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

Anyone fancy starting a Sellers support thread?

912 replies

Sooperswooper · 21/07/2015 17:30

Just that really! Grin

OP posts:
StepAwayFromTheThesaurus · 21/03/2016 19:26

Congratulations lists. It must feel weird to drive past and it not be your house any more.

Good luck Say. Sealed bids is nerve wracking (but better than a bidding each other up ad infinitum situation that could be the alternative).

Luna: that does sound annoying. Presumably the buyers are weird and over-cautious too, otherwise they'd have told their solicitor not to be ridiculous. And also booked a survey in the last 8 weeks.

We're still waiting to hear about our offer. Well, they want to accept it in principle, but we're waiting to hear that our buyers have their survey report so that they will accept it. DH says that he just got a message from one of the houses we leaflet dropped the weekend before last though, so maybe that's another possibility too.

I'm utterly fed up with the whole thing (and would rather not bother at all), but DH really wants to move so I have to do this.

listsandbudgets · 21/03/2016 20:30

Very strange Stepaway but I'm going to have to get used to it since we've only moved a couple of minutes down the road. She was talking about making some quite major changes so will be interesting to see what she does.

Peaceandloveeveryone · 21/03/2016 23:12

Can I join please? Meant to be officially on the market in two weeks time but two people show round today. We are in rented, our landlord is selling and I am worrying about not having anywhere to live, we can be given notice to leave at any time. Our house will be quite difficult to sell I think as near a failing school, we have painted and fixed things, done our best and it's empty of course.

listsandbudgets · 22/03/2016 15:08

Peace is it your house being sold or the rented house you're living in? Either way welcome. If its your landlords, then they have to give you certain legal notices and you don't have to agree to viewings while your still living there if you don't want to. Most buyers would be reluctant to buy if they thought that there was a tenant in situ anyway.

This board is really helpful - I nearly gave a discount to my buyer but people here persuaded me to hold firm and we completed yesterday at our original asking price :)

listsandbudgets · 22/03/2016 15:09

sorry ignore me just re-read your post - it made more sense second time Blush

StepAwayFromTheThesaurus · 22/03/2016 15:14

Well, lots of people don't care about schools, so you can presumably sell them on the house and the area itself. And, if course, school fortunes do change. Good luck.

DH spoke to the guy who phoned and left a message as a result of our spamming people at home. He wanted to check it's not a scam (which is fair enough, as we'd assume a scam). He had just got back from holiday and wanted to find out if it was legitimate before talking to his wife. They are moving across the country (he's already rented a house where they're going) and were planning to put the house on the market after Easter. So he's going to talk to his wife and we'll go from there (I'm perfectly happy for them to put it on the market properly through an EA and then view it, etc - I just want to know something might come up).

The EA also phoned this morning about the house we've offered on. Still no word on our buyers' survey but apparently the vendor really, really wants to accept our offer (it's £12k more than the other people are willing to pay, so not to be sniffed at) but wants to make sure our sale is not going to be thwarted by the survey before accepting. So it's waiting all round here.

Peaceandloveeveryone · 22/03/2016 15:20

It's the waiting that's so hard, just days of waiting around for feedback. I am slightly concerned that our agent is harassing the viewers as two looked yesterday and he said that he called them first thing for feedback. That would annoy me as a buyer I think but maybe just me being tetchy.
I think that if they like it they will offer, calling them won't speed it up.

I lost three stone last year and am piling it back on through comfort eating Shock.

I thought I would try and be flexible with viewings lists as two DC got A levels and GCSEs in the next two months. I might say no more than twice a week and shoes off inside. It really annoyed me that the valuer trampled mud everywhere, I don't see why I should have to do more cleaning. Would love to buy the house but was totally shocked at the asking price so no go there.

Anyone else got any news?

Peaceandloveeveryone · 22/03/2016 15:23

Lists it wasn't the most clear post, sorry. We are selling our old family house that was rented out, we have been renting for ten years in a different area. Last tenants completely trashed it so we have renovated and selling it. So tired of having to move every year. Running out of money though, have to pay full council tax on the empty house as council very strict about leaving homes empty.

JT05 · 22/03/2016 16:53

Our buyer and two more builders have just had a two hour visit. At least we've exchanged, so any bad news is hers!

She is remodelling the whole house, I really don't mind, in a way it's good because our life here will have gone - if you follow me!

Peace don't stand for the shoes! What a cheek the valuer had! Hope things get better.

Peaceandloveeveryone · 22/03/2016 17:14

You must be so relieved to have exchanged JT05

JT05 · 22/03/2016 17:25

Very relieved, but I've moved on to the next set of worries ! I'm a hopeless case Grin

listsandbudgets · 22/03/2016 18:09

Brilliant you've finally exchangd JT05, its been a very stressful five months or so for you. Exchange is a major hurdle to get out of the way. I hope it is smooth from now on :)

Peace good luck then. I hope you get it sold quick. In this area they charge an extra 50% council tax on properties that are empty for longer than (I think) 6 months

StepAwayFromTheThesaurus · 22/03/2016 19:48

It must be nice not having to worry about what the builders say. Grin

Peaceandloveeveryone · 23/03/2016 09:31

Yes, knock yourself out builders.
Had an offer this morning of 20% under asking price Hmm. It was priced at the lowest valuation that we had as we want to sell quickly.

JT05 · 23/03/2016 11:09

Peace ; I think it really depends on your situation. We had 4 valuations with a range of £100,000 difference. Much to our surprise as in our own minds we had undervalued the house.
We decided that we go for a price in the middle of the valuations, thinking that any offers would indicate what people were prepared to pay.
In the end we sold at 10% under the asking price. But we are down sizing and had been in the house for a long time, so as long as we got above our bottom price we were happy. Unfortunately it's not an exact science.

Peaceandloveeveryone · 23/03/2016 13:00

Yes, I will have to see if any offers come in, this house is not officially on the market yet and I hope that we get some, hopefully at 5% lower. I found an app the other day which tracks how quickly your estate agents sells and how much of the asking price they achieved. Really interesting, most in our area are going within 12 weeks for 95% of asking price.

Mummyme87 · 23/03/2016 13:43

I hate waiting to hear from EA!!!

listsandbudgets · 23/03/2016 14:36

I've just been closing all the accounts on the old house. I can't believe how hard it was. Virgin were worst - 45 minutes on the phone and let me tearing my hair out with confusion. Scottish Power did it in 10, TV licensing transferred the licence in about 5 minutes and Severn Trent were the pick of a the bunch - a very pleasant lady who managed a bit of banter, left me with a smile on my face and did the whole job in a 3 minute phone call including the minute spent in the queue to talk to her - and that was without me being able to find my account number either.

SayAGreatBigThankyou · 23/03/2016 16:27

just checking in to say our offer was accepted and we have accepted an offer on ours. So all being well we're on the move .

thinking of you all - it's bloody stressful this moving malarkey!!

JT05 · 23/03/2016 16:32

Why has every cupboard and drawer got loads more in it than you ever put there?

Into week 3 of clearing before the packers arrive! Going to have 4 Easter days off now! Hope everyone gets some holiday time.🌞 and an egg!

goldenlilliesdaffodillies · 23/03/2016 17:32

I am really struggling to clear any cupboards! It seems such a mammoth task. We're moving in 2 weeks hopefully.

lavendersun · 23/03/2016 17:53

Lists - I am going through that painful process this week. The absolutely worst thing has been sorting out my internet connection at the new house. I was really surprised to be offered fibre here (never had it before as the old house was very rural).

New house is 0.8 miles down a farm track on a big estate. Three lovely open reach engineers have visited and told me that there is no way that I can possibly have fibre. Fair enough but I was 'sold' it - I don't care whether it is fibre or not, I just need any old internet connection.
I have spent ...... 5 hours!!!! on the phone on that alone this week and have been told that it will take two weeks to 'cancel' my fibre broadband (that they could never provide here) and I can't have ADSL broadband before then! Classic. I am still working on a couple of projects I was running before I moved 200 miles away.

JT05 - having had 200 odd boxes packed I have a pile of stuff for the charity shop in a stable - I just didn't manage it in the time I had.

Yes Grin eggs to us all!!

Still no news on exchanging on our old house.

StepAwayFromTheThesaurus · 23/03/2016 19:58

That sounds ridiculous lavender. Are you talking to BT? I ask because they did similarly incompetent things to us over broadband when we moved somewhere rural.

Lists: sorry to hear about the hours on the phone to utilities companies. That's never fun. I recently nearly combusted as a result of having to keep phoning between British airways and American Airlines because both of them are unimaginably useless at customer service and cannot seem to coordinate anything even though their partnership means you'll be on the other's planes regardless who you booked with.

I hope the (seasonally appropriate) cupboard cleaning is done so, JT and golden.

Great to hear that offers have been accepted all round, Say. Smile

Sorry that you got a really low offer Peace. Hopefully you'll get offers that you find more reasonable once it goes on the market properly.

Our buyers still haven't had the report back from their survey yet but they heard from the bank and the valuation is fine so the mortgage has been approved. They've said they're considering getting a home buyers survey too (since this was just the mortgage valuation survey). The EA told the vendors of the house we've offered on that the survey came back totally fine (and said to us that the vendors don't need to be told about the homebuyers survey, as we would just negotiate with them if anything came up). The seller needs to check with her husband (who is very much in another time zone) before accepting, but we should hear tomorrow. The EA is confident it'll be a yes (but I'm not entirely convinced by EA confidence).

Peaceandloveeveryone · 23/03/2016 20:19

Hopefully you might be close to exchange then Stepaway? Easter feels like such a frustrating obstacle in the middle of house buying and selling to me, normally I love it.

Polyethyl · 23/03/2016 20:38

The buyer for my flat said she had to complete by 31st March, for tax reasons. So I have bent over backwards to be ready. This is despite having to withdraw my offer on my dream home as the seller's were ID fraudsters (we reported them.) So I found another house to buy and my solicitor did all the paperwork in 8 working days. We are ready to exchange. ... but my buyers are not. Apparantly they're not so bothered about that tax deadline after all! So I have no idea whether to pack over easter or whether to cancel the removal men.