Selling to cash buyer / buy to let

[HazzaB]

Would like some advice from property developer / landlord etc MNers....because I'm a novice!
We have a great 2-bedroom flat in Kennington SE17 which we currently let out for a good market rent. Never had it empty in 5 years. We want to sell it though to fund some renovations in our house. Snag is that it's ex local authority, in a high rise block (only 8 floors but still...) - makes it quite hard to mortgage. Also relatively high monthly service charge but does cover all insurance, maintenance, heating, hot water, estate & ground maintenance etc. Basically it's an ideal buy to let investment or would need a cash buyer. What's my best way of selling it? It's been valued at 150k but we'd be willing to accept anything from 130k. A bit loathe to go the traditional EA route because not sure how tapped in they are to the cash buyer market - but perhaps that's wrong? Apart from that, could do a private sale but where to advertise? And we're not in London to organise viewings easily? And the only other route I've found is those Below Market Value 'we buy any house' type agencies....
Feel a bit lost!

[fatnfrumpy]

Put an advert up on Landlord zone

[mistlethrush]

Or find out who is a local landlord - or ideally a landlord already in the building and contact them and say you're thinking of selling - would they be interested in buying it at below valuation price at £148k.

[ButteryJam]

Gumtree?

[HazzaB]

Thanks everyone...will try these ideas

[TheRealFellatio]

I'll buy it.

Seriously, PM me. I might just buy it.

[TheRealFellatio]

Those BMV companies prey on desperate people and they will not give you anything even close to what you want to get.

[TheRealFellatio]

What will happen if you go to an estate agent is that they will have several cash buyer/investors on speed dial, who will probably give them a back hander for telling them about it first before it goes on the open market. It it's that good an opportunity then being hard to mortgage will not be an issue for savvy investor. Very little that is of real interest to BTL investors even makes it onto Rightmove, and if it does it will be just for show, as the agent will no doubt have already shaken hands on it with someone he knows. The upshot is that you get a lower price and you pay the agent for the privilege.

You may get a better price if you put it with an agent and insist on waiting for the 150k, and don't listen to them putting pressure on you to let it go for less until you are sure it's had good exposure to the market, and you might need to be prepared to give it a couple of months or more. You can always drop to 130k later if you have to. But investors will have their bottom line on 'yield' which is the percentage profit they want their cash investment to show, in monthly terms. If the yield doesn't stack up they won't bite and it if a normal buyer can't get a mortgage then that's when you will need to drop the price.

Are you selling it with the tenant in situ?

[HazzaB]

Thanks so much TRF - really helpful to know. That was very much the impression I had from a quick sniff around those BMV companies. I just don't think the estate agents in the area really genuinely do the best BTL deals from a vendor's point of view.
We could sell with tenant in situ or wait for them to leave (break clause in June although contracts runs to December).
Have PM'd you. Let's do a MN sale!