MIL's Flat Not Selling

[Frankfurt17]

To cut a long story short my MIL sadly died just over a year ago. Her flat has been on the market since May last year. My SIL has been doing all the negotiations with the estate agent as we live overseas.

There was one offer in November which DH and his sister accepted. We thought all was going well and we were likely to complete soon. However we have just discovered today that the sale fell through in early December. SIL hadn't even bothered to tell us!! I find this extraordinary. She also reduced the asking price without telling DH either.

Do we change agent? Is the UK property market really so stagnant that the price needs to be reduced again?

Grateful for your opinions. The flat is in a good area in the south east. It could do with some updating but nothing major.

can you post the link so we can give constructive criticism?

I'd rather not in case my SIL is on here and thinks I'm interfering! Sorry.

...So the whole thread is "We have a flat that isnt selling, no other information available, why isnt it selling?". I'm going to go with a solid "it could literally be any of the reasons a flat might not be selling".

Hard to tell as we don't know anything about price or condition, what the agent is doing or SiLs instructions.

However if it hasn't sold in a year, then yes I would reduce the price to get rid.

What was the reason the sale fell through?
What were the reasons viewers gave for not putting offers in previously?
Is it being marketed enough?

For starters, theagent should be keeping you fully informed as well as SIL if your partner is a beneficiary.
Your DH should ask in writing for all correspondence (viewings feedback, offers, etc) to be ccd to him as well.
The market is slow in SE at the moment.
Have you looked online to see what similar properties are available? How does MILs compare in terms of information in the details, range of photos, price, location and floor plans? Also consider How many viewings the property is getting and what is the feedback?
You don’t need to share a link here. It can be very “outing”!

I can confirm that properties in the south east are being reduced, in some cases two or three times. And the market is only just picking up after Christmas.

So the whole thread is "We have a flat that isnt selling, no other information available, why isnt it selling?". I'm going to go with a solid "it could literally be any of the reasons a flat might not be selling".

This

It’s not selling because it’s too expensive

The agent certainly won't keep your DH updated (as the poster above suggests). The agent will only liaise with their one customer. I imagine if your sister in law is being left to deal with this on her own (as you live overseas) then that is a big responsibility for her to deal with.

I echo what others are saying. It's too expensive obviously.

Generally houses don't sell because they are too expensive.

Every property will sell at the right price. Have you visited to property recently to view it from the potential buyers’ perspective? The market is stagnating.

I’m astonished about how many poorly presented and overpriced properties I’ve viewed recently and the EAs are not providing constructive feedback to the vendors. It’s sad as the vendor gets stuck and the buyers frustrated

If it has been on the market for a long time then you know that nobody is prepared to pay the asking price for it. Which means you need to reduce the price if you hope to sell.

You may be overseas but you should be able to still do a price comparison on Rightmove to see how the asking price of the flat compares to others in the area. In general though in the South East (and I live there) the market is quite stagnant and prices do seem to be dropping to get things moving.

Has it got old person's flat written all over it? If so, it won't sell.

Too expensive - whatever reasons there are for any property not selling usually comes down to price in the end. Needs updating? Short lease? Grotty area? there's not much that can't be over-looked or compensated for by the right price. To make yourself feel better about dropping the price calculate how much it's costing you for each month it remains empty - not to mention the hassle of looking after an unoccupied flat (though if you are overseas that probably falls to your SIL rather than you).

Thanks for the helpful comments. It's not overpriced as I've looked at zoopla, nethouseprices etc. SIL doesn't really seem to care whether it sells or not and just left it all with the EA.

Other similar places are selling in the same road very quickly. Maybe the market is a bit saturated. Perhaps things will pick up come Easter. Thanks for particular comments 're the property market in the south east.

Zoopla valuations aren’t very helpful.. they’re generic area/size algorithms that don’t take account of the finer nuances of property attractiveness. Also, nethouseprices show data with long lag in time based on Land Registry data... the market has shifted a lot in the favour of buyers over the past few months.

In the South East, there’s a lot of property on the market, but it’s hanging around!! If other properties on the road are selling and yours isn’t, there’s something wrong with the presentation and/or price.

Maybe try a change in EA

Did you manage to find out why the sale fell through? Are you sure that your SIL wants to sell the flat? If she's in two minds, better to discuss it face-to-face with her before changing agents as you may find the same issues again and again if she's feeling lukewarm about the whole process.

It's not easy to sell a loved one's home

It's odd that your main concern here is that mil's flat isn't selling, rather than sil not bothering to tell you that the sale fell through 2 months ago!

The first thing to do is for your dh to speak at length to his sister about all this, surely? From a "what can I do to help?" standpoint, rather than anything critical.

Is it dated?

Thanks all. It's all v difficult as SIL is rather a cold fish who avoids all communication with us as she thinks she's rather superior to the rest of the human race! But heh that's another story. She doesn't have any emotional ties to the property so she's not in 2 minds whether to sell it. Indeed she'd cleared out the whole place before the funeral prior to us even setting foot on UK soil.

The sale fell through as the supposed cash buyer didn't have the funds.

It is dated - eg the bathrooms could be updated - but it's priced accordingly. Places in same location and updated are 345k compared to hers at 315k.

If the flats that are at £345k are fully updated and you MIL’s hasn’t been touched for years then I would guess that a £30k reduction in price won’t be enough.

You haven’t given much detail on the condition, but if it’s bathrooms (how many?), presumably kitchen? Possibly electrics and boiler etc then people will need to spend an awful lot more than £30k to get it modernised. Especially in the south east where building works costs a fortune.

So I’d say it’s likely to be price, it pretty much always is if something doesn’t sell for 9 months.

I'm looking to buy in the south east and flats are all being reduced several times over. For £300+ It needs to be in commuter land I assume? In which case it needs updating before it will sell or it needs to be priced to reflect the expense and hassle involved in doing it up. Families don't tend to go for flats unless they can't afford a house (like me!) and your solvent professionals won't want to be arsed with a big renovation project.

Sorry the kitchen is fine. Same for electrics and heating etc - there all fine. Just 2 bathrooms and repainting I would say. It's a flat. About 1500 sq ft