How to be more proactive?

Mazzawa

Hey everyone

We are trying to sell our one bed flat at what is possibly the worst time for first time buyers (main Market for the property). Has been on the Market since November with not much interest and was looking for suggestions on how to improve our viewing rates/get a potential sale.

Reducing price - not an option as we would then be making a loss and therefore no point in selling as won't be able to move. Looking at local area flat is very competetively priced, giving more flat for the same money as another in the same development.

Redecoration, clutter etc- property has been redecorated and is currently unoccupied so not a problem.

Schedule looks fantastic, flat portrayed as quite trendy etc so I guess it is appealing to the market it suits but the people just aren't there! Property was rented out for a year at quite a high price for a one bed so would suit a landlord as could be sold furnished / certificates in place but how on earth do you find one of those?

If you were in this situation what would you do to try and shift the property? Creative ways are also welcome!!!

Property is listed on the main portals for this area as well as the national ones. Any help/suggestions will be gratefully received!!!

hazyjo

Ask the EA if they have any investors on their books who might be interested.

Is there a floor plan on the details? If not, add one.

Are the photos good? If not, change them.

Do the details give lease length, s/c costs, etc?

Does it list room sized? (You'd be surprised how many don't!)

Spell out all the positives. Was one on here recently with no room sizes and it didn't mention that the garden was private. Have a thorough read through the details to see what you (as the owner) think might be missing from them.

If you put a link up, people can say what they think might help improve the details.

One bed flats are often a problem to sell though - probably just the market, but you might be able to do things to improve the listing.

twirlypinky

Give us a link and we'll tell you, but i'm sorry to say it's likely to be the price. I know it's hard (and trust me i do, we're in negative equity in a one bed house...) but that's just the way things are at the moment.

Mazzawa

See if this link works. From estate agents website. If the answer is purely price we might as well just put it back on the rental market so any other suggestions to avoid this would be great.

http://www.boydproperty.com/property/2010111822260956.html

googler

Mazzawa wrote: »

See if this link works. From estate agents website. If the answer is purely price we might as well just put it back on the rental market so any other suggestions to avoid this would be great.

http://www.boydproperty.com/property/2010111822260956.html

Your agent is an ESPC member - has he listed it on the ESPC for you?

What pro-active work is your agent doing? Ask them this before you do the same.

You need to ask what your agent is doing to sell yours in preference to the one at No. 14, also on the ESPC with a different agent.

Looks like you bought for £137,000 in early 2007, and have it listed now at £135,000 ... I'm tempted to say prices generally have dropped by more than 1.46% since then....

Moglet

Looks like a smart little flat but does seem a lot of money but I know nothing of the area. One thing that does jump out at me is the council tax band...D?!?

Mazzawa

Googler: yes it is listed on ESPC, just thought that link would give you the best info!

Proactively on the side of the agent - other than advertising it what else can an agent do? I'm not an agent so am not aware of all the tools at their disposal?

googler

Mazzawa wrote: »

Proactively on the side of the agent - other than advertising it what else can an agent do? I'm not an agent so am not aware of all the tools at their disposal?

They could do a mail to all the first-time viewers that they've had contact with recently. They could do flyers in your area, and further afield. They could generate word-of-mouth interest in your flat. etc etc etc etc - They're only limited by their imagination - how much of that do you think they're using?

There's loads they could do, but I'll bet they're just sitting and waiting for the ESPC listing to generate interest.

Why did you pick this agent, in preference to any of the other 190 or so ESPC members? Did you consider anyone outside the ESPC?

Mazzawa

We picked them because of their high standard of presentation and the convenience of the office in relation to my partners workplace (can pop in and bug them!).

So far they have done a mailshot which got us one viewing but nothing else so far.

brit1234

Simply too expensive. Your selling at 2007 peak prices when the market has fallen a long way from that and started falling again.


You either reduce the price or not sell. Things will get harder as property prices fall even more over the next couple of months.

Mazzawa

Right here is the espc link - please crit the blurb that's there

http://www.espc.com/buying/296737.html

Oh and for those in England, we still have home reports which is what we market the property at so property is the right value as far as surveyors are concerned (we even called up a couple of weeks back to check if it had changed and it hadn't).