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Original poster

preparing the house for viewings - can't be arsed!!!

92 replies

Tutter · 12/09/2006 12:11

it's only the third one and i've already got viewing fatigue. putting toys away, hiding the clutter, cleaning the bathrooms and kitchen, opening all the windows, making all the surfaces sparkly.

yawn.

does anyone manage to do it properly beyond the first viewing i wonder? (first time i had 3 lots of fresh flowers and banished dh and ds to starbucks)...

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Original poster
Tutter · 21/09/2006 12:00

irritating update: second viewing at 3:15pm

cov - still undecided. poss your new neck of the woods. or poss marlow/henley. or even harpenden/st albans.

unless we are more sure we will rent around here til we figure it all out and find the dream house.

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LIZS · 21/09/2006 12:03

Had one yesterday and another due on Saturday. Hassle to tidy up and organise the kids and dinner around it though.

Original poster
Tutter · 21/09/2006 12:11

that's good though liz - that the agents have go more people in quickly after your last buyers dropped out. keep it going - ecloth, ecloth, ecloth!

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acnebride · 21/09/2006 12:14

wd agree that signs of life are def good - esp Boden Life.

but what i want to know is how people get their children to play photogenically with 1 wooden toy in appropriate room, whereas ds wd take opportunity of a viewer to explore brave new world of bogies, or fall downstairs just as I am explaining how ideal the house is for children.

NB listen to what agent says and get onto them if they are selling it craply. One of our few positive points is lots of fitted shelving in the main room - looks nice and we spent ages tidying it up, removing stuff so it didn't look too packed etc last time the house was on the market. Every single buyer commented on it when they walked through the door. And every single time the agent said 'Yes, but you soon fill it up, don't you'. And then they'd look in the under stairs cupboard and the guy would say 'And that's where they've hidden all the junk HA HA HA'

Funnily enough we never sold. Still, the tidying up made the house look great and we were happy to stay!

LIZS · 21/09/2006 12:18

lol . Agents are otherwise cr*p though - can't seem to get details back onto Rightmove or their own website for some reason Still not sure we got the whole story about previous buyer.

Original poster
Tutter · 21/09/2006 12:20

would def insist that the details are back online as soon as.

so many people use the web as first port of call when househunting - i know i do.

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LIZS · 21/09/2006 12:25

Exactly . They say they've set it all up but doesn't seem to have updated ?!

beckybrastraps · 21/09/2006 12:25

Ha ha! One week, 12 viewings, 2 offers! Still can't relax until they've signed ont he dotted line though. And of course, we have to find somewhere to move to....

Original poster
Tutter · 21/09/2006 12:27

hurrah beckybs - you bring hope to us miserable housesellers

did you get the asking price? what part of the country>

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beckybrastraps · 21/09/2006 12:30

Not quite, but close enough. And we set the asking price at the top end of the valuations because we hadn't found anything to buy, so we're pretty happy. We're in East Anglia. BUT, we have a tiny house (hence the desperate need to move) and so aren't selling to families. The market in bigger houses is slower here at the moment, and the agents are saying that the beginning of the school year is not a great time to sell, but it should pick up in a few weeks. Fingers crossed for you.

Original poster
Tutter · 21/09/2006 12:31

tsk newly-raised hopes dashed

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beckybrastraps · 21/09/2006 12:32

No - it's GOOD news. It will pick up any time now! ANd there's a reason why it isn't selling now. Be positive (said the woman who has plumbed the depths of despair and scaled the heights of delight in one week! ).

mrspink27 · 21/09/2006 12:45

Hurray! ours is sold! no viewings from time we went onto market for 4 weeks. First people who came round last sunday put in an offer £6k below asking price and we accepted! We are waiting to hear whether our offer has been accepted on a complete dump, further out than we wanted to be, but with great potential. I suspect we will lose out to a higher offer though, which is a real shame especially as the dd's have chosen their rooms already!

Original poster
Tutter · 21/09/2006 12:48

am trying not to get too excited about this avo's second viewong

but acc to the agent the couple said they wanted to "see it again before making a final decision" - which i think sounds pretty hopeful.

please keep everything cropssed. dh is a hard-ass and is unlikely to accept much below the asking price so could be some negotiations ahead...

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Original poster
Tutter · 21/09/2006 12:49

((ooh, hard-ass wrong thing to say after my other thread)

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LIZS · 21/09/2006 12:49

Are they seeing anywhere else for a second viewing ?

Original poster
Tutter · 21/09/2006 12:50

no, just here

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LIZS · 21/09/2006 12:53

Fingers crossed, sounds hopeful

beckybrastraps · 21/09/2006 12:55

That's a good sign. Our first offer went to pot as the bloke turned out to have been putting in offers on a variety of houses, so when we accepted his offer, he said "well...." and wanted to hold things open until he'd made up his mind which of his accepted offers HE'D accept!

Original poster
Tutter · 21/09/2006 12:56

what a fecker

did the agent know this?

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Original poster
Tutter · 21/09/2006 12:58

you know the biggest pain in the arse (ouch, there i go again) about viewings is that i have a very complicated blackout rigmarole in ds's room. blackout blinds (that don't black out) plus duvet covers tucked over the top, plus curtains plus blackout lining. i have to decontruct this each time as it looks sh*te, then reconstruct afterwards. involved stepladder and patience, not something i'm known for (patience, not stepladder).

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beckybrastraps · 21/09/2006 12:58

No. He was horrified. If there's an estate agents blacklist the guy is surely on it. I really hope the other vendors found out and turned him down. I wouldn't trust him in the period between having the offer accepted and exchanging contracts. Very dodgy.

LIZS · 21/09/2006 12:59

Have heard that it is common to make more than one offer .

beckybrastraps · 21/09/2006 13:01

According to our agent, it is not good practice. He wouldn't show another house to someone who'd already made an offer. Let alone had it accepted.

LIZS · 21/09/2006 13:02

but they can use different agents !!