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Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

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Original poster

EA coming to take photos on Monday. What should I be doing to prepare?

39 replies

sleepyhead · 11/10/2013 14:49

I've never sold before

Flat is a one bed and we share the fairly large bedroom with ds1 & 2. Ds2 is in a travel cot which I'll take down for photos and viewing.

We've decluttered as much as we can. Parents are coming on Sunday to help with last minute diy jobs, and for DM to pass over an ultra-critical eye.

We also have a cat & litter tray. Obv will have all evidence of cat out of the way for the pictures, but should I ask my parents to look after her until we sell or is that overkill? (cat and parents would be fine with this - she stays with them for holidays etc, but we would miss her).

Oh I hate this! I feel completely out of my depth and we've only just started!

OP posts:

justabigdisco · 01/11/2013 23:02

That's fantastic! Am marking my place on this thread, we're going on the market very soon!

Original poster

sleepyhead · 01/11/2013 23:40

Oh good luck!

Now I'm fretting about where we're going next, as our buyer's offer was contingent on a short moving in date.

We've only just put in for a mortgage decision in principle so that's the next stress, waiting for a decision. I can see why people say that moving is one of the most stressful things you do in life

OP posts:

justabigdisco · 02/11/2013 07:48

Have you found somewhere to buy?

Original poster

sleepyhead · 02/11/2013 12:43

Well....no.

To be honest we never thought it would sell quite so quickly, plus expected to have a longer period before exchange (or whatever it is you call handing over the keys). However, the buyer offered the full valuation price and it would have been crazy not to accept.

We're heavily relying on the equity we had in the flat to finance our next move and also don't have an absolutely squeaky clean financial record hence not approaching lenders until we knew how much we had (hopefully the very large deposit we now have will make us a better risk).

Anyhoo, one way or another we won't be living here in 6 weeks time. We're willing to go into rented though if the mortgage application doesn't go smoothly and the perfect property doesn't pop up.

I just keep thinking, by Christmas this too will have passed, to stop me cracking up

OP posts:

Original poster

sleepyhead · 06/11/2013 10:32

Mortgage-in-principle achievement unlocked!

I've got to say that now we're starting viewings ourselves I'm feeling very sympathetic to the poor souls that are running around stuffing things under the bed on our behalf, but as we're looking at fairly small properties anyway you can immediately see the difference when the clutter is put away.

OP posts:

justabigdisco · 06/11/2013 20:03

We've gone on today - will keep you updated! Have already had an offer accepted on the house we want to move to - so hoping to get a sale like yours!

Original poster

sleepyhead · 06/11/2013 20:09

Good luck!

We saw a really nice flat this evening. In our price range and definitely a possible. It just went to fixed price yesterday though so I suspect we'll have to make a decision quite quickly. 6 more viewings tomorrow and Friday so hopefully no-one snaps it up before then.

Massively in it's favour is that it's empty, so hopefully we'd be able to move in when we move out of this place. But I have to keep reminding myself that we need to think about the next 5 years, not just the next 5 weeks!

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Original poster

sleepyhead · 12/11/2013 18:24

Well, a month ago I started this thread and... today we had an offer accepted on a 3 bed flat!

All things being well we'll be moving out of here and moving in about a hundred yards down the road in one more month's time.

OP posts:

justabigdisco · 13/11/2013 11:23

That's fantastic. We've been on the market a week now, had a couple of viewings but not heard anything yet. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Bumbez · 13/11/2013 14:14

Fantastic news, it took us over a year down south :)

Original poster

sleepyhead · 13/11/2013 23:13

We're so, so happy

Here's hoping your buyer is just round the corner justabigdisco!

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HaveToWearHeels · 14/11/2013 11:27

Well done Sleepy nice to hear good news. DH and I are currently looking for another BTL but everything is being snapped up. We are proceedable too.

Original poster

sleepyhead · 17/12/2013 09:26

So... we moved in to our new place yesterday!

I hope everything's going well for everyone else on here who was moving.

OP posts:

starfish4 · 17/12/2013 10:35

We're about to put our house on the market, so have been having a bit of a clear out and spring clean. Our house is never going to look minimalist though and we discussed this with the agents. Two of them (maybe being polite) told us to have it just as presented to them (yes we did put cat litter tray away, it was clean and piles tidy). Between them we had comments that it like a real home not a show home no one has ever lived in, and it was warm and inviting. One agent told me the thing that puts people off most is dirty grout in the bathroom and a dirty house.

So I'd say to obviously clear out things you never use (which it sounds like you have, if you can't put everything away (ie toys, clothes that don't fit in wardrobes etc) make sure it's all tidy. Obviously have it clean, put things like drying up away and don't have your undies out in display. Open curtains fully to let in as much natural light as possible. Ask you agent what shots he/she will take and perhaps suggest you can move a pile of something quickly out of the way.

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