to wonder why nobody wants to buy our flat?

[pimsandlemonade]

or to even see it?
We are trying to sell our 2 bed flat in London zone 2.
We have already found a lovely house we like (out of London) and our offer is not officially accepted until we get an offer on ours.

When we listed the flat the estate agents made it seem like it will be superfast considering a fairly central location, very good condition of the flat, lovely views etc.
Before the listing was up on Rightmove we had 2 viewings booked - 1 was a rental investor, made a very low offer which we won't accept. The other one cancelled the viewing and now, nearly 2 weeks later we have not had anyone to even see it!
I just don't get it!
We have already dropped the price a bit as we thought maybe the initial asking price was too much (again, the initial price was recommended by the estate agent, I suppose to get up to choose them), but still nothing.
The estate agents are saying that because of the election everything has slowed down and they expect it will get better next week...
I'm struggling to believe anything they say at this point.

Any advice, comments?

Estate agents always make it seem like they can sell your property in 2 minutes because they have to sell themselves to you first. You probably wouldn't have taken on an agent who had said "well, its a tough market, we can't really tell". It's not an easy job - they can do a lot of work and get no fee at all in the end.

That said: your flat is a nice flat, in a good block that clearly has a moving market. They haven't done a good job for you.

You have similar competition so you need to make yours stand out.
Swap your bed for a normal double. Remove one of your sofas. Invest in some reusable good pieces that will photograph well from an interior design perspective.

Make your home appeal to people who don't know. GET GREAT PICTURES DONE.

At the moment it looks like it's being rented out to temporary tenants.

Isn't it appalling how many estate agents don't know how to take a picture or draw a floor plan. No wonder they have such a bad reputation when so many are just plain incompetent

zo.op.la/QECCRF or this 2 bed house for £435k only 1/2 mile from Bermondsey station

Yes you're right Art&Co, and actually I agree it's overpriced as lots of properties in London are. And even if someone offered the asking price (provided they're not cash buyers) the underwriters would soon put paid to that. I'm seeing lots of things falling through at the moment!

I know all the posters talking about furniture and decor are right - but I am always astonished that potential buyers can't see past how the vendor has done the place, and envisage the space as they would use it. I'd never have bought our current house if I'd been put off by clutter and nasty furniture - but I knew it was the perfect space and we'd make it the way we wanted it. Don't other people do that?

There was one sold for 498 last month - are you sure or was this asking price?

pimslandlemonade
make sure you put your comments in writing to the agents; if they don't buck their ideas up, you may have to fight to get released from the 8-week sole agency you've signed (if I read that correctly earlier).

mrs not everyone has 'vision'
When you are blessed with it, you think everyone has.
It is a gift.

:)

Ha Feminine you've given me a little visionary glow! I think we've always expected to have to do places up, and I'm not at all put off by things like walls being painted the wrong colour - but I know from chats with friends that people can be put off by that kind of thing.

Mrs

I agree MrsMcColl, I've seldom viewed a property and thought "I love that sofa I'll make an offer"!

The furniture in the lounge makes it look v small, same with the huge bed.

Not enough inside photos, I always get suspicious of EA who post so few photos, I wonder what they are trying to hide.

The photos are also crap, they don't show any potential on the flat at all. I don't want to see photos of sofas!

No photos of a dining area...I am guessing that the kitchen has space, but it isn't shown, makes it look like you must eat on your laps

I think the dozens of shoe boxes in the bedroom might make it look like you have no wardrobe storage. Ohhh, is that what that is? I was wondering why there were planks of wood in the room

The first guy that had a look offered 450, but we are not prepared to accept this low. I hope you won't be regretting that, op!

have a look at your 'competition' on rightmove - look at the listing for 470k

look at the images. that is professional photography/Floorplan. that is how you need to prepare and market your home.

The image of your bedroom is probably what is killing it. You ought to stage the bedroom with a smaller bed, or not use that shot at all, just the view from the balcony perhaps.

Your rooms are not massive, but the blurry badly angled shots are what is hampering you.

Do you have to stick to sole agency, could you not go to multi and call the other agent in?

Helping agents professionally market property is kind of what I do for a living. yours are amateurs imvho

your flat is nice, but it is not being marketed properly at all.

And remember op, your property is only worth what someone else will pay for it. It doesn't matter what you, or the EA thinks it is worth.

I agree MrsMcColl, I've seldom viewed a property and thought "I love that sofa I'll make an offer"!

I've had vendors kick off at my clients because you couldn't see their sofa/garden furniture...

I am NOT kidding...

he has mentioned the 2nd toilet, but he has called it a cloakroom which is a very old term for toilet & most people would probably think of it as somewhere to hang your coats/storage.

I agree with everyone else really. You need to declutter as the first thing I thought is that there can't be much storage given the boxes. Also rearrange the living room furniture and try to set up some sort of eating area. I can see past decor issues, but at the moment the rooms do look really small due to a combination of bad photos and big furniture and that would put me off viewing.

I'd also suggest making more of a feature of the balcony as I didn't even realise you had one at first. Also make sure they make it clear that there is a second wc.

Really do make sure that you get better photos too, ideally on a bright day with curtains open. I'm constantly amazed at the poor photos agents put up.

Good luck!

Hissy!

Interesting to read the comments on the need for a pic of the bathroom - I agree, but when we sold our flat (also in SE London) four years ago, the EA told me that it wasn't the done thing to include bathroom photos. (I was annoyed, as we had a nice bathroom.) He was an unbelievable shysters though, which probably explains it.

I actually don't think £450k was a bad offer on an asking price of £485k & where evidence shows you were overpriced to start with (i.e. plenty of other similar or identical properties for sale for less).

Yes, I'm sure it's a lovely flat & new photos are needed to make the most of it but if a quick sale is what you want and/or need then you will need to be realistic about the price.

An investor is likely to have his/her funding in place & not be in a chain. They actually may be your ideal buyers as you have found a house you really want to buy & time is of the essence.

You may well get your £485k by hanging on & waiting - but you might end up with much less. The election result may or may not change the property market significantly. It's all a bit of a gamble.

Do you have a bottom price that you need to achieve in order to go ahead with your purchase? Is it a case of not wanting to accept much below asking price, or more that you can't accept much below asking price?

Mrs ... you have to get people through the door first though.

I am pretty sure we got our house for a lot less than we should have done because of the way the garden plantings affected the front aspect of the house.

When people looked at the first picture on RM, the front of the house just looked crap. Like ... really crap. Like "they are having a laugh at that price" crap. The vendors had no viewings in the entire two years it was on the market before we turned up, and they were so desperate to sell by that point, we got a significant amount off the asking price, which they had already dropped three times.

It was a similar situation with the internal photos. Double bedrooms looked like singles. The downstairs loo looked like an airing cupboard.

And in this market, when you are looking at the difference between thousands of pounds, it simply doesn't make sense to refuse to spend a few hundred quid.

Photos are rubbish - look like they were taken by a 12 year old with a phone cam. Not a professional glossy EA photo.

Layout of furniture is poor. Flat looks TINY bit at nearly 700sq ft it isn't too bad.

Dressing of rooms is non existent.

There is no way I'd bother booking a viewing at your flat.

I also think it is overpriced for the location. Being a 15 min walk to the tube is shit and rotherhide is cut off from the world by the river.

Anyway, with improved furniture lay out, room dressing and photos you'll get viewings. As is, no chance at that price.

First photo needs to be the view.
Followed by living area/kitchen.

Declutter. Empty the storage area and use it as a WC. Put your shoes into storage at your mums and get rid of the huge furniture.

I haven't RTFT - but the links make it look very oddly proportioned - like Alice's adventures in wonderland. In particular - lampshade in foreground of kitchen pic - and bedroom looks like its been photographed from the wardrobe.

When we sold - we took 60% of our stuff out (we had a garage to ram in it). Really helped presentation. What was left - I dressed - with flowers and our 'best' stuff (eg only thing on bathroom counter was a designer perfume bottle. DC toys were stripped out apart from photogenic wooden toys.)