Please can someone tell me why my flat isn't selling?!

[Puffykins]

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-84873916.html

Price-wise, it's appropriate - even cheap - for the area. I know that it hasn't got it's own garden, but there is a huge communal garden which, in central-ish London, I'd argue is better than a tiny garden.

Admittedly I don't like the estate agents pictures much. It's really light in real life, but they always seem obsessed with turning on all the lights.

Anyway, any tips would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!

Also I'm spending today packing more boxes ready to go into storage. I'm also looking into new beds for the children - so, bunk beds? Or two singles?

I will put a lot more of the books away. I'm not taking down all the art or repainting the bathroom yet as that's a much bigger job.

I can't move to the country - the children need to go to school (here.) (There are other issues too: covid-related ones mainly.) I also don't want to rent - I'm not exactly cash-rich, and so the idea of paying the mortgage on this and rent somewhere else is not overly appealing....

Missing the point here but the attitude to books on this thread is seriously depressing me. Children who can’t read should still be surrounded by books and read to every day. Homes should have books!!

We have actually taken more out of it since the photographs were taken. It's just so hard - it's our home and I want it still to feel like our home until we sell it - what do people do with all their stuff?

       All buyers are looking for THEIR home and a lot of them have no imagination to see past  someone else's decor and taste.  Yours looks and feels exactly what it is; intensely YOUR home,  personal taste, style.  So they can't see themselves in it. You need to make it less you  and more  plain, bland  impersonal everyman. 

       As for "what people do with all their stuff";  they de-clutter,  box it up and store  what they want to keep  ( furniture removers offer that as part of their services) . Anything they no longer need, sort it  and get rid.

Puffykins It sounds like you're very busy taking on board a lot of the comments, which is great. Can I also reccommend chasing the agents to add photos of the communal garden. It really should be shown, as it sounds like it's a great asset to the flat.

I’d say bunk beds for the children, so there’s enough obvious clear space for a desk in that room.

I’d normally say bunks, but I’d do singles because if you can get them both in it shows the size of the room and that it would take a double.

@Ickabog I need to take the pictures myself as the agent's photographer didn't take any. I need the sun to come out to take the photographs.... (so maybe Tuesday, I'm hoping!)

Whilst I think some decluttering and neutralising the bathroom a bit might help, the London market is not easy at the moment. At the lower end, ftb’s are struggling to get mortgages, there has been a drop in interest for properties without gardens, after an initial boost to the market post-lockdown people are getting more jittery about what’s coming and people are starting to feel job security really dropping off so everything is full of uncertainty which is filtering up from the bottom and causing problems further up the ladder now too so everything is slowing down and taking a lot longer to sell.

Actually, that’s a good point @Bluntness100.

Plus two singles now means you don’t have to buy yet more beds when they’re bigger.

@Bluntness100 if I did bunks I'd put a desk in too though... looking out of the window. So showing that it could also be a home office?!

@greenoak

You can carry on getting pissy...

Classy.

You’re very over-invested in the OP’s thread @Janegrey333.

@callmeadoctor

Some art may "look great on the floor", however glass fronted pictures propped against children beds are a recipe for disaster IMO!

🤭

Puffy yes, but if it looks cluttered I’d not...😃

[quote Puffykins]@Ickabog I need to take the pictures myself as the agent's photographer didn't take any. I need the sun to come out to take the photographs.... (so maybe Tuesday, I'm hoping!) [/quote]
I would usually be suprised that an agent didn't take any photos of something that could potentially sway a perspective buyer, but having seen the dire shot they took of the balcony, i'm not.

I hope the sun shines for your photos, and I can't wait until you post the update saying it's sold and you're moving.

@BertieBloopsMum

To all those saying "But the flat is lovely! Bland interiors are awful!" - the flat is not selling. Do you see? Not. Selling.

When is the last time you saw a property advert in a glossy magazine, or newspaper supplement, where the property was this cluttered and personal? That's right, never. And there's a reason for that.

I get world of interiors magazine, and there are lots of interiors like this, usually in bigger places, but not always. London, NY & Paris flats are often featured and can be as homely as this flat.

@inchyra

You’re very over-invested in the OP’s thread *@Janegrey333*.

Ah - the old “over invested” classic! A Mumsnet bingo, I think...! I love threads about interiors.

A double bed's only 1.5feet wider than a single. Could you do something with a double bed and a toddler bed? (I like toddler beds personally, mine were in them til age 5)

Low beds tend to make it feel more spacious too.

If bunks, get ones that can be separated and they will do for when children have their own rooms too

People need to remember it's in W2, not Edinburgh...
Posting links to amazing places for similar price tags in remote areas is not particularly useful.
They're cheaper because they're not London.

I think it’s absolutely gorgeous. I love your style @Puffykins

@Janegrey333 I'm loving your investment either way, and all the many lovely things you have said, so thank you.

Well @Puffykins has already said she writes about interior decoration so the World of Interiors is probably her benchmark. Nearly all the people featured in those magazines have very big houses, or second homes, and they have no plans to sell.

as others have said CLUTTER!! 😳😳

@murmurur I think a double bed and a toddler bed would just make that room look all bed.....

Wondering if you could get a desk swapped in for a toddler bed just for the pics, even if you put the toddler bed back for viewings. I have been known to mock up a bed with cardboard boxes and pallets...