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

Oooh, roast dinner and apple crumble. Awesome!

Fingers crossed Yoga for an offer on Monday from Saturday's viewers! Did you ever get a bigger offer from your last couple that put a low offer in?

Me and DH have slept on in and talked a bit, and decided that the house that needs complete renovating that we saw yesterday is just too much for us to take on right now, both financially and time-wise. It's very easy I think straight after a viewing on somewhere like that to get a bit carried away with 'oh and we could x with that space, and change that to make the room better etc'. But just on the essential renovations it has some damp that needs sorting, needs a new boiler, kitchen, bathroom, and re-wiring; and needs completely redecorating. And that alone must be about 30k and several months worth of work.

However we did both really like the detached house (and to be honest I don't think either of us expected to get a detached house in our budget). It's not in our first choice of location but it otherwise ticks pretty much most things we wanted in terms of space, and it's in 'move in' condition, so we're willing to compromise on the location. We were realistic that we always likely to have to compromise on something.

Now we just have to get the housing association to formally get on with processing the two applications that have been sent before that house goes too and we miss out again! I'll be chasing them tomorrow!

just found this thread
I've just taken my property off the market even though I am desperate to sell. Just too stressful with other stuff going on and this time of year its not going anywhere.
I am going to put it back on with bigger agent in January.
Hope you are all here to help me along the way

Oh I was going to say I also looked at a new development today for comparison purposes and because it some ways a new build would be easier in terms of being the end of the chain, and not needing any work for the foreseeable, but they were so expensive compared to similar sized re-sale houses! At the first prices seemed roughly reasonable with the new builds being about 10-20k more than similarly sized re-sale houses, but then after a bit of a chat with the rep, we realised everything that would normally expect with a house was a chargeable extra (e.g, carpets / flooring would be £5k)! So we thought 'nah'!

Welcome Lostlilly! I think a lot of people are thinking of going off the market now for similar reasons. Fingers crossed you have some luck in the New Year.

Hi all, just catching up again. So we rejected the offer that was £45k below asking. We actually had two at that level. One of the two came back to see the house on Saturday, saying that they thought they could maybe offer more. On Friday we also had a cash buyer offer £30k under our current asking price. We are going to see what yesterday's viewer thought, but I think we will try to negotiate with cash buyer. I think we will suggest £10k under and see if we can meet in the middle.

KitKat that does sound exciting. I know what you mean, work sounds very easy in theory but reality might be difficult and impractical. Interesting on the new build comparison too.

HoneyB so hard to know. How do you feel about the walk?

That sounds positive KitKat. I agree, it's very easy to get swept up in the potential of a house which needs work but when you look at it in the cold light of day it's a huge task. Let's hope the HA pull their fingers out and then you can offer if you want to. Personally, I think the detached house sounds great

I think new builds are great but they are like buying a new car - you lose a lot of value in the first years so they are only really long term prospects. Lots of developers round here are so desperate to sell that they are throwing in all the things they usually charge a fortune for gratis!

MrsJW you sound in a similar situation to us. We had an offer for £25k under but need them to come up to somewhere in the middle to make it viable. Fingers crossed for you.

Welcome Lily. I don't blame you wanting to wait until New Year. Although we have had more viewings in the past 3 weeks than in the preceding 3 - although that may be more to do with the price drop. Good luck and see you in the New Year!

The detached house sounds exciting, KitKat. Laying lawn isn't that difficult. It doesn't even need a lot of topsoil. There's newbuilds behind the house we're buying and for 50k more than we're spending on our 1930s semi we'd get a townhouse with 3 or 4 toilets and a big master bedroom but 2 other tiny bedrooms and nowhere to put a decent dining table.

You know, we've never met the co owner of the house we're buying but I'm glad for the vendor we have met that she LTB.

We have had our re-offer accepted by our vendor.

We have a second viewing tomorrow from the "pretty certain we'll offer" couple from Saturday and the low offer from Mr & Ms FTB. If Mr & Mrs Pretty Certain don't offer or put in a low offer we are now in a position to accept the offer of Mr & Ms FTB. So, hopefully we'll be sorted by the weekend We're going to see the mortgage adviser again tomorrow after work. So, fingers crossed still, but it's looking promising.

Joining in with you all.

We today have had our mortgage application approved to buy our first house so we're very excited!

We've been told the mortgage offer is going to expire before we can complete as its a new build but that we need to reapply when that happens and we would have the same issue no matter which mortgage lender we use.

Next step is to get our solicitors moving.

Tentatively joining

Gone to second closing date within a week and fed up

We should be in a strong position to buy. We've sold, chain free!! Argh

Just want to vent. Promised we'd hear by 5. We haven't. Guess we haven't got it. Again.

We accepted an offer from our cash buyer. Not as high as we would have liked but not ideal. But there we go - a chain!

Oooh lots to catch up on.

Congrats on your cash buyer MrsJW15. I appreciate it wasn't as high as you wanted but exciting to have a chain formed!

Also exciting developments Yoga. Hopefully you'll be all sorted in a few days!

I'm guessing from what you wrote PickAChew that the vendor of the house you're buying is a bit of a git. Is he giving you problems?

Welcome CatchingBabies! Hope all goes smoothly with buying your first home.

Sorry you're having a stressful time of it LongtimeLurker. Maybe you will get a phone call from the EA this morning?

As for us, housing association asked for a couple more documents yesterday from Very Quick Couple which they dutifully went and got them that afternoon and our EA has e-mailed copies of them over to the housing association (I do love how efficient very quick couple are)! So as far as I'm now aware the housing association have everything they need to select a buyer for our share in the house, so I'm really hoping will shall we officially under offer very soon once the housing association have assessed the applications from VSC and VQC.

We're having a bit of a wobble though about choosing the detached house in our non-preferred location over the semi that needs work but is in our preferred location. Several people have said to me (quite rightly) that you can do a lot with a house, but you can't move it, and I'm wondering now if we may in the long-term regret not buying a house in the area we want just because of the (relatively) short-term inconvenience of a year or so spent doing it up. And to be fair the house that needs work is about 30k less than the detached house. We've decided to go back and do a second viewing on both on Saturday whilst my lovely Mum comes over to look after the kids as to be honest when we viewed them last Saturday we had the kids with us and the baby was crying half the time as she was tired, and the toddler kept running off and trying to get into mischief, so I don't think we could really concentrate properly. And I think a long, slow, considered look at both (especially the house that needs work) will have us make up our mind.

Congrats MrsJW. See you on the "In a chain" thread soon!

How exciting Catching - even if your mortgage offer does expire before you can complete most companies will extend the offer. Best of luck!

Are you in Scotland Longtimelurker? From what you've said it sounds like those you've lost out on have been sealed bids?

I like VQC KitKat - I hope that the HA chose them! Fingers crossed you'll be under offer soon.

I completely understand what you are saying about the two houses. It's a great idea to go and view them again without the children. Have any others come on this week in your preferred location that you could go and see too?

KitKat - VQC sound great! What a relief after VSC. A second viewing sounds like a good plan, it's a very difficult call.

Yes I think I may love VQC a little bit. I do hope the housing association pick them!

No Yoga sadly there seem to be hardly any suitable 3 beds in our price bracket in our preferred area (they're either too small, or no parking, or too far from the school etc). The 'doer-upper' house is probably the only new house to be suitable to come on in about a month.

If anyone has a spare 5 mins and fancies giving me their opinion on both houses I'd be grateful (I appreciate this is a bit outing)!

Detached house in current town:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-62195740.html

Semi 'doer-upper' house in preferred location:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-51510012.html

Thanks yoga and kitkat, Scottish system. I've never dealt with a closing date before always just offers over. Last time was a breeze compared to this!

We eventually got a call about 10am, it's ours!

There's a few weeks while it all becomes official here apparently 🏡 hoping it's smooth sailing now. It's already off rightmove.

Good luck Mrs and kitkat

KitKat
Tough one I don't know the area at all , but I guess I depends . Structurally are they both sound ? What about boilers and electrics ?
To be honest the pictures of the semi aren't great the EA could have done better it's hard to get a feeling of the house. Also there is no floor plan , is the kitchen that space in the back of the house ? If so that's where most of your money would go. Garden seems a good size , and the summer house is a bonus. I would get rid of the lean to at the side of the garage. I like a doer upper so would go for the semi.

Congrats Longtime! I hope everything goes smoothly for you

That's a tough one KitKat. The first (detached non-referred location) is really lovely. As you say, move in condition. But it is much smaller than the semi-detached. You would, possibly, be able to build over the converted garage, or do a loft conversion to give you more upstairs space in years to come. So there is still potential. It's more modern so less likely to have issues on the survey.

But if the location is an issue, don't do it. As your friends have said, you can't do anything about that. Having said that, as Chicken says, the photos of house 2 aren't great and it's difficult to get an idea of the potential without a floor plan. How old is this house? I think it'd probably be worth having a full buildings survey done if you do go for it. I hope Saturday's second viewings give you some clarity. Good luck!

Well, offers are officially like buses! We have had three in quick succession. We saw the mortgage man last night just to check our figures still all added up and have accepted one of the offers this morning This couple are living with family since selling their flat and he works for the EA who acts for our Lovely Vendor, so is fully aware of the whole situation. We feel this makes them less likely to try and shaft us, as they'd be shafting their own client at the same time. EA is doing the due diligence this afternoon but it's all looking good

The best thing about that semi is the garage, KitKat. The detached house seems to be a much better house, overall, even ignoring the bonus of being detached.

Well done, Yoga. I've been ranting in the chain thread.

Can I join? We’re on the market and viewings are driving me crackers already! Had one offer but well below what we’d accept, especially as their house isn’t even on the market yet
We’ve found somewhere and offered but he hasn’t found anywhere else and wants more than it’s worth - even his agent is on our side!

I feel like I’m sprouting a new grey hair every hour! But amusing myself mentally redecorating the new house

Congrats LongtimeLurker!

Also massive congrats Yoga! Genuinely chuffed for you as I know you've had a stressful few weeks! I totally agree as well that as the buyer works for lovely vendor's EA he would be very unlikely to mess you around as it would reflect really badly on the EA and I'm sure lovely vendor wouldn't be too chuffed either.

Sorry one of your vendor's is being a dick on a power trip PickAChew.

Welcome OrchidFlakes. Fingers crossed for a decent offer soon and that the house you want is willing to accept a sensible offer.

Thank you for your thoughts on the two houses. The semi is actually a considerably smaller house than the detached house, but it just has a bit more land and garage space. To add to my confusion another house has come on the market in our current town that looks interesting so we've decided to view that too on Tuesday (will probably just confuse us even more but hey hum)!

The housing association has apparently asked for even more bloody paperwork from VQC. Apparently according to EA they are bringing the paperwork in this evening, and the housing association tell us that it really should be the last paperwork they need. I really hope so because I'm getting hacked off with waiting around for all the paperwork! We just want to get going now!

That's interesting about the size of the houses KitKat - it honestly doesn't give that impression from the photos. I guess it just goes to show how deceptive they can be. New house sounds interesting - best of luck with all the viewings. I don't know your area very well but I'd love to live as close to the coast as you do

Thanks for the good wishes, I'm feeling genuinely positive for the first time in ages. The dog is also happy that we're not getting the vacuum cleaner out twice a day to keep the house ready for viewings!

I'm sure VQC will get the details to HA when they've promised. They have already proved themselves far more competent than VSC!

Welcome Orchid. I've not heard of anyone offering on a property before their house was on the market - that's very confident behaviour, particularly as the housing market is so "weird" (my EA's adjective of choice) at the moment. Hope you get some sensible offers soon. Good luck

Pick - did the bottle of wine read "do not operate rotary power tools whilst under the influence"? Hope you get some movement from vendor's Ex today.

Aww what kind of dog do you have Yoga (completely off topic I know)?! I love dogs, I just don't really have the time to commit to one, but I do the odd bit of dog-sitting for SIL's Labrador when they're in America. Anyway, yes must be such a relief to not have to worry about viewings all the time now. I guess you've got to start sorting solicitors, surveys etc now though.

Yes living near the coast is nice, although it has to be said whilst it's lovely and cooling in the summer, being on the coast is bloomin' freezing in winter. Still beautiful though.

I'm excited for the second viewings tomorrow. Also very curious to see potential house number 3 on Tuesday. It's one of those houses that seems to me to under-priced for the size, so I'm curious to see if there's actually something wrong with it that hasn't been photographed, or if the vendors just want a quick sale. Other people obviously think so too as it sounds like there's a lot of viewings, as the EA were wanting to fit us in around one of the other viewings on the house, of which there seemed to be a lot (e.g, 'we're doing a viewing there on Friday at 10 so could you do 10.30; or we've got another viewing on Saturday at 3pm so could fit you in at 3.30pm if you prefer?' type conversation). The only real downsides to it are:

1. It's slap back between best school in town and worst school in town, so it's a bit of a gamble from a primary school allocation perspective.
2. One of the bedrooms is downstairs, so DD1 (3) would potentially be risking climbing the stairs to come and find us in the night, and me and DH would have to be pretty quiet downstairs once she was in bed of an evening (although we're definitely more 'chill quietly on the sofa and watch TV' of an evening people than 'have loads of people over in the evening' types, so probably not a mammoth issue).

This is it here:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-69972680.html

^ slap bang between! Not slap back between!

That does look nice KitKat. Although - is there a tractor in the garden?! We had a lot of debate about bedrooms and different floors. The house we are buying has the master on the top floor and other bedrooms on the first floor. DD is almost 6 months so I anticipate me being up and down those stairs for a while...