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.

Got husband to speak with the Nationwide's main call centre (as they were open until 8pm) as our branch hadn't bothered to return our call. Mortgage agreed in principle - so I shall definitely sleep better tonight.

Just checked Rightmove and the house we're buying is showing as Sold STC - yay!

Congrats cuddy, excellent news. And fab news wonky that you've had an offer.

We're still waiting for the description to come through from our EAs, apparently checking your emails all the time doesn't make it come any quicker!

Yeah! Go Cuddy! And fab news Wonky!

Interesting times here. Seller has refused our offer and countered with the asking price and an additional $10k deposit. But only verbally. He has until 6pm tomorrow in theory to write that up, or accept our offer as it stands.

I say accept, because our realtor informs us that there is an identical house to the one we have offered on, coming onto the market on Thursday, for 100k less than the existing seller is demanding.

It doesn't have the same renos - hardwood, fireplace and kitchen, but it is in all other respects identical, and so we could theoretically have 100k to do the renos we wanted, instead of living with the existing ones. And it has a gas stove and hood, rather than an electric one without in the 'new' kitchen... Which I kinda like.

Realtor thinks we should rescind our offer as he has verbally countered, and get in with a fast offer on Thursday for the new listing. The snag is, we don't know how many other buyers who have viewed 'our' property have also been tipped the wink about the new listing.

There is also the possibility that the seller for the place we have offered on will also be tipped the nod about the new listing down the road, and will backtrack and accept our written offer as it stands, if he realises that no one will offer him asking price for his property with that competition. I'm not too fussed about that - we were content with that offer yesterday, so I can't get angsty about it being accepted - yesterday that would have been a great thing!! Dh isn't quite of the same mind and is seeing dollar signs disappearing down the pan.

Realtor has sent us an old listing for the property for thurs (only last year, so not too old), so I need to have a good look.

What to do, what to do...

Both houses are on the same street on the other side of the valley. Different colours, but built to exactly the same spec at the same time. I need to do a drive-by to determine exact location...

Aw CUddy, thats's great news! You might end up moving before us now! Our survey is being carried out tomorrow so hopefully that will move things on a bit.

All sounds complicated alwayslate - keep us posted.

Thanks Augusta - I've been on the phone literally all day sorting mortgage etc!

Today the seller dropped their counter by 10k and removed the additional deposit clause. Still only verbally, and they are apparently still on a beach in Hawaii.

We are ignoring. There are no other offers, and none look likely, so we are sitting on his counter for a couple of days.

We will try and look at the identical property and see what it's like - it hits the market on Thursday.

Congrats Cuddy! You won't be homeless after all.

Alwayslateforwork - things seem to be going well for you too - a choice of two houses! :-)

Over here, nothing is happening. New estate agent is coming on Friday, but I'm not sure about them either. Initially they seemed really good, knowledgeable and helpful, but in the last two conversations I got the impression that they were less keen. The woman did say that they had a sudden influx of houses for sale, and I guess if those are all expensive (and thus for them more profitable) houses that would explain why they are now less interested in ours...
Or it may just be my imagination; I'm getting pretty paranoid about estate agents in general.

Housetree- our useless agent- has not contacted us. So I suppose they have not been able to 'resurrect' the viewer they scared off with their misinformation. And heaven knows what rubbish they've been telling our previous viewers...
Anyway, their idiot employee who we had first should be off our case, but they have not informed us who is actually ON our case now... they have not replied to my partner's emails.

To make matters worse I am sick. Snot, headache, earache, fever and coughs. Now wheezy coughs happen to me every winter (counting this March and April as winter!) but the last time I was actually ill with fever is over six years ago when I was working under a particularly menacing, bullying supervisor.
I only get sick when I have too much stress - so this illness too is the bloody estate agent's fault! Hah!

Have you terminated your contract with Housetree Tau? They sound awful. Is there another agent, other than the one coming on Friday, that you could use? Our agent is completely disinterested in me now we've sold and has the hump now that I've offered on another property.

I've just got the final stages of the mortgage to sort today which should take another half an hour. Just awaiting a call back from the Nationwide call centre.

I was ill too recently Tau (and I'm never ill) and put it down to the stress of moving etc.

Getting very frustrated waiting for a call from the Nationwide. They called this morning but then their system went down and then the product code changed and now they have to re-do the mortgage illustration... grrrr

We have not yet terminated our contract with housetree. I want to, but my partner is a lot more cautious and kind than snappy old me...

Because of the different work methods it doesn't matter for the other EA though - housetree will not get a percentage of the sale anyway, so the other EA takes us on for the same cost as if it were a sole agency contract.

Sorry about the fuss with nationwide... ugh. Banks, estate agents.. they are all equal in annoyance.
At least we won't be getting a mortgage; that's one less worry.

Heh. I'm currently croaking and hacking and toying with losing my voice due to chest infection. Today we are the house sellers and stress induced illness thread. I suspect the stress is because I've got so much to do that's NOT house related, as I've been putting it all off due to house stuff.

Realtor says counter offer is open until Friday on the house we offered on, so the ball is in our court until then. We are viewing the new place tomorrow (thurs), so once that's done we can make up our minds - barring other interested parties, obv!

Nationwide mortgage application finally completed - I hope they don't dilly dally now!

One step closer, cuddy!

Can't believe I've parted with so much money already - over £800 this morning for the survey and I have to pay the search fees tomorrow and they're £325! Hope there's nothing else!

Cuddymum I was also shocked that on day 1 when we completed the full application with Nationwide we parted with £750. So early in the process that I asked myself, is this how it's going to be until exchange?
I think something is going on in the NW IT department as their computer crashed twice during the application that we had to do it again; 3.5hrs later we walked out of the bank feeling tired, hungry and grumpy! I can't wait to be done with the whole thing.

We were going to do it in branch but the mortgage lady said it would be quicker if we did it through the call centre. It took a very long time and we've been speaking to them over 3 days. We were ready to accept the first illustration and then when I went to do that I spoke to another agent who suggested something else. When I called later to accept that illustration I was asked if he could call me the following day and then he had to do another illustration as the product code changed and then the system crashed... Nightmare!

I am extremely nervous due to the tight timescale! Thankfully, my friend works in the solicitors so I have been texting her frequently. I will owe her a lovely bottle of perfume when it's all done and dusted. I've got a really good relationship with the agent I'm buying from but when I try to liaise with our EA re the sale and give him updates he does not return my call or emails. After his buyers are liars comment I just want to go and nut him!

We have just heard from the e.a. that we have we have a viewing on our house tomorrow afternoon. I know you lot will understand how abnormally exciting this is!! I'll be having the usual tidy/clean/stuff things in the car for the next few hours...............

I know how you feel doglover :)

I'm actually cleaning because the removal man is coming to quote tomorrow and as I've been on the phone for the last three days (good job I work term time) and it's been teenager sleepover central, the house is minging! Have ordered a rubber broom from JML to get the ingrained human teenager hairs out of the landing carpet!

Hope your viewing goes well.

Many thanks, CM. It's highly theraputic to come on here and share such trivia because you know that everyone else understands the trauma involved!

Can I join in? I've been lurking on this thread for a while.

Our house went on the market mid March, just before all the snow etc descended! We've only had 3 viewings so far. The EA says there's been a fair bit of interest, but a lot of people aren't willing to book viewings until they have offers themselves and know there own financial situations.

Been desperately trawling RM but nothing much new has come on in the last month.
Hope things pick up soon! Once you've made the decision to move, you just want to get on with it!

OK, well we are back - lots of posts to catch up on on this thread! - and have viewed houses. Several were horrifying; some people need to watch a bit more Phil Spencer before they put their hosue on the market. Two were lovely and we would happily offer on either, but we need to get ours under offer first. We have had an offer, but an insultingly low one so we have refused. I don't know why they bothered actually, £50k under the asking price is just ridiculous, anyone want to try a bit of buyer psychology here?

Cuddymum, what kind of survey are you having done? I'm trying to work out what the total costs are going to be on all of the buying and selling - was the £800 for a full structural?

Wonky - great news on your offers. Not sure we'd have had many viewings if EAs were only looking at proceedable buyers - London is still a different market I guess.

Tau - good luck with the new agents.

Turnipinatutu welcome to the thread!

Notthere hope the NW IT dept is on top of things by tomorrow, I'll be giving them a ring myself to see if we can agree a mortgage in principle as we will be porting our existing mortgage with them but need to increase it.

Booked a small space in safe store from Saturday for my clutter. Am busy de cluttering.

Estate agent coming around Monday to do photos so house will be on the market next week.

movingtimes My estate agent said that people offer really low as they've seen it done on Location Location Location. It is insulting. I'd never offer 50K below the asking price.

Welcome, TIAT! Good luck to one and all!!