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Listing, viewings and offers thread 3!

997 replies

Fortheloveofscience · 06/06/2017 10:17

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.

OP posts:
Gizlotsmum · 01/09/2017 20:37

I reckon they are hoping you're desperate or your agent is telling them you are open to a lower price

Gizlotsmum · 01/09/2017 20:39

Frescoed we got our bid on our property, it went under offer and 10 days later came back on the market ( 10 mins after I called to ask about another price and mentioned if it came back on we would be interested) so fx

drspouse · 01/09/2017 20:53

Giz** if the latter then they haven't been listening, but at least we don't have to deal with the EA any more.

Nessalina · 01/09/2017 22:31

KitKat We put our house up for sale after the house two doors down went on the market for a decent price and sold within 3 weeks! We did do them the courtesy of not putting it on until they had sold though, bit rude to jump on the bandwagon in direct competition!! Hope one of your shortlisted houses is still available for you, I'm trying not to get too excited about anything now as stuff comes on and gets sold at a pretty fast pace round here at the moment.

prettygirl that's super frustrating... EAs always manage to expertly cock things up. Hopefully the vendor honours your verbal agreement, or is at least straight up about asking for more if there's a higher offer?

Frescoed congrats on the offers! And fx on your offer...

drspouse RUDE. Honestly, some people do have cheek don't they?

Nessalina · 01/09/2017 22:34

My EA seem to be having some logistical and organisational nightmares at the moment - the manager knows her stuff but is surrounded by idiots and newbies. Getting a bit worried about our sale being chased through effectively... is it the done thing to ask for buyers contact details so we can get in touch direct if we need to? I'm thinking email maybe so we can touch base and see how they're getting on. Or are we better to just just bug the agents daily?Grin

drspouse · 02/09/2017 12:35

Last viewing by old EA today, I'd popped round to renew the window boxes and met the couple, seemed nice and sane, was able to tell them sensible things about the double glazing/boiler/park (nipped to the park after 5 mins with DS who kept trying to show them spiders!).
Fingers very firmly crossed for this one! Think we'd bite their hand off at anything sensible TBH.

Gizlotsmum · 02/09/2017 12:47

Fx dr spouse

Nessalina · 02/09/2017 15:34

Oh fx drspouse, I love a sensible viewer!

We've just seen two properties today that couldn't be more different! One 3 bedroom, with a weird layout, (lounge upstairs and one bedroom downstairs) but beautifully done out, on a lovely street in a gorgeous neighbourhood - we'd give our eye teeth to live there, but realistically it doesn't have much more space than we have now...
The other is in a less desirable neighbourhood, though up and coming, and there's an excellent school close by, but on quite a busy road. Masses of space, huge loft extension (without building regs) and enormous lounge. Quite a lot that we could do to add value over time I think, but not nearly as shiny as the other one...

Man this house buying stuff is hard!!!

KitKat1985 · 02/09/2017 16:10

Oh fingers crossed DrSpouse!

Nessalina if the layout of the first house is a bit odd, would it be possible to use the upstairs lounge as a bedroom and vice versa to make the layout a bit more traditional? Re: comparing the two, it sounds like it would be a classic 'house space vs location' issue though. The second sounds like it may have more longevity with all the extra space, but obviously it depends on how much value you put on the location of the first one.

Apparently our viewing that we did on Wednesday went well and the viewers have picked up an application pack from the estate agent. They seemed like a nice couple (I was the one who showed them around) so I'm cautiously optimistic, but obviously they may get cold feet yet before they complete the form, or the housing association may not accept their application if they feel they don't meet the criteria, so I'm not counting any chickens before my eggs have hatched! We also saw another house today. It was nicely finished but IMHO over-priced for the space available (we saw a similar sized / finished house very close by this one recently for nearly 30k less) so I'm not convinced at this point. Which is probably why it's been on the market for several months.

MrsJW15 · 03/09/2017 06:29

Fx @drspouse and @KitKat1985

@Nessalina it's so tricky. Why are you moving in the first place? I'd be cautious about not really gaining much space, but that's a priority for us I think. Weird layout may be workable. Something you can add value to sounds good.

Rightmove question for you all - do properties automatically come off when sold? There's a few things on that are over our price range but look to have been on for a good few months. Trying to work out when it's worth contacting EAs to see if they'd consider an offer.

Nessalina · 03/09/2017 07:40

MrsJW No, they don't unfortunately Angry It depends how on the ball the EAs are. There's one on our search that I really liked, and when we started looking 6-7 weeks ago I emailed about it, and they said it was SSTC. It's still on there now! I got DH to email again last week actually because I thought it might have come back on, but they've just never taken it off. Your strategy seems worth a go though! Our search zone is £20k higher than our max budget, and if I ring to look at a place at the top I sound the agent out as to likelihood of them accepting lower.

KitKat We'd thought that re:lounge/bedroom swap before we viewed, but it's not practical for a few reasons unfortunately (balcony off lounge / interior window between lounge and stairs / downstairs room a bit too small)Sad We also thought from the plan that you could slice a small bedroom off the back of the lounge to make a fourth, but that also wouldn't work due to weird interior window and chimney breast. So i think it's a no go. As you say MrsJW, as bedroom space is most of the point of the move a sideways move seems daft. Even though it has an extra downstairs loo, utility room, much better garden, bigger dining room, bigger bedrooms, and nicer schools and area than our current place... Confused Conflicted? Moi? Grin

Nessalina · 03/09/2017 07:53

(I asked DH to email because I was worried they'd made a mistake and my email would drop into the same thread and they'd think I was just being a muppet asking the same thing and not check. Not because I'm incapable of sending an email and need my DH to do it!! Grin)

Nessalina · 03/09/2017 07:56

Yay on a good viewing by the way KitKat! What's the application process they have to go through? (I think I missed your moving backstory Smile)

KitKat1985 · 03/09/2017 08:19

MrsJW15 I find that it depends a bit on the agent. Some are much quicker at marking their houses as SSTC on rightmove than others. It does usually takes a few days to come up at SSTC on rightmove though. (DH used to work with a lot of estate agents so knows the industry pretty well).

Nessalina it sounds like the second place would possibly suit you better if you are moving for more room?

As for the application process thing with us, the house we're selling is a shared ownership house (we own a 50% share) and a housing association own the other half which we pay discounted rent on. The idea is that it's supposed to help local people get on the property ladder if they can't yet afford an outright sale (we're in the South East here which is pricy for first time buyers). But the housing association has to approve applicants as you're supposed to have a connection to the local area and earn within a certain range (enough to afford the mortgage / rent, but not so much that they could easily afford to buy outright). They are frankly a pain in the arse to deal with (slow at completing anything, hard to reach on the phone, insist documents are sent to them and then claim never to have received them, etc) and I can't wait once this house is sold to move into somewhere which is all ours and never have to deal with them again!

Nessalina · 03/09/2017 08:35

Aha! That's an annoying hoop for people to have to jump through as well as all the other logistical joy of buying a house!

Yeah, the second one makes sense, but it's not really resonating with me. For no good reason really, as it ticks a lot of boxes... I guess I want us to move somewhere I really love, but I think that might be a little naive Sad

Gizlotsmum · 03/09/2017 08:48

Ness maybe it just means neither is the house for you?

MrsJW15 · 03/09/2017 11:14

@Nessalina if you don't love it, it may not be the one for you. Things can be perfect on paper and just not feel right.

We already look at stuff £50k over our budget, it's whether we should go over that really. Guess it may be worth a few emails if there's anything that looks really good.

Frescoed · 03/09/2017 18:17

Fingers crossed for some positive responses on Monday morning drspouse and kitkat

Thank you for the positive story on the house you're buying Giz - I'm trying not to think about it too much, we need to plan to look at other options. It's a real pain in many ways as we have to relocate by January and trying to find the time to view houses in a different part of the country is tricky.

Ness we've tended to wait until we felt really strongly about a house. Not sure that's sound investment advice, but I've loved living in the houses we've bought!

The good news is that we have a pair of offers now. The first time buyers from Friday who bid have offered again, and are probably around what we would accept, plus the second viewers who viewed Friday teatime with us have offered the asking price (a bit more than the FTBs). However, they told us on Friday they hadn't decided if they were going to rent out or sell their house; on Saturday they told the estate agent that they are going to sell, but are about to go on holiday so it won't go on for three weeks...so we're unclear if they're a 'proceedable' buyer.

Plus, I feel daft we didn't go with this pricing at the beginning 'cause we might have sold by now, but heigh ho...

Nessalina · 04/09/2017 09:16

Great news Fresco! Though your asking price guys need to get their story straight - renting is a very different kettle of fish to selling, and either way, where are they moving to?

I'm pining for the impractical layout house Sad I've spent way too much headspace trying to work out how it could work...

Nessalina · 04/09/2017 09:17

Ooh we need a new thread!

Nessalina · 04/09/2017 09:25

That was rubbish linking Confused

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