What was your buying/selling experience?

[TWAMSWIAO]

I’ve only ever bought as a FTB and gather that our next purchase will probably be more stressful if a chain is created.

What was your experience of buying and selling last time you did it? How many viewings did you have per week etc?

And how on earth do you keep a house tidy for viewings if you have kids?

I’d try to get block viewings and be specific with the agent when they can book viewings for, eg Sat 12-5pm or Wednesday after 5.30 etc.

That should give you time to plan and tidy up before viewings to make everything presentable.

I would never do a viewing again myself, I found it really stressful. The worst was when a family came with two little children, my house definitely wasn't child friendly and the parents weren't supervising them properly.

I like the block viewings idea.

I'm in the process of selling and done my viewings myself and to be honest I loved doing it. Had 3 offers on the first day. Then it fell through during lockdown and I sold it again pretty quickly.

Had 1 viewing that didn't show which really annoyed me and 1 couple who were very rude and filmed the whole viewing without asking

Block viewings sound great actually! Get them over and done with for them week all at once.

I’m not sure if the EAs we plan to use do viewings or not, I’ve only viewed one house with them in the past and it was the owner but maybe that was their choice. I personally don’t feel I’d mind doing them but I think I’d need to keep my OH out the way, you never know what he’ll say next

It is AGES since we sold, and I definitely made the same comment that I think most people do "Never again!" but that was mosre to do with losing our buyers quite late on, and all the stress of not being in in time for school place allocation then not having wraparound care in place once we did get a place etc etc. rather than the tidying up bit. I seem to have blanked that out.
I think dictating when your house is going to be available risks you missing viewings, and the one that you miss might have been 'the one', but it does depend on what the local market is like.

I do remember using the car boot to scoop things in to for viewings, and we were lucky in that my Dad lived locally and let me store some stuff in their garage to 'declutter' a bit without 'getting rid' of things I knew we'd need in the future, and I could go and get things if I wanted them.

Selling and buying property can often bring out the worst in people.
It really is a business these days and you need your head screwed on.

I sold and bought two years ago. The EA conducted the only two viewings I had, both offered, one for the asking price. Took four months to complete. I then stayed with family whilst I bought my current house which took four weeks from offer to completion (exchanged and completed the same day).

That sounds so stressful @BackforGood! Luckily there are no school moves involved for us - were actually currently out of catchment for their school and are moving into it so making life much easier for ourselves hopefully!

We will DEFINITELY be using the car boot (and every seat?) to dump junk that we need day to day but don’t want out for viewings.

Your sale sounds ideal @fairydustandpixies! Would love similar.

There’s nothing we actually want to buy just now but spoke to EA and he said basically get ready to go so that as soon as something we like comes on it’s just flick a switch type thing and it’s on. We’re not really in the position to sell and move in with family till we find something - renting is an option but would be a bloody nightmare having an extra move to do!

We sold recently and we also did the block viewings. A lot of the houses we wanted to view went STC and most EAs weren't keen to show us round until we were on the market and preferably sold. Something to do with Covid management. Only People who were committed to the process would get viewings. We did miss out on a few properties but one of them came back on; we are in the process of buying this one.

We had photos taken on Thursday afternoon, house went live on Rightmove Friday morning. A couple of viewings Friday evening and the rest were on Saturday. We left the house at 9am on Saturday morning and returned at 6pm. Our buyers actually dropped us a note on the Sunday (I did the same when we bought this house so I understood the feeling). We had 3 offers by Monday but the couple with the note were in the best position anyway.

We are just selling and buying now. We had a huge declutter, painted a few walls and cleaned/tidied/sorted out the garden and front fence. The agent did all of our viewings while we were on holiday and it was great! We're in quite a desirable area so we had 3 offers on the first day and we accepted one that he estate agent managed to get up to the asking price. There was a big competition but we stuck with our original buyer. (I'm so glad we went with a good estate agent, even though they were more expensive as they have given us such good advice and we'd have ended up with an unreliable buyer left to our own devices).

Now we are about to start looking and it's hard as there are so few suitable houses where we're moving to. They are affordable when they come up but there are so few onto the market! We are again going to view 8 or 10 hopefully over 2 days - none of which 100%meet our requirements but hopefully one will be ok.

And school as really stressing me out. The two we will be near both currently have spaces but I'm worried they will go and I'm not sure when inthe process to apply for a place.