Listing, Viewing, and Offers Thread 4!

[Nessalina]

The thread in which all our houses sell, and we find the place of our dreams!
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Excellent news Caroian fingers crossed all goes smoothly from here

It's good that the HA will hand hold VSC KitKat. Plus, you never know, they might be okay now that they have all of the information they needed in order to fill out the forms? It's good to have it confirmed though - means your vendor has that security too. Fingers crossed for a smooth run from here. Have your vendors found somewhere for themselves yet?

I hadn't thought of housebuyers insurance but our conveyancing is a "no completion no fee" deal anyway so our outlay so far is for the buildings survey and searches, about £1500 in total.

We only had one of those Orchid and I was pissed off with the EA when I found out. After that they knew to check viewers position before sending people round!

We've had our purchasers surveyor round today and the mortgage company have already advised all solcs. that mortgage has been agreed, so things are moving on. I'm thinking of getting some removals quotes as I'd really like to move before Xmas and there isn't much time left.

Sorry kitkat I wasn't ignoring you!!

Not heard anything. I have told my brother be needs to put a bomb under our solicitors to find out what is going on.

When we signed the solicitors form they said they only deal with one person. Seemed sensible it was db as he is living there and due to my personal circumstances (carer for young SN adult)

Hi, can I join. We've been on market for 7 weeks. Had around 18 viewings. Some of those from people who aren't on the market yet. One offer from someone who hasn't sold yet.

We are saying yes to all viewings but it's a total ballache tidying up all the time.

Trying to keep the faith but getting bit fed up now.

Hi @MrsZB, we're in a similar situation although haven't had any offers at all yet. Yes it's such a pain tidying up every time, I'm getting so fed up!
I need to have a word with the EA as it seems at the moment they are showing anyone and everyone the house. From the feedback we've been getting it would seem that nearly all of them have been time wasters

That's so annoying Random and MrsZB. You could tell your EA to check people's status before booking viewings - say that you only want proceedable people, or at least people with their place on the market.

Do you both have viewings booked for the weekends?

What areas are you in (roughly)?

Yesterday we had a second viewing from the people not on the market. Then they have been asking questions about whether our boiler is gas etc. I did say to the estate agent to tell them to focus on getting their property on the market instead!!

We have a viewing tomorrow and sat - one has offer on theirs, one is about to be offered on apparently.

We are in Hampshire.

We're in Hampshire too.

No viewings booked in for the weekend yet unfortunately.

I think that's a good idea Yoga and also I want them to make sure people are clear about the size of the house and proximity to the town centre before showing them around.

We're all neighbours then. I'm in Berkshire

Oh yes, don't get me started on people who seem to not look at the details before viewing Random! Infuriating.

I sometimes wonder if it's the EA though. When we were looking I rang an EA to arrange a viewing and he then said, "why don't you go and see this one - it's just round the corner" I said yes okay thinking it would be similar but when I looked on the website it was nothing like the one I had asked to view so I rang back and cancelled that one.

They both sound positive MrsZB - fingers crossed for you!

Thank you!

It's hard to say no to viewings though I think. I know that my estate agent does suggest our property to people ringing about a different one and I do want them to do that. We only viewed our property because of the location and when we were inside I realised that I really liked it. So I'm happy for them to suggest it.

I sort of feel like we are never going to sell it but I know that's unlikely!!

Sorry to hear you lost the place you wanted Lazy. Hope you can find somewhere even better very soon. Good to hear your buyers are prepared to wait. We're in a similar position, but we are the ones needing to find a new buyer rather than a property. Luckily our sellers are waiting, for the time being. Such a stressful time. I do feel your pain.

Congratulations on getting your offers accepted Zoe & Caroian. Heres hoping the rest of the process will run smoothly!

Have you accepted the offer yet catspants? You can put a price on the blinds etc in fixtures & fittings form, but its unusual to do so tbh. Sounds like you're uncomfortable with the level of offer. We had a similar scenario & when their buyers lost their buyer for the third time & we realised that we literally couldn't afford anything else if we were to lose the house we want, we had no option but to remarket & hope for a more realistic price incase things go wrong. Can you hold out for something better?

Sorry to hear you're still getting agro from the HA KitKat. Hopefully VSC will get their arses in gear soon.

I agree MrsZB & Random it is a PITA when you get the people viewing who are not even on the market. Trouble is you never know how long they'll take to sell so can't afford to turn anyone down. I have 2 friends who went on the market after me & they both sold & moved on months ago whereas I went back to step one 2 days ago!

Anyone else got any news?

We went online midnight on Tuesday & at 455am we had our first viewing booked for Friday. Someone not proceedable, but you never know how long that will take. Had 2 further viewings booked which took place yesterday. First viewer has nothing to sell & second one is SSTC. Not heard a thing from first viewer. Second viewer seemed very keen & DH was convinced they'd make an offer. Then they sent a message saying that despite loving the house they wanted to be closer to the station. We replied with Good luck finding it around here for that price. Good luck with your search. You know where we are if you change your mind. No more viewings booked as yet. Only takes one I suppose!

I know what you mean MrsZB, it is hard to refuse a viewing, as Pixie's examples show it can still work out if they get on the market and sell quickly.

That's not a total "No" from the second lot of viewers Pixie. Once they realise that closer to the station means half the size they may come back to you. Fingers crossed for today's viewing.

I found that we got an influx of viewing requests on the Monday. It seems that people do a trawl (drive bys ) at the weekend and then book in viewings for those they like the look of for the following week.

I've booked removals companies to come by next week and give some quotes. We want full packing and removals so it's going to be pricey. I also spoke to my current insurer to discuss insuring he new house. I fully expected them to tell me they couldn't insure the new place (it's 300 years old and G2 listed) but they said they could - result . More expensive of course but not eye-wateringly so.

Our conveyancing dashboard on our portal shows us as 76% to completion on our purchase and 66% to completion on our sale so it seems that the purchase is catching up. I really want to complete just before Xmas if possible as both DP and I are on leave.

Well todays viewing seemed to go very well. They seemed to love the place, had shown it to his mother, who loved it & said that they'd already looked online at next doors extension & loft conversion plans of the work they've had done & would be interested in doing something similar long term. All positive stuff! Then we got the feedback. Mainly good but only giving us a 3/5 for price & suitability, but it has great prospects & is on their list of possibilities. trying their luck no doubt. Anyway, they're still awaiting a buyer of their own, so as proceedable as the last lot who just lost their buyer! We have another viewer coming tomorrow morning at 9am. A tad early, but they're chain free so im happy to forgo my lie in to prepare the house for them! Fingers crossed!

Glad to hear your insurance quote wasn't too bad Yoga Good luck with the removals quotes. Its usually around another £300 if they do the packing for you.

We have an online conveyancing portal too which does that. Haven't even looked at it in about 3 weeks since our sale fell through. Last time I looked it had our ex buyers at ready for exchange. Pity their own buyers couldn't get a mortgage. Still, onwards & upwards to a new buyer & hopefully a lot more money now we ditched our expensive high street estate agent, especially if we get a more realistic offer!

Sounds very frustrating OrchidFlakes. Hopefully you get some proceedable viewers soon.

Hope you get some news soon Starfishmummy.

Viewings are a total ballache I agree Mrs ZB. Also agree that timewasters are bloody annoying RandomUsernameHere.

I've also had estate agents take to me to view places as an 'add-on' (e.g, 'now that you've done that viewing would you like to view property x whilst we're here'). I did normally say yes to be fair as I figure things are always worth a look, but some of them were just really unsuitable really which must feel like such a waste of time for the vendors.

Sorry you've had some annoying viewings PixieDust1973. I hope tomorrow's viewing goes well.

Sounds like things are progressing well with you YogaDrone. Fingers crossed for completion by Christmas. I hope the quotes aren't too steep for the removals. We're also hoping to be able to to stretch to get packing done as I've no idea when we're going to get time to pack otherwise with two full-time jobs and a 3 year old and a 1 year old to look after.

Feeling quite frustrated today. VSC (Very Slow Couple for those not familiar with my moans about them!) who are buying our house still haven't appointed a solicitor, despite being told the house was theirs on Tuesday. Similarly the vendor of the house we want still hasn't yet found anywhere yet she wants to move to (but my understanding is that she is looking at places this weekend, so is trying to find somewhere). Meanwhile we have cracked on and appointed our solicitor, and are halfway through the first lot of paperwork they have given us (which we are returning to them on Tuesday when we pop in to do an ID check). I also went and saw our mortgage broker yesterday and have got our AIP sorted and approved, so we're on the 'waiting for mortgage company to go and do their valuation survey stage'. I just want to crack on with things and yet we can't. VSC in particular are pissing me right off already, (and I'm mightily hacked off with the housing association for picking them over the Very Quick Couple). Because it's a shared ownership sale we're told the process will likely take a few weeks longer than normal anyway, so it really makes sense to make a start on it all. Our mortgage agreement will apparently be for 6 months once the formal offer comes through, which should be loads of time, but I literally have no idea how long the chain is going to eventually be at this point, and (assuming VSC remain this slow and useless the whole process), I'm wondering if I've made a mistake now in sorting the mortgage stuff already and should have held off another couple of weeks so the 6-month 'countdown' starts a bit later.

Try not to let it stress you KitKat im sure VSC will get their arses in gear soon. A week or so here & there at the beginning doesn't make much difference. They're probably doing their research to find the right solicitor. Its a minfield out there! The fact that your vendor hasn't even found yet means its less urgent. If all else fails & you do come close to the 6 month deadline you can always get the mortgage offer extended!

Todays viewer was due at 9am. She was a little late, but she came. Apparently she tried to view through the old agents a couple of weeks ago when they were marketing against my will & I was refusing to deal with them. You can bet your arse that if she wants to buy the house they'll be trying to get a commission on it. Our current agent says they can't because they didn't get them through the door so they can't claim to of introduced. You can bet your life they'll try though, & given that they are the estate agents for this woman its unlikely they wont find out.

She did like the house very much. Has tried to buy 6 other houses & is currently trying to buy one, but is a bit annoyed that she offered full asking price on the condition that they complete before Christmas & now they're backtracking. We have a chain pretty much ready to go & its possible we could complete before Christmas if things move fast!

Our house is better than that one in many ways. Much nicer area, much closer to the school she needs to be near, has lots of potential to add value, whereas the other house has been completely developed utilising the attic & garage & is only a little bigger than ours that still has those things. Plus our house is advertised at an offers over price that is 20k under what she's agreed to pay for that house, which is an ex local authority house. LA houses are generally cheaper. Makes our house look a right bargain, which it is!

We will have to see what happens, but if it were my choice to make its a no brainer.

We had an offer yesterday from someone who isn't even on the market yet. It was a pretty low offer too. I felt quite depressed and started wondering whether we should just rent our house out. (We are moving abroad).

The agent just rang now though and our morning viewing yesterday are v keen apparently and the husband is coming for a viewing at 9am tomorrow. So good vibes at 9am tomorrow would be appreciated! These people have sold and are in rented so that would be amazing.

Good luck to everyone. Keep sharing - I think it helps.

Keeping my fingers crossed for you for tomorrow @MrsZB !

It's interesting what you said about renting instead of selling as we considered doing that too (we are also moving abroad).

Where are you moving to Random? I think we would prefer to sell if possible but renting is an option.

Hi can i join?
We have just sacked our first agent house was on for 10 weeks in a fast moving market. We had a few viewers at the start maybe around 10 say but nothing for weeks. House is in a popular area great catchment, not over priced (we are on Scotland so have home report) no one understands why it's not moving. Then I met one of my early viewers who tells me she left umpteen messages to get a second viewing but agent never got back to her. She was very interested but ended up buying something else. We were gutted as we had an offer accepted subject to sale of our house which fell through as the vendors got fed up waiting.
New agent coming tomorrow so fingers crossed with this one.

Hi all - I need you!!

My shared ownership flat has sold - but I've held back from getting too excited as I've had 2 sales fall though - thanks Brexit and fucking "investor buyer" with no money!!

Anyway it looks like we are on the move and I have just had an offer accepted on a 3 bed house in another town as we have been priced out of London.

I'm not really sure what i am meant to be doing now.

Mortgage approved in principle.

Sale seems to be plodding along.
Just instructed solicitor re purchase.

Trying not to get too excited in case it all goes tits up. Is ths how we all do it?

Hi Red and Rebecca
That is terrible about your first estate agent Red, it really beggars belief that these people manage to hold down jobs! Wishing you better luck with your new agent.
Rebecca I'm no expert but I think the main thing to do now is keep chasing the solicitor! You could also start looking into house insurance for the new house and removal companies.
MrsZB we are moving to Jersey, how about you? Also any news from the 9am viewing?

I have removal company all sorted :) Go me.

I will look into insurance thanks.

Do you approach the possible new schools once you have exchanged?

Is there a list of all this stuff online anywhere? Am I going to have to wait weeks for internet or can that be switched over quickly. Guess I need to ask the sellers who their provider is - if it is the same as mine it should be straightforward?

I'm loath to do anything in case I jinx it - silly I know but I've had so much go wrong previously ....

Unbelievable MrsZB What kind of person puts offers in on a house when they're not even on the market yet themselves? Particularly a silly low offer? What drugs are these people on that they think anyone would accept it? Good luck for the second viewing tomorrow. Sounds promising!

Shocking Redyoyo Something seriously wrong is going on in that agents! I don't blame you for giving them notice! Do you really have a fast moving market there, or is that just what the agents told you? The market has slumped big time since Brexit & prices gone down in most places! Maybe make a list of questions to ask the potential agent tomorrow? Get back in the saddle asap & onto a new home in the new year.

All sounds very positive Rebecca Now you have instructed a solicitor things can really start to get moving. Local authority searches, buyers & sellers enquiries, fixtures & fittings forms etc. Your solicitor will guide you. Feel free to contact them or your estate agent if you have any queries re the sale & purchase. Are you aware of the length of your chain & who is involved in it? A short vs long chain can make a massive difference! Ill keep everything crossed its plain sailing from now on.

No news our end. No offers, no more viewings booked, just the one tomorrow morning with someone who hasn't even got their house on the market yet! I honestly don't know why people do this. Perhaps they think their own property will fly off the shelves, but the houses they look at will hang around? Silly really!

Thanks Pixie.

I am selling in a slump/slow area at a greatly reduced price, and buying in a very fast moving area. Most properties are only on market for 2 weeks before going STC - story of my life.

One of the other properties I put an offer on, had an offer from someone who hadn't put their house on market yet - it seems very common. It did mean I was an attractive buyer as I was ready to go.

I have just put mine back on the market and given EA strict instructions that only proceedable buyers can view. We had an offer in July from a couple who still hasn't sold! It's a complete waste of time, in my opinion, to go through all the stress of viewings when people are not in a position to buy.