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.

Been on the market ten days now and only the one viewing. Starting to feel desperate as we go to Portsmouth in two weeks to view houses there and it feels like we won't be taken seriously if we haven't had any interest in ours by then. Last time we sold we were in London and the house was snapped up in days. Spent all weekend cleaning and tidying and just wondering what for as the kids have managed to mess it all up again already. No tips for anyone else in the same boat I'm afraid.

Hi Can i join?
House went on the market earlier this week. Got one viewing tonight and one tomorrow morning ... wasn't expecting that to be honest.
Biggest prob = three dogs to hide / desmellificate.
Big house (4 bed) for price and homely but a bit scruffy round the edges....bit like me really
can i sit and wibble with you guys?

oh and forgot to mention they've got to come back to take more outside photos when the weather a bit better....as it was snowing. Made the inside pics looks nice and bright though.

We have had two positive viewings in the last week and one tomorrow though we are away all weekend. No offers though.

movingtimes Portsmouth!! know it fairly well. I would love ds to go to Portsmouth Grammar but dh is not convinced to move to the area.

Hello and welcome to everyone!

Have just filled a load of paperwork in and husband is just walking it round to my friend (she's the secretary of my solicitor). I'll do anything to speed things up!

I wish I could pass on tips as to how to keep the house tidy but alas I can't!

Hope you get an offer soon Sailorsgal.

Woo hoo I've hidden the clutter, touched up all the paint, cleaned every surface. Wow our house is nice, why has it taken me 10yrs & the need to sell it , to make it look so good? Wish we didn't have to relocate. Agents coming today & Tuesday so we'll see if they agree.

Feels good doesn't it Wonky? Do you hope to "go live" on the market over Easter?

I'm seeing the odd house coming on this week - they're either too small and not in the right area or in the right area but over £700k!

I'm wondering if it's tempting fate to arrange for the removals company to come and quote or if I should wait until I know where we're actually moving to.

I also need to get the oven clean man in - the oven is minging!

Cuddy - OvenPride. My oven was disgusting and I used this the other week prior to EA photos. I was so busy decluttering that I actually left it on for two days! The oven is sparkling now - DH said "that stuff must be evil" - but it saved me a good £70 from the OvenClean man

Oh and the oven still works fine!

Ooh yes, I've seen that stuff advertised. How do you apply it? Does it work for the whole oven (back, top, sides etc) and how do you wipe the gunk out?

We've now got to the draft contract stage, I guess we just sign and return and things start again on Tuesday. Any help with removal companies would be great- advice, suggestions etc as I have never used one before. How long do you think it might be before exchange and completion from this stage?
How is everyone else doing?

Cuddy yes feels great. It looks all shiny & new
I'm seeing agents today & on Tuesday & will make a decision and get it on the Market next week. We have to get three quotes as we get a relocation package for agents fees etc. I pretty much know who I'll put it on with though.
1 agent down this morning - valued at what I expected, fee slightly less than I expected, waiting for no 2 now.
Feel good as the house up the rd that went on the Market last wk is now under offer.

Augusta, we signed our draft contract yesterday. I'm not sure how long it'll take until exchange though but we're aiming for completion in 7 weeks. I'm going to use the local removals company as I've used them a few times now.

Good news about the house up the road Wonky - hopefully a good sign that things are buoyant in your area.

Re OvenPride: I'm not sure about top/back etc. as I've not used it on there. But the inside and racks are spotless. You literally just apply it and leave it for as long as you can, then wipe off. Put lots of newspaper down and have old cloths & rubber gloves at the ready. Really doesn't take much effort at all though.

Thankyou Monkey :)

Oven Pride is applied!! Didn't realise it was so cheap. Looking forward to the results.

Had another go at clearing the garage (I hate the garage!) which always results in a miserable DH, particularly when I suggest that we ditch the "spare" garden chairs that we have been moving from house to house for over 10 years and have never been used.

Other than that there's nothing else I can do until after the BH weekend. I'm wondering how quickly we can exchange now... I mean there's only me and our buyer. Not sure why I keep checking Rightmove - I'm registered with just about every estate and letting agent.

Lovely couple came and looked round this morning. No other viewers yet though. Today's viewers seemed to like it though so we shall see.
Spent a lot of time cleaning yesterday, seems a waste not to get a couple of viewings out of it.

Hope they come back Movingtimes - it only takes one good viewer. Did you do the viewing yourself?

We thought we'd expand our search to other villages in the catchment area of Sharnbrook School and identified two possible houses. Thought it might be nice to view them today as husband is off and it's a BH. Typically, the EA's are closed! I swear Easter was supposed to be a good time to view houses. [busmile].

Anyway, we're off for a scout around villages today, even if we can't go inside any houses!

Cuddymum - yes, the EA was too busy! DH took the DC out of the way though, I think it works better without them tripping over people all over the house.
They didn't have a brochure though as the EA didn't give them one [buconfused]
Hope you get to do your viewing soon. I have set up a few for when we go to Portsmouth next week, but again there were a couple we wanted to see and I left it with the EAs there to arrange several days ago and they have not come back to me with times. You would think they didn't want to sell houses....

Cuddymum - the house we are buying now was one of those that the EA said they could not show it to us for another 2wks( some renovations to finish). We ignored them and knocked at the house anyway( under the pretense that were walking the dog when we saw the for sale sign) vendor checked with EA about us and gave us a viewing 1hr later!

I was rather embarrassed by the whole thing but my outlaws inlaws were very keen as it was a better house than any we had seen and they were determined to get it for us. I know that if i was a vendor i would not be pleased by this kind of intrusion but they got a sale out of this bother so hopefully they did not mind too much. You know when they say that you buy a house before you have been through the door, this was it!

I think you're right Movingtimes - the EAs just aren't interested!

Well I'm off to stalk a few neighbourhoods :)

Well we've stalked and well, at least we've ruled out other areas now. They just are not right for us. I have spoken to my friend today and providing the buyer's solicitors have all their searches back and don't have too many enquiries, we could exchange soon. Just need to find a rental now...

I'm getting discouraged.
Only four viewings since January. The last two were be pretty serious and seemed genuinely interested, but we've heard nothing back from them.
Our first choice house-to-buy is still up for sale, but our second choice has sold last week. And we are not in any position to bring an offer. I'm worried that our first choice house will also sell before we can make an offer and there isn't really any other house for sale in our intended new town that I'd want to live in...

Hi everyone. Can I join you please? I tried joining you several months ago, but chickened out at the time (from selling, not from MN). Now joining firmly as my house is going live on the market tomorrow (or at least my agent tells so).

My house is a 2 bed Victorian house in South London. It is in a good nick so shouldn't be a problem to sell. I already found what I want to buy... (I know I should not have viewed before putting my house on the market...but I did).
My asking price and the other house's asking price are the same, so I need to achieve a balance between them.

The sun is shining and I am very, very optimistic. Let's see how my optimism declines over passing weeks how it goes :)

Tau I am likely to be in the same position as you - currently onle two choices to buy, and I am looking to buy at one particular road so if those go I will be screwed. Is a price reduction an option for you?