Listing, Viewing, and Offers Thread 4!

[Nessalina]

The thread in which all our houses sell, and we find the place of our dreams!
Come and join us for moral support through the delights of buying and selling

Welcome Tohaveandtohold. How did your viewing go yesterday?

Also welcome PamBoozled! That's a hell of a move. How do you feel about moving so far away?

I'm glad your chain in chugging along okay Frescoed! Hopefully you will be able to exchange soon.

Fingers crossed the price drop will get you some more viewing and an offer soon Angelic.

No more news here. Just eternally waiting and checking Rightmove obsessively!

Fingers crossed that the new people are organised and reliable and get those forms back KitKat!

Welcome Pam and Tohave

As a FTB Tohave you are in a great position. I hope you liked the house you viewed yesterday but I'd recommend that you go and see lots of properties before you finally decide. As much to rule out what you don't want as what you do

Wow Pam that's some move! I know the Sunbury area a little but not well enough to recommend schools. You would be better off asking for school recommendations in the Education area as there are lots of experts there. It's a nice area but not cheap. Are you going to move to rented first while you look for a place to buy?

That sounds like good progress Frescoed - fingers crossed it carries on. I'm on the In A Chain thread too, (although mine is a broken chain at the moment) so see you over there!

Angelic our recent price drop has taken us to the next RM band too and we are getting quite a lot of viewings and the feedback is less bonkers. The viewings from the higher bracket seem to think that this money buys them gold plated bannisters and indoors pools (well not quite, but unrealistic anyway). Good luck.

We had two viewings yesterday (one stayed for 40 minutes which has to be a good sign, no?) and we have another today. Bit narked the EA couldn't get them all on Saturday as Sunday afternoons are about the only few hours in a week that DP, DS & I are all in the same place at the same time. But beggars can't be choosers I guess

Thank you everyone. The viewing went really well but we didn’t put an offer in on Saturday because the EA told us the next viewing for the house was today so we went and looked at 2 other properties on Saturday evening.
One needed more work than what we could afford to do and this was not apparent in the pictures and the second one is a 75% SO, it’s a new build but then it’s just a 3 bed, same dimension, etc as the one we love but just new.
We’ve been thinking and researching since Saturday evening and we’ve discounted the SO and that’s it for us, I called the EA some 30 minutes ago and put the offer in. They will speak to the owner and call me back today. Fingers crossed now

Fingers crossed for you Tohaveandtohold!

Our 40 minute Saturday viewing has told our EA today that ours is his favourite out of all those they've seen. They are effectively FTB with nothing to sell so would be perfect. Fingers permanently crossed!

Yesterday's viewing was a 40 min job too. But DP says that was mainly because Mrs Viewer was a talker . They are downsizers who aren't in a position to proceed (DP got the impression they aren't even on the market) so I think we can rule them out.

One viewing for Thursday evening. I hope they bring night-vision goggles if they want to see the garden because they're viewing at 7pm and it'll be pitch dark outside by then!

Ooh exciting Tohaveandtohold! I hope the EA rings you back soon and that it's good news!

Yoga your Saturday viewing sounds really promising. Fingers very firmly crossed for you! Also for Thursday's viewing.

Nada going on here. No viewings booked in. No word from EA. Nada. So just back to waiting.

No news from the new application form people KitKat? What does your EA say about having no viewings booked in - is there anything they could do to drum up some viewings, ring rounds and email campaigns perhaps? Are you able to drop your price a little perhaps?

So we put an offer in on a property this morning - and had it accepted! It's a good price, IMO and I'm very excited about the house. However, we still need to sell our flat. We had three viewings this weekend, no feedback from one, one apparently had some questions, but they don't actually seemed to have asked anything, and one put in an offer, £45k under asking price (£65k under the original price). Contemplating whether we can afford to accept that and move, or whether we should hold out for more. We have another viewing tomorrow, but although it's less than we would like to get for this flat, I wonder given the state of the market if we should take it if we can.

Fingers crossed for your offer tohaveandtohold and for your viewers Yoga. KitKat I am so impatient for you!

Great news about your offer being accepted MrsJW15. Especially if it's somewhere you are really excited about. Re: the offer on yours, I'd maybe see how the viewing tomorrow goes first and then maybe respond to the offer on Wednesday. I guess if you can afford to take the offer at 45k below asking price and you're keen to move, it might be worth it, especially if the buyers are in a strong position.

No, no news from the couple who requested an application. Although to be fair they probably only got the form on Sat (if not maybe only today if there was a hold up with postage) and it is a bit of a mare of a form to complete (it's quite long, and they want copies of lots of documents - wage slips, P60's etc) so I suspect it would take most people a few days to get all their documents together. We've got no room to negotiate on the price sadly with it being a shared ownership house as it has to sell at the price assessed at the independent valuation, otherwise I'd happily knock a few % of the price right now to make some progress. I think I'll wait until Weds and ring the EA and see if I can find out what's going on with the new people. [twiddles thumbs and watches tumble weed blow past in the meanwhile]

Oh fuckity-fuck-fuck-fuck. Just checked RM (for the 5th time today) and house A has also now gone. So that's both the houses we wanted gone in the past week. Not sure where that leaves us now really.

Our offer was accepted. So happy for that and happy with the price but now thinking maybe we should have gone lower 😀.
The EA said if we do everything in house like use their mortgage advisors, etc they don’t charge and we’ll get 1k off the price we’re paying for the house. Never heard of that before but now considering it. Anyone heard of this before?
MrsJW, 45k under the asking price seem a lot less, I really think you should hold out for more

Excellent news about your offer being accepted MrsJW, and getting an offer on your place, even though it's low, is great too. Can the EA try and get them to offer more?

Sounds like a mega form KitKat. Hopefully they'll get that back soonest. Ah okay, I didn't realise that. If the market has fallen in your area could you ask to have it re-valued?

Cross posted with you both.

Great news Tohaveandtohold - congratulations Don't over think it - that way madness lies

Oh bugger KitKat I'm sorry to hear house A has gone but house C which is even better might be almost ready to make an appearance... fingers crossed

Congrats Tohaveandtohold! Please don't second guess your offer, it's done and you're all happy, and that's the main thing. Re: the in-house mortgage advisors thing, I'm guessing the EA is Sequence homes (they have various local trading names like Fox and Sons etc). I personally would always advise using an independent mortgage advisor, as I suspect the EA's in-house ones are only going to offer you products at not the best rates, which will probably end up costing you more than 1k in the long run. I have been told that Sequence homes actually make their main profit from selling mortgages rather than houses, which would make me very suspicious.

We had the house re-valued last month Yoga. It has to be an independent valuation for the purposes of the housing association even though we bloody pay for it and we don't get to pick the price, he was actually a bit torn as to whether to leave the price the same or put the price up as our neighbours house is on at a guide price of 5-15k more. He eventually decided to leave it the same as our neighbour has a bigger garden.

Bit gutted about house A and B both being gone but guess we'll have to think about what to do next. Other 3 beds in our price range are either nice houses but not in our preferred area, or vice versa, so we may have to think what our priority is now. Obviously something else may come on the market, but things have been really dead on the local market recently and nothing seems to be coming on. I guess everyone wanting to move now is thinking they may as well wait until the New Year.

I'm pretty annoyed with the EA actually and I'm going to call and make a fuss. This is the second offer we've had at that level - it's £X50k if that makes sense - and I'm really not clear if they are pushing the buyers to negotiate at all. I also don't know why we are having so many viewings from people whose budget is so far below asking price. And of course you wonder in this market if maybe that's what you can get for it.

@KitKat1985 that does sound like an epic form. Doesn't surprise me that they haven't filled it in instantly but I know that's not helpful when you are just waiting!

@Tohaveandtohold personally I'd steer clear of the mortgage people linked to an EA. I don't think you will get the best deal from them.

Did you speak to the EA MrsJW15? Maybe if the EA could get the offer negotiated a bit (e.g, 30k under asking price). 45k is quite a drop. I personally wouldn't even view anywhere if I was that far off being able to meet the asking price.

Some news here. EA has phoned and new couple have completed the application form (henceforth shall now be known as very quick couple - VQC) in counterbalance to very slow couple (VSC). Only thing is they didn't realise they needed a covering letter but EA said he'll ask them to do that and they seem very 'on the ball' and keen, so fairly confident they will do it and send it over pretty quickly. I've asked him just to give me a quick call when it's finalised and then I'll send a letter to the housing association to say we're stopping viewings again now we have two applications ready to go - one from VSC, one from VQC. Can you guess who my preference would be for?!? EA also said that they had had other calls about viewings but I kind of feel that at this point we'll just keep their details on file and go forward with the two applications we've got. Hopefully therefore we may be officially under offer in the next week or so.

The only rather big problem is there's nowhere in particular we now want to buy now houses A & B have gone. I am hurriedly trying to arrange some viewings for Sat on anything that may work!

Hi lovelies, im new to the thread. So currently we are homeless and living in a friends derelict flat lol. We sold our property in July on the advise of the EA we were buying from as tbe exchange was meant to happen that week. It didnt! We lost that house and then moved on to number 2 which we lost yesterday! I must have been awful in a previous life lol. Just cant believe our luck. Anyway.....we have a viewing lined up for Saturday and really need all good vibes i can get. Its end of chain so if we like it hopefully this one will be ours.

Good luck with your searches xxx

Morning All.

£45k under is a massive cheeky offer MrsJW, perhaps change your listing to saying something like "offers over £x" and your minimum and see if this stops the time wasters?

That's excellent news KitKat. I like VQC, they seem like keepers Good luck arranging some viewings for Saturday. It might be worth ringing around the local EA's to see if they have anything about to come on the market which might suit you too? Perfect house C could be out there....

HoneyB - I'm so sorry you are in this situation. This stupid system we have in England is rubbish Fingers crossed you love this one you are seeing on Saturday. Third time lucky after all

We had 6 viewings last week. One stayed 40 mins and ours is their favourite. Apparently they are seeing one more (different area so hard to compare) this Saturday and then will decide. They are FTB so would be wonderful!

We have a viewing today and two booked for Saturday. At least one is ready to move now - not an FTB but chain is all in place below them which is the next best thing. The viewing today is actually with an employee of our [lovely] Vendor's EA but he is actually looking for a house and isn't just having a look around on behalf of [lovely] Vendor (I should trade mark that )

Oh HoneyB123. What a crap time you've had. I really hope the viewing you do on Saturday goes well.

Fingers crossed as well for you Yoga on Saturday. I hope the other house that your FTB's view is awful and that they realise yours is the best choice!

So VQC have completed all the paperwork now and application is in the post to the housing association! Ekk! I've asked the housing association to confirm when they've received the application and that they have everything they need to process the applications by VSC and VQC and then will e-mail them to confirm we're formally closing viewings to allow them to select a 'winning' application. not so secretly hoping that is VQC So hopefully will have a buyer selected in the next week or so. This is great but I'm really stressed about the lack of choice on the market right now for us to move to. It's so irritating that since we started this process (back in June!) there's always been something on the market we've wanted, even if it's involved some degree of compromise, but the very moment we've reached the point of being able to proceed every property we've wanted has gone off the market / been sold.

DH is very keen to move to the town neighbouring us, but all the 3 beds currently on the market in our desired location within our budget are really too small. This is reflected in the price (so for example they are on at about £250,000 - £260,000 range) but our max budget is £300,000 and to be honest in many ways I'd rather pay more now for a bigger house than we can grow into rather than buy something too small and have to move again in 5 years time. So house A and B previously on the market for example were at the upper end of our budget but meant we wouldn't need to move again as they were big enough for us. So I don't think it's that our budget is unrealistic, it's just there's a real lack of housing stock right now (it's a very small town).

The other option is to stay in our current town which has a far better selection of houses (bigger town) but it's not our preferred location as the schools aren't as good and public transport links aren't great (some areas are also a bit 'dodgy').

I wouldn't want to make our buyers wait for ages and risk losing them, but at the same time this is literally taking all our savings and is the house we want to leave in for the rest of the time our kids are at home, so I don't want to just rush into buying anything. If nothing comes on the market in the next couple of weeks we may have to put serious though into going into temp accommodation, like rented.

Sorry that was a bit of an epic rant!

Great that VQC have got their forms back already KitKat - fingers crossed the HA chose them as your buyers!

I get what you mean about houses and area. You say the houses in your preferred location are too small but could you look for one mid-budget which you could extend in a few years time? That way you wouldn't have to move again.

It's certainly worth waiting and finding the house you want to stay in long term and not just settle. We "settled" on the house we're currently trying to sell and I wish I hadn't. it's a perfectly nice house in a very nice area but it has never felt like home to me. I wish I'd had the courage to wait - or move to rented - until we'd found "the one".

Do you have any viewings set up for the weekend yet?

Hi Yoga. Yeah I've set up 5(!) Trying to keep an open mind about them all and as you say, look at them in a 'how could we make this to work for us' way. 2 houses are nice houses in our current town, and 2 are smaller houses in our preferred location. Oh and 1 house which is about half a mile outside our preferred location (which probably means we wouldn't get the school we really wanted, but is near a nice school too in it's own right).

Really trying to be mindful not to compare everything we view now to houses A & B. Kirstie and Phil (of 'Location, Location, Location') always say it's hard when you've loved and lost in housing game, but always tell their buyers to look at things afresh as though they had never originally wanted to buy anything else, and that's what we're going to try and do.

5 viewings KitKat - way to go! My EA said that viewing a house is as much about deciding what you don't want as deciding what you do want. I hope the viewings go well. It sounds as though you have chosen a good selection.

I agree with P&K, it's so hard not to compare the new places you view to the places you liked. Good luck!!

We have had an offer it's not at a level we can accept though so EA is dealing with the negotiation for us. They are a couple - they've already sold and are living with family so effectively a FTB. One is an EA so presumably will play the game. One good reason to leave it with our EA to resolve rather than try and do it ourselves.

We also have Mr 40 min from last weekend who EA is going to phone and say that we have an offer so he needs to make up his mind. Also three viewings booked for tomorrow morning of which at least one is ready to proceed. Fingers crossed!

What to do!!!! Just saw the most amazing house ever!!! Perfect and within budget but DH thinks its too far from station. 30 mins and this includes a lonely stretch which he is not comfortable with me walking.

What do you think?

Is cycling to the station a possibility HoneyB?

Great news that you have found a wonderful house

Hi all.

Did you have any progress with your offer Yoga? And any word from Mr 40 minute viewer?

HoneyB123 is there any possibility of getting a bus for part of the journey? Or driving to the station and parking there?

Busy day here - 6 viewings in the morning and then had to drive 30 miles to a family party in the afternoon! Of the 6 viewings I think we have 2 strong possible contenders, and they are completely different houses! 1 is a detached house in our current town. It's not our first choice of location but the house is very good with an excellent amount of living space (big kitchen / diner, good size living room, extra reception room, utility room, downstairs loo). The only minor drawbacks to the house are the garden is gravel rather than grass, and the bedrooms are probably a bit smaller than would be ideal. It's on at offers in excess of £280,000, and would be a very 'safe' choice. It's very near the best school in our current town. House 2 is a semi in our favourite location but is a real wild card. The actual house isn't enormous, but it has an interesting loft conversion and a double garage, single garage, and giant summer house in the garage so no shortage of storage space, and loads of interesting 'quirks'. It's chain free but it needs complete renovation from top to bottom, which is reflected in the offers in excess of £250,000 asking price. It's exciting to think what you could do with it, but I do think a complete renovation job when we have a toddler and a baby, and 2 full-time jobs to juggle already, may be biting off more than we can chew.

Hi KitKat wonderful that you have found 2 good possibilities.

It sounds as though you are more drawn to the second house. Would it be habitable while do the renovation work? If it isn't then you need to calculate the cost of living elsewhere while the work is done because it sounds as though you wouldn't realistically be able to do the work yourselves in your non-existent spare time!

Also it's semi-detached so you need to consider whether you'll get much noise from the neighbours and whether you can live with that

House one does sound really nice. Perhaps ask a garden company for a quote to replace the gravel with grass.

K&P would go and see both again and take the relevant tradespeople with you for a quote

We had positive reactions from yesterday's people. One couple said they were "pretty sure" they would be making an offer on Monday - just had to do their sums. So fingers crossed.

This is the first Sunday for ages where DS, DP and I are all in the same place at the same time for the whole afternoon, so I'm cooking roast chicken and then apple crumble - yum

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