London 2 bed flat. Over 1 week listed but only 1 enquiry/viewing - please critique!

musehead

Alan2020 said:

The elephant in the room is the patio area. 

With the current lockdown private outside space is the most valuable. 

From what I understand you don’t have any, yet your floor plan shows a private patio.

Most people don’t want to do business with liars, and I don’t think most normal people want to deal with crooks. 

Basically you don’t have any private outdoor space, so in essence a £470k flat?? Or cheaper. If you are willing to lie about the patio, what else would you lie about is what a potential buyer would think, alarm bells and they won’t touch it with a barge pole.

I thought I had been quite clear on the description, the bullet point says "communal terrace" and I've been careful to not mention anything about it being private in the description or floor plan. The floor plan just says "patio". I could perhaps be extra clear by only writing "communal patio" for every mention but I thought it not necessary

Does my listing really make me seem like a liar/crook??

musehead

GDB2222 said:

Alan2020 said:

The elephant in the room is the patio area. 

With the current lockdown private outside space is the most valuable. 

From what I understand you don’t have any, yet your floor plan shows a private patio.

Most people don’t want to do business with liars, and I don’t think most normal people want to deal with crooks. 

Basically you don’t have any private outdoor space, so in essence a £470k flat?? Or cheaper. If you are willing to lie about the patio, what else would you lie about is what a potential buyer would think, alarm bells and they won’t touch it with a barge pole.

That's rather a harshly worded post, but the point is valid. It's not a private patio. It's a communal patio, right outside your window. The best you can do is describe it as such, but make your point that in practice the other residents respect your privacy and don't use that area.

And, as others have said, you have decluttered too much!

And, I think the London market is not at all hot, compared to other parts of the country. What's really put the kibosh on central London is working from home. People working from home full time think they may as well up sticks and move to an area where property is a third of the price.

Maybe, your area will hot up with the lockdown easing. 

Can I ask what makes you want to move? Any of the reasons I have just mentioned?

In my case, I've been here nearly 8 years now and saved up enough to move to a bigger place (a house rather than a flat). I'm looking to move to somewhere else in the same area though.

Yeah, I see the point about the London market not being hot, it makes sense. Another flat in the same building did take around 6 months to sell last year, and a 1 bed was recently taken off the market unable to sell for the price they needed.

Owleyes00

musehead said:

Does my listing really make me seem like a liar/crook??

Your listing twice talks about accessing the terrace from the living area. It doesn’t explicitly say that it is yours but it also implies that it is. I think including it on the floor plan is also quite misleading tbh.

I think people will be looking at it, thinking it belongs to you, look a bit closer and realise it’s not very clear and then think better of coming to view.

Owleyes00

Sorry me again, I just did the similar listings thing and I think you are priced too high.

this flat is the same price as yours and has a private balcony and much bigger kitchen in a similar sort of building 

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86384266#/

Drop it by £20k and see how you do

musehead

Owleyes00 said:

Sorry me again, I just did the similar listings thing and I think you are priced too high.

this flat is the same price as yours and has a private balcony and much bigger kitchen in a similar sort of building 

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86384266#/

Drop it by £20k and see how you do

Thanks, yes that's a good comparison and that flat has been up for a while (since November)

Owleyes00 said:

musehead said:

Does my listing really make me seem like a liar/crook??

Your listing twice talks about accessing the terrace from the living area. It doesn’t explicitly say that it is yours but it also implies that it is. I think including it on the floor plan is also quite misleading tbh.

I think people will be looking at it, thinking it belongs to you, look a bit closer and realise it’s not very clear and then think better of coming to view.

I'll change the description to be more clear about it. I thought it a good idea to put the patio on the floor plan, because even though it's not demised on the lease it's a feature of the building connected to the flat, that the owners will be using regularly. But perhaps it would be better to cut it off. When I bought the flat, the patio was also on the floorplan in the same way (described as "patio")

Alan2020

musehead said:

Alan2020 said:

The elephant in the room is the patio area. 

With the current lockdown private outside space is the most valuable. 

From what I understand you don’t have any, yet your floor plan shows a private patio.

Most people don’t want to do business with liars, and I don’t think most normal people want to deal with crooks. 

Basically you don’t have any private outdoor space, so in essence a £470k flat?? Or cheaper. If you are willing to lie about the patio, what else would you lie about is what a potential buyer would think, alarm bells and they won’t touch it with a barge pole.

I thought I had been quite clear on the description, the bullet point says "communal terrace" and I've been careful to not mention anything about it being private in the description or floor plan. The floor plan just says "patio". I could perhaps be extra clear by only writing "communal patio" for every mention but I thought it not necessary

Does my listing really make me seem like a liar/crook??

If you ask my opinion yes.

How would you feel if you saw a terraced house, and it’s floor plan had 2 parking bays in front of your 1m deep front garden and when you buy it, the searches revealed it’s the council kerbside parking, which anyone can park but no one really uses as current neighbours don’t drive. Would you think the house seller is honest.

By including communal space into your floor plan you are misrepresenting your property. Do you plan to include the communal hallways, stairs etc on your floor plan? 

Your flat goes from excellent to really bad, because if you have a new neighbour who gets !!!!!! off with you carving off communal space as yours, they may decide to have a daily bbq and drinking session with their mates and play a bit of footy in “your” so called private patio, and there is nothing you can do.

The people saying you need to dress it up etc don’t seem to get it. When I look for flats with garden or parking, I never view ones that are communal. What difference is a communal garden to a park or a communal car park to a council on street bay??

The very reason you included communal space on your floor plan to me, makes the flat sound dodgy.

RoisinDove

As someone who is looking for a one or two bed flat in London with outside space, the idea of a patio which is technically communal and which backs right onto a footpath for people to walk right past is REALLY unappealing. I would not feel comfortable sitting there at all. I'd rather have a patio 1/8 of the size but which was actually private. I agree with others that it generally looks very sterile and soulless...could you get some plants? Pictures on the wall? When I'm looking, the places which look loved and lived in always catch my eye.

Soot2006

I agree with everyone else that it's a nice little flat, not very well presented. In the past, it would have flown off the shelf as a bachelor pad in that location. Times are a bit different the moment, as we know.

The one thing I find REALLY strange is having two bathrooms for such a small space. I think I have about the same bathroom space in my 4 bedroom home and we manage just fine. The lack of storage situation would be pretty much solved by having one bathroom + a walk-in closet instead of the ensuite ...

The kitchen space is not unusual to me, having lived in European cities it often looks like that. Could be made a bit softer with some visual division and, personally, I'd have a little breakfast bar with high stools as extra work surface to make the "end" of the kitchen.

Good luck. I think you're mostly just victim to the London market, so the right person will hopefully come along even if it takes a bit longer.

getmore4less

Owleyes00 said:

Sorry me again, I just did the similar listings thing and I think you are priced too high.

this flat is the same price as yours and has a private balcony and much bigger kitchen in a similar sort of building 

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86384266#/

Drop it by £20k and see how you do

problem is that is still for sale and been on a while suggesting that one is also overpriced.

its the SSTC that need to be compared those are the ones people have viewed and made offers of.


I did not get as far as looking at the sold prices in my previous more like this analysis

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78271605/#Comment_78271605

full matrix for 1/2 mile

	1bed	2bed	3bed+
0-425	33/18	5/4	2/4
0-450	40/22	10/6	2/4
0-475	51/23	12/9	3/4
0-500	57/25	30/14	4/5
0-550	59/26	53/21	5/5
0-600	59/26	76/33	7/8
0-max	59/27	117/63	47/27

its those 14 and the 5x3beds that need looking at to compare.

here are 8  in the 475-500 bracket SSTC.
1/4
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/78957591
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86017753

1/2
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/88439047
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/83467111
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/78169356
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/97957805
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/104273435
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85199752

and the first 7 over 500 that are SSTC

£510  
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/90200488

£530 
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/78895350

£550
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/103828643
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/78895368
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/78719751
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/101661860
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87531583



also handy on RM listing is the direct link to the Sold data

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/sw17-7at.html

nothing in the block of interest but go out 1/4m a few but no listings, 1/2m again lack of listing needs more research on the candidates.

this sold for 500k   Dec 2020



AS for the "Patio"   first two pictures kind of shout look at this great outside space fenced off

Is the bit next door has outside the door also communal why is there a privacy fence between?

looking at the planning(2002/3002) it looks to plan.
https://planning.wandsworth.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/GeneralSearch.aspx

Those one beds on the ebd are their terrace areas also communal 


From the plans it looks like to get from the underground parking you have to come up at the end where the shops are then go outside round you patio  then in the door  next to your patio

That's a right trek if you have stuff.

[Deleted User]

Drop the price to £425k, sell it, and move on!