selling a retirement property help!

Penrose14

Hi upon the death of my dad we inherited a retirement property on the south coast , a fairly new build that is in an a retirement development, the property paid off , however the retirement company get first dibs on selling the property through their agents and its not shifting, this could be down to lots of different factors not just that they are not trying , however a year later we would like to get on with it and sell, so everyone can move on with their lives.
Researching around the topic apparently retirement properties are difficult to sell , has any one got any suggestions or strategies that worked for them? all advice gratefully received.
Thanks

foxy-stoat

Everything sells at a price - if it hasnt sold after a year then drop the price a bit and use a local agent.

You may need to look at the contract when your Dad bought it and any paperwork from their selling agent - not sure how this works with pre-registered interest and selling fees with this type of arrangement.

Good luck

eddddy

If they've been unsuccessful for a year, presumably the terms allow you to go to an independent EA now.

Often, there's a specific EA in each area who seems to deal with lots of the local retirement properties (often a 'mature' long established EA, who retired people feel more comfortable buying through - no shiny suit etc).

If you can find that type of EA, you can ask their opinion on price, demand etc.

Cakeguts

Retirement properties sell if they are cheap enough.

Madmel

Been there, done that and I feel your pain. We owned the property that MiL lived in - it was managed by Peverel who are a nightmare. I got local agents in but was persuaded that the in-house one (Retirement Homesearch?) was better because the house manager could do the viewings - she lived on-site so it made sense. They told us the asking price, which I thought was odd, but went with it.

After a few months, we had had some viewings but there was always a *better* alternative for sale in the block, so no offers. The manager assured us that the right person would be along, but we still dropped the price. The people at RH head office were useless and never returned calls. Finally a dithering woman who had offered then withdrawn came back with an offer that we accepted. Just before we were due to exchange, our solicitor (thankfully not chosen by RH but a local lady) told us the buyer had dropped out as her house sale had fallen through. RH didn't even call us for 3 days to let us know. We told RH that unless something happened within the next 48 hours, we were taking it off their hands and were renting it out. Suddenly, they became efficient and persuaded the buyer to part-exchange her house. This was the end of September. There were loads of issues after this, but we finally completed at the end of January, almost 2 years after MiL died. They halved their commission after I told them I'd happily see them in court.

Retirement properties are great in the right situation, but selling them on is tough. Have you put a sign in the window with your contact number on it? I would try that, especially if it's a popular development. RH are also really cheeky. They use the same photos for every sale in that development. It was also part of our contract of purchase that they got something like 1% of the sale price - thanks to their ineptitude, they got less than they bargained on. Keep badgering them - the squeaky wheel gets the oil, so make your place the one they really push. Good luck

SallyDucati

I was also there about 3 years ago with my Mums flat after she moved in with me, with Peverel/Retirement Homesearch. It did take about 6 months to sell, but what I found helped was keeping in touch with the house manager. I already had a good relationship with her as I had previously visited regularly, and would phone to see if there had been any viewings and any feedback. She did also ask if we would be willing to rent it out, as there was a someone interested. (We chose not to).

Larac

I share your pain - we have my late Mum's flat on the market since Jan - few viewings and dropped the price significantly. Does not help there are 4 others in the development for sale. We hope to sell it before the winter as advised by EA that peak time for sale of these is April-October. Miffs us no end that the 'estate' continues to pay Peverill the service charges on an empty flat. Thankfully no CT for a year - otherwise would pay that as well. We did get a quote from 'Homesearch' and I thought they had ridiculously overpriced the flat (the flat is now priced £27K) less than the Homesearch quote!