Reason for lack of viewings...

twirlypinky

puddy wrote: »

do you mean gas and electricity for your flat, or the communal areas?

how does that work, where is the meter, is it shared with others in the block?

There isn't a meter it's a set fee, each house in our block of four pays the same £121 pcm.

And no, not for the comunal areas for the lot, the whole kit and caboodle.

For this house it's £xxx mortgage, £121 bills, £110 council tax and that's it.

RAS

twirlypinky wrote: »

There isn't a meter it's a set fee, each house in our block of four pays the same £121 pcm.

And no, not for the comunal areas for the lot, the whole kit and caboodle.

For this house it's £xxx mortgage, £121 bills, £110 council tax and that's it.

So that needs to be made explicit on the sales docs.

The issue is that means there is no scope to reduce costs if you only use a little energy for example.

jonjamie1970

warehouse wrote: »

The only thing that puts me off a little is the cluttered kitchen. Remove everything off of every surface and get another picture taken.

Just my opinion :cool:.

Agree totally, I used to sell houses for a living, the dining area looks good, the bedroom looks good, the kitchen needs a declutter as there is too much going on, new photo.

Can you reposition the sofa in the lounge ?

GAH

I think there is a number of reasons why you haven't achieved a buyer yet.

Top of that list is def price, what you think its worth and what buyers think its worth is always going to be different, you want the most and a buyer wants to buy for the least they can.

I don't know your area, but as already mentioned, a quick search brings up a few properties in your street that are over £20k cheaper. Yes they are smaller, but they still don't have buyers at that price.

Again, I don't know the good and the bad ares where you are, but a quick search in ME10 on Rightmove, and you can buy a 2 evn 3 bed freehold house for under £100k.


Secondly, this is not to deceive buyers, but people a lot of people will flick throguh the photos and if they don't like them, they won't even read the description. Looking at the photos taken, even though yours is bigger SQ footage wise, it doesn't look any bigger in the photos than the smaller ones in your road.

Lastly, one bedroom flats are just not as popular anymore. In the last few years trends have changed. As FTB average age is now late 30's a lot of people will just keep saving and bypass one bedroom flats and buy a smaller family home like a two or three bedroom house.

This leaves your market open to a selected number of FTB, Investors (who will always want a deal) and potentially downsizers.

Unfortunately this does link back to get the price right.

twirlypinky

Caveat_Mortgagor wrote: »

I expect you will dismiss this for some very sound reason, but here goes.....

The flats that sold initially for £86k (£7k less than you paid) are for sale for £65k. They seem to accept that they will have to take a dive to get a sale. Theyve knocked 30%* off what they paid.

By contrast you've knocked 3.2%* off what you paid. In fact, most new places come with a deposit contribution / cashback, which hides the real price on LR. Have you actually put it on for less than you paid?

Any sensible buyer will be wary of paying the 2007 price when other properties in the street are 30% down.

Totally agreed and we know we're going to have to bring the price down - we jsut can't afford to do that until we've saved a bit more. We can't knock it down by £5k if we don't have £5k to give back to the bank.

I would've thought though, that most people look at houses slightly above their range on the basis that they could make an offer.



What actually stands out to me on this whole thread, is that people can't see the difference between ours at the mini-flats. I think our ad needs to clearly show it's on two floors and is bigger.

puddy

twirlypinky wrote: »

I'm not. I first bought ten years ago and due to falling house prices and a complete w*nker of an ex husband making my life a misery until i gave in, i have nothing whatsoever to show for all those mortgage repayments. In fact, we're now saving every penny we can to plug the gap between my new husband's mortgage and house value.

So adding this to my newly diagnosed Graves disease, it's making me feel fairly suicidal.

sorry to hear that. i suppose the only thing to do in these circumstances is change the perception. you didnt have 'nothing' to show for all the mortgage payments because you would have paid rent to someone to live somewhere, it wasnt wasted as such

plus you're no longer with the ex!

Scully38

It might just be that the house is very small especially from the measurements. The Kitchen definitely needs more storage/cupboard space. Also there's no bath, so that might also be the problem. Is your neighbours property the same as yours? There's also a two bed down the road going for 95k, and its a lot bigger especially the kitchen and bathroom, it also has a bath. So that might be why, people may be willing to pay a few thousand more for a 2 bed.

It might be worthwhile staying a bit and get enough money together for a new kitchen? Make yours stand out. Or is it possible for you to stay a while longer, maybe wait until the other property is sold to give you a better chance of a sale?

puddy

RAS wrote: »

So that needs to be made explicit on the sales docs.

The issue is that means there is no scope to reduce costs if you only use a little energy for example.

yes it could be seen as a positive in that someone always knows what they pay, on the other hand we are paying 35, 35, 45 and 12 for water, elec, gas and buildings insurance respectively which is around about what you're paying but this is a drafty, badly insulated 3 bed semi, by the sea. i wouldnt expect to pay that much for bills in a nice new insulated fancy flat

twirlypinky

GAH wrote: »

I think there is a number of reasons why you haven't achieved a buyer yet.

Top of that list is def price, what you think its worth and what buyers think its worth is always going to be different, you want the most and a buyer wants to buy for the least they can.

I don't know your area, but as already mentioned, a quick search brings up a few properties in your street that are over £20k cheaper. Yes they are smaller, but they still don't have buyers at that price.

Again, I don't know the good and the bad ares where you are, but a quick search in ME10 on Rightmove, and you can buy a 2 evn 3 bed freehold house for under £100k.


Secondly, this is not to deceive buyers, but people a lot of people will flick throguh the photos and if they don't like them, they won't even read the description. Looking at the photos taken, even though yours is bigger SQ footage wise, it doesn't look any bigger in the photos than the smaller ones in your road.

Lastly, one bedroom flats are just not as popular anymore. In the last few years trends have changed. As FTB average age is now late 30's a lot of people will just keep saving and bypass one bedroom flats and buy a smaller family home like a two or three bedroom house.

This leaves your market open to a selected number of FTB, Investors (who will always want a deal) and potentially downsizers.

Unfortunately this does link back to get the price right.

Okay, i'll talk to the agent about getting more photos to make it look bigger and include the garden. I'll talk to hubby about his mother's curtains and decluttering the kitchen. Btw to whoever wrote it, that is a brand new dualit toaster and kettle...)

There is nothing whatsoever we can do about the changing market and the fact that people want houses not flats, apare from keep pointing out that this is really a house not a flat. In order for people to buy a two or three bed house in Sittingbourne they'd have to live in a rather different area nearer town. Personally i wouldn't want to live there but each to their own etc.

I think the price is clearly the biggest issue, we'll reduce it as soon as we can afford to.

Thanks for the input.

twirlypinky

Scully38 wrote: »

It might just be that the house is very small especially from the measurements. The Kitchen definitely needs more storage/cupboard space. Also there's no bath, so that might also be the problem. Is your neighbours property the same as yours? There's also a two bed down the road going for 95k, and its a lot bigger especially the kitchen and bathroom, it also has a bath. So that might be why, people may be willing to pay a few thousand more for a 2 bed.

It might be worthwhile staying a bit and get enough money together for a new kitchen? Make yours stand out. Or is it possible for you to stay a while longer, maybe wait until the other property is sold to give you a better chance of a sale?

Neighbours property has the same layout in reverse.

We can't fit a bath in the shower room, it isn't physically possible. Annoying but one of those things.

We can't really add any further storage to the kitchen because a) it wouldn't match and b) it would just make the rest of the room smaller. The kitchen is only three years old (same as the house), i'm not really sure what's wrong with it. Okay, it's not my personal taste, but it's modern and clean etc. I think i'll take my slow cooker to a relatives house so we can hide more things where that was and move the large chopping board by the fridge.