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Original poster

Listings, viewings and offers thread 2!

999 replies

drspouse · 15/03/2017 10:19

We've filled up the old one! (maybe someone on a mobile device could add a post with this link though?)

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Fortheloveofscience · 22/05/2017 08:08

Oh badger that must be so disappointing. Fingers crossed for an interested buyer soon (I'm hoping for a massive rush post-election!).

We've got viewer number 12 coming tomorrow, nothing else booked so far but hopefully we'll have a call today with people who contacted them over the weekend.

Original poster
drspouse · 22/05/2017 11:44

We've had an offer! Woo hoo!
It's proceedable - but it's RUBBISH. We're asking £250K and they are offering £220.
We are currently paying £300/month in mortgage to keep our old place so that would take 8 years to make back...
So we are asking for more, have discussed with DH and he agrees.

As we own two places if we don't sell our old place within 36 months we have to pay extra stamp duty but again, that's quite a long way ahead (we bought our new house in early April).

Our EA doesn't work on commission (it's a flat fee) and agrees we could get quite a bit more and that it's moving into a better time for viewings (though they always say that).

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Original poster
drspouse · 22/05/2017 11:51

(Oh and our other deadline is that we have a 2 year fixed mortgage on a BTL place which we were going to pay off with our sale which ends at the end of July but we aren't going to meet that deadline even if we say yes today, so we will either roll over briefly to variable if we have SSTC or we'll take out a new one if we have no more sniffs of interest).

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m0therofdragons · 22/05/2017 13:07

We've put in our offer of £320. Guide price was £350 but it's been on for ages and is quirky with very limited parking. We love it enough to deal with that but not for full asking. Owners are away with limited contact so who knows when we'll hear. I think they'll say no and hold out for more which will be disappointing but we'll have to walk away as it's such an old property we need a bit of money held back for inevitable issues.

m0therofdragons · 22/05/2017 13:11

drspouse that's a big jump down for you. We went low as there's little to compare so hard for an ea to really value. We can see what they paid but know they've done a huge amount of work. We've really weighed it up and gone with a price we feel is fair but vendor probably wants more. If yours is newish then there should be lots of info on comparable prices. How does yours compare? Will they meet you in the middle? Maybe they're just opening negotiations. Good luck

KoalasAteMyHomework · 22/05/2017 13:16

drspouse well an offer is a good sign at least. But I do hope they come back with something higher for you.

We had a viewing Tues and one Wed and both were looking at houses this weekend but seemed really positive about ours. Was hoping one of them would call today to offer but it's 1pm so not looking promising :-(

4 weeks til we lose the house we are buying :'(

Original poster
drspouse · 22/05/2017 14:25

We think they are prepared to negotiate - and we can wait quite happily, as I say if they offer another really low price. I think we'd take something reasonable, not waiting for full asking though it will need to be fairly near.

We haven't been on so long that it will look unloved - it was Feb I think we have been on 3 months. I can see the next two up from us in price have just been reduced though so we may be better taking a slightly lower price now rather than reducing and potentially getting a lower offer than our reduced price.

There's one round the corner for £220 with the same number of beds but the floor plan and pictures show it's much smaller (the 4th bed is taken out of the 3rd, attic, bed and only seems to fit a single and room to turn round, where ours has a full attic bedroom and our smallest bedroom would fit a double - we had it as kids' bedroom with 2 child beds).

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Original poster
drspouse · 22/05/2017 14:32

Harumph. "Final" offer is apparently £221.9. Cheeky or really all they can afford??

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KoalasAteMyHomework · 22/05/2017 14:55

drspouse if they've come back with a random £221 I imagine it is everything they can afford. Still rubbish for you though and a lot lower. What have the EA said?

Ours has been on since Feb. I just don't understand why :-( asking price is now 13k under what market value is x

Original poster
drspouse · 22/05/2017 14:57

EA has said they also think it's really all they can afford.
DH is doing some sums but I think we will say no, wait a couple of weeks and then reduce the price but not by that much.

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ElspethFlashman · 22/05/2017 15:08

Why on earth would you even view a house if you can't get near asking?

I'm viewing going on the assumption we'd need to get within 10K of asking unless it's been on for absolutely ages and ages.

Original poster
drspouse · 22/05/2017 15:12

They actually hadn't even been for a mortgage appointment when they came to view. I think they had no real plans to move but saw the house and loved it (which I can sympathise with as we did that - but we then went home, did some calculations and speculations and research, and THEN made an offer).

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KoalasAteMyHomework · 22/05/2017 15:23

Have to admit we viewed a house and then realised it was 10k more than we could afford but we apologised and explained that when we put in a low offer. But we did research so at least had an idea. Bit odd to offer and be looking at house 30 grand over budget!

Hope something works out for you. Still no news from our EA so assume last week's viewers aren't offering after all.

KoalasAteMyHomework · 22/05/2017 15:24

Hope you hear soon dragons

m0therofdragons · 22/05/2017 16:26

Offer declined, which we expected. They have told us their minimum which would stretch us. On a newer house we may have gone for it but this is grade 2 listed and likely to be pricey to maintain, plus things like our bed and fridge freezer won't fit so need to factor that in.

We could get a far more sensible large modern 4 bed with garage for 30k less so that may need to be the decision rather than stretching ourselves for a property that'll leave us struggling financially. Wondering if it's fate. Will do more maths tonight.

It's so hard to know what the right thing to do is!

Original poster
drspouse · 22/05/2017 16:35

Well they have apparently asked "what are we looking for" to which the answer is "more than that... considerably more than that!". Maybe they can go and see another broker?

We are not really in a bird-in-the-hand position because the only thing that's happening over time is that it's looking a little unloved (as in, on the site for a long time without offers, rather than "in need of maintenance").

We've asked the EA to reduce by a small amount after the BH to get a bit more interest. But as I say not THAT much.

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Lilmisskittykat · 22/05/2017 18:13

Dr if you want to sell why not tell them exactly what you want for it.. bottom line? Then they know exactly where they stand and can go to the figures from your view point.

Would save it being dragged out and then they know to either agree or stop wasting everyone's time

PoochiePie · 22/05/2017 18:35

I'm really struggling to get my head around the offers over system in Scotland.
We've seen two or three houses we like (requiring renovation), and plan to view once we've exchanged contracts on our house in England so we know that's not going to fall through. One of these, an older style terraced cottage is on for offers over £185k. Nearby sold prices for similar properties in more modern condition a year or so ago were around £150-180k, but this one is end terrace and has parking, which the others don't.
Ive been told that it usually goes to sealed bids and a closing date, but have no idea if I'm looking at houses in my budget because I don't really know what people are expecting to get since in England it's more unusual to be offers over. I don't want to waste people's time doing viewings/fall in love with a house if I was never going to stand a chance of offering what they want...

PaulDacresFeministConscience · 22/05/2017 19:08

Still no phone calls Sad

PoochiePie · 23/05/2017 00:40

Well, today we were contacted by someone who viewed our house back when it was on with our online EA, but whose chain fell through to say they had an offer on their house again. They were basically saying they had seen ours is now sold and were gutted, but good luck with everything.
Now I'm trying really hard to not think about it - even if they offered the same crap offer as our current buyers, we'd have 4K more as we wouldn't have to pay the traditional estate agents. Trying to remind myself to be a good person, and wouldn't be right to even see if they want to counter offer since we already accepted the other offer - plus it would look bad. But it's making me sad to even think that the possibility of such a nicer financial situation exists :(

Borntobeamum · 23/05/2017 08:15

Yes. kebabs.
I think they were punching above weight and thought we'd sell for 150k.

m0therofdragons · 23/05/2017 10:32

Decided not to increase our offer. We love the cottage but when we could get a 4 bed detached property with plenty of parking and good sized garden and larger rooms just minutes away on edge of town near the village the cottage is in for £290,000 we can't really justify to ourselves going over our £320,000 offer on a house just because we love it. It needs to make financial sense too.

Agent implied ours has been the only firm offer and it's been on since August. She was going to go back to vendor and see if she could get it for us - I'm assuming agent is keen not to lose us and wonder if vendor may accept having tried to increase our offer (to be fair we did the same with our buyers and they came back a little higher). Not completely given up hope but also viewing a possible newer home on Thursday so we will see.

Borntobeamum · 23/05/2017 13:17

Isn't it stressful?

Original poster
drspouse · 23/05/2017 13:28

Oh I'm totally in the "loved it and HAD TO HAVE IT" school so I feel your pain.
Despite the rewiring, wasps' nests (dead) and damp.

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ElspethFlashman · 23/05/2017 14:33

Yes we viewed a property that I loved that was full of character and on 3/4 of an acre. Total tranquility.

But it needed an extension (the master bedroom was 10ft x 10ft wide and we have a 6ft bed!) and I realised just how expensive two storey extensions are.

Sobered me up very quickly!

So now we're only looking for houses that need no apparent work. I'm slowly getting over my love of character which isn't always compatible with a growing family. I'd happily live in a building site for a year pre-kids, but not now.

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