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

We have a Labrador too. I understand, we couldn't have a dog while we were both out all day either. DP works at home most of the time now and on the rare occasions when he has to go out to client sites I work from home to be company for the dog .

DDog loves the beach but we don't get there very often as it's quite a trek from land-locked Berkshire Sea air takes on a whole new meaning in the winter!

Ooooh house 3 looks fab. Much better photographs probably help. What a great garden! And loads of off street parking too. I see what you mean about schools though. Perhaps ring the admissions team at the local council? Does it have specified catchment areas? If so, that main road might mark the catchment area for the good school which would put house 3 in the inadequate school's catchment.

That said the inadequate school might well become better before your DC start reception. It looks as though it's already become an academy. There are two other new academies in the area too which rather suggests there is some money being pumped in - are there lots of new build development locally? This might explain the new schools springing up. Anyway, if you like house 3 I would definitely have a chat with the admissions people about what our options would be.

The upstairs bedrooms look a good size so would it be possible for your children to share a room until one is old enough to move to the downstairs bedroom? Or you and DH have the downstairs bedroom?

We've actually had our survey and searches and sent of enquiries. All of that had happened before our previous buyer dropped out. Now we're really just waiting for our new buyer to catch up. Hopefully, as an EA himself, our buyer will know the process and we'll move along quite quickly - fingers crossed as ever

Oh get me, I'm moving in with you! I meant: ...have a chat with admissions about what YOUR options would be!

Yes there is a tractor in the garden MrsJW15. To be fair though, it's not that surprising as although where I live is a town, it's a town surrounded by very rural countryside and there's a lot of farms around here (it's actually one of the few towns left that still has a 'proper' weekly farmers market where they sell cows and sheep etc). I guess this particular farmer decided he'd rather keep his tractor where he could see it, or he's letting a farmer friend store it there.

I'd like to try and avoid the DDs sharing a room if possible. DD1 is bloomin' noisy (regularly wakes at night just to sing nursery rhymes at 3am ) and DD2 wakes very easily so I think if they shared a room DD1 would be waking DD2 up a lot.

We will have to weigh up the schools issue / bedroom situation I guess once we've viewed it. Unfortunately the nearby school's academy status is a red herring. A lot of the schools here used to be good before the (same) academy took them over! And they're often not 'new' schools (they basically keep failing Ofsted inspections, but get round this by just changing the name of the school which means that it then becomes recorded as a 'new' school that hasn't been assessed yet). The school behind our current house is on it's 3rd name in as many years. Lol!

We're only doing one viewing tomorrow now as the 'doer-upper' house just sold this morning apparently. I'm actually feeling okay about it which I think means that probably in my heart of hearts I knew it was too much to take on. It would be okay if I was still going to be on maternity leave but I'm back to work in less than 2 weeks and I know life is just going to be hectic then.

I'm jealous of the Labrador Yoga. They're such gorgeous dogs. I hope you're new buyer catches up quickly and that conveyancing goes nice and smoothly for you now.

Someone did finally get hold of male vendor, today and he's in agreement about a December 4th completion date. Providing he can be persuaded to sign anything that needs signing without disappearing off the face of the earth, again, we may be able to exchange next week.

Wine was strong - I'm just finishing it off, now!

KitKat, some thoughts about the negatives of your house. I agree, most of the rooms are huge. It's almost identical in size to the house we're buying, which is also a dorma bungalow and only 25% less, in the NE)

Kitchen is tiny, though. Like really tiny. May be partly mitigated by the utility room, but it doesn't give you much flexibility.
Scary steps down to the back garden. (Good sized though and not just a patio with concrete steps down to it, like one house we viewed!)
Split level - plus there may be a cellar for storage. Minus is it might be really damp, if there is one!

Practicality wise, for the bedrooms, if/while the kids are little, it might be worth having the upstairs room as a bedroom and the downstairs room as a play room, for a while. You'd have the study, as well, so they have plenty of room to spread out.

The school situation is almost definitely what is keeping the price down.

Hope it's all right for me to join in. Only buying and not selling. Put offer in on house at the beginning of October. Found solicitor and thought had found mortgage through an online broker to discover solicitors have to be on a panel which our one wasn't. Then discovered they weren't taking any more solicitors on to the panel.
Had paid mortgage fees but was able to get them back and have gone through local broker. Time from appointment to mortgage offer was just over a week (and that includes vendor faffing about when the valuation could happen).

Hoping to complete in January and then move in February and get some things done first. Keep waiting for something to go wrong...

Welcome Miranda Fingers crossed for smooth sailing to completion for you! There is also an "In a chain" thread where people are discussing the conveyancing/exchange type issues. You might want to check it out? It is HERE

How did Saturday's viewing go KitKat?

The schools situation near house C doesn't sound great. I agree with Pick that it is probably this that is keeping that price down. It is a lovely house. I know it's not what you want but could you move to rented after VQC buy your place and wait for the housing market to pick up in the new year? I understand that things tend to pick up at Easter so more houses may come onto the market.

Did male vendor put his X in all the right places PickAChew? Are you able to move forward now?

Anyone else all viewed out? We had one on Friday and 3 on Saturday, I’m tired of tidying and glad it’s monday as no one ever seems to view on a Monday!

We have a second viewing confirmed but no more feedback yet...

Thank you - I'll take a look there :)

Oh yes Orchid. I was totally and utterly fed up with viewings. One week we had 6 across 5 different days I feel your pain

Fingers crossed for an offer out of your second viewing though!

Our house has been on market the for 3 weeks and we've had 5 viewings...one at 10am this morning... Blimey that was a push..Get husband out, get kids out, remove dogs and get in the viewing zone..😵. We've got a Grade 2 Listed Mid-Victorian town house to sell in North Yorkshire..I love it and am working very hard to present it beautifully so it's been hard to take the negative feedback (the EA is doing the viewings, whilst I sit in the local McDonalds car park with dogs and a coffee).. today though we had viewers who understood the period features of the house and thought it was lovely too....that was nice. It's emotionally exhausting.

Great news PickAChew that male vendor is now in agreement for the 4th December completion date. Fingers crossed you can exchange this week!

Hope you manage to get all the mortgage stuff sorted soon MirandaWest so that you're on track to complete in January.

Totally agree that viewings are a nightmare OrchidFlakes. We've got a 3 year old and a 1 year old DD so trying to keep the house tidy for viewings was an utter PITA. Fingers crossed for your second viewing.

Fingers crossed you get an offer soon 8pawsgood. Sounds like a beautiful house you're selling. Do you mind me being nosy and asking why you are moving?

Any news with you YogaDrone? Is your buyer cracking on with things his end?

Thanks for your feedback on the houses we viewed. We did a second viewing on the detached house on Saturday and it went really well. We actually went into the garden this time (was tipping with rain on our first viewing). Am pleased we went out this time though as we didn't realise how much the garden curved round the house from the inside, so it's actually bigger than we realised. We also didn't realise on our first viewing that there's a big park just across the road from the house which the DDs would love. It also basically needs nothing doing to it and is in really good condition, and that probably works quite well for us at the moment.

Also did the viewing on the bigger house with the wood-burner yesterday which I linked to and it was okay, but I think it's definitely a back-up option now rather than a first choice option. The photographer who took the pics for that listing chose his angles carefully for the photos so there's a lot more issues with it than what you can tell from the photos. The biggest one probably being bedroom 3 is a really difficult room to use as so much of the room is in the eves of the roof, so you could fit a single bed in there but not a wardrobe or anything else. You could probably get a carpenter to make a custom made wardrobe area in the eves area but it would be expensive. There's also a lot more that needs doing to the house than we could see in the photos. I did love the huge fireplace and wood-burner though. And the living / dining room area is a really great size.

So, all considered, we think the detached house is our favourite. We just need the housing association to pick a buyer for our house now so we can be proceed-able, and put an offer in before that one sells to someone else too.

We are doing a sideways move. Same size house in the same town but with a larger garden and private parking...our house is set in private gardens/road with shared parking. It's just a chance move, if it doesn't happen then we'll stay put.

So glad I found this thread. Our house is on the market and we have had the initial run of viewings. At the moment no one else is interested.

The reasons we have had so far are so disheartening. I can slowly feel the house we want to buy slip away.

I think I was niave about house selling. I wish it was easier!

In limbo here. Selling the old.family home and it's gone very quiet. Buyer wants to be in by Xmas...we've done everything we were asked (filling in our questionnaire, answering further questions) promptly.
Their survey was done a few weeks ago and their buyer hasn't come back to us in horror. All we have been told is they're doing the searches...

I'm not buying as well thank goodness!!

Your house sounds lovely 8paws, I can see why you'd want your own large garden and parking though. Good luck.

Hi Bakewell. Ah yes, the viewing feedback. Some is totally nonsensical and yet I did let one or two deprive me of sleep while I tried to work out WTF the viewers were talking about. I swear some must have muddled up houses! I hope you find a purchaser soon and that the house you want is still available for you.

I'm glad you like house A KitKat. It certainly looks lovely. Are you resigned to the location?

I think we're moving ahead. We've got both memorandums of sale and purchase. We've signed and returned our mortgage offer. Our shiny new purchasers (hereafter known as SNP) came for a second viewing yesterday and haven't changed their minds, so all good so far (fingers eternally crossed!) I guess next part is their mortgage valuation survey.

There are only three of us in the chain and we all want to move quickly so we're targeting Christmas but I realise that may be a little optimistic

Oh Yoga, not just me Then. Our home hasn't been on very long and I think I am just losing the will already.

So glad you're progressing. Makes me believe there is light at the end of this tunnel! Our chain will be small. The house we want is empty and our house is first time buyer territory.

How long did your process take Yoga?

I got so ticked off with it Bakewell in the end I told the EA not to bother feeding back the feedback unless it was sensible or reasonable!

My favourite feedback tale is actually a colleagues - he was selling his 3 bed 1930's house. Standard layout: living room, dining room, galley kitchen and narrow hallway. One of his viewers gave feedback that they wouldn't be making an offer because they couldn't fit their grand piano in the hall A quick look at the floor plan should have made that obvious

Ours has been odd because we went on the market in late July. Accepted an offer 3 weeks later. Then the buyer pulled out 3 weeks after that so we went back on the market around mid-Sept I think. We finally got an acceptable offer beginning of Nov.

What's the market like in your area? Round here it's really stagnant (in our price category anyway) so I'm really happy we have managed to find a buyer even though it's meant both us and our lovely vendor bringing our asking prices down substantially.

Remember me... New EA did get a few more viewings, someone saw it yesterday and is seeing a financial advisor. So a few nibbles.

The market in our area was thriving for a while. But it has been quiet lately it would seem.
One of our viewers didn't like the garden being overlooked by the house beside.
Which is fair enough except we are a semi detached house and their garden is attached to ours. Why come see a semi at all?
I told my DH tonight I am becoming obsessed with selling. Our house is pretty modern so I am unsure what other work we can do!
I might just tell the EA to only give me good feedback.
Congrats DrSpouse! Hope it goes well.

I'm new to the thread. We just accepted an offer yesterday, this will be our THIRD buyer after two time wasters. Had another offer yesterday 10,000 less because they "would need to extend". Been on the market since August. We are emigrating in less than 3 weeks. Stress levels are sky rocketing! We are seeking to take an early down payment to remove the house from the market, similar to the US system. So fed up now! !

That's promising drspouse, fingers crossed!

Bonkers feedback Bakewell. Pretty much anywhere in suburbia there is going to be at least one house with at least a partial view of your garden. One of my favourites was that viewer told EA that he couldn't fit his dining table in the kitchen. EA pointed out that there was a separate dining room to house the dining table and viewer was confused you and me both matey

Well congratulations on accepting the offer ChinaRose - third time lucky hopefully. Fingers crossed it works for you this time.

Our purchaser's mortgage valuation survey is happening next Monday so hopefully that will get approved quickly and we can move on. Our conveyancer confirms that contracts and title docs have been sent to the purchasers solc too. Ticking along so far, fingers still very much crossed.

Ahh that makes sense 8pawsgood. I hope you find a suitable house soon.

Sorry viewings are a bit slow BakewellTart01. I do think some of it is to do with the time of the year. I think everyone is starting to put house viewings on the back burner until the New Year. I do agree you can get some ridiculous feedback in this process though.

Any news from your quiet buyer Starfishmummy?

Glad all going well with SNP Yoga! I'm crossing my fingers for a Christmas completion for you. You never know - you may get lucky!

The viewer seeing the financial advisor sounds hopeful Drspouse. Fingers crossed for you.

Goodness me you've had a rough time of it ChinaRose. Hopefully it's third time lucky for you. Where in the world are you emigrating too?

As for us, still no word from the housing association. I know they say they have up to 3 weeks to pick the buyer, and they've only had a week so far, but it's just so painfully slow when I'm anxiously checking every day to see if (another) home we want has sold to someone else. Yes I think we've accepted that the detached house isn't in our first choice of location YogaDrone. But there are advantages to staying in our current town (not least, it's better for us for childcare). It also saves the hassle of changing GP surgeries etc, so it's not all bad. And we really like the house. Also, we were always pretty aware that we would likely have to compromise on something,

Hi all. Just an update from us. E-mailed the housing association on Friday to chase things who said they were picking an applicant on either later on that day or on the coming Monday. Didn't hear anything else yesterday so guessing we shall find out who the buyer is on Monday. Our listing on our house on RightMove is now showing as being 'under offer' in preparation! (Finally)! So spoke to the EA of the house we want to buy today and have put an offer in of £283k (asking price for house just says offers in excess of £280k) so we'll see. Got a phone call back shortly afterwards to say that vendor will consider our offer over the weekend. So a tense weekend ahead and hopefully will get some news on Monday.

Hope everyone else is doing okay. Wishing you all a good weekend.

Hi all, thought id pop over here from the in a chain thread as it seems that over a year on from starting this process we are back at square one & about to instruct a new agent before going live online on Tuesday.

Hopefully we will get a buyer quickly so can continue with buying the same house we were almost at point of exchange with until 2 weeks ago when our buyers lost their buyer. As yet the vendors of the house we want, nor the vendors of the house she is buying, have put their houses back on the market yet, so fingers crossed!

Where is everyone buying/selling? Perhaps we can help & advise each-other? I am in Surrey, looking to buy a bigger house at a slightly cheaper location, but still Surrey, now my kids have left school. I am originally from the East Sussex coast, but was living in Heathfield (also ES) for about 8 years before relocating to be with the man who is now my DH!

Oh how gutting Pixiedust. I hope you get another buyer soon (or your old buyers get another buyer for their house soon and can proceed with purchasing yours again).

I'm afraid I don't know Surrey particularly but oddly you used to live very near where we are buying / selling now as we're in Hailsham in East Sussex, so very close to Heathfield.