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

[CuddyMum]

Thought I'd better start a new thread... :)

Another fun day packing! Have almost finished updating companies with my new address. Decided to say a goodbye to TalkTalk so am getting a new phone number and email address too. Need to finish packing my holiday case as well :)

Enjoy packing cuddy the thought of packing scares me (although I hope we get to!)

Our buyer has just received the survey and very kindly sent it to us too, they make such scary reading and he recommends loads of stuff but he concludes that the structural stability is fine!! That's a relief, I just hope nothing else puts them off, there is a huge list of recommendations, he was a really thorough surveyor

It is scary. It took me ages before I started telling anyone!

telling our neighbours was nerve wracking ruby both DH and I said it felt like it does when resigning from a job and telling your boss!

Cuddy - what is the paperwork i sign before the exchange? Is it a contract of sale and a transfer deed? Do i confirm moving dates after this?

Our buyer has been in touch and subject to confirming a couple of bits she is happy (don't want to write exact detail on here as it would make me very identifiable!) At worst, I think we might have to knock a little bit off the price so on that basis I am very very

Will tell my solicitor to go for it tomorrow and booking a survey on our new house. Eek!!

tau how did the open house go?

Sounds good Terry's! Onwards and upwards.

We have 82 boxes packed so far!

Thanks cuddy just seen your message about witnesses - daft question but is this paperwork called the contract of sale?

Yes there's the contract and the paperwork to transfer the deeds :)

Does anyone have any experience of reducing the price? We've been on market just over a month and had 6 viewings in first 10 days and nothing since.

The house is priced well in the sense that we've gone for the same as very similar houses have sold for but we have a new kitchen, bathroom, landscaped garden etc. I thought it was the right price and it is less than similar houses are unrealistically priced at in the street.

The market is so flat that there just aren't many people out there. I was wondering about reducing the price to bring it down to the same price as smaller properties. Does anyone have any experience of price reductions?

I only want to do it if it means the house will sell relatively quickly.

Sorry, I meant to add that DH thinks if any of the 6 people who viewed it were interested but thought it was expensive they would have put an offer in £20k under and in that sense reducing is pointless.

Would really appreciate opinions.

Pasta I'm watching with interest! We've been on the market 8 weeks, had about that many viewings, an offer at over 10% less than asking price (under stamp duty threshold), but that fell through when she lost her buyer.

EA says it's only worth reducing if we take off £10-£15K (which will leave us £10k over stamp duty threshold). I was thinking £6-8k off. But we couldn't agree so I've left it til now, but as we have no onward chain and will be moving inJuly I'd really like to crack on!

It's hard to know what to do for the best. I was thinking of taking £15k off. We aren't near a threshold so at least i don't have that to worry about too.

If we're getting viewings our houses must be presented well and not stupidly priced. Do people really feel they can't just offer less and need the price to be reduced in order to be interested???

Who knows! We looked at expensive houses and made lower offers because we were in a good position. We are literally the only 3 bedroom place under £300,000 in our whole town. (Lots of 3 bed go for over £500k here). But there are other less nice towns nearby which are much cheaper, so we suffer by comparison I think.

It sounds as though both our houses are realistically priced but perhaps in a flat market it is necessary to price your house at 'absolute bargain' level to attract one of the few buyers?

I have booked to view a cheaper house tonight to help me with this decision. If we sell for less than the house is probably worth to get things moving it will mean reducing our budget so I want to see where that will leave us.

That's a smart idea!

We have already proceeded with our dream house. It was almost at the top of our budget and needs a lot of cosmetic work doing. We'll struggle (but manage) if we have to accept £250k for our own house, but things would be soooo much easier if we can get nearer to £265K, which is £10k under asking price. But at the same time, we will be in a much better position if we can sell over summer.... hate to think of my house being empty....

Cuddy-thanks. I've had those but nothing to say a completion date (though we informally know what we're looking at), but shouldn't we get that in writing??

What about a stamp duty incentive Ghosteditor? I'm always surprised more people trying to get through the threshold don't do this..... So many first time buyers are cash poor because they need a massive deposit so offering a few thousands towards their stamp bill might allow them to go to £265? I know you'd be a few £k down but if it meant getting £265 it would be a good investment.

This worked really well for my SIL who put up half the stamp duty to get through the threshold.

interesting idea, thanks! We may suggest this if it comes up again when we get a proper offer. we're sinking a lot of cash into our own move but if we get a buyer at a decent price we would have wiggle room on that front...

Complete Nightmare
Buyers have pulled out at point of exchange.
Need a gin and new buyers.
Help!

Our buyer has come back to lower their offer on the back of their bullshit survey. We've offered to split the difference provided we exchange this week.

I hate all this uncertainty I just want to move on and in!