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Original poster

Aarrghhh!!!!!!!! Buying/Selling Houses!

99 replies

fio2 · 15/12/2003 12:47

Just want a bloody rant really. The people who are buying our house have a had homebuyers survey done, about 3 weeks ago. And today I have had a phonecall, well not me dh. They have just decided that there are a couple of little things that have come up on the survey. The purchaser wants to send an elctrician round because something has come up with the electrics, a corgi engineer to check the CH system (which is only 18 months old and cost us 2.5k to put in!) and apparently not all the windows open!! (they do) I asked the esatate agent to explain properly what was the actual problem is but they cant tell me in more detail. Why? I just think its really funny that they have waited 3 weeks and now have decided there are problems, hardly major are they? We have already dropped the price by 3k but they obviously want to knock more off. Why are people always like this when you are selling your house. We never do it to other people, maybe we are too soft. I just want to scream and shut his stupid little head in one of my windows that 'doesnt' open! Where do we go from her? Rant over

Ahh feel better now

OP posts:
GeorginaA · 19/12/2003 11:47

ARGH efmach! Does the solicitor who's going away not have a colleague that can do the necessary? Surely most of the paperwork will have been done now, it's just the final swapping of paperwork, crossing of t's and dotting of i's isn't it?!

hugs

santafio2 · 19/12/2003 12:02

efmach how awful and frustrating for you It seems like it is never going to end doesnt it? Poor you, lots of sympathy from me. Sounds like they never really wanted to exchange before christmas doesnt it? gits

StarryStressyHead · 19/12/2003 12:07

No consolation for you but my in-laws are in the same position. They've been stuck living in their touring caravan for the past 3 months as they had to complete on their house in August. They were gazumped twice and now found a house where everyone wanted to complete on 22nd Dec. Just heard yesterday that it's now going to be late January. Poor sods have got to spend the Christmas Break in their tiny caravan. They could sleep in our garage but they're not up for it

santafio2 · 19/12/2003 12:10

god i bet its cold in a touring caravan. Our is cold in the summer!

RedGreenStripes · 19/12/2003 12:16

Have deliberately kept off this thread because we can't even get an offer... I don't want to think about the horrrors of chains going wrong.

BUT.... we had one of our ten viewings comment that the bedrooms were "too small" (we live in a bog standard 3 bed semi, with a smallest room about 6'x7' ). So now DH wants to cut up the Office Desk in the 2nd bedroom, to make the room look bigger! There isn't much other furniture, honest; we have completely clear floor space, about 5'x10'; empty it would be about 11'x10'. I've banned him from sawing and now he's sulking. I just love Men.....

santafio2 · 19/12/2003 12:20

Its irritating isnt it? My dh always used to say when people came round, i wonder what their houses are like! They are all for slagging off other peoples so theres must be perfect, right? Its like these who are buying ours and being picky - they havent even got there own home yet. I remember when they put an offer in the estate agent said to me 'well they are in a much better position than you' i replied 'how is that? it is MY house!' Oh god have started ranting again.

Dont let your dh cut up the desk either!

mothernature · 19/12/2003 12:22

It might be an idea to actually dress the room as a bedroom, with a smaller bed and say a chest of drawers, this will make them think they can actually use it as a bedroom, and help their 'minds eye' when they go away to discuss the property further, using smaller than average furniture tricks the eye when they think about the property after the viewing. Hope everything goes ok.

RedGreenStripes · 19/12/2003 12:24

WE can't redo it as a bedroom, really; it's the office room where I'm working right now! I would have swapped for the 6'x7' room, but DH has always refused. Anyway, putting the computers in that 6'x7' room would make it look really small...

mothernature · 19/12/2003 12:27

Calling the house doctor..Ann where are you...

zebra · 12/01/2004 13:55

Ok Gals, looking for more advice today.
We have our house on the market for £115,500, reduced from initial offering in October of £118k. Agent rang this morning suggesting we should lower again. And truth is, we would probably accept anything over £110k because we are quite keen to move... but, after very quiet December, we have had 7 viewings in last 10 days, with another one this evening. One couple quite liked it on Saturday, although no offer from them. So interest has suddenly picked up. I keep close tabs on similar houses in the area and we seem to be similarly priced. If we go to £112k, for instance, I think you'd say we were definitely competitively priced.
DH thinks wait 2 weeks before lowering price... what do you gals think? I am having doubts and wonder if we should lower now, since we know we'd accept that much less, anyway. We are now planning to move and rent, ASA-practicable, but would be nice to get it sold. If it sold today we could look to buy, not for renting!

Original poster
fio2 · 12/01/2004 14:27

zebra I would lower. The market seems to pick up after christmas for a few weeks and then tails off again. If you lower it now whilst there is lots of interest, you may be lucky and get an immediate offer. But this is just me - I am no property expert!

When did this couple come and look at the house? Did your estate agent chase them up afterwards?

OP posts:
zebra · 12/01/2004 14:33

The couple that liked the house were here Saturday -- agent hasn't chased them, yet. Interesting what you said about a spurt of interest and then it drops off, again.
Anybody else with experience?

Lamin · 12/01/2004 14:35

Zebra - my dad is a property developer and always says you "spoil the market" if you start at too high a price and then hang around for a while lowering little by little (ie your house starts to look undesirable). I know he would definitely say lower it, and lower it enough to attract a different price bracket of buyers if it hasn't sold at the higher price quickly.

LIZS · 12/01/2004 14:42

Zebra,
Why hasn't the agent chased them yet, they make me so cross ? Surely if they seemed interested and there is other still interest then it is the ideal time for them to do so and suggest they have a second viewing if they are keen. Does the agent know you would accept offers - this can work one of two ways if they pass it on to the buyer, either they wait to see if you lower the price again or they make a low offer and see if that is good enough.

Think I might wait to lower at least until the outcome of this batch of viewings is known, but if you do lower I'm not sure how many people will even then offer the asking price unless more than one vendor is interested. The fact that you may have no onward chain could help your negotiating position, but you would need to be clear in your mind about it first.

zebra · 12/01/2004 14:47

That's interesting, Lamin. We are already near the bottom of the bracket for a 3 bedr. house in this area, though! So we'd be moving into the price bracket for 2-bedr. houses if we lowered for another bracket... Hohum... consensus so far from you gals seems to be that we should lower, anyway!

Original poster
fio2 · 12/01/2004 16:26

zebra I would ring the estate agent first to see if this couple are interested and are going to make an offer - then if it is lower but higher than you were going to drop it too it will be a bonus

OP posts:
zebra · 12/01/2004 18:32

Hey, the couple that just viewed the house have said they'll put in an offer whoohoo! No chain & She had a great big bump, too. Although DH thinks she'll drive a hard bargain & we expect it to be a low offer. I'm really just updating this to see if the MNet 'Night Crowd' want to give me an opinion, supposing we don't get an offer, about whether we Lower or Not anybody?

Original poster
fio2 · 12/01/2004 18:34

Good news zebra - I hope you get what you wish for

OP posts:
bobthebaby · 12/01/2004 19:24

Zebra, wait and see, if she has a bump she may just be sick of looking and want to get settled before she de-bumps. At least because you are thinking of lowering the price anyway the offer she comes back with may seem pretty good. If it's still short of the mark remind your estate agent that that's 2 bedroom money and she is pg. Hopefully he will then parrot that off as if he thought of it and she will up it a bit. Hope this made sense.

zebra · 12/01/2004 20:01

Does anyone know... DH thinks if we sign a letting agreement we HAVE to stay in for 6 months, initially. I keep thinking that in the fine print either party can technically issue notice at any time with 30 days notice. But won't know until we see the agreement, IYSWIM. Thing is, 6 months rent is £3000 to us, so we should realistically reduce our hopes by that much. Do you think DH is right about the 6 month commitment, or am I right to think we will be able to get out with 30 days notice?

Anyway, does any one else want to say (or not?) that we should probably lower the price?

bobthebaby · 12/01/2004 20:04

Wait and see what they offer.

Original poster
fio2 · 12/01/2004 20:18

zebra when we rented it was always on a six month contract initially. Some places do offer 3 month lets but they are usually very expensive

OP posts:
marialuisa · 12/01/2004 20:59

Zebra, govt has introduced a system where all first contracts must be for a minimum of 6 months, it's called Assured Shorthold Tenancy, to stop landlords chucking people out at short notice. We had to rent when we first moved up north and the agent found a way round, we signed up for 4 months minimum, but at the end of the 4th month we could leave or say we intended to stay on and the owners were obliged to let us stay for at least another 2 months. When a 6 month AST contract ends you can ask to go onto a monthly contract where either side only has to give 30 days notice.

BTW, we found deposit, agents fees etc. added a huge amount to our bill. About another £1k in total, and it took much wrangling to et the deposit back in full.

HTH, good luck!

zebra · 12/01/2004 21:01

Is that really new, MLuisa? When I was renting... er, 7 years ago, I'm sure the contract conditions applied for 6 months, but within the conditions you could always get out with 30 days notice.

marialuisa · 12/01/2004 22:48

No, things have changed. If you sign a 6 month ASt both sides are stuck as notice can only be given at the end of the 5th month. It's to protect tenants who receive housing benefit but are renting in the private sector, apparently. It may be possible to negotiate, or avoid this altogether if you use the small ads?

My mum recently had to pay 2 months rent as she left a property before the end of the contract and she didn't get her deposit back until the contract expired despite moving out.

anyway, perhaps you'd be better off checking with local agencies where you want to move to?