Is anyone else preparing to put their house on the market?

[Clettercletterthatsbetter]

I know, I know...we should have done it last year when the market was crazy busy but finances, family circumstances and whatnot meant that wasn’t possible and so we’re looking to sell our house and move this year.

Is there anyone else in the same boat who fancies a support thread to get us through?

We’ve had our place valued by 4 agents, have chosen one to go with and are currently doing a few minor bits to the house to get it in tip-top condition (filling old screw holes, a bit of touch-up painting and a good declutter) before we have photos taken.

Who else is looking to move in 2021?

Just watching with interest.
Im going to have to sell my house by Sep 22 and buy somewhere else much cheaper as my mortgage term will be over and I'm not paying off the capital.

I've been in this house for 23 years and don't really want to move! But barring random heaps of cash falling from the sky I have no choice.

Like a PP my house has become tatty over the years and needs a facelift. I'm not good at DIY, don't have a very high income so was wondering about taking a loan to pay for repairs, painting etc and recoup the cost from the house sale? Or is that a foolish idea?

I live in a popular area and have no doubt my house will sell, but obviously I want to get as much as I can for it as I'll only have the equity left to my my next home with.

Oh and I have no idea where to live--I can't afford my own area 😂 so that's not much fun either!

Joining in

We definitely want to move this year, but only for the right property.

At the moment things are getting snapped up in days here, so we are hoping for a big slowdown after March. Then if we see a house we want we will put our current house on the market cheaply for a quick sale.

We are looking to move to a house twice the value, so don’t mind taking a 10% hit on the value of what we are selling in comparison to the overall cost of the move.

I’m loitering really. I want to get ours on the market but need to get the roof sorted, the downstairs needs a damp proofing course and the windows need either restoring or replacing. We need to get it to a good enough start to go for the higher end of what’s it’s worth as we are on an interest only mortgage (don’t ask 🤦🏼‍♀️)

I’m still checking rightmove regularly even thought we’re not nearly in a position to move. COVID is really scuppering our plans to get things done though as reluctant to get workpeople actually in the house.

Woohoo I have found my people.
I honestly thought I was the only person in such a situation

We bought an absolutely beautiful, massive detached Edwardian house 3 years ago, needed renovation..
this is not a boast because to afford such a house we moved out of the city to an area we didn't know
Suffice to say
There is a reason we could afford such a stunning house...
And we've tried and tried but we've realised a lovely house just isn't worth a shit area!
Problem is... we still have so much to finish
And the big problem is the same as @Clettercletterthatsbetter because we have one kid in school and need to be settled before the deadline for our youngest!

And to the posters who were asking, we got the estate agent to come round and tell us what needs to be done and what is a waste of time
It was pretty much what we thought but she did say one extra room needs sorting (we were hoping to get away with just painting it but she says it needs stripping and sorting properly 😭)

Anyway, the market here isn't great so she said we need to be on for sale by the end of March to meet the school deadline
So yeah, I am so stressed I've actually made myself ill
My poor partner is doing absolutely everything himself and working a full time job
Nightmare

I do feel a sense of relief that I'm not the only one going through something similar!
And it would be amazing to have the support here because I feel I'm going to need it!

Also, where we are moving to is expensive and we are going to be massively downsizing
Going from detached to semi
And in general go back to city life which is what we originally wanted to escape from..
Turns out you don't know what you've got til it's gone

So I'm mega stressed about the compromises and just how we will adjust so a house half the size

I don't know how but we've managed to fill this house and I'm dreading it

I've started decluttering like a mad woman
I'm so sentimental and would normally keep everything but I've started selling the baby stuff (sob) and just trying to reduce our stuff as much as possible so it doesn't feel so overwhelming!

To people who are moving from a renovation, what are you reasons if you don't mind me asking?
It's heartbreaking leaving a house we thought would be our forever home and has nearly killed us but it's just exactly to our taste etc
Dream house nightmare location 😭😭😭😭

@oohmama yeah we did something similar
The area isn't that bad but it's not great
I kept telling dh that someone would buy it as not everyone is as snobby as him, he's hated it here since we moved. Obviously he was right
I used to love the house up until the last month or so and now I'm starting to hate it and just want to get shot of it
We are fortunate in that we don't need the equity to move but obviously we're still stuck in the mortgage here if we can't get rid

@oohmama we renovated with the aim of selling it on. It was a one bed flat but is now a two bed flat but still too small for us. We completely changed the place and it has taken years. We may end up having to do something similar again because house prices in London are so ridiculous.

Looking at going on the market as soon as the covid deaths start declining, we are looking to move to Ireland and need to know when we can go over to search without having 2 weeks quarantine. In this area property is still selling very quickly so don't want to be sold and have to rent in UK, don't mind renting for a while in Ireland, but atm not sure when to start the process. Would like to be gone by July or August.

@Comps83 we were very naive and just assumed it would be ok! But its just not right for us!
We need to get the absolute maximum for the house to even consider moving back because the difference in house prices
Hence why we have to completely finish the house rather than just sell it like it is! Visually I adore the house and we will never get a house like this ever again but after years it's just not enough!
I'm overwhelmed but also so excited about moving back!

Hey - I think I'll join -

Hi everyone

I'm so down over our house. We put our house on the market in November (all estate agents have similar values) had a lot of interest off the bat. Had three offers (one quite low and two over asking) we went with the lower over asking as they were "cash" however when agent asked for proof to proceed they backed out - went with higher offer, they ended up backing aout due to medical issue (so they said). Lower offer was quite low.

Was early days so we left it, then Xmas - then we had a few views last couple of weeks. Had another offer (again lower than we wanted) - we then got a good offer but they wanted us to pay them £15k if the sale didn't go through before the stamp duty deadline (crazy right?) so we've said no.

We do need close to asking to move as we have seen a property - agreed a price but obviously can't proceed until we sell.

I'm just sick of it all and don't know what to do now. Feel like just taking it off the market and forgetting about it.

Any advice would be great xx

In Ireland the government have banned auctioneers from showing houses to potential buyers.
You can put it for sale online.
But who is going to buy sight unseen ?
It's a different market to UK.
So we have to wait til lockdown is over.

Just checked my Rightmove list and one of the ones I've been watching for a while has sold
It wasn't in the right area and tbh they'd dropped it from 240 to 190 (Not sure what they started it on) so thought it was a bit too good to be true but someone's probably got a bargain

I fell in love with a house! But it's sold
Bit worrying that nothing else has come up but I'm hoping people are waiting until lockdown eases etc!
It's all such a gamble!
We could go into rented or maybe stay with family but I think that will be beyond stressful!

I'm contemplating putting my flat on when we come out of lockdown. I'm currently gradually trying to work my way through the ridiculous mess and clutter to get it to the point where that might be vaguely workable.

I strongly suspect it won't be particularly easy to sell - it's a great flat with nice big rooms and several other plus points (shared outside space at the back, a share of the freehold) but also a number of things that are likely to be off-putting. Primarily, it doesn't have central heating. It's also not in brilliant decorative condition (and I will admit my tastes are a bit quirky). It's absolutely somewhere you could add value to, and very much livable in the meantime (perfectly functional and inoffensive kitchen and bathroom), I just never got around to doing it. In theory I suppose I could try to sort out some of those things, but I had a baby (solo) at the beginning of lockdown 1 and practically it's a lot harder to do that kind of stuff than it was before, especially while I can't even leave him with anyone else it get a friend round to help. I'll also be damned if I paint everything beige, over the top of what I actually like, because if I then still don't sell it that would be immensely irritating - and frankly the people who are going to be put off by my patterned stair risers would also hate my mid-century modern furniture anyway, and be put off just by that. So I think it'll just have to be priced to reflect that, and hope for the right person to fall in love with it (to be fair, everyone I know does really like it too, but I get the sense from Mumsnet that their enthusiasm would not be universal).

I'm also conscious that finding somewhere to move to is likely to be slightly tricky - I really need more space but can't really afford it, so will be looking in one specific nearby town, for properties that are themselves probably not, shall we say, universally appealing.

Ok so I’ve had some valuations now. Just need to get the place tidy for some photos.
I’ve just gone around with a paint brush and tarted up rooms a little.

Been here 20 years and will be sad to leave as the neighbours are awesome and the house is in a great location school/shop-wise.

Scared as I’m going to have to get a house twice in value as I’ve got to move further south for work. What if it all goes wrong?!

Starting to contemplate renting ours out

@Comps83
When we had the estate agent round
We discussed this
It's not something I thought I'd ever consider but she said the rental market is great and it would get rented out straight away
So I'm thinking if we start running out of time (for school admissions) then renting will be the way to go!

Would you rent somewhere? Or stay with family?

We are lucky in the sense that our families both live close to each other and in the part of the city we want to move to so we could make it work somehow and be in the right area for schools etc
But I'm not sure living with family would be great for our stress levels 🙈🙈

We bought planning to live here, started doing it up then decided we wanted to live in a different town so now it’s a case of just getting it finished off to sell. We spent a lot more money than we would have had we planned to sell it on originally but I’m hoping we won’t be out of pocket.

We’ll be moving to a house at least double almost triple the value of this so our new mortgage will be shock to the system!

I’d do another doer upper but only if it was a real bargain.

Our house has been up for sale since November.
We have had over 20 viewings and a few bids. Everyone says it needs updating or that it needs too much work.
We have a buyer who is renting, so hopefully it will all work out.
We have just had our offer accepted on an empty house. We have decided not to rent as too much hassle storing furniture etc.

@oohmama renting would be a last resort . We've got no one we can stay with
Just so sick of being in limbo . Can't believe how close we came to moving last time . If we hadn't been messed around so badly we probably would have sold it in the initial rush after the stamp duty announcement

Well if anyone is selling a nice little two bed house in Manchester please let me know and we can cut out the middle man!

Can't help you, blankety, unless you fancy a lovely big four-bed detached an hour away!

A tip for anyone who is bad at de cluttering is to start with your kitchen. Buy boxes for the shelves. Fill them whilst checking the date on the food and whether you will actually eat it. It will get you in the mood for starting the de clutter process and help for the packing process. You can lift the boxes out and clean the shelves. Food generally isn’t sentimental so a great place to start.
Then start in the bathroom.
There are great tips for organising things on Pinterest.

@blanketyblankpen wouldn’t it be great if we could all just house swap on the thread? We’d save a fortune in agents’ fees between us!

What’s everyone’s focus for this week/weekend? We’ve instructed agents but need to sign paperwork and book in to have photos taken. I’m hoping we can book that in for early next week - in which case this weekend will be spent decluttering and deep cleaning!

I've been in the loft rooms today!
I just don't know how we have so much stuff!!!!
Filling up bags and bags of rubbish and have a pile of stuff to 'think about'
Have sold the baby stuff which was really sad for me but it's cleared out a lot of big bulky stuff!

Good tip about the kitchen stuff! I went through recently and got rid of loads of chipped plates and random crap we never used
Bathroom is in the process of being gutted to get re done but might start in the cupboard under the stairs
Wahhh