O.M.G. after nearly a year on the market, we have our first offer. Now what do I do???

[DottydotsofBloodOnTheFloor]

Calm. Breathe...

We've finally had a sane-ish offer on our house - just haggling over the last £2K (we've dropped 10K, they started £20K under the asking price, so we've almost met in the middle), but it's been so long since we put it on the market we've stopped looking at other houses etc. Never sold before so I'm starting to hyperventilate.

Some questions so I don't seem (more) stupid to the estate agents if it all starts to happen.

If we accept their offer and they get a survey which throws up lots of stuff, can we say no to any price haggling? The figure we've gone down to is our absolute bottom, so do they need to know that we won't drop the price as the result of any survey findings?

Should I sort out our mortgage now? (silly question...). There are about 6 houses on the market we would be interested in (after having spent this evening searching rightmove). Should we start looking at them and progressing our mortgage etc?

Aaarrggghhhhh. Too much stress in my life now - someone pass me a gin and orange...

looks nice and at least the more expensive stuff like roof and windows is done.

Looks great! Garden looks fantastic, buy just for that. Plus it's had a new roof

Looks fab and like you'd make a lot of money on it. Is it the manchester road end? One of my friends lives on st leonards, it's really nice there and so handy for everything.

love it, its just like mine!..but i dont know what you need to do internally, would they reduce price or is this about right for area/work to be done?

Looks lovely. Do consider carefully living in a house you can't afford to do up. We've done that (dream house- when it's finished) & 5 years later we still have masses of work to do and it can all get very depressing.

I'd worry (from experience) that someone who won't budge on 2K could end up being a total PITA when it comes to exchange. We had a flakey buyer pull out the day before exchange before (over 1K).

they'd definitely need to reduce the price - I wouldn't pay more than £220k for it and probably start at £210k.

I know re: living in a dump before it becomes the dream house - that's why I'm hesitating. It would drive me bonkers...

Yes, it's the Manchester Rd end - the very last house on Brackley Road!

Don't START at £210k! Start at £195 or something.

Hope you've decided to go for it. Have you seen propertysnake

£195 K, obv!

ooh - £195K would be a bit cheeky wouldn't it?

We're being horribly calm and measured about it all now. Dp's going to see the house on Saturday (she couldn't see it today and I'm away at the weekend so we're having to do separate shifts!) and if she thinks it's worth going for, we'll see if our buyers are still interested in ours and then put in an offer.

Trying to be fatalistic about it...

Dotty if you need any more help with mortgage my dp can help here

Thanks! Dp's going to see the house tomorrow morning and I will await her verdict..!

any news ?

I've been wondering too, TAKE IT TAKE IT!

TAKE IT! Market looks dodgy at mo. You could end up having to drop by a lot more than 2K in a few months' time. Make some savings elsewhere..... (easier said than done, I know!)

Your house is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. So your bottom line is, in terms of market forces, not necessarily relevant to a buyer. This is your 1st and only offer in how long? And remember, it's now November, so we're approaching a dead time of year for selling......

Hi - have just started another thread as I'm in an absolute panic..!

Yes, we've accepted the offer on our house and they're proceeding! To be honest I'm really relieved - we're finally (fingers crossed) selling.

But, dp went to see dream house, LOVED it (which has never happened before - that both of us like the same house), so we put in an offer straight away. Went into a bidding war over Saturday and now it's gone to sealed bids...

Problem is we can't go up to the asking price. We're already going £2k over what we should.

The bids need to be in by 5pm tomorrow, so any words of wisdom would be much appreciated...

If we don't get dream house, it looks like we might be moving in with my Mum after all..!

Sealed bids are an opportunity to not only outbid financially but also tactically. So play the mortgage agreed in principle (if true), short chain, proceedable purchase etc. Financially state an odd figure which noone is likely to duplicate.

Yes, I also got an agreed mortgage - it's been a very busy few days...

WOO-HOO!!!!!

We won the sealed bid!!!! Can't believe it as we didn't offer the asking price, but apparently although our chain position wasn't as good as one of the other bidders, we'd offered slightly more and they liked the bit we put in about our family (it was marketed as a family home so we put in a sentence at the end about looking forward to seeing our 2 young sons grow up there and playing in the garden!).

Am gobsmacked. They phoned an hour ago and I feel more nervous now than I did before I knew.

Am going to make lots of lists - need to chase our buyers - do we wait until they've done their survey before we get ours done???

Aaarrrgghhhh!!

Excellent news !! Your buyers should be able to arrange a survey date asap so go ahead with yours as soon as they confirm a date for theirs.

Fab news dot!

Thanks! I feel the need to say WOO-HOO! again

It really puts into focus what's been important for us - having a garden - we've missed outside space lots over the past 3 years and we're getting excited already about growing veggies and I can have roses - it's all wonderful/scary - am going to be our estate agents' worst nightmare from now on and make sure our buyers get a move on...