If anyone is looking for a 2 bed flat in Worthing...

[TeddyBeans]

Here's ours 🤣

Feel free to critique the listing, we had a fluke viewing the day after it went live and radio silence since... Would love to sell, the kids need their own rooms and we desperately want a garden

Yup it's the last one of the other 5 we were up against before. All of the others have sold with a range of asking prices between 210 and 240. Currently we have one for 200, 225, 240 (ours) and 250 in competition

ETA it's not actually in our block, it's in the one closest to the roundabout which may or may not have an impact on why they haven't sold yet, idk

Ok, not long.

The house we were going to buy has gone sold STC 😔 I'm not surprised. Even though it ended up needing a lot of work doing to it, it was still a good property. Just gutted it won't be ours.

Got the paint I need to redo the bedroom. At this point though, there's only 2 properties on the market that would be suitable for us to move to and if they go then there's absolutely no point in selling - whether that's tomorrow or in 3 months time.

For now just concentrate on getting out of there and getting that flat sold. You can then always rent until you find a new house.

Renting will be expensive - a 2 bed flat above the shops over the road is 1125 a month. We would be eating into our ability to save more for the deposit on the house we might end up buying 😔

On the plus side, I repainted the main wall in the bedroom! The downside to that is I definitely have to paint the other two lighter walls as the colour difference is far too vast to get away with

After an email from our agent on Friday that said we're getting loads of RM views (probably helped by you guys!) but no viewings, and the 20ish people they have on their books looking for flats but not viewing with comments about the price - we've reduced to 230,000 and we're giving it a month. If it doesn't go within a month then we'll give notice and give up until there's more housing stock in our area.

It's all very disheartening but it'll be what it'll be.

It must be v frustrating but, as I think was said much earlier on the thread, there is masses of competition and flat prices have fallen/remained stagnant for many years in some areas. I think you said earlier that you couldn't afford to lower the price much because of the cost of the next step up. Is that right?

It's made much harder by the fact that we got the offer for 230,000 - so there are people around that think it's worth that much. I know one of the other flats that was on the market with us before went for 228,000 but haven't been able to speak to any of the other sellers about what they sold for in the end.

If we used the kids savings and DPs parents have offered us 10k to help out, we can just about scrape to 350,000 if we only get a 220,000 offer but there's now nothing longterm wise (all have a tiny 3rd bedroom that DC would grow out of before long) that we can get for that much and we really don't want to have to go through all this again

I think potential buyers are getting increasingly nervous about committing to mortgages. I also think it’s telling that the nice flat in your block also on the top floor is still on the market having been reduced almost three months ago to £225k. But maybe things will improve after some people get back from their summer holidays and the flat selling for £200k sells.

We are in the south east and flats have crashed in price, the same as everywhere else in the country.
You paid a peak top price back in 2021 of 213k and the person you bought off made 70k in 6 years on what they had paid which is a huge profit for a fiat in that time scale.
That is why the other flat in your block is not even selling at 200k now.
The potential buyer you recently had that pulled out due to his job loss did not do any research and your best hope is that you get somebody else laid back and unaware like that again making an offer because buyers are now getting very savvy and know what to look for.

All the very best to you in trying to sell. You did the right thing to reduce to £230k as that is what you accepted last time. A buyer will come along that’s for sure. Remember a top floor flat is very sought after.

" a top floor flat is very sought after."

Really? The thread has been running for 6 months. We need to stop throwing around the old cliches IMO and accept that if not priced correctly nothing is selling.

If you look at interest rates it is obvious that trying to get more than the 2021 price is not a sensible approach, rates have come back down a bit but people now realise that any geo-political or global financial event can send their mortgage payments way up, that is making many cautious I think.

https://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/property-statistics/uk-interest-rate-history-graph/

Finished redecorating our room, used the kids pictures to fill the space on the now empty wall. The stuff under the photos is from the kids room - decided to redecorate that one as well as I'm in the flow. Hoping it'll help any prospective buyers to visualise it as a ready to go room rather than something they'll have to redecorate when they move in 🤷‍♀️ but more likely it'll just be a nice place my kids can enjoy until we remarket it later this year/early next year

The 200k flat has sold stc today and the 250k one has been taken off the market so that leaves ours at 230 and the 225 flat in our complex now! August has been pitiful and we're running out of joy for our agents... Kids room is completely redecorated now and looking much more move in ready. We're going to sign on with another agency for September/October and hope the market picks up as we've been promised many a time that it will.

Keep fingers crossed for us, if you will 🤞 the bungalow I liked back in march (it sold before we did and I was very sad about it) is back on the market and it would be bloody fabulous if we stood a chance of getting it this time around. If we can sell for 225-228 then we stand a chance 🍀

You could contact the agent that sold the 200k flat to see what price they actually achieved? It will likely be around 180k but will at least give you some idea.
Perhaps consider them too as your new agent, although July and August have not been a fair test for your present agent as the whole world has been on holiday or the heatwave sapping any energy for potential viewings.