Listing, Viewing, and Offers Thread 4!

[Nessalina]

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Thanks random we’re sending them seriously bad vibes and hoping they hate it in the daylight. The flat roof is leaking - is it wrong to hope it partially collapses overnight tonight?!

Im so sorry Orchid I hope that they don't decide to put in an offer on the second viewing. I live in the SE. (I'm in Surrey) Do you know, Id of completely agreed with you about the market being dead & buyers not being serious when we were on with a high street agent who cared more about numbers through the door by any means, than finding people who really wanted to view. Our old agent got us a fair few viewings, but id say 90% of them were not proceedable & a good percentage had been bullied to view.

Fast forward on almost 8 months, our buyers lost their buyer so we decided to remarket. After a terrible experience with our agents we refused to have anything to do with them & felt we had nothing to lose by going on with Purplebricks & doing the viewings ourselves. A week in & we have had 6 viewings, another one coming tomorrow. All of these viewers are there because they want to be & not because they have been bullied by an agent. Out of the 7 only one of them is not on the market, 1 is for sale, but has a house that in my opinion wont be around long because its in great condition, in a great location & priced very realistically for sale. 2 of them are SSTC & 3 have nothing to sell. Not what I was expecting at all! We have taken a risk in paying £1199 out before a sale, but that is all we will pay. Even if we sale agreed at the same price as our previous sale that fell through we'll be quids in by almost 6k in agents fees, but we also have the option of reducing our price by 6k & breaking even on the previous sale. I wish we'd done this 8 months ago!

Might be worth considering going down the online route if you get nowhere soon. Even if its purely because it gives you the option of reducing your price to attract more buyers! Its also a much easier & user friendly system imo!

Pixie that is really interesting. I feel like our agents are just trying to get as many people through the door as possible too, even if the house isn't what they're looking for. Unfortunately purple bricks will not be an option for us though, as we're moving abroad in January and so won't be here to do viewings.
Orchid it's not wrong at all to hope that

Random Purplebricks do have an optional add on where they do all the viewings for you for another £300. We decided against it, partly because we already pay an extra £350 because we come under London prices, & partly because I felt I couldn't do a worse job than our old agents lol. Its actually easier doing it ourselves tbh & I wish we'd done this earlier.

Well yesterday’s viewing seemed ok but the feedback is they are worried about the road as they have dogs and we have no gates, so that’s a no.
2 more viewings today, I’m away so DH did them, one couple said the house was “interesting”, so taking that as a no. Other couple were lovely apparently and were here an hour so am hoping they will come back for another look.

How is everyone getting on?

Everything here is ticking along ok but just now the estate agent phoned and said that our buyers want to come for a look round together. It makes sense because they viewed it separately but now I feel really anxious that they are having doubts! That's unlikely isn't it... they only viewed it last week though...

Try not to worry MrsZB I think it's pretty normal to come back again and as you said it makes sense for them to go together. They probably want to talk about how they're going to use the space and where to put their furniture.

Thanks for the info Pixie, definitely something to think about if our agents don't find someone soon.

Cashmere fingers crossed the second couple will come back.

We had a viewing yesterday which apparently was quite positive, the agent is going to speak with them on Monday. Another viewing booked in for this afternoon.

No joy here yet. We're finding that they love the house, but the feedback seems to be focused on the road, it's not madly busy but it seems to be an issue and we don't have a gate, so may have to do something about that.
Having said that, we've just had another viewing and they were saying to each other that the road wasn't busy, so I just don't know.
One more booked for Monday, so am keeping hopeful.

Thanks Random. I guess I wasn't expecting them to come back so soon but really they only had one viewing, done separately so it does make sense. I'm just feeling anxious about the whole process.

Fingers crossed for you Random and Cashmere. Would it be an option to have a gate put in Cashmere?

@MrsZB if it makes you feel better we booked to view the property we just bought right after our offer was accepted. Nothing bad at all ... in fact we just wanted to see it again as we loved it so much!

Does anyone have any experience with this who could help guide us?

• We have an offer accepted on the house we want but hasn’t sold.
• House we want has second couple who have viewed but not offered but expected to, possibly after third viewing booked for this weekend. They’re cash buyers.
• Third interested party, cash buyers, not viewed yet.
• Our buyers have 3 offers which will go to best and final by 9am tomorrow, all are FTB and one cash. We will therefore be proceedable tomorrow morning.

We want to stipulate that as our offer has already been accepted and we are now proceedable that all other viewings are cancelled and the house taken off the market. Anyone have any experience of this and what our chances are as both other parties are more attractive buyers than us?

As we can proceed as of tomorrow would any other offer be classed as gazumping?

I just want to be sure we don’t get messed about or mess about our buyers by being as firm and watertight tomorrow as we can be!

It probably would be gazumping but as it's not illegal I don't fancy your chances, sorry!
No more news or viewings here.
We think we're going to rent it out in the New Year. We may have some tenants. Wouldn't be market rent but would avoid waiting while it's marketed/paying agents fees etc.

Oh no Orchid Thats such a shame! Not gazumping, its whats known as sods law unfortunately. The sellers accepted your offer but sensibly continued to market their own house as you are not proceedable. You may be proceedable if your buyers get a buyer tomorrow, but as yet you're not! Had you been proceedable & instructed work to commence on the sale then it would indeed be gazumping. I can understand completely why they would want to wait for the cash buyers rather than get stuck in a chain. Given the option anyone would.

All you can do is wait it out, while looking elsewhere, just in case, & keep everything crossed that these people don't offer! You could always try playing hardball & saying that your offer is time limited & they need to accept as soon as your chain is confirmed or the offer is withdrawn! Although theres nothing legally stopping them from still allowing the other buyer to view after. Given that they want to wait till the weekend & know that there is another interested party, are they really that keen though?

No news here. Not had a viewing since last Wednesday & nothing imminent. Can't even put our Christmas tree up because it just highlights how small the place is & that we don't have room for one.

When are your buyers coming back around MrsZB. I agree they probably just want to plan where to furniture etc whilst they are together.

Oh Orchid that's difficult. You can try to see if you can stop the other viewings but I have a feeling the vendor will want to proceed with the viewings already booked in , especially since they're cash buyers. I'll cross my fingers for you though.

Cashmere would it be worth spending a small amount of money to put a gate in if the feedback you are getting is that the lack of gate is putting people off?

Sorry you've made no progress DrSpouse. Hopefully in the New Year someone will come along who wants to buy it. But I agree renting it out in the New Year makes sense.

Pixie. Could you get a little tree (like a 3 foot one)?

The sale of our house is slowly proceeding with the very slow buyers. However the vendor of the house we want to buy (who has accepted our offer) still hasn't found anywhere she wants to go to. It's been just over 2 weeks now. Not sure how long we should give her to find somewhere before we start to look elsewhere. We've annoyingly already paid a mortgage arrangement fee and some upfront fees to the solicitor (but I think we could get the money back from the solicitor if necessary as they haven't commenced any searches or anything as the vendor won't appoint a solicitor until she finds somewhere). We've been told she wants a bungalow in town X, or the surrounding area. I've looked on Rightmove and there's loads of bungalows currently on in that area, so it's a bit worrying that she doesn't feel that any of them are suitable.

Any news Orchid? Did your buyers get an offer on their place that was expected yesterday to enable you to now present to your prospective seller as a proceedable buyer?

KitKat, we simply don't have the floorspace for a tree unfortunately. We do have a fibre optic tree up in our kitchen on the tumble dryer though. Just miss it in the sitting room. We have a tiny 1ft tree on a small bedside table that we use for storage in our sitting room, & hopefully can get one of the little 2ft sparkly ones for the window sil at some point. Of course, having no tree also shows that we have no room for one lol so can't win!

That is concerning that your vendor is yet to find. Tbh id be getting in touch with my solicitor asap & mortgage lender to say please don't do anything that will cost us money until our chain is complete. No searches, no surveys etc. These searches have a limited time they're valid for I believe & if time drags on may need to be re done. (As we will most likely have to do ) I would also still be looking online at anything else that may come up, even if not physically viewing, although you will be ahead of the game if the vendor can't find if you have a back up plan or 2 you can also offer on. Trouble is the market is pretty flat at the moment & nobody is putting anything new on. Have you had a chat with the agent as to how much effort they're actually making towards finding a new place & if they're just being ultra picky? Has the agent offered to help them or have they done a leaflet drop in chosen areas themselves to maximise chances? Ive had success before doing this so they have nothing to lose by trying, & possibly everything to gain!

Contracts are signed. With luck our buyers will be getting the keys on Tuesday.
(This is old family home, I'm not moving). Relieved but a bit

@Pixiedust1973

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?

I know it's not the done thing to play silly beggars over blinds, etc. but I feel the current buyers are being a bit (okay, very) cheeky with the offer they've made because they know our chain collapsed at the point of exchange and were keen to move. We'd have never accepted their offer had it not been for the fact that we've spent a fortune in mortgage arrangement, conveyancing and survey fees and I'm no longer working since the last time we applied for our mortgage and don't want to go through that process again. I DO feel uncomfortable with how much we're getting for our flat (it's practically in mint condition- I have borderline OCD- and it's in a fab location with outstanding schools) and slightly put out that we've had to make up for the shortfall by locating money from other sources. What annoys me is that we tried to negotiate a slightly higher offer from the buyers and they point blank refused siting an additional property abroad and not wanting to pay the higher stamp duty tax rate. I'm thinking if they can look out for their own interests, so should we. I sound mean and bitter, I know. But my health has massively suffered because of this whole bleeping buying/selling malarkey and I've found you can't trust anyone- EA, solicitors, vendors/buyers can't see anything beyond their own noses.

Rant over. Sorry! X

Citing- damn predictive text!

catspants you rant away. Not sure if im allowed to say, but I actually have a group on Facebook I set up for that purpose if anyone fancies joining? (Its called Home Movers Rant UK) I set it up before finding this thread on here because I had nowhere to rant in lol. Everyone who joined who started the process after me has subsequently moved house & all settled months ago while im back to square one!

I understand why you feel aggrieved about the low offer. I was too when we had one on ours. It was particularly annoying because the buyers kept coming back to measure up & show various family members around. 5 visits in total. We had agreed to leave behind all our kitchen appliances because the new place has fitted stuff, plus a huge trampoline, garden furniture & few other bits, all of which would of cost them a fair bit to buy new. The last visit the woman asked me if I was leaving behind my lovely sideboard.. I said no, I wasn't, but they could have a table I had stored out in our shed. She seemed happy with that. I was astounded at the cheek of it though, when they already got a sale agreed at 36k under asking price plus all the agreed extras which had already been communicated verbally & via fixtures & fittings form.

Its not nice when people basically know they have you by the balls & seem to want to take the piss! I just tried to focus on the end gain of us having the house we wanted, but as they made us jump through more & more hoops I got more & more pissed off with it to the point where in the end when they lost their buyer we decided that we couldn't deal with them or the selling estate agent any more, even if they were to find a new buyer.

Under the circumstances with you, id be inclined to try to get something for the blinds etc. Be honest & explain how tight things are after the huge reduction & that you actually need to get at least something for them! Doesn't hurt to ask! As for the stamp duty thing, they will still have to pay a lot more stamp duty on a second property regardless of the level its priced at. Do they actually realise this? Its important that they do & don't end up having to pull out at a later date due to unexpected costs!

Our house has sold but the vendor of the one we want wants to hold on until after the cash buyer viewing this weekend. We are in no mans land as we can’t proceed with solicitors etc as we don’t have a house to go to and feel we ought to advise our buyers not to get out of pocket as if we don’t get that house we can’t move. We are moving to a specific location and it’s the only house on the market there.

The stress is killing me!

Our buyers are coming back Friday morning for their second viewing. I've just got a bad feeling but I don't know why. I realised that as they are in rented then they don't have the urgency of being in a chain. So it is good there is no chain but also they could pull out with nothing to lose at this stage.

I'm getting all the paperwork together and comforting myself by the idea that even if they pull out I will have all the paperwork sorted for next time.

It's such a hideous process isn't it. I feel stressed and nothing has gone wrong.

What do you reckon the average time from offer to survey being booked in is?

I am sending wine to anyone who needs it on this thread!

My buyer did a boiler check yesterday - the plumber didn't put the bottom of the boiler back on properly and it promptly fell off. Never done that before!

Hopefully things are progressing properly though - how the heck can you tell until something goes wrong? i'm not CC'ed on anything - its like the sale has nothing to do with me.

RebeccaBunch - can't you ring your solicitor for an update?

I just got chased by our sales progressor to see if I had returned the paperwork yet! I don't think I have ever been chased by anyone before - it's usually me doing the chasing!!

I spoke with her yesterday and have asked her to chase buyers solicitor up. Apparently it is their move.

I just find it weird really weird that the buyers/sellers aren't CC'ed on everything so we are kept in the loop. In business (certainly in my business) relevant parties are cc'ed on stuff.

MrsZB "sales progressor"? Is that someone at estate agents? I've never heard of that.

I'm trying very hard not to spend all my time googling sofas and beds :)

You are spot on - it is a hideous process. I am very tense all the time and I've just realised what it is - its this backstory of tension and stress and there is nothing I can do about it. Apart from breathe. I go totally off booze when I am stressed (thank goodness) so I can't even fall back on that. I focus on ungritting my teeth and breathing :)