Thinking of selling London flat

[Goostacean]

Going to try and move this year. We have a 3 bed flat, all the upper floors of a converted Victorian terraced house (there is a 2 bed garden flat on the ground floor). No garden but an unofficial roof terrace.

No idea where to start, really. Desirable area in NW London but obviously no one wants flats now. We have two children under 4 so getting organised for viewings will be a hassle, but have access to a nearby family property that we could use for the weekend for example, to keep things pristine. Not greedy but obviously don’t want to sell hugely cheap. Stamp duty holiday doesn’t affect us. Want to be in a position to find something and make a serious offer when the market reopens in the Spring/Summer.

What advice can you give please?

I don’t think it’s true no one wants flats. I would say families don’t want flats! I would try and de clutter. Make the location a selling point and any really good features. I do think 3 beds is more of a problem but one could be a home office! I would talk to a decent agent about how to market the space.

Start looking for your next home, get excited & it will help with the de-clutter & inconvenience of viewings. If you can work from home longterm this could be your chance to get out of city centre & find more space indoors & outdoors...it'll be great for your kids. Get a good agent on board for your flat who can market it well....it may not suit a family or elderly person but there are plenty other young professionals/couples looking for their first place & would be delighted to be in such a good location. Good luck with your move...hopefully to your dream home

Declutter as much as you can - you don't want to be moving junk to your next home anyway! Do those fiddly fixes you have put off: doors that don't close properly, paint the scuffed skirting boards, wash those windows... You want the viewers to see how spacious and light your home is, not that you are bursting at the seams! Also deal with the common areas - make sure they present well too.
Check out rightmove to see what similiar sized flats in your area are listed and sold for.
Then get the agents around. As you have already done your research you should know a ballpark figure, and the agent should show you comps and justify whatever price they recommend. If there's one agent that seems to dominate the area that's a good start, but definitely get more than one around.
I find the hardest thing is keeping my property in decent condition for viewers. You may be tidier than me, but even though I thought the house was tidy ut still took a couple hours before each viewing (large house with teens and dogs) to whip it into shape. You do not want to be there when viewers come around. That is really off putting. But you can tell the agents what hours you allow viewings. Say 10-12 during weekdays and 12-2pm weekends. Offer one or two late afternoon a week for people who are not free during the day. But be flexible if you can. My child is doing online learning so during the week I had to limit viewings to her lunch hour - but allowed any time after 4pm and Saturdays. It was fine.
Best of luck.

Oh and ask for feedback from the agent. Viewers will cone up with loads of odd reasons why they font like it (starts when its obviously not in the ground floor, direction of garden, decoration which they could always change...) but a good agent should know what will cause issues and what will be selling points and should be able to guide you on how to emphasise and minimise these.

I would be very flexible with viewings. Cutting hours right down might really put buyers off.

Thanks, some great tips! I’m wondering whether we just move out for a fortnight and market is really heavily then- but what if we don’t get a good offer in that time? Would be a pain to be both WFH and with children around, we wouldn’t be able to do any weekday viewings tbh...

I was looking at purplebricks but I agree that it’s best to have an agent do the viewing, and PB seem a bit dodgy from what I was reading last night about their trust pilot reviews.

Ask around locally for good recommendations for an EA. A good EA will advise usefully about marketing tactics, timing, price etc.

Do not use PB. A good EA comes into their own firstly though marketing, but crucially holding a chain together once offers are made. Internet EAs are a bane to everyone in the chain, frankly. As are crap online conveyancers.

Have a look around Zoopla / Rightmove and see what similar properties are going for, how long they have been on the market and whether there has been a price reduction.

Best to go in at the right time and right price and not to have to be seen with the 'reduction of shame' on the listings sites.

You can specify a weekend for timed viewings - and then the following weekend, for example, if you want to avoid lots of disruption. But then a good EA will get to know their buyers and may ring and say "I think this person is very worth arranging a viewing for"

Our EA knew which of our viewers would offer - and was right.

Put as much stuff as possible into a storage unit, easier to keep on top of stuff for viewings.
Be realistic with the price

If you cannot do any weekday viewings you should move out. I think in the market conditions you need to help buyers. It’s that simple. Why annoy buyers? Obviously if the agent says this is the norm now, it won’t matter but I wouldn’t want to compete with other flats that are welcoming and not delaying viewings. If two flats are in someone’s mind as being pretty equal, not viewing yours could tip the decision away from you.

Interesting, thanks for the tips. I’m thinking maybe we stay away Fri night, so can have viewings say 12 on Fri through til end of day Sat, initially?

I think limiting viewings to weekends only might mean your flat not being shown if there are other flats available to view when it's more convenient to the buyer.

There are still alot of people who work shifts and weekends that you'd potentially be ruling out.

Could you do weekdays even if it was just 4 until 5pm?

We sold our old house a couple of years ago with just turning 2 y/o twins who were home all the time (nanny). We only allowed viewings at the weekend or 6-7 in the evening (when I was home from work and the nanny had gone). But the viewing people were told the only time the house would be empty of people was the weekend. It really wasn’t a problem and the agent arranged viewings in a row so we didn’t need to get in and out.
People understand that it’s tricky in a house with young kids.

Felt like I could have written your post.
I have tenants however so have given them notice and will see what the situation is like in six months time.
I'm west London, great area and shared garden.

Most properties in London are flats. Of course people are still buying and living in them. It's just that we have got so used to the idea that 10pc value rise per year is normal and so prices being unchanged for a period seems catastrophic.
If it is priced sensibly, it will sell.

I have been selling my flat and viewing others recently -put an offer on one that had toddler triplets resident and hopefully buying one that had been rented out and the tenants were definitely not naturally tidy. Most buyers are able to see past that sort of thing

The most important thing to do is declutter as much as possible. Donate, sell, recycle or put things in storage if you don't want to get rid of them. Also makes life easier when you move.

Buyers need to see the space available. They don't need evidence of your family life to be entirely removed in order for them to imagine their life there.

Don't obsess over cleaning. As long as it's not filthy, no one notices or cares if you have dusted the shelves. You want to remove mould from bathroom if you have any and clear surfaces in kitchen and bathroom.

I sold via Nested and would recommend as their agents were very sensible with taking bookings and - without prompting - arranged then in blocks of back to back viewings which meant I only had to go out once rather than multiple times over a weekend. They were very accessible and responsive with feedback. And they followed instructions regarding not letting the cats out in the garden during viewings.

They also are very good at chasing all the parties in the chain and getting things moving along.

Buying via Purple bricks and it is definitely a lot more difficult to get hold of anyone who knows anything.

Two years ago was vgery different to now. DD bought two years ago and there were not that many decent flats to look at. I woud expect to be able to view at a reasonable time and also is it fiar to ask agents to work all hours? Also most people can see around children but you should de clutter.

Hmmm. This is the thing, weekdays won’t really work- DH and I working in bedroom and study respectively, constantly on video calls, high pressure jobs (certainly mine) meaning I can’t guarantee going out for 1-2hs per day. Thinking we should move out for a week, then...?

We’re relatively low-clutter but I was thinking of going round each room with a big box and just sweeping everything in one large box per room, and storing at family’s local place.

We’re not greedy so aiming to price to sell, for sure. To what extent do small jobs need to be done, like, dunno... replacing the cupboard door over the boiler and similar.

*missing boiler door, I meant?

I am selling at the moment- I have had 2 viewings every Saturday for 3 weeks and the only week without weekend viewings we had 3 viewings on a Thursday. So most viewings are weekend anyway. Covid rules are the estate agent has to show them round and no one else can be in the house so you don't have the choice of showing them anyway. Also the viewers HAVE to have sold already, which weeds out time wasters.

That’s a really good point. I’m leaning towards the moving out because it won’t be a huge hassle, we can always pop back over in the evenings if we desperately need something. If we price it correctly, I think we should have quite a few viewings. I hope!