8 weeks on the Market and no viewings

[Roxett]

Hi All!

We have 8 weeks on the Market and no viewings. We have reduce to a more realistic price from the valuation we've got from the estate agent.
We are in Palmers Green, really close to the tube, train and schools. We are next to the North Circular Road but the flat has triple glazing windows and we don't have any complains about the noise or anything. We just need to move for upsizing reasons (the family keeps growing)

We are looking for honest opinions, Can you please help us?
Here is the link: www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/61210267/

Thank you! 😊

As others have said it looks bright and modern inside. You aren’t selling the outside space at all, they all look unused and unloved. Is that because they aren’t really usable due to traffic and pollution? It obviously lacks storage as lots of stuff on top of wardrobes. Price seems high, I don’t know what number yours is but they all seemed to sell for £350-£450 as new builds 4 years ago. You’ve added at least £100k to the price and it’s no longer new.

I think it’s the brutalist style imo. Sorry I know you can’t do anything about that, can you soften it somehow with greenery or flowers….?

I don't like the first, headline picture. Looks like a weird shape building and could be off-putting. I would start with your best interior photo. Green up and decorate the balcony and outside space, put a set of table and chairs out there and a couple of huge exotic plants in pots and maybe some ivy leaf trellis and just make it look like a space you would want to sit out and less like a hotel balcony. Also, make the inside look a bit brighter and more homely, but without being cluttered, so some nice matching cushions in a warm tone and less.black and white and somewhat harsh and business looking IMO

Ooh over half a mil for a small 3 bed flat. Obviously the area plays into that but damn. We have a 4 bed detached with large garden in the south west for half of that.

I think it's rather nice, actually. Bit industrial, but I've seen far less kerb appeal of late. And it's very nicely presented. Price seems ok.

The inside is nice but the outside really looks like the back of something and many people will not buy right next to the north circular. I'm not fussy about air pollution or noise, but even I wouldn't buy there.

Having said that, if the price is right it will sell.

Just going by the photos (as lots of people will):

• I can't see which flat is yours on the whole-building photos. It always irritates me not to have it clearly marked out in some way.

• I can't tell if the exterior spaces are private or communal/passageway. If they are private, then stage them as rooms, give a sense of relaxed spreading out over the entire space. Chair, table, plants, outdoor airer, larger kids toys, take the bicycle off the wall and use it to mark the extent of your territory!

The interior is wonderfully clean, tidy and organised! But the same approach is working against you in the outside spaces.

'Price seems high, I don’t know what number yours is but they all seemed to sell for £350-£450 as new builds 4 years ago. You’ve added at least £100k to the price and it’s no longer new.'

Ah, see, I didn't notice this. £100k in four years is a bit - ambitious, surely?

I've just looked at the map and I think you have a few issues. The main road is shabby and run down, you have to cross 5 lanes of traffic to get to the nearest primary school (which is right next to a busy section of the north circular)...it just isn't a nice area. And there are plenty of better areas nearby, so unless you are substantially cheaper than flats there, you will struggle.

That opening photo looks like a hospital rather than flats so I'd remove it and feature an internal one. I'd make the terrace look more user friendly not just bike storage (some plants etc).
And why Zoopla? Is it also in rightmove? I never look on Zoopla.

Hi All,

Thank you very much for the honest (and brutal :P) feedback so quickly, it was what we were looking for!

We have read all your suggestions and comments.

Yes, you are all right. The lack of information about the ground rent and service charge is something that we raised to the agent after 2 weeks and his answer was “ it’s average, so there is no need to add. It won’t make a difference”, since it is our first sale we trusted him. Compared to 505K property we are way below that number because we are not part of the communal area ( lifts, stairs, etc) meaning we have a private entrance.

As for the price, we bought the flat / maisonette 4 years ago for 565K. So for us 600K it was a bit overpriced but we had several valuations with the same result.

Regarding the cladding: it is the good one and it is on the flats above not on our property. However we do have the EWS1 certificate.

Regarding the photos: We will remove some of them and rearrange the order of the pictures to show the best ones we’ve got now first. About the fisheye lens effect, we were not convinced at the beginning, now with overwhelming feedback we know they are not great!

Once we change agency, we will address the garden style and try to improve it with greenery as well as the balconies.

Thank you all so much !

@RyanAirVeteran We are not sorry, This has been really helpful, thank you!

That information that you have just written there is valuable.

People want privacy so the fact that the charges might be less than a previous flat because you dont share all the communal areas is vital information

I would have the first picture as the one where your outdoor sofa is. I would put the exercise bike out there behind some sort of screen/divider. I would put plants, fairy lights/bulb lights out there, its under cover so noithing is going to get dirty or wet and make it an attractive area/party area. I assume the black door is your front door? So if so that should be your first picture, it invites you into the flat. Show the hallway and the storage within it. I hate it when I cant tell from the pictures how each room leads on to the next.

But ultimately OP you may have to accept that when you buy brand new like you did 4 years ago, your property is not going to maintain that price, new builds are horribly overpriced, I have no idea why as usually they're not very nice, no offence. So you need to be looking at about 500k to my mind.

rightmove : www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/122254046#/?channel=RES_BUY

Looks so ''Brutalist'' with no soft lines anywhere... Internally it looks fine, but my heart would hurt living in a place that looked so 'Hard'.

Sorry OP but the building is ugly and the outdoor space full. Get some big plants in it!

We’re selling our starter home for what we bought it for similar time frame to you (to a cash buyer had a ftb flake at a higher price first and we need to upsize). It’s the way it is at the moment, people skipping first step of ladder if they have the money, or just unable to get on first step so there’s less demand for these homes. And then we were competing against FTB with huge inherited deposit for our next purchase.

Re Wide angle lens..It's a trick too many Estate agents use, but when one views the property, it looks much smaller.
I look back on places I've lived in the past on Rightmove, and the rooms look vast, but in reality some were much more modest and 'Bijou' :)

In fact if you go into nearby sold prices, it states that prices for that post code have dropped 28% since 2019, so assuming that your flat maintained its price from 2018, you take a third off, thats quite a hit. 150k. Take that away from your initial EA valuation (totally unrealistic) you're looking at about 450k

Your agent sounds lazy. EWS, charges, private entrance should all be on there. He should have made better decisions about the photos and should be doing everything he can to get you some viewings.

@Roxett

Glad it has been helpful and we were genuinely trying to help, it just felt like a bit of a pile on.

Good luck.

I’m going to be blunt. I’ve sold a house next to a similar London A road. It’s mainly the road that is the issue and no amount of reassurance about triple glazing will encourage people in. They will only comment that they will want to open windows in summer. The second issue is your agent.
I did eventually sell the flat for the same I’d bought it for so a loss after transaction fees. I dropped the price by 10% to do that. That was with a much better and proactive agent. I.e. an agent who takes the person enquiring about the period one bed with no garden on the off chance they hadn’t considered the much bigger flat with outside space.
You need to drop the price again. Sorry

I know the area (as in I could put both our first and second flats on the same map, and we’ve just sold a 2 bed up the road for £430k - waiting with fingers crossed on exchange). I think the price is ok to slightly high, TBH.

the main issue for me would be the thing you can’t change - it’s right next to the north circ and all you would hear outside is the noise of the traffic (and air pollution) so it makes the outside space hard to use.

also for us would be the issue of schooling - bowes park primary is nice but Broomfield school was utter crap last time I looked (admittedly 6+ years ago) and was a big push factor for us moving away from the area (took a job Abelard and now relocating elsewhere on our return).

neither of these factors you can change, but you can reflect it in the price.

i would also add the service charge etc.

I guess for me it's what buyer you are expecting to encourage? If it's a family then the photos are very impersonal - doesn't look like a family home where you could have young children or any children really.
If it's a flat share with young professionals Id be inclined to ensure all rooms can be shown with beds?

Your agent is an idiot. People have no way of knowing that the service charge is “average” so the lack of information will put people off. Ditto not mentioning the EWS1.

Agree, get rid of the first photo, show the interior first. The first photo of the lounge area is great, the second makes the room look narrow so perhaps ditch that one. If having new photos done, get rid of clutter on kitchen counters and the bags on top of wardrobes - both smack of there not being enough storage space. I stuck a load of stuff outside the front door whilst having photos taken so the pics were clutter free! Does the study take a single bed? It looks too narrow in the picture, so a wider lens might be helpful here. Otherwise think the interior shots are good, agree you could jazz the terrace up a lot and that would add appeal - more people probably consider that type of thing post-lockdown.