First time seller - how to drum up interest after first sale fell through? HELP!

[yungwheezy]

Hi lovely MNetters,

I am desperately trying to sell my 1 bed flat in North London after my first buyer fell through. The owner of the property I am trying to buy with my partner has said if we can find a new buyer quickly he won't pull out.

When the flat first went on the market it got about 15 viewings and three offers within a week (one 5% lower than asking, one 2.5% lower than asking and one at asking - which was accepted and then fell through as the buyer couldn't get a mortgage due to their poor credit history).

Its now been back on the market for two weeks and we have only had two viewings (same photos, same listing, same price and same estate agent). Its on all the usual sites and I'm not sure if its the time of year or if it looks bad that the property has been relisted?

Any tips or ideas on how to try and get more viewings (and hopefully a new offer). We could drop the price a little and would be happy accepting 10k off asking price but wanted to consult the oracle before we do that - as once its done we can't go any further!

Its a (imo) well cared for, ground floor Victorian flat 3 minutes from a tube station with a large garden and potential to extend to make it a 2 bed. Happy to share a link if helpful (please be gentle).

Thanks all!

I think if you are happy to link the property please do. It’s easier to give advice that way.

Here you go!

Bought for 376k in 2019, new boiler, bathroom, back fencing installed and painted since then - not sure if there's anything else worth mentioning but fire away if any questions.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/112557329#/?channel=RES_BUY

It looks lovely !

I guess the issue might be that because it never came 'off the market' as such and was just marked SSTC then when you've put it back on, it hasn't hit anyone's alerts? Not sure if there is a way around this without fiddling with the price in some way - either up or down. I'm sure someone more experienced than me will know!

That's a good point - maybe the price needs to change to come up on alerts! Thank you

@gunnersgold thank you!

Looks lovely on the pictures. I assume the agent has already reached out to those who previously offered?
Have they sent out an email to potential clients alerting them it's back on the market?

In my opinion it is a bad time to sell but I think if the agent pushes it you could manage it.

I think part of the problem is it's shown as listed on 27th August. That's 7 weeks ago. People (myself included) search Rightmove every three days (with the selection of listed in the last 3 days) it needs to be listed as a new listing for people that have entered the market to be able to see it.
It's a lovely flat though OP, I wish you luck 🍀

We reduced the price on our property when our first buyer pulled out as it was showing about 5 pages back due to original date listed.

@yungwheezy

That's a good point - maybe the price needs to change to come up on alerts! Thank you

It needs to be a 3% price change to come back up the Rightmove listings for alerts.

Thanks all - looks like we will have to drop the price. FTBs or people looking for a one bed probably won't be wedded to a specific area in London which will also contribute to it being lower down on peoples searches.

Appreciate your help - and if anyone is looking for a flat you can come for a viewing any time - seriously, ANY time

Rather than lower the price I’d say to winkworths that you were thinking of giving them notice and relisting with a new agent as they don’t seem to have many viewings lined up. I’m sure that will get more coming in
Then if you do change agent will be a fresh set of photos back to the top of rightmove

Based on my experience its a slightly tricky time to sell - our estate agent told us people either want to look in the spring so that they can be in for the summer (especially flats with gardens) or will want to be sure of moving by Christmas. Realistically now in mid-October there is little prospect of moving by the end of the year. When we were in this position we held on and in fact got an offer which we accepted on something like 12 December. Everything was then effectively put on hold until January but we eventually got it sold.

It looks a good prospect with everything that first time buyers worry about listed (when we sold ours we had queries about how old the boiler was/ servicing etc which caused a delay)

As others have said the most likely prospect is that its not coming up as new on the rightmove etc searches. Can you ask the agent to take it off the market and then put it back on again, maybe with new photos etc so that it shows up in peoples alerts?

I would also ask the agent to change the first photo to the exterior one - I am always slightly wary of listings that show interior shots first; in my experience they are trying to hide something.

@WhatAWasteOfOranges @ytytyt unfortunately it has to be on for 40 days before they can remove it and repost but thank you. We are going to have a pop at the agent and threaten leaving them - we checked today if they had sent it out to their client base via email (apparently they have 1100 on their list) and they said they hadn't!! Our agreement with them is 12 weeks and we're well over halfway through that so they will hopefully get a move on.

We've got two viewings on Saturday but have now paid for our survey and our solicitors came back with all their searches on the new property today which means we'll owe them quite a bit for their work (fast moving solicitors - who'd have thought!) so we will probably just drop it on Saturday night if the two viewers aren't interested.

The drop in price to get it back on searches is a lot but if we lose the other property we will sell and leave this place anyways and will need to move twice, pay for storage, rent somewhere short term and do the entire buying process all over again which will be a lot of faff and probably end up costing us around the same - and the property we'd like to buy is my dream!

Thanks again to everyone who has replied!

I think its lovely! You need your EA or the new one to market it aggressively.

My first home fell through. I got another EA and sold it in a week!

You can leave an estate agent if they’re not doing their job after you’ve formally complained in writing. Make sure they know you’re not happy and will be watching them. The place is lovely so they’ll not want to miss out on the sale

I’d agree with being a bit more robust with the agent and with the “first photo” comment.

I know that flats are quite unpopular now but this one has a decent garden and is near a tube station. It should sell. Good luck!

Good luck. You need to make sure the agents are checking how procedurable the viewers are - would they not have checked funds? Credit history? Etc make it clear that a price drop is only available to the right buyer.

Marking my place

Really nice house, the only thing I'd say is that the garden isn't shown to its best. Maybe a trip to the garden centre for some pretty things in pots and try and borrow some patio furniture?

It's a lovely flat. Why are you leaving so soon after buying it? You don't need to answer that on here, it just jumped out at me as very fast and something that might put people off if they can see when it last sold. At least you haven't massively hiked the price up in the interim. Good luck!

Just a couple of things I've noticed.
The wardrobe in the bedroom appears to be obscuring the window. Can it be moved?
The foliage in the garden needs trimming back.
Can anything be done to the wall at the front it looks grubby? (Also weed in front of it).

Maybe trim the foliage.

It’s nice, but quite expensive for Turnpike Lane. I think the pictures from when it sold in 2019 are better as they show more of the flat, always a bit odd when they use up a photo of a generic item like a tile!