Help Sell Our Flat

SellMyFlat_2

I don't think there are building regs for how big a bathroom can/should be, plus that is size it has been since it was converted over 80years ago.
The decking balcony is newer and safer then when moved in and have no idea if they need building regs as it has never come up and never came up in our survey legal pack. Plus its not the only exit, there is a front door.
Its not gloomy outside unless its bad weather, the decking at the end and the balcony get the sun all day.

We have lived in the flat for 6 years so there is adequate washing facilities just smaller then most people would expect. The shower is actually more powerful then any shower I have used anywhere else. We realise it would put people off but we bought it, the people before us bought it, and the they bought of someone else and so and so on.

I don't know maybe an Auction would be something to look at.

hazyjo

I would be changing agents before considering an auction. You just have to make the rest of the flat as appealing as you possibly can!

Include the lease length.

Maybe add a photo of the shower room so people know what to expect (don't include sizes).

It's not an unsellable flat, it's lovely. BUT... it has compromises which unfortunately you can't change!

Learn how to sell it on viewing - I (along with others) won't like that it faces a junction. Make sure you say how you love facing out so you aren't overlooked (I was opposite a scruffy garage once and used the same tactic), and say how you're not overlooked from the rear and obviously it's very quiet! Might be worth including 'views across [name of] cemetery in the description so, again, people know what to expect.

Do appreciate the parking situation in Leigh (looked there myself!), but in this market people are just more picky.

Definitely consider changing agents, or at least sending in a friend for a 'dummy view' to see how the current EA pushes it on a viewing.

Jx

Better_Days

SellMyFlat wrote: »

Yep ots a cementary, makes for very quiet neighbours and are not overlooked. And we are next door to a Junior and infant school, its the school assembly hall that is right next door to us.

This may also be part of your problem. We have a graveyard behind our house, it doesn't bother me, but it does some. Also some may not like being so near a school with the parking problems it can cause. We live near a school too (although not as near as your flat) and it does impact in terms of noise and parking.

But the thing that jumped out at me was the lease length. Is the current length that you have mortgageable? At the least you need to find out what it would cost to extend the lease.

Errata

Plus its not the only exit, there is a front door.

I didn't realise the flat had two exits. Does that mean your flat also owns the internal staircase to the front door, or is the staircase and hall and front door communal?
Re. building regs in the 1930's - there may not have been any which covered putting a shower and basin in an airing cupboard, there certainly are now and I doubt a space that size would be considered adequate for any other use than as a cupboared. The size reg for a room with shower and basin only is a mimum of 2.8 square metres, so you can see how far short your's falls of that. And as I pointed out, it's about two thirds the size of my normal three seater sofa.
I'm not trying to pull your property to pieces, but perhaps what I'm thinking about it is what your viewers have thought. Best of luck with it anyway.

Mojisola

SellMyFlat wrote: »

I don't think there are building regs for how big a bathroom can/should be, plus that is size it has been since it was converted over 80years ago.

Did they really put in a shower in the 1930s or was it just a toilet and a washbasin?

freeisgood

Hi Sellmyflat.

Major issue: I think what is not helping is, no photo of either the shower room, or dimensions of the shower room in the description.
Some shower rooms are huge. So of course some people would be disappointed.

Mega problem is it would be difficult to sell to anyone with small kids, as they would not be able to put a bath in a small space. Trust me, you do need a bath for small kids.


I like your sitting room decor.

Minor point: I would put some trellis up on your rather low fence to give some privacy from next door perhaps.

Minor point. I would not put the bed in the second room against the window, as it looks oppressive. But instead put it along the wall on the other side perhaps? Or even use a single bed?

Sorry to say this, I know you cannot change the fact to are next door to a primary school. We used to live next door to a school, and that is why we moved, the noise of the kids and the congestion/people traffic twice per day, after school clubs, holiday clubs did our heads in. It never ended. This may not be an issue, but your buyers will be thinking it. And the cemetery issue, again you may like it but many wont.

You will find a buyer, but these issues may mean you will have to wait a little longer. Someone will come along and love it just as much as you did.

SellMyFlat_2

Better_Days wrote: »

But the thing that jumped out at me was the lease length. Is the current length that you have mortgageable? At the least you need to find out what it would cost to extend the lease.

We have bought the free hold with the downstairs flat so the lease is non issue now, thank god!

SellMyFlat_2

Errata wrote: »

I didn't realise the flat had two exits. Does that mean your flat also owns the internal staircase to the front door, or is the staircase and hall and front door communal?

Yes behind the front door is the two front doors to our flat and the downstairs flat, we have the internal staircase of the original house.

In regards to the building regs, i don't think it matters what building regs say now as it was put it so long ago and building regs would not have been issue.

SellMyFlat_2

hazyjo wrote: »

Definitely consider changing agents, or at least sending in a friend for a 'dummy view' to see how the current EA pushes it on a viewing.

Jx

We are thinking of changing agents. I phoneed them last week as we had not had viewing for 2 weeks, a few hours later they called saying they had a viewer! Could be coincidence but can't help feeling they bullied someone in to viewing to keep us sweet!

Errata

SellMyFlat wrote: »

Yes behind the front door is the two front doors to our flat and the downstairs flat, we have the internal staircase of the original house.

In regards to the building regs, i don't think it matters what building regs say now as it was put it so long ago and building regs would not have been issue.

That's very true, but in today's very tight market are you confident that a surveyor would consider the washing facilities to be adequate? I appreciate yours did, but times change.
What has your EA said about it?