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

stellaforstar

the count of no-where - im going to take a deep breath adn assume you are trying to be funny in that last comment.however...

of course i am well aware of the sodding economic climate. i am aware because my husband, who was in a high salary job for 10 years, got made redundant a year ago - two weeks before our first child was born. we ran out of money and had to relocate from our lovely rented house in scotland back to our one bed in croydon becuase he couldnt find work up there - becuase of the recession. he is now working again and so our next goal is to get out of the flat we were forced to live in - because of the recession. we dont want to live there - we dont choose to live there.

our flat was valued at £165k 4 years ago but is now worth a fraction of that - because of the economic climate. we are well aware it is worth less.

i agree £150k is lot for a one bed flat - but 3 months ago we accepted an offer on our flat for £155k. it only fell through because the buyer couldnt get the extra cash. the one bed flat downstairs from us had just sold for £150k. the one bed flat three streets down has just sold for £150k.

have you just made unhelpful comments like that to make me feel bad or make yourself feel better?

stellaforstar

thank you - that was the other point I was going to make. I did look on zoopla - i did buy the flat in 2004 for £136k. zoopla tells me it is now worth £149k. so why is my expectation of something around the £150 - £145k mark so outlandish - even taking into account the lease issue?

bap98189

TheCountOfNowhere wrote: »

Why does anyone think a 1 bed flat would be worth £150K...I mean £150K is a lot of money and a 1 bed flat...well, who'd want to live in one of those !!!

That's not exactly very helpful. I'm sure most of us would like to live in a bigger or better house if we could, but the fact is most of us can't afford to and have to make do with what we can afford.

shakerbaby

May I ask why you "need to walk away with a profit"? What is more important to you and your family, your health or money?

adrian_bond

hi OP,

here a few things that might help;

you could get a few more estate agents round and get their honest opinion on how much its worth, and even a few tips on how to make it sell easier or be worth more! it may also gove you an idea about how well your estate agent is doing his / her job as they can sometimes lie but some are more transparant than others. dont trust Zopa, its estimates are way off at best. i.e. +/- £15k!

i would definatley get a few pictures of your kitchen on the advert too. its lovely and looks like it may have a granite top?

a tip you could try would be to move any unnessesary clutter behind the camera for the photos only then put it all back again becuase you have to live still but it might help to illistrate the property better. a 3D isometric image of the kitchen can be constructed using the ikea kithcen planner online which could make a handy picture for the add too asi t can be viewed from angles unavialable otherwise.

in youre earlier posts you said you are having to have the cot in the bedroom with you. why not get one from IKEA or somewhere cheap that can be easily collapsed by aking out 2 - 3 screws so it can be dismatled and stored away during the day? do you have any family close by who can help with some storage of toys, and bits n the short term while you are in the selling process?

i had no idea that leases were so expensive until i read your posts. i was given the freehold on my flat (along with the other 3 tennants in our 4 flat building) and am now very pleased with getting it for free!

regarding your noisey neighbours, could you knock on the door and ask them to keep the noise down around bedtime when youre putting the baby to sleep? if not send them a freindly letter politley asking for less noise. if they dont make an effort then maybie ring the council?

the weather will start to break soon so you can all get some time away from the place as it sounds like youre smothering each other by it being too smll for your needs. local parks and suchlike are great for this as everyone benefits for free!

as i stated earlier, i live in a 1 bed flat (with the missus) and we have to be rutheless periodically with our clothes and belongings to save space becasue storage is always at a premeim. we have 4 large under bed draws which helps, have redesigned the kitchen for more effiecnt storage, and thats given us loads more room. you would be amazed at what you can stick where when you think about it. a purge really does help tho. especially if you get ebay involved then you can raise some more cash easily.

maybie you could get some sliding wardrobes fitted (check the diy forum for cheap tips (not B and Q!), which would give you more storage. and make the place look bigger. get some flashy bed covers on and light some candles for the bedroom pictures (dont make it look seedy tho!).

the housing market is rising again (somehow!) but you may have to accept the fact that you will have to sell it for approx what you paid for it. you havent lost out becasue you will have been paying off your mortgage bit by bit all the time which will give you some deposit for the next place.

its all a big gamble, but if you want out quickly it will be expensive. please be patient as someone will come along who will buy it from you. just remeber, its all relative, generally the house prices will go up and down by the similar ratios in your properties as it will in the next house you are buying. so if you take a hit in this sale, then you should be able to buy a house for a similar reduction (this is a rough estimate).

hope some of this helps. keep us posted. good luck!

adrian

ET1976

stellaforstar wrote: »

so why is my expectation of something around the £150 - £145k mark so outlandish - even taking into account the lease issue?

It's not, but you have to take into account the lease issue.

Just because it isn't a physical attribute of the flat, doesn't mean it has an insignificant effect on the value of the property.

You have to sort it, or adjust your expectations on price and on the size of your target market (cash buyers only?) accordingly.

stellaforstar

i know what you mean - however if we sold for around the £140 mark, it means we would walk away with not much more than £10k. i know we are keen to sell but we need to make something - we need to pay off debts. its not being greedy - its neccessity.

SouthCoast

Four identical flats on Zoopla:

£181k. Sold Nov 2008 £160k
£225k
£201k
£200k. Sold March 2008 £230k

Konfety

Hi Stella,
As the Count said; the last flat sold on your road was a 2 bed for 147 (I think I remember 147 or 149 but not much difference)

Is the 'one below' yours on Zoopla or Houseprices etc.

But most people do look at such information when spending such a large sum of money and do their homework! And its there in black and white that the last one sold was a 2 bed for 147. So on the face of it yours is overpriced (and looking at the area the competition is better value as well)

BUT

The first job that you must do is extend the lease. Beg or steal (well not steal) to get the money to extend.

A friend was in the same position but with a lovely 3 bed flat in Wandsworth, very close to the station, and all the agents TOLD him to extend the lease before selling. All respect to Croydon, but Wandsworth is Nappy Valley, flats near the station always well....and he was TOLD to extend....

He of course extended the lease put it on the market and sold within a few weeks.

First things First....... Make you flat a, relatively hassle free purchase without the sword of damacles (more money to spend / uncertain amount) hanging over the buyer. (Its a FTB property and chances are they will also be strapped for cash.)

stellaforstar

thank you Konfety - i know what youre saying. i would like to extend the lease i just dont know how. perhaps the mortgage is the only way to go. we dont have quite enough in our savings and family dont have it.

in peoples opinion, would it really make that much difference to the price? for example - we have agreed to drop the price to £152k. if we spent £5 - 8k renewing the lease, what could we then put it back on the market for? does it automatically add £8k back on the price. or does the fact its still a relatively small one bed limit it, no matter what the lease length?