Should I accept lower offer for my London flat?

hugheskevi

I was in a somewhat similar situation recently.

Assuming the property is now vacant, it is worth calculating how much the property is costing per day in terms of foregone interest on the money you would have in the bank having sold it, plus the cost of bills. There is then also the non-financial convenience factor of not having to deal with the sale and moving on with life.

It would have cost me about £100 per day my property was empty, so I was happy to go easy in negotiations given my purchasers were in a very good position to proceed, and the sale completed in under 2 months from when they offered. Additional costs would have offset the upside from a harder negotiation, and if they had walked away those additional costs could have been substantial depending on how long it took to sell.

Igorasusual

That little patio area with direct access from the street to the apartment via sliding doors looks like a security nightmare for a potential female buyer. 

If you can afford it you can hang on but who knows what the market will do. Can’t see studio apartments being more desirable. 

Sell and move on with your plane.  

ReadySteadyPop

RubySuzylondon said:

Hi everyone

I've got a converted studio flat for sale in N14 London, the suburbs. I bought it 20 years ago, I was the first to buy after it was converted from a warehouse. It's got a lovely white facade, it's unique. 

There's one main living/sleeping room 16 foot by 16ft, a separate large kitchen big enough for a table for 2,  modern bathroom and private balcony (no parking space).

It's got 10 ft high ceilings so the main room is really light and spacious, fully fitted kitchen, spacious modern bathroom, intercom. Double glazing and central heating.

 It's on a safe quiet cul-de-sac & and at the top of our road over the bridge is Marks and Spencer's foodhall. The whole high Street is literally 30 second walk away with leisure centres, tube station etc. Fab location near M25. It's perfect for the first time buyer, and it's very safe for a woman living on her own. 

Its still got a long lease (minus 20 years), the ground rent is about £150/year, the service charge is about £160 per month variable. So it's average bills. 

 There's 24 purpose built flats in the block, and mine being the smallest means I pay the smallest percentage for service charge out of everyone. 

 Its pretty cheap to run because it's small, it's only a studio flat, there's no separate bedroom. 

I planned to sell it. 

It had been rented out after I'd lived there for 10 years so I completely redecorated the whole place, got the professional painters in and put in new kitchen worktops, got the cupboards re-sprayed professionally. You name me, I updated everything I could. It now looks much better than it did when I bought it.

I had 5  valuations of between £200k and £265k. There's a lack of other comparable purpose-built studio flats in N14, hence the big range.  

 I put it up for sale in November last year for £265k,  took it off in December (because there's no traffic) put it back on in January 2025 so it's only been for sale for two and a half months.

I reduced it to £260k in January (£5k reduction) because I had to sell it quick. 

I'm a first -time Seller.

Just had my first offer from a first time buyer with cash, £240k. After 2 weeks of negotiation the highest she wants to lay out is £250k. (The estate agent says her max budget is £270k).  My minimum is £255k, having come down £10k. So we're still £5K away for me to feel comfortable about selling.

Also offered to chuck in the 4 white goods - fridge, separate freezer, washing machine and dishwasher for free. Hence It's move-in ready. 

She won't budge, she won't compromise anymore. I feel I've bent over backwards and if it's not appreciated I should move on.

Also, My circumstances have changed and I'm not in a rush to sell anymore. 

Ive attached my flat link on Rightmove. It's actually larger than many one-beds due to the separate large kitchen, so it's comparable size-wise and cheaper than some 1-beds. 

Do you think I should accept the £250k even though I could get more for it if I wait for another buyer? Maybe £260k. (And advertise it for £275k, IE increase it by £10k). 

The increase in stamp duty rules in April don't affect me because I'm selling below £300k. £300k being the new amount to pay tax stamp duty on (for first time buyers only). There's a lack of investors around who would pay stamp duty from £125k. 

That's why I thought I might wait for another first time buyer who wants to buy a studio flat like mine, below £300k after April. To save on the hike in stamp duty spending over £300k. 

I'm torn, so let me know your thoughts, what would you do? very appreciated. 

Thanks 👍🏼 

Take the offer before they grab something else, cash buyer is gold in a rising mortgage rate environment.

RelievedSheff

ReadySteadyPop said:

RubySuzylondon said:

Hi everyone

I've got a converted studio flat for sale in N14 London, the suburbs. I bought it 20 years ago, I was the first to buy after it was converted from a warehouse. It's got a lovely white facade, it's unique. 

There's one main living/sleeping room 16 foot by 16ft, a separate large kitchen big enough for a table for 2,  modern bathroom and private balcony (no parking space).

It's got 10 ft high ceilings so the main room is really light and spacious, fully fitted kitchen, spacious modern bathroom, intercom. Double glazing and central heating.

 It's on a safe quiet cul-de-sac & and at the top of our road over the bridge is Marks and Spencer's foodhall. The whole high Street is literally 30 second walk away with leisure centres, tube station etc. Fab location near M25. It's perfect for the first time buyer, and it's very safe for a woman living on her own. 

Its still got a long lease (minus 20 years), the ground rent is about £150/year, the service charge is about £160 per month variable. So it's average bills. 

 There's 24 purpose built flats in the block, and mine being the smallest means I pay the smallest percentage for service charge out of everyone. 

 Its pretty cheap to run because it's small, it's only a studio flat, there's no separate bedroom. 

I planned to sell it. 

It had been rented out after I'd lived there for 10 years so I completely redecorated the whole place, got the professional painters in and put in new kitchen worktops, got the cupboards re-sprayed professionally. You name me, I updated everything I could. It now looks much better than it did when I bought it.

I had 5  valuations of between £200k and £265k. There's a lack of other comparable purpose-built studio flats in N14, hence the big range.  

 I put it up for sale in November last year for £265k,  took it off in December (because there's no traffic) put it back on in January 2025 so it's only been for sale for two and a half months.

I reduced it to £260k in January (£5k reduction) because I had to sell it quick. 

I'm a first -time Seller.

Just had my first offer from a first time buyer with cash, £240k. After 2 weeks of negotiation the highest she wants to lay out is £250k. (The estate agent says her max budget is £270k).  My minimum is £255k, having come down £10k. So we're still £5K away for me to feel comfortable about selling.

Also offered to chuck in the 4 white goods - fridge, separate freezer, washing machine and dishwasher for free. Hence It's move-in ready. 

She won't budge, she won't compromise anymore. I feel I've bent over backwards and if it's not appreciated I should move on.

Also, My circumstances have changed and I'm not in a rush to sell anymore. 

Ive attached my flat link on Rightmove. It's actually larger than many one-beds due to the separate large kitchen, so it's comparable size-wise and cheaper than some 1-beds. 

Do you think I should accept the £250k even though I could get more for it if I wait for another buyer? Maybe £260k. (And advertise it for £275k, IE increase it by £10k). 

The increase in stamp duty rules in April don't affect me because I'm selling below £300k. £300k being the new amount to pay tax stamp duty on (for first time buyers only). There's a lack of investors around who would pay stamp duty from £125k. 

That's why I thought I might wait for another first time buyer who wants to buy a studio flat like mine, below £300k after April. To save on the hike in stamp duty spending over £300k. 

I'm torn, so let me know your thoughts, what would you do? very appreciated. 

Thanks 👍🏼 

Take the offer before they grab something else, cash buyer is gold in a rising mortgage rate environment.

Mortgage rates are falling at the moment:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0e43dqv271o

silvercar

The problem with your layout is that most young people (your target market) would prefer the kitchen to be in the living room and a separate bedroom. (There is no potential to swap them round because your kitchen is windowless, another negative).

MSE_ForumTeam5

ReadingTim said:

If the OP wants to post a link to their own property, in the full knowledge that a publicly available advert of a property could be tied back to an random, anonymous internet user name, why does the MSE Forum Team presume to know better?  In fact, how do they even know whether the OP owns the property in the first place?  

This is a stupid rule, and the more it's enforced, the more foolish the forum moderators look.  

Keep in mind that advertising of any kind is not permitted on the forum, so sharing a link to anything you have a personal interest in the sale of (whether a house, a product or a service) wouldn't be permitted, regardless of the risk of identification. 

ReadingTim

MSE_ForumTeam5 said:

ReadingTim said:

If the OP wants to post a link to their own property, in the full knowledge that a publicly available advert of a property could be tied back to an random, anonymous internet user name, why does the MSE Forum Team presume to know better?  In fact, how do they even know whether the OP owns the property in the first place?  

This is a stupid rule, and the more it's enforced, the more foolish the forum moderators look.  

Keep in mind that advertising of any kind is not permitted on the forum, so sharing a link to anything you have a personal interest in the sale of (whether a house, a product or a service) wouldn't be permitted, regardless of the risk of identification. 

So are we being protected from inadvertently revealing our own addresses or identities, or from advertising? 

These seem completely unrelated issues, so we can add irrelevance to the already irrational and illogical thinking on show with this rule.  Hardly covering yourselves in glory are you?

EssexHebridean

I think the answer to the question

So are we being protected from inadvertently revealing our own addresses or identities, or from advertising? 

is "both" in this circumstances.
- Posting personal information is against the rules.
- Advertising without permission is also against the rules

The issue as I see it (and acknowledging that this is completely off topic) is that while one individual might be able to  make a reasoned decision relating to posting their property details online, because in their personal circumstances it's of no issue to them, someone else viewing that will also think it is fine for THEM to do the same, without realising that they are exposing themselves to risk.  Normalising things like posting effectively address details online is dangerous because it is forgetting that not everyone has the same level of knowledge about online risk that we may have. From the forum's perspective therefore, a safer and more responsible route is simply to say "this is not allowed - point blank" as there is no way they can do due diligence on every single OP posting such details to establish whether they are making a sensible, or a foolish decision. 

I have a feeling that there is also a forum rule relating to not criticising the decisions of the forum team... 

Allowing that the OP has cheerfully enough accepted the decision to remove the RM link, and in any event, I think a good number of us were able to find the property without needing the link anyway, it's possibly time to get the thread back on topic? 

RelievedSheff

There are also rules against "sock puppet" accounts but certain people seem to get away with multiples of those!

ReadingTim

Well, apologies for derailing the thread, but this relatively recent rule change is something I feel strongly about - the board is about house buying, renting & selling and this seems to pretty effectively stifle specific discussion of the latter, and thus reduce the usefulness of this board.  

Furthermore, the number of people that fall foul of this rule suggests that it's not unreasonable to think that a board about selling houses should allow people to ask questions and post links about a house they're selling - it allows people to ask the same questions and post the same sorts of links to places they're thinking of buying.... 

Finally, the perennially popular "Have a look at this" thread has a good 1,200 pages of people posting links to properties to gawp, comment and criticise - again, how is this fundamentally different to what's being forbidden here?  

Posters clearly want to post links and get comments, and in many instances can, yet in one context can't, which the mods have patronisingly prohibited for no logical reason.  I'll get off my soapbox now, but I think it's daft, and I don't think I'm alone in thinking this.