Problem selling a flat – any suggestions?

I know the housing market isn’t great at the moment, but is it really this bad?

Our flat in South London has been on the market since September, with a local agent (the same agency we bought it through six years ago). Since the beginning of September, we’ve had precisely 4 viewings. One viewer has a reputation for looking at virtually every property that comes on the market, one we got no feedback from and one came back for a second look, then said it was too expensive. (It was priced at a bit less than other similar flats on our street at the time, and the “buyer” knew the price when they first looked, but anyway…)

Since October, we have had no viewings at all. We have dropped the price 10K and seem to be getting marginally more interest on the websites, but still no viewings. The estate agents don’t seem to have any suggestions as to why there is so little interest when flats with other agents have sold in less time for similar money, and it seems to me that they think they can just sit back and do nothing until a buyer walks into their office, then take their cut for just showing the buyer around.

Putting this into writing has almost convinced me to give them notice and find another agent, but will a different agent be any better? Can anyone recommend an estate agent in SE27 area? Or does anyone want to buy a 2 bedroom flat with good bike storage?!

Change your agent.

Time to change agent. Maybe put it on with two – offering a sliding scale of commission (in accordance with what price they get you). Remember though (Freakonomics article on estate agents is quite interesting) – that 5 grand on an asking price to you might only be £100 more or less to an estate agent on his commission so you need to question them when they’re “getting you the best price”.

Best of luck – it’s a bloody pain trying to sell somewhere because until you’re “offer accepted”, noone wants to take you seriously.

you say its priced a bit less than other flats on the street – are thy#ey selling?

I would try changing the agent but it might just be too expensive. Its a bad time of year to sell tho – spring is usually better

[/quote]The estate agents don’t seem to have any suggestions as to why there is so little interest when flats with other agents have sold in less time for similar money, and it seems to me that they think they can just sit back and do nothing until a buyer walks into their office, then take their cut for just showing the buyer around.

I would tell them to get off there arses and do something about it, pronto!!!!!!!!

I would use something else.

When me and the misses were selling are old house one estate agent seemed more interested in how many houses they had sold in the area than showing an interest in selling area’s

End of the day you/me everyone selling a house are paying there wages, so make them work it. There are plenty of agents out there, so they need you more than you need them.

i’m looking in the se19 and surrounding areas and over the last year anything sensibly priced will sell but nearly everything is 10-15% overpriced. properties are just sitting there with the owners in denial thinking it’s worth what it was 2 years ago, you get small drops of 5k but it does nothing when a similar property in the same development has just sold for 25k less.

if you want to sell drop the price.

The market generally is a bit odd at the moment. Sellers are still asking daft money whilst buyers are sitiing on their hands waiting for the predicted price drops to materialise.

For your specific case I would maybe get some colleagues to look at the adverts on the web (or post the link here if you are feeling brave).

If the pictures are poor or the place looks cluttered then viewers may reject it and move on to properties with more “web” appeal.

If this is the case consider putting some stuff into storage to reduce clutter and maybe some cheap redecorating in a neutral style that will appeal to buyers.

Maybe also change agent – if you were in Gloucestershire I would recommend Perry Bishop who did a great job selling our house last year.

over the last year anything sensibly priced will sell but nearly everything is 10-15% overpriced. properties are just sitting there with the owners in denial thinking it’s worth what it was 2 years ago

This problem is particularly bad in London, because people bought at the top of the market, expecting to make some money, but now can’t understand why they’re not going to. My landlord is now in a negative equity situation, and can’t afford to sell this place as he’d make a big loss. He’s on a fixed-rate mortgage, so din’t even benefit from the drop in interest rates. He’s stuffed, pretty much. And with rents falling too, he can’t even increase my rent, because he knows I’ll move out, and he won’t be able to let the place at a price which will even cover the mortgage. Works well in my favour though, as I know he won’t put my rent up for at least a couple of years, and needs me to stay put. Which means he needs to be nice to me. 🙂

Another friend has a place which he found difficult to let, because although it’s very ‘desirable’ (5 mins walk from Canary Wharf), the price was too high, so he had to drop the rent by a significant amount. Fortunately his mortgage is relatively low, so it’s not too bad, but he’s hardly making any money on it all.

if you want to sell drop the price.

Seems to be the only way to go at the moment. Estate agent’s windows near me are full of ‘discounts’ and reductions.

Boom and bust, innit?

Stealthcat; is your place ex local authority? I ask this, as my flat is, and it seems places of this type suffer the worse when prices drop. My LL is looking at a £20-30k loss if he were to sell now. That’s pretty bad. I’m glad I’m not in his position.

Why don’t you go to the agents that are selling on your street?

Pop the Rightmove link up and I’ll give you some suggestions.

Do a deal with the (or a) agent.

Say, for every £1000 they get you more than X (probably at 95% of what they think its ‘worth’), offer then 10%/20% of it.

That way they do make good money for the extra bit, and you get a sale.

But remember how difficult it is getting a mortgage, and you are in first-time territory. And feel real sorry for anyone with a one-bed…

Can’t believe you’ve given that agent so long. Raise your price again, ask each agent where they market properties and chose (on a shorter term).

Why should you drop 10k of your money if you have a crap and LAZY agent marketing your property?

Could we see some interior shots?

The Rightmove link is hopefully here:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30998552.html?premiumA=true

We’ve sent them some different photos; their one of the kitchen/diner is particularly poor, but they don’t seem to have updated the pictures yet.

As per my original post, a similar property in the same street has just gone under offer with Foxtons for 260K, so I don’t think we’re that overpriced…

Those pictures are awful!

All I see is a small kitchen, a living room with most of the view blocked out by a lamp and a garden that looks like a jungle.

As above remove some clutter and get more pictures done, or some agents do rotating gif views.

Was the photographer’s left leg shorter than the right? 😉

Knowing nothing about the area and just doing a quick search I’d say you are way over priced;

This two bed flat is on at £185k compared to your £249

findaproperty
Good luck.

Those photos are shocking. I am really surprised you have agreed to pay commission to an agents who produces particulars like that.

Get them to smarten things up or drop them like a brick.

Honestly, I look at that and see a slightly shabby exterior, the nighbour to the right is worse and that doesn’t look good

The living room looks fine but a better photo would do it justice

I’m sure that garden could be a real selling point, prune it back, get a table and chairs and make it look usable (and get a better photo)

The photo of the kitchen is next to useless, it tells you nothing about the size of the room, the aspect or style.

Nice bright hallway but that notice board needs to be out of shot.

Seriously, they look like they have been taken by a kid.

I have a real issue with how estate agents now just post on internet and wait for business to come to them. When I was looking, I registered my details in the offices of two local agents, they didn’t contact me once, even when I knew that houses that fitted my search criterea came on the market. I was lucky enough to sell my place quickly, but there was no active efforts by the agents. It was sold by the buyers selling the for sale board, I could, and should have just put one up myself.

They don’t seem to actively sell places any more, they now just act as a middle man and wait for business to come to them, it really is hard to see how they justofy their fees.

I agree the pictures are poor and really don’t help. Declutter – I don’t think the painting over the fireplace helps – replace with a miirror? Sitting room looks small and crowded although its actually a good sized room

If thats your agents idea of presenting the flat well then its time to change agents – just watch out for what the contract you signed with them says or you could end up having to pay them anyway.

Take it off the market now and try again in 3 months? Obviously with a differer agent and some better pictures

Those pictures are not good. You need to loose some of the clutter and depersonalise. Does it cost more to put more pictures up, by the sound of it some of the rooms need pictures from 2 views to really show them off.

From my point of view

Lounge:- Lamp and industrial lighting unit to go.
– You have a chair in-front of a window seat WHY?
– Change the painting above the fire for some more neutral piece of junk from Ikea
– does the fire work? get some wood in there make it look like it does sell the image.

Garden:- Looks like a jungle cut it all back, lay some turf if you can afford it, 2-300 on grass to promote a nice garden will pay you back.

Kitchen/Diner:- Where is the Kitchen??? loose the stereo and flex, maximise the work surface space.

Hallway:- AAARRRGH red, tone it down, paint over it. Loose the pin board, it looks like it belongs in your man cave anyway.

Bedrooms:- So you say you have 2 where are the pictures??

Sorry if this sounds harsh but your agent should have been telling you this.

Only one change for me: repaint the front exterior. It looks worn/tardy…….first impressions.

Paint+decorator = circa £300?

there’s nothing wrong with the photographs, they tell me enough to know whether i want to go and view.
the exterior view isn’t that great and could do with a lick of paint to freshen it up a bit.

knowing the area and having ‘watched’ it for the last year your property is a good one but overpriced. no amount of twirly twigs and freshly brewed coffee is going to change that

I think the pics looking shocking as well, just alone they would prevent me wanting to go and look, which I know is probably not what Kirstie and Phil would say. but reality is it’s whta Joe Public would think. Exterior has to be immediatly attractive as well.

and what does this mean?

a large kitchen as well as a back kitchen

Has it got two kitchens?

I don’t see that changing the agent will do much, if it is on Rightmove, it is on Rightmove. The photos could certainly be better, but it does look like it has a bit of character from the photo of your lounge, so having seen that I wouldn’t personally be put off by the bad photos.

I think that your biggest problem is that you are asking for a quarter of a million pounds for a 2 bed maisonette.

Ditch that painting.

Destroy the painting, tidy the garden, take pictures of the house from the bottom of the garden, change tyhe kitchen door to something more modern, paint the fronmt of the house, on streetview they both look well painted, cut the bush on the front steps, give your neighbour next door some curtains instead of the old blanket they appear to use top lhs window,

i’m guessing you may have done this but stick your postcode in here
http://www.nethouseprices.com/index.php?con=Search-Sold-House-Prices
and see what houses have actually sold for rather than what they’re advertsied at.

As per my original post, a similar property in the same street has just gone under offer with Foxtons for 260K, so I don’t think we’re that overpriced…

There’s your answer, they may be massive **** but Foxtons are great for selling a property

do you know the offer though? is it 260k or is that the asking price?

do you know the offer though? is it 260k or is that the asking price?

Looking it up on Nethouseprices, it went for 250K, so round about our asking price.

This thread has pretty much convinced me to ditch the agents – I just need to decide whether to go with Foxtons or not…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xppmm

“Homes but no loans. Despite the threat of a new slide in house prices and rising levels of negative equity, the number of property-buyers having their homes repossessed has declined over the past year. But now many economists predict interest rates will rise in the course of 2011, fuelling fears that Britain’s housing market could be facing a double dip. With banks chasing profits and affordable mortgages harder to find. Michael Robinson asks what impact the new housing freeze will have on Britain’s already battered economy.”
fileon4 broadcast on Tuesday 25 Jan 2011

boot on the other foot here

i’m looking to buy (not in London before anyone asks!) – having sold my house last year, i can’t find anywhere that suits. A few houses around that i like, but they are overpriced, several of these have been on the market for 6months + with the same price, guess the owners either don’t really want to sell, or are just unrealistic

so, like many others, i’m probably going to either hang on and see what house prices do (and given the gloomy outlook, not looking great) – or just keep looking for good offers