Help! I have to get this house!

[Rhubarbgarden]

I am tying myself in knots and looking for advice on a strategy to get an offer accepted. House came on the market last week, we knew pretty much straight away it was The One just from looking at the details. Viewed it on Saturday, during the open house. Fell in love. DH wants it as much as I do. Put in an offer this morning of asking price. I'm not messing around - this is the house I want my kids to grow up in and DH and I to grow old in. The agent has just rung back now - offer rejected. They are having two more open houses this week and if there is a lot of serious interest it will go to sealed bids after that, unless someone makes a really good offer in the meantime.

What is our best approach? Up our offer slightly? Offer our maximum now, and give them a short window to accept in the hope of nipping a bidding war in the bud now? Or will that just give other interested parties chance to outbid us? Do we play it cool and wait till after the weekend in the hope no-one else comes along with 'a really good offer'? If it goes to sealed bids, how much do we offer?

Aargh, I have to have this house! It blows all the others out of the water. There were a lot of people at the open house. I know there will be a lot of interest. It's a doer-upper in a terrible state with a Heligan garden, bags of history and character, and is in a peach of a location where not much comes up.

Edgar did you miss the huge thread on people opening cupboards when viewing houses?

, 3 dc is no excuse for missing mumsnet time

Oh Edgar

I was mindful of that cupboards thread when I was preparing the house and tried to keep them reasonably ok. The garage, however, is a lost cause.

my viewer (who eventually went on to buy the house), on the first viewing OPENED THE OVEN. I nearly died!

looks at Mr Muscle 'Oven', as yet unused

Can't believe I've only just seen this thread!

Lovely house Rhubarb. Any updates? The open days are now over, right...? As others have said, I can imagine there might well be a lot of people interested in theory but a lot of those will fall by the wayside once they really think about/get quotes for the work involved.

How much will you be able to reconfigure the inside, given the Grade 2* status? Eg will you be able to move the kitchen to one of the bigger/squarer rooms? I'd definitely want to do that.

Good luck!

Rang the agents this afternoon and they said they were awaiting instruction from the vendors. They said they'd ring me back. So no progress just yet!

Minipie ideally I'd like to open up the wall between the rear sitting room and the dining room and turn that into a big kitchen diner. But it might not be allowed. In that case I'd turn what's now the dining room into the kitchen, and turn the existing long thin kitchen into a utility room. I've contacted the local conservation officer to see what might be possible.

Is the dining room the picture with the little wood burner in a huge fireplace that desperately needs to have a range in it ?

Actually, I would bet that is the original kitchen. The current kitchen is an extension.

Given the existing "conservatory" you could probably get permission to build something more robust and have that as the diner part of a kitchen diner if you reinstated what appears to be the original kitchen.

Yes that's the room. It's got nice old quarry tiles in it. You're probably right about it being the original kitchen actually - good point.

We had the same thought about the conservatory, but up close it looks like it might be original - certainly pretty old. I think we would just restore that and put a smallish table and chairs in there, and have one of the front receptions for larger dinner parties etc. If we ever do that sort of thing again .

No word from the agents. I'm sitting on my hands to stop myself ringing them again. I did speak to our agents though, and the people who viewed on Saturday said they would probably be booking a second viewing. So that's pretty positive! I confess I did come over all territorial when they were going round the house and had to ask myself if I really want to sell this place. It will be a wrench - I do love this house. I will have to keep toddling out to the high street to remind myself why I want to leave!

Sounds like everything is going well! We had a second viewing at the weekend who are interested but still have TWO houses to sell!! I am certain the house we like will be gone by the end of the week. Good luck.

It was the quarry tiles that made me twig it was probably the original kitchen. Means that there should be plumbing there still... maybe? Or at least mean that turning it back into a kitchen won't make the planners/heritage gasp with horror.

The conservatory runs onto the bit that is clearly a non-original extension which it why I thought it was an addition (albeit an old one!) Which isn't to say it's not included on the listing [watched too many house renovation programmes emoticon] I remember one where the 1960s plastic guttering/downpipes were included on the listing, meaning the owners couldn't replace it with period-appripriate cast iron without a fight.

Urgh, Soup, those are just the sort of battles I foresee my near future being filled with.

Spoke to the agents again and the latest is that the vendors are just waiting for a good offer, there won't be sealed bids (phew). They could have rung me to tell me that though instead of waiting for me to drag it out of them! I think these agents are a bit useless...

So we are going to go back for another viewing, this time with a guy from a building restoration company, a week on Monday. Couldn't organise it for sooner, which is a pain. So we are still in the waiting game! I hate being in limbo like this.

A week on Monday!! ican't possibly wait that long for news !

Take lots of photos and dont forget to share

I know, it's a killer. Had to coordinate availability of builder, estate agent, DH, toddler childcare and baby routine. It's a small miracle I managed it this side of Christmas quite frankly.

How are things going with your house op, have you had any viewings yet? I'm just remembering all the stress of having to clean and get the house organised for them, I can't imagine doing it with a new baby too! You are a very brave woman

But you aren't proceedable yet!

I would never allow a second viewing to a non proceedable buyer so I'm not surprised the agents aren't taking you seriously!

You aren't a serious buyer because you can't actually buy. Why not focus on flogging your own and het yourself in a position to be taken seriously?

I have allowed second viewings on my house although they are not proceedable. Annoying yes but who knows they could end up buying my house if they sell theirs soon.

i wouldn't say no to any second viewing...

now have two offers from people waiting to sell their own places..sooner or later it will all fall into place. hope it does for Rhubarb!

they wouldn't be likely to allow another viewing if they'd accepted another offer, so that is good news..

snail-baking weather today - hooray!

I too have seen a house that I really like and although I haven't offered I have confirmed that I am very interested. I have yet another unproceedable viewer coming this weekend - so another round of top to bottom cleaning to be done!

Edgar, not necessarily. If they take a while to sell they may well have changed their minds or seen something new.

An offer from someone non proceedable is not an offer. Not sure why folk think it is . A bit like going into Tesco, sticking your stuff through the checkout and telling the operator you'll pay for it all when you get a job.

I'm not even sure legally where an agent stands WRT a probte sale and offers from non proceedable buyers. As a vendor, I would never and have never accepted an offer form someone who couldn't buy unless they whacked down a hefty deposit.

The very first person to view our house didn't even have their house on the market, but put theirs on the market the very same week in response to seeing ours (like rhubarb they had been looking for a year and hadn't seen anything they liked sufficiently) and sold within 5 weeks, and we should be exchanging in a couple of weeks. We also had an offer from another 'non-proceedable' buyer, and I've seen their house has just gone under offer. So that would have been about 8 weeks after their second viewing.

We didn't take our house off the market until the offer was proceedable, but it seems crazy not to allow non-proceedables to view!

I allow them to view, not keen on second viewings with them and certainly would never take teh house off the market for them.