My flat won’t sell, please help!

[SpookyW001989]

Hi guys, well my wife (33 F) and I (35 F)
have put our lovely 2 bed coach house on RightMove in Chelmsford, Essex and there has been ZERO interest! No viewings, no offers. It’s been on with RightMove and HOME estate agents for nearly a month, and zilch. We are beyond gutted. It was valued at £280,000. We have it on for £260,000 (we recently reduced it to this price) still nothing!!
To say we are bloody devastated would be an understatement. The flat has 2 parking spaces, a car port with loads of room, boarded out loft with electricity. It’s got 108 years left on the lease. Honestly, we thought it would be perfect for FTB. If anyone has any feedback back or helpful advice, please chuck some our way. Thank you. Here’s the link www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/164205242

July/ August not best time for selling due to holidays. Market better in spring and to a lesser extent sept / Oct.

You need to look on Rightmove within a few miles radius from your postcode. What else is available for the same price/similar location? Has any properties like yours within the same development sold recently? The market is a Buyers one at the moment, not a Sellers - there's a lot of properties for sale, the market is very slow and only those properties priced correctly are selling.

It's clearly too expensive.

Decoratively, it's absolutely fine inside - nothing offensive - but there's also nothing distinctive or exciting about it as a property to make it memorable. There's no 'lifestyle' being sold in these pictures. It all looks, frankly, like it was done on the cheap about 10 years ago. The kitchen and bathrooms are dated and basic, the doors are cheap, and so on. You might love it, but to an external eye, it looks like a cheaper-end new build from c. 2010 and why would I buy that for 260k when I could buy a 2025 new build in the latest decorative style for the same money, on warranty?

That aside, the kitchen/living area is too small for a dining table and there's no outside space. These will be deal-breakers for a lot of buyers. The surrounding estate also looks quite soulless and isolated - I don't know the area - but the pictures make it look like it's plonked next to the motorway opposite some scrubby fields. Not the most exciting or convenient of locations.

The market is very slow at the moment and unless you're offering something really special at the right price, there's not going to be much interest.

I'd take it off the market and bide your time until things pick up. In the meantime, I'd also consider spending a bit of money on sprucing it up. New kitchen cabinet doors (and get an integrated fridge and washing machine - nothing puts me off a kitchen more than visible appliances), new flooring, some trendy statement furniture pieces, etc. Stage some better photos - open up the dining table to show you can have people over for dinner, open the Juliette balcony windows and show people how they could enjoy the sun in the lounge on a summer evening, get a rug, make it look cosy and lived in with lamps and flowers and so on. It all just looks very bland at the moment and you want to create an interior space that people fall in love with and want to live in.

When you're ready to go back on the market, knock £30k off the asking price to get people in the door.

This is an awful time for selling , should pick up after kids back at school and people want to move by Christmas

Seems massively overpriced to me! A kitchen/living area and 2 fairly small bedrooms?

I thought the Spring into Summer season was the optimal period to sell?! 🤔

I think you must be right! It makes no sense otherwise compared to the other properties on the estate.

I agree. I don't think Summer is a bad period to sell. The sort of people looking to buy this flat probably won't have children on school holidays in the main. I think it's just an excuse that estate agents use when they have marketed the property poorly and/or at the wrong price.
I'm not sure if @SpookyW001989 is reading the replies as she hasn't been back to the thread at all.

This and the market is extremely slow right now. I moved a few months ago and I appreciate the emotional effort of everything involved.
Remember that it only takes one person who wants to buy it. Fwiw, a neighbour of mine has a beautiful property, reduced price and still no offers.
Take care OP

I'm in the same boat OP. My house has been on for 4 months and only 3 no shows and 1 cancellation. Mines only valued £125k and I've dropped £10k. Still no interest. I do think the market is flat Re: cost of living, landlords selling up and flooding the market, new government charges, landlords not buying new properties etc. I'm watching 35 properties on Rightmove. I won't view them all 🙈. And maybe 1 or 2 sell a week...so things are definitely moving slow all over. But ask your agent...also be objective and look at what avail on Rightmove £200-300k. And then ask yourself would you if you didn't live in your house choose your house out of them all at your price point? Agents often overprice to get your business 🤷. Good luck OP 🍀 🤞

I’d have guessed owned by a single bloke. Decor isn’t very lifestyle for young professional. If you look at new build show flats you’ll get some easy styling ideas.
The unusual flat on stilts style will put lots off.
Your market will be quite limited. It won’t suit anyone older with mobility issues or

Hello OP,

Selling is unpredictable and stressful.

My view after selling 4 flats/houses is:

• A lease of 108 years is very low & unappealing to buyers....unless you extend it.
• The flat looks lovely but a combined kitchen/living room is not everyone's taste.
• If a loft with electric is so appealing why is there no photo? Is it just storage space.
• There is no outdoor balcony/garden.
• Is the price representative of similar properties in the area?

Was your post just a way to advertise the property or did you want feedback?

Either way, good luck OP

It's quite nice inside but I really wouldn't like people driving underneath my living space to park and the associated noise and headlights. That would really put me off I'm afraid.
You've got an awful lot of competition. I searched 2 bed flats in Chelmsford in the price range 260 - 280 K. There were so many of them and several of them I really liked, a lot more than yours I'm afraid. They also seemed to be in nicer areas, ie. away from that main road and retail park and without the disadvantage of having people driving underneath the living room at all hours.

Someone will buy it but you might have to drop the price and I think it will take a while to sell.

I don’t personally know the area but I’d be wondering what has made it go up from being worth £75,000 in 2018 (when you purchased it?) to being valued at £260,000 now. It’s a flat with a shorter lease which aren’t typically fast sellers anyway. Is the valuation actually accurate of local property prices? Is this flat, in this area, worth 185k more than it was 7 years ago?

Yeah. Precisely nobody goes out thinking “I’d love to live in a coach house” because they are known for being what developers call “that awkward flat above the entrance to the car park” to make it sound more attractive.

And anyone looking for some sort of ancient coaching inn is going to be disappointed.

I’d say lose the pretentious terminology and just call it a flat. And get a shower!

It’s the price and the area.

if you look on right move you have competition in your price range with nicer flats in better areas.

If I was going to buy a flat in Chelmsford area now I would buy in the new beaulieu estate, it has a train station opening later this year.

It is a nice flat op, but I actually think although it looks roomy with corridors the actual living space looks very small. Unfortunately I think when selling flats now (particularly with what a pain they can be to secure a mortgage on due to cladding and ground rent concerns) you just have to settle at a price which is good value which often means slightly below market value. I think the price you have set it at feels expensive

I would look at some houses for sale, in that price range.I would totally redecorate the house.Have you spent much on the interior in the last 6-7 yrs? Extend the lease.The house has no curb appeal.The front door needs replacement.It looks like a bachelor pad.People will see what you paid in 2018, you are asking for over £200.000 more.We sold our modern townhouse freehold for £265.000 in 2022.We paid £190,000 in 2008.We spent at least £10,000 on the interior in those years.Sold in less than a week.I don't want to sound rude.But I think you need to be realistic if you want to sell!

I had a 2 bed coach house on the market about 20 years ago. It took a year and a half to sell and had virtually no viewers and I remember that at the time I bought it I found it hard to get a mortgage for it and insurance due to mine being above garages that belonged to 2 other people. That said, it was a lovely little place, which I did love but as others said it is a flat not a house and should be listed as such to draw the right people in to look at it. Mine was freehold though and had a small courtyard at the back but still didn't get interest. Different market conditions back then but market is slow again now I've been told with loads of landlords selling their rental flats and houses Service charge is low but people know it could go up which will make buyers wary. Its a gorgeous flat but it looks like the gateway to the whole estate which will be very off-putting. I wish I could say something positive. That's a large mortgage for someone to come up with for what I used tp call mine " a flat in the sky" and then in your case service charges on top. I think your best bet may be to rent it for a year or so as that market is strong atm and hope market conditions change? It maybe bring price down considerably or if you are not in a hurry just wait it out like I did but be prepared for long wait.

Re the price, subject to confirmation from OP, I'll guess that the £75K pp in 2018 was a SO price. It looks as though a subsequent payment of £109,206 was made on 31/3/2022. (see houseprices.io)

If true, then it would explain why many people can get freaked out by the basic previous house sale data.

Anyway, Area365 indicates a flood risk and road noise, so I would be looking elsewhere.

The term coach house seems deceiving. I was expecting something older.

I’d have thought that the coach house design at least makes it much less vulnerable to flood damage though!

@SpookyW001989 , I’m in Thurrock so nearish you.

Flats here are taking ages to sell. Well, to be honest, everything is. I live in a village where flats used to sell within 24 hours of listing due to high demand. The one below me just sold for 280k but was valued at 310, and 2 years ago there would have been buyers trying to outbid each other over the listing price.

It’s a super stagnant market here.

Yes, but the entrance is at ground level and I have no idea how deep the water will be that I need to wade through. So it's best just to leave the property to the foolish, brave or well-informed local. There's no need to take any risks and make future sales problematic.

I like it personally and having the access to the car park below me wouldn't bother me, but if I was in the market for it I would want the lease extending and a garage door on the car port. Even if you don't extend the lease, it's worth finding out what it would cost, and it's well worth getting a garage door fitted to the car port (you could get an electrically operated one for a grand), if you got one with opaque windows in the top of the garage door to let light in then people could even use it as a games room or emergency guest room. As it is, the car port is pretty useless space as anyone passing can access whatever's left in it.