9 months - 3 viewings - no offers!

steve1980

I think the price should be around the £140k mark to sell.

townendwig

Hi Gooner first post go easy!:D

I'm going through the buying process at the moment which is why I spotted your post as I find this a very useful way to test the water in terms of a case study as I believe cold hard facts to be the best course of action when trying to identify the 'right price'

It would be too easy to say the reason you are not getting enough attention is because of the price, but can we come to that conclusion or otherwise by looking at this objectively?

For instance quick bit of research on Sold prices of 2bed flats on St Andrews Road: (from Rightmove)

no. £k date sold
22 127 30/09/04
42 135 24/02/06
14 131 28/06/06
24 138 21/07/06
20 145 04/05/07
08 144 20/08/07
56 140 30/06/08

Straight away you can see the highest price ever paid for a 2bed flat was £145k in May 2007 which was pretty much the top of the market for the entire country. Both sales since then have failed to reach that peak which would re affirm that it was the top of the market for now at least. I don't know if these flats listed are similar to yours or not, it looks like some of them are in the same block from the pictures on rightmove?

If so I would say anything above £145k is going to be an extremely optimistic asking price, and first impressions would suggest £154k is probably a bit too high :eek:

The question is where is the market today?

Hard to say but one measure is the average flat price in that postcode, to see where the overall market has been tracking over time, then judge that against the sold prices in your road to see where the market 'should' be today...

Average sold flat prices in RM7 at those points in time:

no. £k date sold RM7 avg
22 127 30/09/04
42 135 24/02/06 136
14 131 28/06/06 135
24 138 21/07/06 137
20 145 04/05/07 158
08 144 20/08/07 180
56 140 30/06/08 143

latest avg: Oct 11 150

we can glean 2 things from this in my opinion:

1 - the St Andrews road 2bed average tracks consistently below the RM7 flat average

2 - 2007 really was the peak of the market!

So what does the last available RM7 average of 150 from october 2011 tell us? we could say that the last time the market was at that level was between 2006-2007 on the way up, or 2007-2008 on the way back down.

In both cases the st andrews 2-bed prices were in a similar range

138-145 on the way up
144-140 on the way down

so I'd conclude based on the stat attack that it should be priced between 138-145 so the earlier suggestion of 140 seems to be a pretty accurate suggestion!

Apologies if this seems to over-complicate matters, I find this the most useful gauge as it takes the emotion out of the calculations!

Best of luck
Cheers
Wig

CharlieBubble

goonernumber1 wrote: »

Only problem is - as it always is when deciding to go to EA is the 2% ish fees.

We have been saving approximately £1k per month for deposit on house so selling through EA will put us back another 3 months or so after fees....

It doesn't have to be so high. Get 3 or 4 estate agents out to value your place. They should talk about fees at this point. You should be able to get your chosen EA down to 1.25% to 1.5%. I would expect 1.25% to be the minimum they would work for. If your preferred EA say they won't go below a certain percentage use the quotes from the others and a bit of flattery and you should be able to get them down. Some may also offer to do it for a fixed fee, i.e. £2k + vat.

steve1980

goonernumber1 wrote: »

Also, location is determined as 8 minutes from Stratford, London and 12 minutes from London Liverpool Street.

8 minutes to Stratford - off peak fast trains only/Saturday
17 minutes to Liverpool Street - off peak fast trains only/Saturday

17/19 minutes to Stratford - All stops (9)
29 minutes to Liverpool Street - All stops (10)

Sunday Service

12 Minutes to Stratford
20 Minutes to Liverpool Street

lowlitmemory

townendwig wrote: »

Hi Gooner first post go easy!:D

I'm going through the buying process at the moment which is why I spotted your post as I find this a very useful way to test the water in terms of a case study as I believe cold hard facts to be the best course of action when trying to identify the 'right price'

It would be too easy to say the reason you are not getting enough attention is because of the price, but can we come to that conclusion or otherwise by looking at this objectively?

For instance quick bit of research on Sold prices of 2bed flats on St Andrews Road: (from Rightmove)

no. £k date sold
22 127 30/09/04
42 135 24/02/06
14 131 28/06/06
24 138 21/07/06
20 145 04/05/07
08 144 20/08/07
56 140 30/06/08

Straight away you can see the highest price ever paid for a 2bed flat was £145k in May 2007 which was pretty much the top of the market for the entire country. Both sales since then have failed to reach that peak which would re affirm that it was the top of the market for now at least. I don't know if these flats listed are similar to yours or not, it looks like some of them are in the same block from the pictures on rightmove?

If so I would say anything above £145k is going to be an extremely optimistic asking price, and first impressions would suggest £154k is probably a bit too high :eek:

The question is where is the market today?

Hard to say but one measure is the average flat price in that postcode, to see where the overall market has been tracking over time, then judge that against the sold prices in your road to see where the market 'should' be today...

Average sold flat prices in RM7 at those points in time:

no. £k date sold RM7 avg
22 127 30/09/04
42 135 24/02/06 136
14 131 28/06/06 135
24 138 21/07/06 137
20 145 04/05/07 158
08 144 20/08/07 180
56 140 30/06/08 143

latest avg: Oct 11 150

we can glean 2 things from this in my opinion:

1 - the St Andrews road 2bed average tracks consistently below the RM7 flat average

2 - 2007 really was the peak of the market!

So what does the last available RM7 average of 150 from october 2011 tell us? we could say that the last time the market was at that level was between 2006-2007 on the way up, or 2007-2008 on the way back down.

In both cases the st andrews 2-bed prices were in a similar range

138-145 on the way up
144-140 on the way down

so I'd conclude based on the stat attack that it should be priced between 138-145 so the earlier suggestion of 140 seems to be a pretty accurate suggestion!

Apologies if this seems to over-complicate matters, I find this the most useful gauge as it takes the emotion out of the calculations!

Best of luck
Cheers
Wig

As a FTB, I'd agree with this.

Unfortunately ex-council properties are not going to fetch the same amount as private housing (as a general rule, of course there will be exceptions). So you need to consider the prices of flats which are of the same 'type' as yours, not just averages for the area. Yours may be bigger, but this could be negated by the ex-council factor. Also we have realised that ex-council flats carry a huge service charge - over £1000 a year for SC and ground rent combined in our area compared to sub-£500 in private/converted flats. As a FTB planning a family, we have been taking this into account - we don't mind paying a bit more now, and having smaller fees later when we might need the money for children.

I'd agree with what others have said about swapping the bedrooms - you've already said this could be something you could do.

hazyjo

My hubby had a flat in Marlborough Road (other side of A12. Similar size to yours - 2 double beds, room for table in kitchen, huge lounge, nice block, ridiculously short lease though - 60-odd years, garage en bloc, 2nd (top) floor... Up for the £150-ish mark, took a year to sell, had to accept £115k just over a year ago.

Yours is in a better location, but not a better block. You will lose a lot for it being ex LA, and the potentially high service charges in council run blocks puts a lot of people off. If not a high s/c, if they decide the windows or roof need replacing, a private leaseholder could find a bill for thousands on their doormat.

Jx

DannyboyMidlands

No ifs, no buts, if it's been on the market for 9 months and nobody is viewing let alone buying then the price is wrong.

I'd go so far as to say significantly wrong since people don't even feel that it's within negotiating range of what they'd pay (otherwise they'd come and have a look).

andy.m_2

Fundamentally, as above it is always price.

You have priced too high to be going solo with an internet selling agent.

However, you may be able to get the price you are after when you go mainstream agent.

It's ok complaining that the fees are high, but in this instance the fees may get you a sale, which presently you do not have.
At least speak to a selection of agents and see what they have to say.
At the very least you will get opinion and valuations

Good luck

goonernumber1

Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to read and respond to this post.

I have taken your advice and am inthe process of uploading a few more pics and updating the description.

Will post a link on here when it gets updated.

Regards,

Gooner

Ali1802

I would perhaps suggest that your stumbling block may well be the amount of exposure. We accepted an offer on ours at the end of feb, we were on the market with a high street EA for 3 weeks and had 13 viewings.

( here is our details http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-21739332.html/nomsite if it helps to have a comparison of sorts) we chose an agent that has 4 local offices, lists with the main websites etc

The photos look lovely it looks like you are presenting it well, although I always like to see photos of the bathroom. Is there an outside space? Even if it's communal a picture of that might be good.

Do you know how much competition your up against?

The other thing that may be putting people off is the 85 year lease, crazy I know but value starts decreasing rapidly when you get close to 80 years (that's my understanding anyway) so it may be that people won't consider it a long term prospect. (ours currently has 101 years to run).

I'm in a leasehold property managed by the council and the service charges etc are far more reasonable than those managed by a private company (our buyers are paying in excess of £650 per year ours is never more than £250)

Good luck hope you sell very soon
Xx

Eta: just to say we are paying our agent 1.25% I negotiated down and also agreed on a fixed price if we sold for less than £185k