Listing, viewings and offers thread 3!

[Fortheloveofscience]

We filled up our old one, hoping I'm not posting out of turn by starting the next, it's the only thing keeping me from going nuts with the endless cycle of no viewings - viewings - feedback - no offer - no viewings - viewings etc!

Hope this is the thread where we all sell and get our dream houses. I'm working from home and doing 'backseat cleaning' - nagging my poor OH who has the day off to do everything for our second viewing this afternoon from the only couple to have shown serious interest.

Ugh, I haven't even got my head around the logistics of packing and boxes etc... I had a stab at 'Marie Kondo'-ing about 6 months ago, so we've definitely cut down on a lot of stuff, but I can imagine I may get quite ruthless when it comes to packing to move!
I was a bit short with DH today when he was talking about buying some new board games - we don't want any MORE stuff!

Drspouse - I seeee that's why your photos have furniture in, but now it's gone! That makes sense So an office move is just insult to injury then!!!!

PickaChew - very true, there's only so fussy you can manage a buyer being

Lazy your solicitor sounds... um... efficient? It does take the mickey when the fees are so damn ridiculous!!

I am about to email her (after she didn't call me back today despite me leaving another message). I am going to tell her that I don't want to have to keep calling her and chasing whilst I am on holiday, but that I will do so every day if that's what it takes until I hear from her!

Hope you get some joy Lazy!

Well, we didn't get the house. EAs gave me some guff about 'nothing between you' 'very hard decision' and said they'd decided to go with the other couple because they viewed it first! I think it will more have been that they'd accepted the other couples offer on Bank Hol Monday, so I guess if there wasn't much in it, they did get there first. Which was the agents fault for telling us we couldn't offer until Tuesday! Lesson learned there...

Ness how annoying! FX something else turns up for you.

Well you've got to laugh - our contract with the EA runs out at the weekend, they have two viewings booked in before then. One is the same people who made the very silly offer who are looking AGAIN "to see if they can increase their offer".
No idea how looking at the house again will magically enable them to make a higher offer!

Ffs drspouse you really do have to wonder about some people. I'm trying to book a buildings survey for our purchase.. feel very lost on who to use...just going with my gut!

Drspouse what a coincidence! And what is wrong with these people?! Is it worth preemptively advising the agent that if the offer isn't at least £x then just decline it?

Giz we got ours done at the same time as the valuation and used the lender's survey team. They contract out to Countrywide. Booking team were easy to deal with but they are chockablock at the moment (refer back to my post about initially being told it would take a month!). The survey happened a week ago last Monday and I am still waiting for the report. No issues apart from that - just that they are busy. However we were getting ours done in August and school holidays have an impact on the number of surveyors available at the time (there were only two covering the whole city!), so now that we're about to head into September you may find it's easier. When we got the first property surveyed they had it booked and done within a week of our offer being accepted - so it really does depend on availability.

Long story Lazy. We originally had homebuyers booked at time of valuation but it was cancelled! Valuation only was rescheduled ( as advised they wouldn't do a homebuyers). Homebuyers booked for 11th ( still before our buyers survey on our house) and a cancellation will be accepted if one arises before then!

Thanks Yogadrone I think you're right about the pricing thing. Our EAs were rather sheepish about the house next door - it went on with an Offers in Excess of, but listed at £10k cheaper than ours, so they think it 'killed' ours for the period it was on for.... However, our pricing change seems to having an effect, a second viewing booked for someone who seems keen and three more first viewings for Friday/Saturday, so I'm just crossing my fingers lots....

Good luck with the crazy second viewers drspouse who knows - perhaps they will magically decide they can pay more than they thought the first time round! Have you picked a new EA to move to?

Hope you get some joy Lazy I remember spending hours chasing people the last time we bought and sold, it's pretty soul-destroying really.

Sorry to hear about your prospective house Ness, do you have your eye on any others?

We still think we want the house we've been eyeing up for the last few months, but it's very difficult without an offer on ours to do anything about it. I think it's strangely priced as well, so we probably need to do some research to figure out what the right price to pay for it would be.

Fresco this is their FOURTH viewing.
You'll never guess... no you will actually... They've now offered £230. We want OIEO £240, and we do need at or near that for the mortgage we need to clear. So we've told them and they are "having a think".

We are not going to take a low offer from them as they have already been such pains, and we know from the EA that they offered on another place and that "fell through after survey" aka they tried to drop their offer after survey.

And they asked if two of the rooms could be knocked through (I have no idea, I'm not a surveyor, my guess is no as the floors are different heights!) so we think they are going to squeeze an offer out that we won't take, then squeeze another one (that we may take), then try to reduce it after survey, then we'll say no. Can we just cut out the middle man and say no now?

We have however picked a new EA! New EA says he is OK doing the photos without furniture, and if they are awful we will dress the place from charity shops and get a professional photographer round. But I'll go over to B&Q and pick up some bedding plants at the weekend, for definite - DS really likes helping me garden too so that will be fun if messy. Photos next week.

Drspouse I'd play hardball with them. If they come back with a reasonable offer then accept it, but tell them that the property will stay on the market and you will continue to show it until you exchange contracts. If they complain about the risk of being gazumped then you can calmly point out to them that they have a track record of gazundering - so it's tit for tat.

If you do this then it buys you a tiny bit of security because it will tell them not to fuck you about - and in the event that they do mess you about, you haven't lost any time because it hasn't come off the market and you've carried on with viewings.

Oh solicitor has made contact BTW. But she rang when I was in the bath this evening. I'd hoped her voicemail would be a nice long message answering each and every one of my questions, but sadly not!

Oh gosh, drspouse they sound like a complete nightmare. We had a couple view twice then not offer because they could fit an extra staircase into the tiny upstairs landing, which any sensible person could have figured out in about 10 seconds.... Lazy's advice sounds spot on, they'd probably be real pains all the way through even if they would meet your price.

Lazy we've actually withdrawn to go to the new EA, and the old EA's fees are much lower. But I think we'll set a deadline for the survey so they can't faff about with that, should they make a higher offer.

I'm not sure what the position would be if we accept this offer but put it on the market with the new EA - the new EA could ask for their commission too - so I'd rather not risk that. We'll just make them do it quickly.

Everything is up for negotiation. Our original agent contract specifically said sole agent, 20 week tie-in period and no waiver of fees regardless of what happened. 4 weeks into the contract I got them to agree to go dual agent, winner take all on fees - i.e. the party that didn't sell it would get zilch.

Ask the new agent - you have nothing to lose. As long as you note the buggering about couple on your new contract as having already expressed interest (so you don't have to pay commission to the new agent in the event that they do actually buy it), then you're fine. You'll be out of contract for the old agent so won't owe them a bean if the buggering about lot pull out. The new agent can carry on showing the property for you - and as long as you're on a no-sale-no-fee contract (payable upon completion) then the worst case scenario is that you might have to pay the new agent a couple of hundred quid for marketing costs.

I'd do it for the reasons outlined in my last post, and also because it will act as a motivator for the old agent to make sure the buggering about couple don't actually mess you around - because if they do and you pull out then the agent gets nothing as you're out of contract.

drspouse they sound like a nightmare and totally unreliable! Totally agree with Lazy's advice, you'll have to keep them on their toes by keeping it on the market, abc if they don't like it, sod them.

Fresco that's super frustrating with the pricing, you're never going to escape the comparison with the neighbours there are you?? We had similar when we first went on, everyone that viewed was comparing us to a place round the corner that was on for a little less. Luckily it sold, and then it wasn't an issue any more!!

Me and DH have had a big revamp of our search area and agreed to cast the net a little wider. I think our initial wish list may have been a tiny bit OTT

Ness

The property we planned to buy in our heads and the property we are actually buying, are two very different things! We really, really struggled to find something that ticked all of the boxes we wanted so there were things that we had to compromise on. I don't mind though because I love the new house. What are the things you aren't prepared to move on? Mine were:

Minimum 2 beds
Needs a driveway big enough for 2 cars
Needs a decent sized garden, ideally S or SW facing
Needs to be private and not overlooked - or at least be capable of being private with some screening and hedging

We're spending £100K more than we'd planned to get what we wanted

Morning ladies, have been catching up on this during my night time breastfeeds!

@drspouse this couple sound like a nightmare.
@Nessalina widening your search area seems like a good plan
@LazyDailyMailJournos argh on the solicitor. But at least you know she is still out there.

It's September and our flat is due to launch today! Open house viewing is in 2 weeks. Fingers crossed we get interest.

We were considering offering on a beautiful property but have held off as there are just a few too many compromises. MIL spotted that in the newly installed kitchen, a wall meant that you can't actually open the freezer properly, making one of the three drawers totally inaccessible! Not the only issue but the funniest!

Hehe! Yeah, it's nice to dream of the perfect house but I don't think it exists!! This is my wish list, but only the 'essentials' are not up for negotiation. Everything else - we'll take what we can get!!

Essentials
Near good schools
In a naice area
Three bedrooms PLUS space for guests / office
Parking for one car
Two loos in house
Garden

Important
Less than 30mins commute for DH
Less than 40mins trip to town on bus
Downstairs loo
Kitchen diner
Boarded loft
Quiet street
Doesn't need too much work
Enclosed 'easy' garden
Garage / good shed
One of the bedrooms not a 'box room'

Added extras
Utility room
On a cul-de-sac
Detached
Separate shower cubicle
En-suite

Good luck on the sale MrsJW!
And good work your MIL spotting that - it's just the kind of thing I'd totally miss and be infuriated later by!

Drsouse those viewers really aren't getting it are they?! I can only presume that they think that eventually you will get desperate and relent. Cheeky buggers! I hope you have better luck with the new EA.

Frescoed our neighbours have also just gone on the market. I'm a bit miffed about it if I'm honest, as they openly admitted to us they only put it on the market when they saw the valuation for ours, and they hadn't even thought about moving before that. Obviously they are free to put it up for sale whenever they want, but I do selfishly wish (given that they don't have any immediate need to move) that they could have waited for a bit to let us get sorted first.

I agree with LazyDailyMailJournos Nessalina that it's good to have a short list of 'essentials', (and only look at things that meet that criteria), and then make the rest 'desirable qualities'. Our essentials are:

1. Must have at least 3 bedrooms.
2. Must have parking.
3. Well located for the town and must be within a reasonable walking distance to the local primary we want (because it's bloody impossible to park around there so driving into the school each day would be a PITA).

Our desirables are:

1. A second toilet, or even better, a second bathroom,
2. Some office space.
3. Decent sized garden.

It can be worth thinking a bit creatively about how you can change the house as well to make it what you want if you are struggling to find anywhere that meets all of your requirements. E.G, Things we've considered are is there a garage you could convert into an office or bedroom? If the living space is a bit small is there room to put an extension on eventually? Would it be possible to extend the driveway to make it suitable for 2 cars rather than just 1? It can help widen the net a bit.

Not much else going on here. I showed a couple around on Wednesday but not heard anything since, so who knows whether they liked it or not. Looked at a couple more places ourselves and I think it's between 2 houses for me now really, but obviously, one or both of them could sell in the time it takes for us to get a buyer. We've had 6 viewings on this house now and not one of them has yet progressed to a second viewing or application to buy. Sigh. Starting to feel a bit despondent. We had spiel from the EA that shared ownership houses in the South East tend to sell quickly but I'm starting to think that was EA bullshit to be honest.

Drspouse They sound really annoying, but good luck with new estate agents.

KitKat How much can you bug estate agents to chase feedback etc? If they mentioned popularity of shared ownership houses could you remind them of this, in a 'I assume you're actively promoting our house to those potential buyers you mentioned' kind of way.

In other news, think we've found a house.

Neighbours of our friends are selling as they're splitting up. Agreed a sale with her yesterday in person, and only issue was making sure ex husband's on board. She wants to move quickly and we're in a position to do that, and because of relationship with neighbours she has said she wants to sell it to us.

However, now slightly concerned because when I put agreed offer in this morning the estate agent mentioned how many viewings were booked and that there would be a bidding war as they've had at least one other offer. Not sure if seller's position has changed or agent is just trying to get us to increase our offer, but seems more likely they won't be happy with price she initially suggested/we agreed to (bottom of range of asking price). Just hoping agent actually gives us chance to increase offer if vendors decide that's what they want.

Well, it's been a day of two halves- had a viewing and an offer which wasn't far off what we want this morning, so we've asked them to have another think, plus the second viewers came and seem keen so we think they might offer tomorrow morning.

On the downside, the house I've been trying not to get hung up on is now under offer. There's still a long way to go - they're just doing surveys now, so we've left a decent offer on the table, but quite rightly they want to stay with the buyer whose offer they've accepted already (which is good of them really).

Annoying viewers asked (again) what offer we'd accept and we said (again) we are on at OIEO 240 so that's what we want. I'm not sure if they are daft, cheeky, or both.