Bargain Flat Spotted in Maidstone, Kent

dastep

My wife and I recently spotted a bargain flat for sale in Maidstone, Kent and we wanted some advice about buying. The estate agent told us that we could achieve between £750 - £775 monthly rent if we purchased it through a buy-to-let and it is listed at 'offers above £140,000

What does 'offers above £140,000' mean? Does this mean that if we offer anything above that figure, we are guaranteed to get it? We certainly don't want a bidding war to take place.

Also, the other flats in the area on Rightmove have been selling for £165,000 and up. That's quite a gap in potential profit to make. Should we be skeptical?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-32811453.html?backListLink=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2Fmap.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E77736%26insId%3D1%23locationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E77736%26insId%3D1%26box%3D0.51120%2C0.56922%2C51.25722%2C51.30011%26popupPropertyId%3D32811453&fromMap=true

jc808

no pics

is it currently tenanted?

PasturesNew

"We are advised that the lease on this particular property is between 56 and 60 years "

Short lease. Mostly cash buyers only.

kingstreet

Still mortgageable with some lenders on a term + 30 years basis but potential cost of lease extention may/will be a future issue.

sirmosh

I don't think it's even that much of a bargain, especially with the short lease.

You can get freehold houses around the corner for £180,000.

jtr2803

dastep wrote: »

My wife and I recently spotted a bargain flat for sale in Maidstone, Kent and we wanted some advice about buying. The estate agent told us that we could achieve between £750 - £775 monthly rent if we purchased it through a buy-to-let and it is listed at 'offers above £140,000

What does 'offers above £140,000' mean? Does this mean that if we offer anything above that figure, we are guaranteed to get it? We certainly don't want a bidding war to take place.

Also, the other flats in the area on Rightmove have been selling for £165,000 and up. That's quite a gap in potential profit to make. Should we be skeptical?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-32811453.html?backListLink=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2Fmap.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E77736%26insId%3D1%23locationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E77736%26insId%3D1%26box%3D0.51120%2C0.56922%2C51.25722%2C51.30011%26popupPropertyId%3D32811453&fromMap=true

Do you know Maidstone, have you been to this area? I live in Maidstone and lived on a development the other side of the main road to Vinters Park and a load of these maisonettes have sold over the past 12-18 months, all in varying states of repair, most needing serious modernisation as they were very popular for older people. Birchington Close is ok, but not one of the nicer roads in Vinters Park. On the plus side it's literally a few minutes drive from Junction 6 of the M20 and a ten minute walk into town.

Flats in Maidstone are taking a long time to sell and if you look through rightmove/zoopla at the moment £165k is optimisitic. Prior to us making an offer on the flat we are buying I made notes on all 2 beds sold within the past six months and actually, even newer ones by the river were going for around £153k so this is not as cheap as it may appear, even without considering the lease issue.

I wouldn't rent that for £775, more like £700 unless it was in VERY good condition(and I rented for 6 years in Maidstone), a flat we looked at on a top floor in a new development was renting out for £750.

If it helps, we put an offer of £162k in on this: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47139428.html?backListLink=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2Fmap.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E897%26minBedrooms%3D2%26displayPropertyType%3Dflats%26oldDisplayPropertyType%3Dflats%23_includeSSTC%3Don%26auction%3Dfalse%26displayPropertyType%3Dflats%26locationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E897%26minBedrooms%3D2%26oldDisplayPropertyType%3Dflats%26previousSearchLocation%3DMaidstone%26radius%3D0.0%26searchLocation%3DMaidstone%26searchType%3DSALE%26useLocationIdentifier%3Dfalse%26box%3D0.51693%2C0.54594%2C51.26739%2C51.28707%26popupPropertyId%3D47139428&fromMap=true and it was rejected but that was over 6 weeks ago and we were asked if we would make the offer available again....;)

harrys_dad

"Work needed"???? "Low lease"?????? Not such a bargain I expect.

Running_Horse

Pretty good area of town, although some would say Maidstone is oversupplied with flats.

Errata

dastep wrote: »

My wife and I recently spotted a bargain flat for sale in Maidstone, Kent and we wanted some advice about buying. The estate agent told us that we could achieve between £750 - £775 monthly rent if we purchased it through a buy-to-let and it is listed at 'offers above £140,000

What does 'offers above £140,000' mean? Does this mean that if we offer anything above that figure, we are guaranteed to get it? We certainly don't want a bidding war to take place.

Also, the other flats in the area on Rightmove have been selling for £165,000 and up. That's quite a gap in potential profit to make. Should we be skeptical?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-32811453.html?backListLink=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2Fmap.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E77736%26insId%3D1%23locationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E77736%26insId%3D1%26box%3D0.51120%2C0.56922%2C51.25722%2C51.30011%26popupPropertyId%3D32811453&fromMap=true

No it doesn't.