Another no interest in property, wwyd

[anicecuppateaa]

Morning everyone. We listed a flat a month ago, had 1 viewing and then nothing since.

EAs valued the flat from 225-245k which I thought was widely ambitious. We listed at 210k but still no interest.

Thinking of relisting at 190k with a different agent in a couple of weeks.

We need to sell for various reasons - our tenants moved out and the local council have just announced a 100% premium on council tax for empty properties. Please don’t slate the fact it’s empty. The circumstances of the sale (and the fact it was rented) are due to the unexpected and tragic death of our dd.

Any advice on what to do next would be most helpful. Reduce the price with current agent? Relist with a new agent at lower price?

Relist the flat at a lower price, I would probably try 199k to get it under the 200k mark for Rightmove bands.

Can’t see much point changing agents unless you find them to be poor in some way? Most EAs over value so I wouldn’t change EA for that reason alone though it is annoying as has wasted time.

Also think about things you can do to make the flat look more appealing. If it’s empty it may have that sad look so think about it from a buyers point of view and make it feel more lived in by visiting regularly & opening windows, dusting etc

If it was previously tenanted does it currently look a bit neglected and empty? That won’t help, whilst I’m not one of the people who’ll insist that you need to make it look like a show home, some furniture and colour does help indicate space better and give off warmer vibes.

Have any other flats sold in the area recently? What did they sell for? Is your asking price wildly off that?

I was in a similar position in terms of little interest in my property. House prices aren't very predictable at the moment so it's hard to price (in my area anyway).

Hard to advise without knowing if your are over-priced or there aren't many buyers out there (houses stc within a week/fortnight is much rarer where I am than it used to be).

I reduced my price by 5% still didn't get any offers so pulled the house for a few months then I'll re list with another agent, possibly at a lower price, depends what happens with the economy in the meantime.

So many local houses on my right-move watch list haven't shifted or are being reduced and still not shifting.

It you are really keen to sell then drop and drop some more - but this is also off-putting for people as they may wonder if your place is a turkey.

Is it furnished? Could you air BnB it to give you some breathing space?

for your loss, I'm so sorry x

thanks for the advice. EA has been useless - assured us they had a list of people interested in the building (its a unique converted brewery) but have done nothing aside from forward on the rightmove viewing stats.

It is partly furnished - we use it from time to time but think it could do with better dressing. I think the uncertainty around the election/ interest rates will make it hard to sell this year.

I am tempted to re-let it for 6 months but nervous about tenants not moving when we want to try selling again. The rental market is very hot and it would get snapped up.

Oh and the terms of the lease don't allow us to air bnb it, although i’m sure some people do.

I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through.

Are all the basics on the advert like floorplan, council tax band etc?

Would you be willing to share either a link to the advert or the photos - in which case show us in the order you have them on the ad?

Often there will be tweaks you need to make.

Be brave OP and pop the listing up. You'll get 75% useless comments but the other 25% will have golden feedback.

I'd recommend having a good look and think about your "competition". Are you in the area where there are lots of available flats? Is it one of those ones where the "character" and uniqueness of the property means people can by a terrace house in the same area for the same price? Have a look at Rightmove yourself using the sold filter and get a feel for what is selling in your area and at what asking price (always assume that price accepted is not full asking). Doing that should give you some kind of feel about what kind of people are actively buying in your area. You might conclude that the flat is in an area where the market is very stagnant at the moment, and you are always going to struggle to sell even at a low price, in which case trying to rent now and selling when the market is better might be the best option. Or if it's a case where you are competing with houses that don't come with service charges etc, then you might need to consciously try to market differently - that's where staging the property to give the more luxury lifestyle vibe, while seriously reviewing asking price becomes more appropriate.

I'm so sorry for the loss of your DD.

That's a good point made by previous poster about the floorplan. I've just bought and spent ages looking at places on Rightmove, but if a place didn't have the floorplan I tended to just avoid it because the floorplan for me was important in visualising whether the house was going to work for me. And another thing was I really, really wanted the measurements on the floorplan, gobsmacked at how many of them have no measurements at all. There's a lot of things on the market and time is precious so if the floorplan had no measurements that was a really easy no for me UNLESS I thought the property had some special reason to go and see it. There were always way more properties to see than I had time or inclination so it's really important the listing has the important stuff in it.
I hope you manage to sell soon.

I’m sorry for the loss of your DD. Are you in Scotland (or is the doubling of council tax a national thing?) I think if it’s unfurnished, different council tax rules apply - you get a six month exemption. Hopefully this will help you. If in Scotland, I’d be tempted to go offers over 180k.

The flat does sound lovely being a converted brewery but I think being priced more competitively and paying more attention to dressing it could make all the difference. I’m sorry I skim read your post before & missed the part about your daughter, my heart goes out to you.

Personally I would continue a bit longer trying to sell it especially as we are moving into Spring and the media are saying more positive things about house prices now which does affect FTB confidence. It’s always a bit harder to value & sell quirky properties - we struggled once to sell a converted barn - but the right person will come along eventually.

Sorry for your loss.

Pull up a list on Rightmove - what are flats in the vicinity selling for? Not the asking prices? How many are SSTC relative to the number of listings?

More importantly what's available in your particular building and what has sold?

That might give you a better guide to where you are in the market, because everyone here (including me) will be guessing at things.

I could say though that some buildings like this are far better for renting than selling, often coming with hefty service charges and communal heating bills. Around me, that seems to be the real reason for flats not selling.

For instance there is are ones near me at what seems cheap values but come with £6k service charge, £2k heat charge and also £2k+ council tax. Meaning that it costs a buyer £10k+ just to own it before any mortgage. Of course an EA will be bullish about selling it, but to my mind those are impossible to sell, but quite easy to rent.

There is nothing an owner can do about those things though, apart from to drop the price, or continue renting it.

I'm so sorry for your loss OP😔💐
Would you be prepared to put it up for 180k for a quick sale?

As you are not buying a replacement property, and because of the circumstances of your DDs death, I would sell it at the lowest price possible. I’m currently selling my DMs house after she died. The EA tells me we could get £130k easily, but I want a quick sale. It’s on for £120k It went on the market 6 months ago. We had to go to best and final offers and ended up accepting £127 for it, which wasn’t the biggest offer!. For various reasons to do with the buyer stringing us along, the sale has fallen through and it went back on the market last week for the same price. Within 2 hours, the EA had booked 11 viewings all for tomorrow.
Price is everything. The house needs a new boiler, so we have agreed to pay the buyer £1k cash towards it once a sale is completed.

Thanks for comments.

Tbh we would sell for 180k, 190k would be (obviously!) better. It’s such an emotional sale, to us it is worth a lot and we don’t want to sell it cheaply, but in other ways we have to move forward with life.

I’ve had a look at rightmove for 170-210k and there is a mix of 1/2 bed bland flats and houses. Ours is a 2 bed but has a £100pcm service charge, and council tax in the area is high.

If we are happy to sell for 180, would you reduce to 180 or 190 and hope for offers?

It’s very hard to answer without seeing the advert.

190k as most buyers like to haggle a bit

Presumably though if a buyer could get a freehold house with no service charge at the same cost, then you're not really selling out cheaply, so think about it like that.

If you have to sell bear in mind even if you agreed a cost today it may take months and months for a deal to actually complete if there are complications with the legalities in the lease.

I would advise against getting greedy and trying to tenant it for 6 months, it's easier to sell it when empty and if someone refuses to leave after 6 months then it may take much longer than this to get rid of them.

@usertaken they could potentially get a 2 bed house that needs renovation for 210, but agree leasehold/ service charge is a faff and not something that is appealing!

On renting, by the time we have paid tax on the income its almost not worth doing financially. We would be doing it to not leave it empty as the rental market is insane there and people are desperate for housing. Our previous tenant was an unemployed full time dad on universal credit. We rented to him because no one else would (not trying to be a martyr, just explain we wouldn’t rent it to be greedy).

OK, sure but the premise is kind of the same. I have just seen too many people do the 'have your cake and eat it' thing and it doesn't work out well, people do not like buying tenanted flats and buyers won't care what the circumstances are, or what your intentions are.

For instance you could rent it out at 10% of the market value to the most needy person in the world, but it won't change that it is easier to sell a vacant flat and that person may not leave when you tell them to.

I take it you wouldn't sell at £160k if a buyer had unfortunate circumstances and told you this was all they could afford, and you would just keep on marketing even if it meant the place being unoccupied in the meantime? So moralising is a waste of time, I have found.

Drop it to £199k so it's under that £200 level - that will get many more potential buyers

The feedback you will get if you post a link could be invaluable

@anicecuppateaa how long is left on the lease and what is the ground rent and service charge and are they listed on the listing?

You could post a link in here for any advice

Agreed, definitely don't try and rent it on a short hold tenancy if you are selling.
Tenants don't have to allow viewings & buyers don't need the uncertainty of you being able to get the tenants to leave (it can take a very long time through the courts and if tenants can't rent anywhere else they won't want to move).

If your agent is a bit rubbish I'd move agents. It's impossible to know who the good ones are, but avoid the larger chains/operations if possible. They send the best people out to gain sellers and the worse people to do viewings, especially if you are at the lower end of their market.
Go for a local, long established independent if you can and speak to them, ask what they advise.

The market is very strange at the moment, I've sold one house at asking price which I thought I never would, and another which I thought would fly out the door didn't even get cheeky offers.
People seem to be sitting on their hands waiting until it all starts moving again.

Don't assume it you price it to sell cheaply you won't be messed about by buyers, that's why you need a decent experienced agent who can separate the wheat from the chaff

Really sorry for the loss of your daughter 💔

Is this flat in Birmingham btw?