Do I have the Unsellable Flat ?

zulucal

Cyril wrote: »

To me it looks just like a rental, cheaply done and no inference of it being a home. IMO it needs to look classier, somewhere you'd be happy to invite your family / friends.

As others have said you need to find away to include a fridge/ freezer in the kitchen. Find the smallest you can ( its a small flat so it's only for 1/2 persons) even if its table top.

Paint all the rooms cream / white and get some nice soft furnishings , flowers, candles, picture frames etc to make it homely.

You may have to accept that you need to spend out on it to sell or rock bottom the price to shift it. Anyone buying in the current state is either someone who can't see what it could become or someone that can and is totting up the ££££'s to get it how they'd like.

Good luck

Well when i get back from my holiday I will be doing some work (what my budget allows) . As with regards to the fridge situation there could be a way round it the Washing is currently a part of the kitchen set-up so could I swap that out for a fridge ?. (the pic given it is on the left against the door way)

I will be painting the bedroom / Kitchem / Bathroom white and chucking out a lot of the furniture over the coming weeks.

Then hopefully it will sell. Once that is done I will never ever go back into the property market as long as I live. I bought this flat under extreme pressure from my family years ago and never had anything invested in it other than the money I !!!!ed down the drain on it.

Henry_P_Chester

jonewer wrote: »

I'd buy it for 50p. So it is saleable, it just needs the right price.

Thank you, that's exactly the point was making in my earlier post.

Blackpool_Saver

the bedroom is terrible, 5 different colours on the go and the bed looks like something from a hospital

zulucal

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

the bedroom is terrible, 5 different colours on the go and the bed looks like something from a hospital

When I get back from holiday I will be sorting out the decor, but I can't afford a new bed. Should I just get rid of the bed ?

Fire_Fox

zulucal wrote: »

Well when i get back from my holiday I will be doing some work (what my budget allows) . As with regards to the fridge situation there could be a way round it the Washing is currently a part of the kitchen set-up so could I swap that out for a fridge ?. (the pic given it is on the left against the door way)

I will be painting the bedroom / Kitchem / Bathroom white and chucking out a lot of the furniture over the coming weeks.

Then hopefully it will sell. Once that is done I will never ever go back into the property market as long as I live. I bought this flat under extreme pressure from my family years ago and never had anything invested in it other than the money I !!!!ed down the drain on it.

Not sure what DIY sheds you have in Scotland, but my parents rate Wilkinsons and Wickes own brand paint IIRC. Don't be silly about the property market: it's a good long-term investment, but there is a need to spend money as you go along on maintenance which you have not done. Like any investment you need to research before you buy. Any repairs can be offset against income tax from the letting.

Tiling costs very little - get cheap plain white tiles (e.g. Wickes £4 a sq m), you might even find some on Freecycle or in a relative's or colleague's shed! Then some all-in-one tile and grout - powder is cheaper than premix - and borrow a manual cutter. If you cannot do anything with the kitchen then get a DIY shed 'designer' in to draw up plans and cost it out so FTBs know what they are looking to spend.

At present your flat looks like a miniature version of a student house, very dated and tired. This may be part of the reason you have had poor quality tenants! Photos are awful, there is no need for two of the outside, nor two of the living area. Angles on many others make the flat look smaller than it is.

Bathroom looks fine and master bedroom is large, if you could do something to the kitchen units (try Freecycle, Gumtree or eBay for new doors/ units/ worktops). Why on earth is the garden called a 'shared drying green'? It's a garden which in England would add value!!

zulucal

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Not sure what DIY sheds you have in Scotland, but my parents rate Wilkinsons and Wickes own brand paint IIRC. Don't be silly about the property market: it's a good long-term investment, but there is a need to spend money as you go along on maintenance which you have not done. Like any investment you need to research before you buy. Any repairs can be offset against income tax from the letting.

Tiling costs very little - get cheap plain white tiles (e.g. Wickes £4 a sq m), you might even find some on Freecycle or in a relative's or colleague's shed! Then some all-in-one tile and grout - powder is cheaper than premix - and borrow a manual cutter. If you cannot do anything with the kitchen then get a DIY shed 'designer' in to draw up plans and cost it out so FTBs know what they are looking to spend.

At present your flat looks like a miniature version of a student house, very dated and tired. This may be part of the reason you have had poor quality tenants! Photos are awful, there is no need for two of the outside, nor two of the living area. Angles on many others make the flat look smaller than it is.

Bathroom looks fine and master bedroom is large, if you could do something to the kitchen units (try Freecycle, Gumtree or eBay for new doors/ units/ worktops). Why on earth is the garden called a 'shared drying green'? It's a garden which in England would add value!!

Thing is the Estate agents won't allow anyone but themselves to take photos of my flat. And yes I am 150% certain I will never as long as I have breath ever buy a property again I have had 7 months to consider it since the damned thing went on the market and now my mind is made up.

Fire_Fox

zulucal wrote: »

Thing is the Estate agents won't allow anyone but themselves to take photos of my flat. And yes I am 150% certain I will never as long as I have breath ever buy a property again I have had 7 months to consider it since the damned thing went on the market and now my mind is made up.

So you have !!!!!! estate agents, replace them if needs be. This is YOUR flat, YOU pay their wages and YOU call the shots - they should have advised you better on value, taken better photographs and advised you what you needed to do to make the place desirable. It's a good sized two bedroom flat with garden, it should sell even in this market. Quite frankly I'd be printing out this thread (leave until tomorrow as you will get more comments) and asking them to earn their fee.

Eton_Rifle

As you say, you really need to make this flat look more aspirational. No-one chooses to live in surroundings like that unless they have no choice or don't care (which is worse because they probably won't care about maintenance either.)

I know most of us have the ability to see past the student digs look and recognise the potential but as it's presented in this slow market, I think someone would either have to really want that flat because just nothing else on the market they can afford or they'll be someone who only wants it at an absolute knock-down price because they'll be imagining profit in a fixer-upper.

Good look with the decorating and I hope it leads to a sale.

Annisele

I think the problem is that you're competing against things like this (admittedly pretty grotty, but quite a lot cheaper and with a much larger kitchen) and this (only slightly more expensive, but again with a much bigger kitchen).

You need to give buyers a reason to buy your property rather than those other ones. That reason might be price, or decor, that yours is in a better area than those places (I don't know the area at all so have no clue), or something else - but it needs to have something to make them buy it.

Why did you choose that particular flat in the first place? Maybe you could get the EA to stress that thing in the advert, and somebody else will choose it for the same reason you did.

zulucal

Annisele wrote: »

I think the problem is that you're competing against things like this (admittedly pretty grotty, but quite a lot cheaper and with a much larger kitchen) and this (only slightly more expensive, but again with a much bigger kitchen).

You need to give buyers a reason to buy your property rather than those other ones. That reason might be price, or decor, that yours is in a better area than those places (I don't know the area at all so have no clue), or something else - but it needs to have something to make them buy it.

Why did you choose that particular flat in the first place? Maybe you could get the EA to stress that thing in the advert, and somebody else will choose it for the same reason you did.

With those properties the first one is in a bad area and the second one is slap bang in the middle of town.

Why did I buy it ? I didn't want to I was put of by the small kitchen but my sister pressured me into buying it giving me the oft repeated mantra of "You'll be on the property ladder and never loose out!"(Have this repeated to you ad nausea and anyone will become a true believer) and now I have lost substantial sums of money on this useless lump of bricks.

Its in a decent area good access to the main roads and is a really good size for a single/couple.

My reason for selling is simple I want off the property ladder and out of the property game, enough cash to pay my debts and go back to the stress free life of renting.