advice needed - flat on market for 5 months and 3 viewings

stellaforstar

i could really do with some advice and help please - we are desperate to sell our one bed property, as we have a baby and are living on top of each other. we put the flat on the market in October for £159,950 and got 3 viewings within the first couple of weeks. we accepted one offer but then due to various things coming to light, namely our lease is only 77 years , and the buyer being a complete pain, it all fell through in December. We then entered the 'dead' christmas period.

after christmas we changed estate agents as we were not happy at all with first ones. new EA's are doing all they can - we are in rightmove etc all the websites, local papers and in the EA window. still we have had no new viewings. the only feedback we have had from people who have been sent the details is that they dont want a flat in that part of town. not a lot we can do about that.

EA wants us to drop the price by about £10k, but we refuse as its not worth selling it at that price. we will consider dropping the price slightly, but it seems competively priced with other 1 beds in the area, even with the shorter lease.we have been told we are still in a 'quite period' and things generally pick up around Easter - is this true? or as we are getting desperate should we maybe drop down to £150?

i have included the RM link here - http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-14369442.html?maxPrice=160000&pageNumber=1&premiumA=true&backToListURL=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2Ffind.html%3FsearchType%3DSALE%26locationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E83020%26insId%3D1%26radius%3D0.0%26displayPropertyType%3D%26minBedrooms%3D%26maxBedrooms%3D%26minPrice%3D%26maxPrice%3D160000%26retirement%3D%26partBuyPartRent%3D%26maxDaysSinceAdded%3D%26_includeSSTC%3Don%26sortByPriceDescending%3D%26primaryDisplayPropertyType%3D%26secondaryDisplayPropertyType%3D%26oldDisplayPropertyType%3D%26oldPrimaryDisplayPropertyType%3D%26newHome%3D%26auction%3Dfalse%26x%3D12%26y%3D12

These are the best pictures we could get (we took them - the EA ones were hopeless). I would really appreciate peoples opinions about where we are going wrong. as we are not even getting any viewings we dont even have any feedback to go on. we have painted, put new double glazing in, always keep the place clutter free etc. could it be the length of the lease thats putting people off?

please, any opinions would help - i am about at the end of my tether living here and its taking a toll on my health. thanks so much

BitterAndTwisted

What you need to sell it for is completely irrelevant to a buyer. If the property is sensibly-priced it will find a buyer eventually. It's very likely that the length of the lease is a significant factor. What is the likelihood of buying an extension of the lease and its associated costs?

One-bedroomed flats are not the easiest properties to shift for reasons you have already discovered

scooter_chick

Would it be worth dropping the asking price to £150k? If you're not even having viewings it could be that yout potential viewers are searching Rightmove with an upper limit of £150k, so your flat doesn't even show up.

googler

Generally-accepted wisdom is that if no-one asks about it, no-one comes to view it, then it's priced too high.

As was just said, what you need to sell it for has no bearing on what the general public, or 'the market' is willing to pay.

I have to confess to being slightly gobsmacked at your 'competitive pricing' for a 1-bed flat, since round my way, 1-beds sell for between £95k and £105k tops....... I take it you're in London?

Only six pictures? and most of those of the shower room? C'mon, it won't take more than 5 mins to switch the flashgun on, and improve the lounge and kitchen photos ..... it's a 1-bed apartment. Where's the bedroom photo?!?!?

ILW

It is probably overpriced if you are not even getting viewings.
Even if you do get an offer it will probably fall through due to the lease issue.
You need to drop the price and get moviing on the lease extension if you want to sell.

bap98189

I think your estate agent is right, price is your problem. A quick search on Rightmove brings up a whole raft of 1-bed apartments in your area starting from £129k. At £160k, yours is just about the most expensive 1-bed property on there.

If there is something special about your flat that makes it worth more than the others on the market, I didn't pick it up from glancing at your advert.

BitterAndTwisted

Exactly. I didn't understand why the photo of the landing could be seen as more informative than one of the bedroom which is missing. The photos could be better as well, none of them actually show the complete aspects of any of the rooms although I appreciate that it is difficult. That kitchen looks very nice but you just can't see any of it properly

googler

"Taking a toll on your health..."

You appear to have two adults and one baby sharing a flat over two floors - the lounge appears to be at first floor level, with the kitchen and shower room one floor up, and the bedroom somewhere else. Forgive me, but I'm not seeing the problem here......

My cousin will happily tell anyone who'll listen that his parents raised him and his brother in a two-bedroom tenement flat with a lounge/kitchenette, bathroom and not much else. They got to their teenage years and left for university and further employment without it doing them much harm, and the parents continued in the flat until they both passed .......

stellaforstar

thanks very much everyone -

with regards to the photos we havent included one of the bedroom as its quite a small bedroom and its really difficult to get a good photo of it, so we decided not to bother with one at all. obviously we should maybe rethink this.

yes, its in london, so 1 beds usually go for around £150 - 155k mark. most of the one beds in the area are on at around £145 - 159. our flat is a good quality, better than alot of the one beds out there, but, as you say, if people are not even coming to look it is obviously overpriced.

the lease issue is a funny one - we have been quoted £8k to extend the lease, although we could negotiate the landlord down to about 5k. when discussing this issue with our previous buyer, we had agreed that if she would offer £155k, we would guarantee a new 99 yr extension. however, we would rather just sell the flat with the 77 yr lease and not have to bother with the extension, but we would be willing to negotiate this. (for example, the flat below us which was in similar condition and size was on market for £155k and sold for £150k, with a new lease. so they must have walked away with about £144k. we would be happy to do this)

anyway, if we had a spare £5k i would just pay for the new lease, but we cant.

as you have all said, the issue is getting people through the door in the first place and getting them keen on buying it. i think we should drop down to 150k - however, should we do it now or wait until the so called 'easter surge' ?

ILW

stellaforstar wrote: »

thanks very much everyone -

with regards to the photos we havent included one of the bedroom as its quite a small bedroom and its really difficult to get a good photo of it, so we decided not to bother with one at all. obviously we should maybe rethink this.

yes, its in london, so 1 beds usually go for around £150 - 155k mark. most of the one beds in the area are on at around £145 - 159. our flat is a good quality, better than alot of the one beds out there, but, as you say, if people are not even coming to look it is obviously overpriced.

the lease issue is a funny one - we have been quoted £8k to extend the lease, although we could negotiate the landlord down to about 5k. when discussing this issue with our previous buyer, we had agreed that if she would offer £155k, we would guarantee a new 99 yr extension. however, we would rather just sell the flat with the 77 yr lease and not have to bother with the extension, but we would be willing to negotiate this. (for example, the flat below us which was in similar condition and size was on market for £155k and sold for £150k, with a new lease. so they must have walked away with about £144k. we would be happy to do this)

anyway, if we had a spare £5k i would just pay for the new lease, but we cant.

as you have all said, the issue is getting people through the door in the first place and getting them keen on buying it. i think we should drop down to 150k - however, should we do it now or wait until the so called 'easter surge' ?

When was that?

stellaforstar

googler -

its a one bedroom flat.

its a small bedroom.

we are two adults and one year old in a cot squeezed in beside the bed.

the baby doesnt sleep very well because we are disturbing her when we come to bed at night.

we are each living out of one draw of clothes.

the baby has no room to play, just one small ish living room and the landing.

we cant buy her alot of toys or anything to help her development because we have no room to store it.

the new neighbours that have moved in down stairs keep us up all night with banging doors and arguing.

i feel worried and anxious on a daily basis because this flat is not selling and i feel guilty about raising my baby in a one bed flat.

just several of the reasons why its taking a toll on my health.