Well knock me down with a feather

[Rhubarbgarden]

Mr Rhubarb liked the house we viewed today. Very much so, in fact. He liked the high ceilings and the light-filled rooms, and the presence of all the original fireplaces and some nice floorboards and parquet got him all enthusiastic. Who would have thought it? For the first time, he didn't come home saying 'nah, our house is better'.

It was all a bit chaotic because baby Rhubarb was crying the whole time and small Rhubarb was running around and making escape bids, and being all shouty and high maintenance, so we are going to go back for a second viewing on Wednesday when small Rhubarb will be farmed out.

That is all. Sorry very self indulgent thread but I am so at this turn of events I needed to share!

My friend lives literally round the corner from where you are (about 200 yards away) thinking of buying and her two boys go to Middle Street.

I think it's more secondary school places that are a bit difficult around Seven Dials. Lots of kids go to Stanford from the area, but when they are 11 they go to a variety of schools - Stringer, Varndean or Blatch (more rarely). And they may get offered Hove Park or Patcham, which are more challenging re results and distance from home.

The nearest main secondary school to that area is Cardinal Newman which is a faith school.

Anyhow that's not a problem for you at the moment, by the sound of it.

Good luck with your offer.

Thanks Flicka. I'm not going to worry about secondary schools at the moment - that's so many years away. But it's all useful info! I just looked up all the furthest child distances and it looks like Middle Street is the only primary we would have a chance with (without finding religion, which we won't be doing...).

Mmm RCheshire has a point Rhubarb - if the agent does happen by some chance to see this thread it won't help your negotiating position much. Maybe get your posts deleted (and then start a new thread if when you get an offer accepted...)

Yes this has occurred to me, but our final offer is our final offer. We're not going to go to full asking price because it needs a shedload of money spending on it, and also with the quite big drawbacks of no off road parking, primary schools black hole and pub next door we reckon our final offer is a fair price and it isn't honestly worth more than that. I love it, and yes we have been looking for what feels like an eternity, but I'm still not going to pay over the odds for a house in the current climate.

Anyway, final offer just gone in...

Fair enough! Good luck!

Thanks! That was my sensible head, there. My insensible head is squealing like an overexcited piglet

Good luck! In future (or for anyone else) link to the rightmove/zoopla listing rather than the estate agents own website.

I run a small business and my google analytics show me the source of all my website visits and I frequently track down obscure forum posts that have caused a blip in my visits to see what people are saying about me. It's quite possible an estate agency will do this too so could come across this or any similar thread. In addition, my estate agent sends me stats of the no. of hits my property has had on their website, as a gauge of the level of interest, with more hits = more interest = I'm less likely to accept a low offer....

Thanks Mahonga, that's v interesting!

Rejected. Bummer.

:(

Don't worry, if it is meant for you, you will get it. I firmly believe that our homes choose us, rather than the other way around.

If I were you, I would deffo not up the offer. House prices outside of London are moving in only one direction, and that is in your favour. I fear that the euro explosion is around the corner and that will reverberate through the UK economy and housing market.

Oh no. Are you going to pursue the Godalming House instead?

Don't be too downhearted though. They may well come back to you in a few weeks. All other buyers are going to be mindfull of the same issues you are and they are not likely to get silly offers.

I've found a house I think I'm going to buy, going to view tomorrow. Nothing like your search, its a house to develop but I think I might move into it because I miss my Mummy and want to live next to her and have on tap childcare .

Curses mumsnet and the amount of links to rightmove. I'm supposed to be off houses for now.

Thanks, well all we can do really is hope they do come back to us. Boo.

I spoke to the Godalming agents this afternoon and told them we could offer asking price but no more. So if the higher bid falls through they should give us a call. You never know.

Oreo that's exciting! Don't blame you wanting childcare on tap . Linky link?

Link.

My mother lives just outside this estate and her house is magnificent, it opens onto farmland and then a nature reserve. This house backs onto the field between the two.

We have been staying at my mothers on and off for the last month dog sitting while they are abroad judging and both DP annd I are hankering to live here.

We can't afford the houses we would really like well we could get the house next door to my DM if the bloke who owns it wasn't a loon who has it priced 200k too much.

So have been pottering around on rightmove and found this little bargain. Already well priced and a bit of room for more. Will add 4th bedroom over garage and update the interior. Might get the sledgehammer out with the walls but there isn't a floor plan so will have to wait untill tomorrow.

Have half debated if we could actually live there. I don't think I could sell my house without losing too much on it, and this house has a tiny garden which won't cut it for the Oreo clan!

That sounds like an amazing setting! Nice that you could do a lot to it too. I agree about the garden though - what a shame. I've lost track of the number of great houses I've rejected on account of titchy gardens.

Rhubarb, hats off to you for even thinking of moving into a new place that requires work with a new baby!

If you are lucky, you might get it for even lower than your offer, in a few months. Good things for those who wait and all that

Or maybe someone will buy it, do it up really tastefully and then have to sell at a majorly reduced price when the big crash happens. And they will be awful people (arms dealers or something) who happen to have good taste, so you don't have to feel sorry for them or guilty.

Oreo, is the garden really small? Hard to tell from the photos.

I would love to live next to my mum. In fact we even bought our place because it has two houses on the land, and I thought dh and I could stay in the smaller one and give the larger one to my parents, as they are very social and love to have visitors.

Unfortunately I have realised that my parents are not as fond of me as I am of them, and they are moving to be closer to my dsis instead

So am very that you have a lovely, close relationship with your mum. Can imagine you having Sunday lunch together and going for walks with the dogs...sigh...

I haven't been up to see the house yet, but if you look on the satelite picture it is the house at the dead end at the top of the estate. One house has a fair garden, that sold last year for 195, this house has a small wrap around patch.

I text my DM to ask if she fancies having me as a neighbour - she replied your step father does . I think she is wise to my planned childcare .

This is the house 'next door' to my mothers, but it is way over priced. The views in the picture now belong to my DM, she bought that field and its her garden. Its still a nice view, but that makes that house enclosed by other houses now. Not to mention that my DM paid 100k less for her house 4/5 years ago and it is bigger, on a better plot and needed less work .

The guy is a funny 'un. He is unbelievably greedy and unrealistic. It would be a nice house for me - we would open the gardens up and still have complete visual privacy, but be able to access DM's gardens. For anyone else its just an ugly, fair sized bungalow that needs a lot of work.

Do you know why he is selling it? The views are lovely. I generally like bungalows a lot. Especially the 1930s ones.

I don't know, I think its just too big for them now (they are an older couple). Its not very well maintained, the garden is unkempt, the conifers are over 20 ft high now and the house looks very neglected.

It has been for sale for a few years now, hence the old pictures. Maybe even before my DM moved in but I can't really remember. They have just reduced it but no where near enough.

Having been reading your thread - love property - you know, we had a beautiful house that we loved and lived there for 13 years until we could no longer stand the lady next door smoking in the garden. I couldn't have the windows open in the summer and I really resented that. That was just ONE person smoking. I think you've had a lucky escape from the pub garden!

Flatbread I like your thinking!

Oreo have you tried a silly offer for the place next to your mum's? You never know, if it's been on for ages.

Bisto it's a good point. I will comfort myself with that thought. However the beer garden is not quite adjacent to the garden - it is offset and there is a garage and a shed thing acting as a buffer, so I was hopeful it wouldn't be too much of a problem. Listen to me - I'm still trying to convince myself! Gah...

No I haven't, its a bide your time job for me on that house. I wouldn't pay more than 220 because it needs an awful lot of work and at the moment I believe its true done up value to be 300 or less. And that would be as much as I can put into 1 house at the moment and for the forseeable untill the economy picks up.

He is very hard faced about money too. The field was offered to every house that backs onto it, so that each house could buy their section by the farmer. He wouldn't buy his because he intended to haggle it down. It was a fair price and the other neighbours bought their bits. He was playing silly beggars with the farmer so the farmer sold it to my DM and another neighbour.

He won't play ball with a low offer no matter how genuine and realistic it is.

Off to see if there is any money to be made up the road now! or if I can move in .

Oh he sounds like my dad, who once famously haggled 5p off a plum tart in Borough Market (gourmet food market near London Bridge)