Just accepted an offer. Now what?

[mrsleomcgary]

Have just verbally accepted an offer on my flat after 2 and a half years on the market. Trying not to get too excited as I know a lot can happen between now and contracts being signed but I've never sold before (this was my first property) so I've no idea what needs doing next! I'm talking obvious stuff like who to notify ASAP about the move, what can wait etc.

Any advice very greatfuly recieved!

Do you have a solicitor? That's your next step after telling the estate agents to take it off the market.

get solicitor signed up to get this moving. No need to notify anyone about the move as yet, but prepare your list of those who will need to know. You set up a post office redirect for 3 months ONCE YOU HAVE EXCHANGED, the only people who need to know urgently are house insurers, car insurers and utilities providers (take meter readings when you leave).

what's happening about your purchase?

We have a solicitor so will be getting in touch with them tomorrow once the written offer is in (just verbal offer and acceptance at the moment).

I was thinking need to set up a redirect,when we bought this place we were getting the previous owners mail for over a year and still get the odd bit now so will start looking into that straight away.

Purchase wise there's not much to do,we're buying my mums house as she's looking to downsize. Mortgage etc in in place the only thing holding it up was the sale of ours. Mum's agreed we can move in with her while we're getting the purchase dealt with so we're hoping to get our sale dealt with asap,ideally within 4-6 weeks as I'm coming to the end of my maternity leave so would be much easier to move before I go back to work full time!

4-6 weeks will only work if you have a motivated buyer with no chain, funds in place and all solicitors actually do some work. You should expect solicitors to turn things round within a day, but many can't be bothered. Keep chasing and nagging.

also depends on speed of your local council with searches, some take weeks.

get the redirect form (all change of addresses to banks etc trigger a letter to both old and new) but don't get too excited yet..

fingers crossed for you.

Sorry I'm drip feeding here aren't I? Buyer is a cash buyer with nothing to sell so are in a position to move quickly though they don't NEED to do so (they currently live in London, due to retire in the next few years and move here. A family member will rent from them in the mean time). When we moved here we were in 6 weeks to the day of offer being accepted so hopefully the searches will be just as quick this time.

It's the solicitors who will drag their heels. we moved in 6 weeks and our sol was great but the buyer' s was useless and they were useless at chasing them up!

You don't need redirect your mail yet- wait until you have a completion date. It's also more economical to re-direct for a whole year rather than 3 or 6 months, and to prevent ID fraud it is best to go for 12 months because some junk mail comes round annually.