The decluttering, cleaning, vacating, pandering, nailbiting antics of the stressed out house sellers

[Spirael]

Starting a new thread, since our old one was almost full!

Anyone suffering the stresses of trying to sell a house is welcome to join us; anyone here to tell us our houses are crap and/or overpriced is not.

My neighbours open house today only generated two viewers....the open house across the road, ditto. Its made me feel a bit better about our two viewers in thre weeks, but im amazed...at the difference in viewings england vs scotland. Amazingly different markets.

Yes, hundreds of miles in fact. It's worth it for my new job which is a very good one for my industry, and my relocation package also includes solicitors and estate agents fees for selling and then buying in our new location. It's just that we won't be able to pay our mortgage PLUS rent for very long without my husband working as well. So fingers crossed our house sells and/or husband finds work quickly. Hopefully both!

We have someone else coming for a viewing this evening. So, given that dh succeeded in making two relatively minor stains on the carpet twice the size and three times as visible, I have to try and repair that this morning. And I'm also nursing an ill advised hangover for the first time in years.

On the bright side - the steam mop was ace, and we also decided to rewax the kitchen and dining room floors as a result - they looked so clean! it's about half done, and they look great, so that's a bonus. I remember them from when we first viewed the property - they were one of my favourite features.

Haven't had time to do the painting touch ups. It will have to be tomorrow night after work.

Whosi, that sounds exciting! We moved a lot because of dh's work, so habitually rented until we sold - in the end we did it deliberately and only bought property in a place we knew we could rent out relatively easily, rather than a house for us. It was just easier all round than going through the buying and selling loop every couple of years. Good luck!

Thanks for your kind words, always late, and good luck with the visit this evening. Fingers crossed for you.

Always - How did your viewing go last night? And do you mind me asking how much your steam mop was, trying to decide if it's worth splashing out.

No feedback yet from our weekend viewers. And we've just seen another property we liked go under offer. Think I'm going to hold off viewing any more until I've got a buyer.

How is everyone getting on?

We've got viewings booked in all day Thursday and the house of loveliness that sold last week is back on the market. So its all swings and roundabouts over here. Now just crossing everything that we get lucky and get an offer so we can offer on the gorgeous one.

Oh hinkyhonk - fingers crossed for Thursday. Have you viewed the gorgeous house yet?

I'm feeling in limbo - nothing to buy or rent and anxious that my buyer will pull out before exchange. Husband is convinced we'll be homeless. I just want to identify somewhere to live so I can sort out the school places.

Aw cuddy that sounds tough. Any reason to think your buyer will pull out it just general sinking feeling? I'm sure something will cone up to rent or buy when you have exchanged. Sorry only have platitudes and nothing constructive to add.

We've stupidly viewed the house of loveliness twice and not been quick enough off the mark but hopefully we can get things moving quickly this time and actually put in a sensible offer. Pretty sure we know what we have to offer and naively optimistic about getting an offer on ours.

Oh and the lurid 3 bed on our st which was on for 50k more than ours has already sold for over the asking price. Totally bonkers

Just nervous as the last buyer pulled out. It looks like it'll have to be somewhere rented as our buyer wants us out in 8 weeks. I hate it when a competition house sells - especially when you know yours is bigger and better.

Fingers Xd for you both hinkyhonk and cuddy. Most of my saturday viewings cancelled (maybe the weather, who knows?) and my second viewer didn't even show up! Agent still can't get hold of them to find out why. Grrrrr.

Very annoying monkeytennis - fair weather viewers!

Viewing last night went well, apparently (obviously completely meaningless phrase if it doesn't lead to an offer lol) but ours was apparently the first place they had looked at...

Open house for the EAs tomorrow. Am hoping that will lead to a flurry of activity...

Everything is selling here - it's crazy. EA has gone to look at a house tonight that we were toying with viewing, so she's going to feed back tomorrow. Everything seems to be selling instantly, or have been on the market for well over a year because it's overpriced...

Cuddy, schools is a total pita.

Hinky, lol at the house of loveliness... Fingers crossed x

Just had a flurry of EA's ringing me. I only answered the phone in case they actually have something coming on to the market (I can hardly speak due to an evil sore throat!). Alas no - just the same old conversation along the lines of "are you still looking to move?" "Erm yes, do you know of anywhere?". "No, remind me of what yo are looking for again" Grrr. It's not like I haven't told them a gazillion times what I'm looking for.

Aw, cuddy. Get thee some hot lemon and honey.
Well, we had the open house for the realtors this morning (I left the house in a right flap - the dog walker brought the dogs back yesterday and let them into the empty house covered in mud, so my beautiful newly waxed shiny floors were awash with dirt and dust where it had dried, and flaked off and been trodden in. So I knew I had some work to do, but disaster struck - I couldn't get the central vac to work, so I was literally sweeping up piles of mud and dust with a broom, and then didn't have time to mop.)

Our realtor said it went v well, and she's hopeful that we'll get a rash of viewings out of it. Are they all so chipper and eternally hopeful?!

I'm going to view a funny wee place this afternoon. It says it's a 5 bed, but looks v small from the outside. Pics on the website seem to suggest it has random cobbled patches in the floor (dh says it looks like they have smashed a few tiles and then not been able to match them, so tried to make a 'feature' out of it... Given that dd2 has cerebral palsy, random indoor cobbles shout TRIP HaZARD to me... (Especially on the stairs, lol).

Anyway, I will report back. I have to take dd2 with me, as it's spring break here, so she is beyond excited. So far they haven't been on a viewing - just looked online...

Poor Cuddy. Stress is probably making your cold worse... I hope you don't end up homeless! You could always rent a holiday home somewhere as an emergency solution?

How was the 'funny wee place' alwayslateforwork? Cobbled patches sounds fascinating. Not sure how to imagine that...

We had our fourth viewing just now. A very nice family. They've only just started looking for a house. No idea what they were thinking.
They certainly liked the neighbour's overly sociable and slightly intrusive cat who kindly showed them around....

Cobbled patches - interesting alwayslate!

Tau - I'm determined not to be homeless (gulp)! There may be a rental coming back on to the market but I'm not in a position to chase really (but I will in a week).

Good old neighbours cat. You never know!

All is quiet on the solicitor front... I'll chase that too tomorrow especially as I know the secretary who is dealing with my file.

Someone from my EA rang today to ask if they could show someone round at 12:30pm - it was 11:45am. Errmmm, no! Can you imagine what my house normally looks like with 3 young DCs? The imagined shame if they'd have seen it

I had that too Monkey - they never did come to view in the end even though they were so desperately keen (house not even on the market)! If they're serious they'll be back :)

It was, um, a funny wee place! It did indeed have cobbled patches in the hall ways - and as expected, they did make dd2 fumble a bit.

It wasn't for us - on paper, it had enough rooms, etc etc, but the space seemed very strangely distributed - it had big hallways, which is good, because with three kids and two dogs, we always get tied in knots and trip over each other trying to get out of the house, but the actual rooms seemed very small to compensate... Lovely kitchen, but not enough to sway me - and access to the garden was through a downstairs corner room that we would be using as a kid's bedroom, with no communal area for the kids to hang out in. Our main bugbear with this house is that the dcs want to be having friends round, but they don't have a room each, and the living space is all open plan, so they have nowhere to go to watch tv, play etc, without me being right there - in the kitchen, dining room, whatever. And I have to say I find it quite intrusive - we need at least a separate loving room or family room...

Ooh a loving room - aye, aye!

Haha. Just checking my 'I'm On' threads and saw Cuddy's post - immediately thought one of you had been to view a house with a 'loving room' a la Christian's house in Fifty Shades!! Yuck yuck!!
I'm not really posting at the moment as every time I think about things I warn myself not to tempt fate!
But hoping you are all able to make some progress.
Always - my DS also has cerebral palsy so we view houses with that 'special' eye for obstacles as well.

Ya gotta have a separate loving room...

Spring - yep. I mean, cobbles... Indoors? Dd2 just rolled her eyes. Bizarre.

Hello, I'm joining!

Having three lots of estate agents over next week to give us a valuation and sell us their services. We've already made some progress at decluttering and are getting three rooms painted this weekend (tradesman in working all Easter weekend shocker) but I still lie awake every night panicking at the seemingly insurmountable pile of jobs that needs doing in order to get this house looking as perfect as possible.

We need to sort out the tatty front and back gardens, replace the laminate in the living room and kitchen, and patch up the scuffed and stained paintwork in the living room.

Quite literally all of these tasks could and should have been done years ago. But no, we've been living with unpainted walls and partially ripped up laminate for years and will only get the place looking nice in order to sell. Embarrassing

Problem is, I'm a) impatient and b) desperate to move, so I want to get everything done ASAP while my husband whines about how much it's going to cost.

Today I'm going to attempt some more decluttering while the toddler sleeps. How do you manage to keep the house looking sparkling for viewings with a toddler btw? Dreading it...

squalor hello but sorry no clue hoe to keep a house looking good with nippers. We've got viewings spread over the whole day tomorrow and I've got a 15 month old and a 3 and half year old to entertain in the cold.... Tricky will let you know how I get on!