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

Ooh, can I join you?

We're in an agonising wait for a decision on an offer. We had a second viewing of the house we've fallen in love with on Friday and were told there was one offer on the table but below asking. We decided to go straight in with a full asking price offer but requested that today's viewings be cancelled. And since then we've heard..... nothing!! I did check with the agent who had not heard back from the vendor! We're chain free and in a position to go so I thought our offer was pretty attractive! House only been on the market a few days, and getting a full asking price offer that quickly surely isn't that common in the current market! Agent is not open on Sundays so we'll now be nail biting until Monday at least.

Hi KitKat I used to do a few special needs courses in Hailsham & some people used to travel to our school from there. I always wondered why coz it was a bloody awful school with a very small town mentality towards kids with special needs like mine. I loved my bungalow in Heathfield. Was the only house I truly fell in love with when I walked into it, (up until the one we're trying to buy now, which ill be gutted if we lose.) I bought it after my divorce & never intended to leave. Nice area though it was in many ways, the main reason I left the area was that rural East Sussex doesn't seem to do special needs unfortunately.

Are you staying in Hailsham or looking further out? My dad used to live in Eastbourne until about a year ago & there were some nice places there. So much cheaper than here. If it wasn't for the special needs provision being an issue id love to live down there. Could get a much better house for our money. I also have friends in Uckfield, including a friend who just moved from near here to get a better house for her money while still having good schools. At the moment DH works up in Chessington, (not the world of adventures sadly) & we can't move much further south than we are now. The house we want to buy is 100ft from a dual carriageway & backing onto a social club, hence its available at just under 600k for a 4 bed detached & not 800k if it were in the same postcode area we're in now. I hate the silly house prices we have here!

Hi Caroian Sounds to me like you're the idea buyer. Id be ripping your arm off if I was the seller of that house. I bet they wanted to see how the viewings went before agreeing a sale, in the faintest hope that they could get a better offer from a buyer in a similar or better position to you. In reality, its unlikely & I look forward to hearing good news from you on Monday. Do keep us posted?

Fingers crossed for your offers KitKat and Caroian - full asking price and over the "offers above" figure have got to very attractive to the vendors. I'm surprised they've need to think about it really .

I think the house you've offered on is really lovely and i sounds as though it suits your family and your life really well. I really hope the HA pick the VQC!

Hi Pixie - we're not that far from you - East Berkshire, moving just a couple of miles from the town centre to a slightly more rural village. Prices are silly here too. I had wanted to move out to Wiltshire to take advantage of lower house prices but I was outvoted by DP and DS. DS is year 5 and really didn't want to move schools. Luckily we found a place that ticks all boxes and our vendor has been amazing.

We had a buyer pull out early in the autumn but have now accepted another offer from an FTB. So there are just three of us in the chain (our vendor has already moved out) so we're really hoping for a fast track to completion. Fingers forever crossed!

I hope you find a buyer quickly and can keep your chain together.

Hi Yoga Berkshire is very nice. We are lucky we don't need to worry about schools anymore now both DD are at college. Makes life so much easier, so we can move to areas out of catchment for a better house finally! Its quite a novelty looking to buy a house because we actually love it rather than just because its in the right catchment! Glad that you found something that ticks all the boxes for you. Must of been such a relief your vendor was good & you managed to pick up another buyer so can still proceed. FX its not much longer & hopefully we have the same luck.

Feeling a bit gutted now. We were hoping to move this coming week until it all fell apart. DH has the week off, which will be nice, but we'll be preparing the house for viewers again & Christmas shopping instead. Our 14 days notice to our old estate agent expires tomorrow & instead of moving we will be instructing a new agent & starting again. Hopefully our house will go live on Tuesday & we get a lot of interest & an offer very soon. I'm just surprised that our vendors haven't put their house back on the market yet. I'm sure its only a matter of time! Hopefully this week is a good productive week for us all!

Joining this thread again, made an offer for one 3 months ago, but the sales didn't go through because of the complication of our the leasehold, so now back to viewing for freehold flat. Went to see 7 properties on the weekend (in all different directions), I must say lots of houses not sold with the last 2-3 months at reduced price (good for buyer/us), but also there aren't many available for sales that fit our requirements - probably because of our budget, and now looking for house, not flat, and good location as well.
We like 3 out of the 7 properties. Two are are very lovely houses, but too far for DH to commute, we worry that if my DH needs to go back to the office, we won't see him at all during the week. One of them is in a very good location, size is ok, but need some works, been marketed for 6 months, price is out of our budget atm (after the monies we spent into the 1st buy). The EA said they are really keen to sell, lost their buyer recently, so we made an offer anyway (price at OIEO, but we offered below asking more than £10k, will see, that's our max budget anyway). If they don't accept it, then we will continue viewing in January, there isn't much movement in December anyway.
I'm quite nervous as to why they loose their buyer also (because of our experience with our 1st seller probably), I worry there is something we don't know, and the sales won't go through again, we will loose monies and time again.

Morning all did anyone have any viewings over the weekend - any offers expected today perhaps? fingers crossed for you.

Zoe you should as though you had an epic weekend of viewing! I'm glad you found one you like enough to offer on. I guess it depends on your budget but £10k less than "OITRO" doesn't sound bad to me. I hope you get good news today!

KitKat and Carolian will you chase the EA's today about your offers? Fingers crossed for you both and I hope the EA have news for you KitKat

Are you dropping the price a little Pixie? We found that between our two offers the market prices had dropped quite a lot. Again, our vendor was great as he reduced his asking price to allow us to reduce our sale price in order to get more people through the door. It is so stressful and upsetting. I really feel for you. Even though we now have an offer from a buyer who is really keen (searches ordered and survey is on Wednesday) I am very wary of starting to make any plans in case it goes wrong again

I hope you get lots of viewings and a quick, decent, offer from someone who can proceed. Your vendor may feel like ours does; that it's worth waiting for committed buyers rather than go through the stress and inconvenience of having to re-market their own home. We were having a chat with the vendor's EA each week just to keep them up to date on viewings and feedback. We went for total transparency and I think it paid of because our vendor stuck with us and also dropped his price to allow us to accept the lower offer from the FTB. His thinking was like ours that the shorter the chain the faster we should be able to get to completion. Your vendors might also might see Christmas looming and not want to make any decision until after the New Year. Hopefully this will work in your favour

Thanks all. Aargh... I always thought the selling part was much more stressful than buying but my nerves are shredded. Still not heard but did speak to the agent who is expecting decisions this afternoon. So fingers remain crossed. Must admit I'm getting a bit concerned as I'mnot sure what is taking so long to decide about! It's not like we've put in a low offer and they're reworking finances!

KitKat Any news on your offer - and buyers?

zoemelb I know what you mean about not much to fit requirements. Lots of houses around here that have been on for ages and reduced and then stuff that goes in a couple of weeks or less. Totally makes sense to have made an offer even though it's below asking - you've got nothing to lose if that's your max budget.

Hi guys, update from me -

So I've been AWOL for the last week or so, simply because the stress of this whole thing became too much.

I was really hoping to come back with a positive update, but unfortunately our upwards chain collapsed this morning. We all found out that the party at the top of the chain lied through their teeth about their readiness to proceed. Consequently the whole thing has fallen through.

By some miracle our buyer has agreed to give us a couple of weeks to see if we can find somewhere quickly. I am absolutely hoping that we can find a property that's vacant because it will be the only way we can hang on to this.

I am trying to stay positive and channel Bear Grylls with his Improvise/Adapt/Overcome mantra! But I'm not going to be returning to the thread; although I am so glad that everyone is making progress, our own situation is now so raw that I can't face it. I hope that makes sense and I wish you all the very best with your purchases

Sorry to hear that LazyDaily, sounds so stressful.

I will join this thread if that's ok. Our house has been on the market for coming up to a month, we've had about 15-20 viewings but no offers. From the feedback we've been getting it sounds like a lot of them are time wasters as the negatives are all things that are obvious from the particulars (ie house too small).

We are moving overseas where we will be in a hotel initially and then planning to rent for a while, so luckily we are not trying to tie the sale in with a purchase.

Any news today anyone?

We have officially instructed Purple bricks & paid them over 1k to hopefully do a better job than Cubitt & West. FX the for sale board will go up tomorrow. We're hoping draft details will be emailed over tonight so we can go live at midnight.

We have put it on at offers over 400k Yoga. It was originally up for 425k back at the end of March when it went on. We had lots of interest but no offers, partly because people didn't like the work our neighbours were doing & partly because there was a lack of proceedable buyers. In July we saw a house we liked & decided to reduce to offers over 400k, have new pics etc in a bid to generate lots more interest. Unfortunately the agents made such a hash of the relaunch that we gave them notice with a view to changing agents.

The offer we received at the end of the notice period was too low, but we accepted it after hard negotiation on the ongoing purchase. After losing these buyers we realised that in hindsight we should of given the house a longer go at the 400K+, so thats what we're remarketing at.

If we lose the ongoing purchase we will need more money to buy anything else, so FX we get at least the 400k. It will be a bargain for whoever buys it.

Oh Lazy I am so sorry to hear your news. I have been hoping you would return with a positive update. I hope you find a new property that you love very quickly. Thank you for your help and support and very wise words over the past months

Did you hear back from the EA Caroian? I hope the news was good!

Welcome Random. Ah yes, the bonkers feedback - don't get me started on that! Good luck with your move overseas.

That sounds like a good idea Pixie. The price puts it in the view of those looking upto £400k on RM as well as those looking in the bracket above. We did similar - originally on at £x35k and we reduced it to offers over £x00k and it certainly generated lots of viewings. Just a few hours to go before the relaunch - fingers crossed for loads of viewings this weekend

Good news from us today (DH does a superb job), they accepted our offer , we are now back into buying, super rush, both us and the seller want to complete by 22nd December - so hopefully its a geniuniely that they want to sell and nothing is wrong. Mortgage details changed (very happy with Halifax so pain free, they don't charge us again for mortgage application fees, will refund for us the valuation fees done in the previous property). Valuation to be done this week or next week, now just need to push the solicitor to complete on time.

Did you ever hear back from your offer this afternoon Caroian?

Sorry you didn't have the best experience in Heathfield PixieDust. I do love the rural areas of East Sussex, but there are definitely pockets of 'small town mindedness' I do agree. I hope you get lots of interest when your viewing goes live tomorrow with PurpleBricks.

Hope all is progressing smoothly with you YogaDrone.

Any news on your offer Zoemelb?

I'm so sorry to hear your news LazyDailyMailJournos. I completely understand why you don't intend to post here again, but if you do see this, I wish you all the best and will cross my fingers for you.

Welcome RandomUsernameHere. Fingers crossed all those viewings translate into a decent offer too.

As for us, a really tense day here. We were told last week that the housing association were picking the buyer for our house today, and put an offer in on the house we wanted on Saturday on the basis that we would be proceed-able from today. So I waited to hear from them. And waited. And waited. Then we had a missed call from the estate agent that we put the offer in with at about lunchtime, but thought I should get our buyer's details confirmed before we called them back, as I know they wanted to do due diligence checks today. So I e-mailed the housing association lady to find out what was going on. No reply. Phoned housing association lady an hour later. Left voicemail - no response. Phoned again an hour later - no answer. Phoned again at 4.30pm where someone eventually answered to be told that the lady I needed to speak to was just about to go home so wasn't able to speak to me why the fuck not reply to me earlier then but did pass on a message that the affordability checks for the applicants were going to take longer than expected so it was going to take another couple of days at least. Felt gutted (and furious!) as now we're not officially proceed-able for another few days, so I knew we would fail their due diligence checks the vendor's EA were making today and was really worried the vendor / vendor's EA were going to be mega pissed off that we had inadvertently wasted their time. Decided to call the vendor's EA back though at about 4.45pm though to get it over with. Well, as it turns out the vendor's EA had spoken to the housing association earlier on that day and they were aware of the situation. BUT, the vendor is apparently happy with our offer and has no issue with waiting for a few days for our buyer's paperwork to come through as they need to start doing viewings to find somewhere they want to buy anyway (apparently the place they originally wanted has sold) and so are very happy to have a short delay whilst waiting for us, and has officially accepted our offer and the property is now officially deemed as being under offer to us and no-one else will view it! I honestly nearly cried with shock as much as anything else! I also wasn't expecting them to take our first offer anyway (the property was originally listed with a different agent at £295k, and later re-listed with this agent as offers over £280k) so I was thinking that on the basis of their original asking price that they were after something in the mid-high 280's, so I wasn't really expecting them to take £283k, we just thought that was a starting gambit really and expected to have to negotiate upwards a bit. So, yes, we're just generally really shocked and really happy! Now just have to get that bloody housing association to do their job!

x-post due to my mega long post! Massive congrats Zoemelb! It's going to be a mad rush to complete by the 22nd Dec though so I'll cross my fingers for you!

no kidding Kitkat1985 about the rush, I was surprised when the solicitor told us it's possible. Anyway we will push hard for it. Also, save us a lot of monies by not committing into 6 months rent, with a view to left it vacant at least 2 months. We know we get a very good price though, it seems that seller's buyer lost their buyer, and they need to to be in position to complete end of December (new built), hence that's why all the rush, and they accept our price. House - 2 doors down, smaller house and block, but newer, about to complete for $10k over the price we are offering (we are one of the offers).
Not sure how the new built's mortgage works, when you have a house need to be sold?

We did hear back and it's not good news.... turns out the delay probably wasn't anything to do with difficulty contacting the vendors! We knew there had been a previous low offer and it turns out that they went back to those potential buyers and gave them the opportunity to increase -
which they have done and it's above our offer! The vendors apparently wanted to "give us one more chance" so EA are going to call tomorrow morning to see what we want to do. Absolutely gutting as I really adore the house and it is perfect for us in several ways, not least the location, but I'm not convinced that the property is really worth more (we're in the South East, commuter land, so already talking silly money really). We don't really want to get in to a bidding war when we're towards the top of our budget anyway. I have a nagging doubt that the other offer could actually be the same as ours rather than above so we have decided to offer an extra 5K tomorrow but then we will make it clear our offer remains on the table (won't be actively looking again until after Christmas now) if the sale should fall through. Nothing more we can do really.

I know it is daft to get so emotionally involved when buying a house, but I'd made the mistake of mentally moving myself in. Bit emotional at the moment for various reasons (including recent bereavement) so I think that makes it harder to remain rational. I do know there will be another house, but I also know that houses of that type, with that space and in such a perfect location are pretty rare. I have a feeling that the next 10 houses we view won't have a chance because nothing will measure up to "the one that got away". Need to give my head a wobble though really. It's nothing compared to what a lot of you have been through!

Yay for you though zoemelb Goes to show it's always worth putting an offer in! Fingers crossed you can get it all moving that quickly.

And big yay for you KitKat I'll admit when I started reading that I thought it wasn't going to be a happy ending, but sounds like really great news all round!

LazyDaily sounds like you have had a stressful time - sorry I've not cuaght up on all 19 pages of this thread so don't know all the details, but hope it all works out for you soon.

Randomusername the thing is, you only need one person to love it. You must have done when you bought it, so someone will again I'm sure

Pixie sounds like a good strategy. Everything crossed for you!

Jumping in from the chain thread to this one if it’s okay. Have had an offer which is £25K below asking price. Should we leave our £2.5K custom made blinds (9 windows of various sizes) or charge the people who have put the offer in for these?

Just popping on this thread in case Lazy is still checking in to send and wish you all the luck in finding a new option. I'm so sorry your purchase has gone.

And to wave pompoms for kit, zoe, pixie and everyone else who is trying to get the buying/selling party started, good luck with possible buyers/new agents, etc.

The thread is still on my 'threads I'm on' so I saw the update. Thank you very much for the sympathy and good wishes! I'll be honest and say that at the moment I am taking turns between despair, misery and fury!! I was in a real state when I posted last night and I just needed a day to wallow and lick my wounds.

Have seen a potential place which I'm going to try and get a viewing on today. It's a probate sale (probate complete) so already vacant, which is great, but it's also leasehold - which is not. The lease itself isn't an issue as it's a peppercorn rent; it's the fact that conveyancing on leasehold always takes longer and we only have until the end of Jan before our buyer's mortgage offer expires...

Best of luck to all on here. I probably won't update because TBH I think the chances of us actually pulling this off are slim to none. But I will keep an eye on all your progress...

I hope you get a viewing and all goes well Lazy. Leashold on a house seems unusual (although I know there has been controversy lately over new builds being sold leasehold). We looked at a house which was leasehold because it was a gate house on land owned by the crown estate (Windsor great park). Conveyancing does take longer with leasehold but you/your buyer has almost two months an if the lease is straightforward it could be done. Good luck

Zoe that's great news! I will join you in a wish to complete by 22nd Dec

KitKat - woo-hoo! Sounds like a stressful day but ultimately a good one. Well done you So pleased your offer was accepted, that looks like a lovely house.

I hope the vendor accepts your new offer Caroian. I'm not sure EA's are allowed to lie about offers but I'm sure they are not always wholly truthful either (good for the seller but not for the buyer)

catspants we're leaving our custom fitted blinds despite our low offer. I figure it'll be more of a PITA to take them down and make good than leave them. It's not as though we can do anything with them at the new place anyway.

OMG! They accepted our extra 5K!!! It's taken all day to get an answer back, but it's been accepted now!

Still no idea what was really going on behind the scenes - that's the thing, you never know. Yoga you're right that they aren't supposed to lie about offers, but I'd imagine it's virtually impossible to call them out on it. But we got it, so now the real fun begins!

It also means that we do need to think about getting our current home on the market. We're fortunate not to need to sell immediately to make this move but it will need to be sold sometime next year so the sooner we sort it the better really.

Congratulations!!! You must be over the moon. Fingers crossed for a quick and easy exchange and completion!

Fingers crossed for speedy solicitors and a quick completion then Zoemelb!

Fantastic news Caroian! Fingers crossed for a smooth conveyancing process and a quick completion for you!

Catspants I'd probably throw the blinds in to be honest. If they're custom made they're not really any use to you anyway.

Best of luck to you LazyDailyMailJournos. I can understand all of your emotions. This is such a brutal process.

Thank you for the pom-poms Frescoed and the congrats YogaDrone.

Slightly mad day as it was my first day back at work after maternity leave. Then this morning I got a phone call from my EA to say that the housing association have said our house should be sold to Very Slow Couple (FFS). My EA understands my concerns about this (hell, he had to spend 8 tedious weeks chasing them too) but it's out of our hands now. He's said he will keep on their backs though so they don't drag their feet the whole time. Got home after a chaotic first day back and have been trying to sort out instructing a solicitor and finalising the details of our mortgage with our broker. Going to try and drop some stuff into both ours and vendors EA tomorrow on my day off. What else do I need to do / have I forgotten? I was thinking of trying to get house buying insurance tomorrow too. Has anyone else done this?

Why oh why oh why are people viewing a propert if theirs isn’t even on the market! We’ve had 3 of these and 2 have offered!! Offered what? They’re not cash buyers, they need to sell but aren’t on the market!

I just want to scream! Our offer has been accepted and we just seem to get wombles viewing ours!