Selling a retirement apartment

mousemat

Hi all,
I wonder if anyone may be able to offer me some advice please in how to proceed to sell an inherited retirement apartment which needs to be sold to settle the will.
It's been for sale for 18 months with a specialist retirement estate agent and 6 months ago I also placed it with an estate agent close to the property who have had viewings but no offers.
The apartment is costing around £600 a month in service charges and council tax which is currently paid for from the estate but I will soon need to cover this myself until it's sold as there will be insufficient funds left.
I would obviously prefer a normal sale but has anyone used any of the "quick buy" companies for a retirement property?, if so what sort of offer did you get and how was the process? (or should I avoid them and just wait however long for a "normal" sale?).
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

user1977

The quick buy companies are only going to be interested if they can sell it on quickly. Is the asking price the problem?

The service charges/council tax can be settled when funds are available, you don't need to service the estate's debts.

googler

Are you the executor of the will, and you need to sell the flat to "wind-up" the estate?

If so, I don't believe you are under any obligation to pay monies due by the estate when the estate's money runs out. You've done your best to sell it. It's probably not selling because of the £600 per mth charges. 

If the estate's money runs out, the estate is wound-up, and you need do no more.    

Slithery

You won't need to cover the payment yourself. The management company and council will just have to wait until it's sold to get their money.

Have you tried just dropping the price?

mousemat

Thanks for your replies.
Yes I am the executor and it does need to be sold to wind up the estate.
I hadn't realised that the management company and council can wait for their money and have been paying them each month from the remaining estate funds.
I am in touch with the agents today to discuss the price, it seems comparable with other properties but perhaps yes that is the problem as they are not selling either.

eddddy

I'm not sure that "quick buy" companies would be interested in a retirement flat.

Typically, "quick buy" companies don't actually buy the property themselves, they find a hard-nosed investor with cash, who'll buy 'almost anything as long as it's cheap enough'.

But a hard-nosed investor won't have any use for a retirement flat - they probably wouldn't even be allowed to rent it out.



But even if the "quick buy" company was interested, they claim to offer 80% of market value, so the discussion would probably go something like this:

• The property isn't selling - so it's overpriced.

• The market value for a quick sale is about 20% less than your current asking price. i.e. If you reduced the price by 20%, you'd be selling at market value, so you'd probably find a buyer.

• Then the "quick buy" company offer you 20% under that market value. (Because they want to keep that 20% as their fee/profit for finding a buyer.)

So, in short, they're likely to offer you at least 35% to 40% below your current asking price.


So if you're really desperate, you could reduce your current asking price by 25% using the current EA, and you'd still be better off than dealing with a "quick buy" company.

Flugelhorn

I would be reluctant to do this but have you considered letting it?

mousemat

I have thought about letting it but I feel I would just be delaying the sale and to be honest I just want it sold so I can distribute the money and move on.

eddddy

Flugelhorn said:

I would be reluctant to do this but have you considered letting it?

Most retirement properties don't allow letting.

Although some say they'll allow letting in exceptional circumstances. Maybe they'll agree that being unable to sell the property for 18 months is exceptional circumstances.


I guess there's also the moral aspect. Most people move into a retirement property expecting to spend the rest of their days there - that might be 10 or even 20 years.  If you want to try re-selling in 2 or 3 years, are you comfortable serving a s21 notice on an elderly person in those circumstances?

And/or if they reach the age of 85 or 90 and they run out of savings, and can't manage on their benefits, and start missing rent payments - will you evict?


Although, I guess you can make it clear when you advertise that it will only be for, say, 2 years - so only suitable for somebody looking a an interim home.

lisyloo

Have you had feedback from the agent from the viewings?
cutting the price seems the obvious option but I’m wondering why that hasn’t been done before 18 months.

Have you considered multiple agents?
more expensive but competition works wonders.

MEM62

mousemat said:

I am in touch with the agents today to discuss the price, it seems comparable with other properties but perhaps yes that is the problem as they are not selling either.

I think your problem is below.  

mousemat said:

The apartment is costing around £600 a month in service charges and council tax 

This does seem a lot.