There are lots of us out there ( developers ) that look for houses that have performed on the market exactly as yours has so that we can snap them up, sort them out and then sell for a profit.

Are you up for posting a link to the layout on the estate agents website ? If you like - just send a private message...........i just feel a need to get to the bottom of the problem! If you don't want to i shall understand perfectly and will not be offended. x

Hi, I found the house on Right Move yesterday. It's beautiful, can't understand why it's not sold!

I think you have just a couple of main problems:- Those being - The Utility room door on the same frontage as the Front door. The front door as afore mentioned could do with being changed and a porch added. The estate agent's picture of the actual front of the house shows the Utility door not the front entrance, and your second picture above is better.

The other two things that may be putting people off, are:- That the front opens directly on to the road that runs down the side, therefore, not so safe for small children, and, it is after all a family sized house - a very nice one. You may consider if you have room to give up on the driveway for a small fence or more wall to come round the corner and then have gates on to the drive. Nothing too high as to spoil the view, but big enough to be private and safe for children.

Secondly - and this may be an idea that you could drawer up for a potential buyer as a potential project without incurring the expense yourself................The Kitchen is not directly near to the dining room, and, with a penchant for open plan kitchen / diners you may be able to improve the situation thus:-

Hope this all helps.!

All the ideas should be discussed with the estate agents, and usually I find, that when householders are interested in how to improve their homes for sale, they will offer loads of helpful suggestions that they may not have offered up previously. They should have been giving you loads of feedback as the house was listed for a while.

It may be even better to for go the utility room in favour of a better, larger, kitchen diner.

Food for Thought!

Hi , I would think of renting the house out rather than selling it. The setting looks nice, could you let it out as a holiday let through booking.com they get great rental prices for owners. I would rent it out and enjoy the £££ and look to sell in the future.

Regarding the kerb appeal, it already has it. I would get some giant planter pots and huge plants placed in them- like mini trees. it needs something large scale. some outside window shutters would give more character.

I feel your pain......................this is why i am now a Handyman and not a property developer!! - Too old, too much pain (mental and physical ), just no get up and go, it's all got up and gone!

p.s I don't think it needs a full re-furb - it's lovely. I'm pretty sure it's just that utility door and the front door issues. I don't think the planners could have an objection to adding to the wall as is and including gates, in fact, I don't think you need permission. Neither would itaffect the ability for the road users to see what's coming on the main road.

This is the rule for walls:- Planning permission is not required provided that: 1. The wall or fence is not more than 2 metres in height anywhere on your property except where it adjoins a road or footpath. In this case the height is restricted to 1 metre

I think you're right about buyers seeing the potential change of layout, and if you can show them a plan and sketch when they're viewing I think it would help.

Have a break!

Well, I've obviously tempted fate. We have a buyer. Some one who has been on the horizon for some time but was waiting for their own business deal to come through. - so fingers crossed.

Yey - Good luck x

From Pic 1 I would be put off by the road right outside the property, lack of pavement outside and the huge tree shadow over the property - I looked at the view lastly. Pic 2 is fine, Pic 3 make the property look commercial with all that tarmac: my personal taste would be to use stone chippings for the parking area and drive tarmac. Assuming everything is nice inside I suggest some large evergreen in plants in pots to soften picture 1 (you can take them with you) and same again in the car parking area and defining the front door.

I recently sold my house and it took 4 weeks, the 4th week I had a thought 'what is the best room in the house' - the kitchen. So I started the tour of the house to sellers from the kitchen and I sold the house the first buyer I did that to. So find the best thing about your property and show that off first.

We had a similar problem with selling our mum's house. Lovely period property refurbished throughout, a 3 bed semi in Herts. It was on the market for months with very few viewings (2 in two months) so we reduced the price from £395,000 to £349,000. Viewings increased but no offers. Feedback was lack of off road parking and downstairs bathroom. After 5 months we decided to reduce price again to £329,000 and viewings really picked up and we soon had two offers - people were fighting over it! .

In our case obviously it was over priced. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and make sure it's at the right price, look at all the sold properties similar to yours on Rightmove and see what price they sold at. It's a much better guide than looking at the ones that are still up for sale.

Your house looks lovely, you just need to price it competitively. It was hard to reduce the price on mum's but we got a buyer almost immediately.

The other comments are correct, your house is lovely. However, the blunt truth is that it always comes down to price. Perhaps you were misadvised by an estate agent at the very beginning but right now the nation is on the cusp of a recession and the market has very rarely been this bad. You need to price it competitively in order to sell. If you don't desperately 'need' to sell then my advice would be to wait until the country is in a better financial state and property prices are on the up. If you do 'need' to sell then I'm afraid you'll have to bite the bullet and make the house attractive both financially and aesthetically.....you've nailed one of them already. I wish you the best of luck

Hi,

How about adding kerb appeal with a bespoke vehicular access gate? Please feel free to have a look at www.iqgates.co.uk for some design inspiration, and feel free to get in touch with me on 01494 722 880 or via email at john@texogroup.com

I wish you the best of luck in selling the property!

All the best,

John D