Why isn't my flat selling?

[mynamechange94]

I've name changed for this, for obvious reasons. It's been on the market since June, we sold it at one point for £440k but the buyer pulled out. We're out of exclusivity with our agent next month so trying to work out if it's worth doing anything different with the flat before we move agents. What do you think?

Here's the listing...

I'm not going to change the sofa, or the fridge freezer. I understand why people are suggesting it, but I'm not in a position to do it. I agree that both are too big for the space, but there we are. I'm 6+ months pregnant, and just can't help DH do it, and there's no way he's going to find the time this weekend to hire a van and find friends to help him shift it. Also, he'd have a fit if I suggested it - we're supposed to be saving for my maternity leave and he would say the return wouldn't be worth it.

I don't actually think the fridge/freezer is as domineering in real life as it looks in the photos. I appreciate that isn't really the point, but I'll tell the next agent that it seems to be a sticking point and hopefully they can take better pictures.

I will move the coffee table out, get a few rugs etc and shift as much kallax as I can persuade DH to part with.

I've already asked the agent to take down the video and add the lease details etc.

Sorry I'm not going to be helpful at all but I'm glad I don't live in London!! Nearly half a million quid for a poky flat!

It looks really cramped in some of the photos and no interesting features!

I’ve just watched the video - it’s so bad - what we’re they thinking?

I hear what you’re saying about moving stuff but you can make wgars there more loved-looking.

I would put wicker basket style inserts in the Kallax units

Some floor lamps if you can afford them.

Bedspreads on the bed

Some art on the wall

It looks like fancy halls of residence

You don’t want clutter but you need to give the impression you can live in it - it looks so sterile I’d be worried it felt hard to live in.

The two living room pictures are strange, one makes it look big, the other very small, that definitely needs sorting out. Paint the bathroom white. A few hours work at most and very cheap to do.

If you can’t get rid of the fridge freezer would it not be possible to at least slide it out of view for a good photo of the kitchen? It would give people a far better idea of what space they’d be working with. It’s just so hard to tell right now.

kallax units are so easy to build and take apart so you could get rid of a couple without needing to store them assembled. Shove the bits in a cupboard or under the bed or whatever.

Definitely need some flowers, bits and pieces to soften the look and make it more homely. It looks to me like a typical bachelor pad, which I’m guessing it was previously.

The opening photo is really weak and the table dominates the living room photos. The kitchen photo showing the freezer makes it look cramped. It's a nice space just needs photographed better.

Can you move the fridge freezer down a bit, towards the window, creating more space in the kitchen are? put a piece of kitchen furniture in the space created? Something from ikea maybe to hold some items and add to kitchen storage?

The pictures are a lot better than the video. That video was dire and I went from thinking nice bright flat, to remembering my dreich childhood. Get rid of standing lamps in the bedroom. And add luxury. Everywhere. You are selling a lifestyle. It may be depressing that people can't see past that but you are.

It's lovely! Not 'wow', but it looks like a perfectly nice place to live.

It's not expensive though. Relatively speaking, I mean.

Totally agree with this.

The 97 year lease would be a deal breaker for me. I’d concentrate on sorting that rather than prissing about with ‘dressing’ - anyone with half a brain can see what the place would be like empty or with their own things in it.

he would say the return wouldn't be worth it.

OP, I really think your DH is wrong here. Does he actually want to sell the flat? The return for marketing your property well could be large. A desirable flat at the right price will have people competing to buy it, pushing the offers up. Friends of mine just installed a new kitchen in their flat (it was the one area letting their flat down) before putting their place on the market. Cost them about 8k I think - a small percentage of the 300k asking price. They just accepted an offer of 315k. The cost of putting your sofa and coffee table in storage and buying a smaller second hand one are absolutely minimal compared to what you are asking for the flat.

You are 6 months pregnant. You can't afford not to make changes now as they'll be much harder to do once baby is here.

I would explore the cost of extending the lease - I wouldn’t touch a flat with under 99 years tbh.

better Pics should help get people through the door and if no offers lower the price.
im not far from you OP, I tend to find your current estate agent ups the price, them and KFH- I trust John Payne, Purple bricks is fine but their pics are usually crap.

That will be a mammoth task involving all owners there but yes I agree with you.

A few suggestions since you don't want to buy furniture etc.

1. Move the fridge so that you can get photos of the kitchen standing where the fridge currently is. You can put it back after.

2. Put the TV on the far wall in the lounge, and put the shelves were it is now. Put the sofa where the shelves are. At the moment you have tonnes of circulation space around the shelves, which is not where it's needed.

3. People don't like sleeping with their back or side to the entrance. I'd put the bed in the second bedroom facing towards the door/window.

I'm not going to change the sofa, or the fridge freezer. I understand why people are suggesting it, but I'm not in a position to do it. I agree that both are too big for the space, but there we are.

I don’t think you need to, really. A lot of these comments are going a bit overboard now when really, for the right price and with some slightly better photos, I have no doubt the place will eventually sell. A relative of mine has just sold a similar, quirky, historic-conversion type place which took ages to go but the right buyer came along in the end and fell in love with it.

You can strategically move stuff around a bit as you take the photos. You have one photo of the kitchen where the fridge takes up half the space, that can easily be remedied with a better photo. Same with the sofa/coffee table shots. I don’t think repainting or remodelling or putting in a mezzanine (!) is what you need, just better photos!

97 is ok but not great. The lease extension would cost around £44k-£54k, vastly more if not done by 80 years but that gives buyers time. Too expensive for you to buy now, but you need to be aware that it affects the flat value.
You can get calculations here: www.lease-advice.org/calculator/.
Honestly, all the fancy sheets in the world aren't putting a window on that bedroom, nor extra years on the lease, nor adding a mezzanine level like the highest price recent sale in your area. Those are the things making your particular flat worth less than some that sold recently. You're going to have to drop the price. If it were me I'd take it off market now, spruce up slightly but nothing crazy, market under a new agent at offers over £385k and have them do a big open house weekend. Fast and hard, get it done.

Wait... It has a utility room!

Why is that not more obvious?

I'm guessing that's what other flats on the arsenal are selling for, but personally I wouldn't pay that to live in what is essentially Woolwich. You can get a much bigger two bed house with garden off Plumstead Common for £40k less than that.

By the way, your DH doesn't need to move stuff. Man & van with two men, just move all the big furniture out, your can use your removers to collect it again in the way to the new house. Storage would be £150/month or so, removers maybe £200 if it's just a few big things. £500 on replacements. I don't think it's a big factor, but it is going to affect the price by more than the £1500 max you'd spend.

Remove pic 7 and 8. Too cramped.
Take coffee table out for photos. It's too big.

Buy a nice colorful blanket and put over the back of the sofa. Put a nice small rug on floor front of sofa. Bathroom put a colorful bath mat over the side of bath. Put three colorful towels rolled on shelf behind loo. Buy some nice soap containers and a fake plant for the same shelf. TK Maxx are good for this type of stuff. You can return them all after photos taken!! So not a huge expense.

It's all too sterile and soulless like it's a student block or a self catering weekend apartment not a home.

Likewise you could get nice colorful ethic throws to lie neatly across bottom of the beds. A little sheepskin rug bedside bed etc.

Three smaller matching pictures much lower down, instead of the long pictures that are too close to the ceilings and currently make the ceilings look very low.
For the property photos you can use temporary stick-on hooks for new pictures.
Likewise a nice red kettle or something in the kitchen to distract from the size of it.

I think the photos are quite poor.

I don’t live in London, so I’m horrified at the thought of paying over £400k for a little flat. However, putting that aside, I still think it’s too expensive.

If you look at what is Under Offer near you, there is no comparison. They’ve all got decent kitchens and bathrooms, whilst yours look cheap and like they need replacing. You’re going to have to be more realistic about price, especially pregnant and wanting to move

It’s the light for me.the back of the photos the rooms looks dark.
the video makes it look dark and even like your looking through a smudged screen it’s almost blurred and so dark and shadowy!

also for me it would be the line about being on bottom floor opposite the concierge.I’m not sure I would even come to see it with that position.

If your DH is adamant about keeping the kallax... I think it is the drona boxes that make them look a bit "cheap" and utilitarian. I think if you invested in the kallax drawers and doors for the bedroom units, it would fade into the background and look less studenty. TBF, they are useful for toy storage if you are pregnant, so they might come in handy in the future.

I think there was another thread about someone struggling to sell a flat in your building. It might be worth searching out to see the before and after photos.

I seem to remember they had a dining table where your fridge freezer/kallax is and a sitting area where the dining table is, taking advantage of the lovely high ceiling and view from the window. It also showed that there was enough room to just use the open plan living space so the sitting room could be used as a 3rd bedroom, which might attract some buyers. I'm not sure you could do that with your fridge freezer though.

Is there anyway that you can highlight the double height ceiling as a feature? A dramatic light fitting? Hanging plants or a huge, tall plant? A massive painting? If it were my flat, I might have had bookshelves and a library ladder where the National Geogrpahics are. If you stacked the books horizontally, maybe you could have all your books displayed there without the need for putting up shelves. You could commit the booklovers sin of sorting them by colour 😂It could work as a feature to show off the height and mean that you could get rid of the shelves in the sitting room so it feels and looks bigger.