About to put our house up for sale.. anyone else?

[DomusAurea]

We are taking the plunge and it's happening - we are selling our house (and relocating 200 miles away but that's another thread I guess) - anyone else? I could do with a collective handhold!

This is where we are now:

• finishing the last small jobs such as painting a ceiling
• having meets with estate agents for valuation
• nervously searching rightmove for possible houses in our relocation area (there isn't a lot!)

Are you going for sale soon? Tell me how it's going!

(we are in the South East)

@beehive99 I'd leave it where it is. Either someone will remove it as soon as they move in, in which case waste of time/resources you doing something about it, or they won't notice!

@beehive99 don’t bother whoever moves in will want to redecorate. If there’s nothing else wrong with it and it looks fairly presentable then don’t worry about it

Im having photos and video taken today. Its not a happy reason, divorce, but it had to be done. I have tried to make it tidy as possible, slightly given up with lounge as He hasnt taken much so I cant do anythung with that!

Dreamer1989 - welcome and - here's to your new start

The new mini lawnmower arrived and I managed to assemble it (I 'only' had to watch 2 youtube videos a couple of times lol ) and with it I was all to tame the herbaceous jungle that was our front garden. Now going to plant some 'cheater's bulbs' ( i.e. the ones that you buy already with some plant at the end of it rather than the ones you plant in November like I should have done) - I do have a few which I planted in the past but they are just a few and I am trying to get more coverage.

This is all in the desperate attempt to give some curb appeal to our house: it has a large front garden, but it's a 1960s townhouse, functional and with lovely enormous windows, but certainly not cute, not pretty and not 'period'.

We're putting our house on the market after faffing for months. The photographer just left so now I can go and find all the things I hid in desperation!

We've been looking for a few months but nothing suitable so far so let's hope it all picks up again soon.

Got another agent coming to do valuation Friday, already had one but they want to charge 175 quid for photos, I've never paid for photos. Their comission rate is 1.25% as well

That's crazy - surely photos are a basic essential?!

Ridingmybike I know its a piss take, I've never paid for photos. Oh it's 125 quid if we use their recommended solicitor

Our Tenants have bought a house so we have decided to sell the house we have been renting out. We have been busy cleaning, gardening, decorating, cleaning. Replaced 18 lightbulbs ( has been our experience that Tenants don't replace them). Did I mention cleaning? Three Estate Agents, valuations similar. Two Agents recommended Open House viewings. The house is empty, no chain. One wanted to charge £112 for enhanced photos. I don't think that is necessary in the current market. Going with the Agent that scored lowest on the Bullshitometer. The one that scored the highest declined our offer to have a look at the rear garden which I found odd but what would I know.
Photos and 'For Sale' sign up tomorrow. Going onto Rightmove on Friday. Open House viewings Saturday of the following week. Hopefully in a few weeks we might have accepted an offer but what I find most exciting is that somebody may have had an offer accepted and they don't even know the house is 'For Sale' yet!
It is a lovely family home.

BeryltheMenaceneePeril - 'Going with the Agent that scored lowest on the Bullshitometer' - amen to that! :)

I hate enhanced photos - they are so fake!
Some 'realistic' photos can be a bit too realistic though :D

Going with the Agent that scored lowest on the Bullshitometer.
I’m going with the one that says “yourself” and “myself” the least.

One today had a 1% fee but were keen to tell me how they photoshop blue skies into photos if it’s a cloudy day. 🤮

If any of you are selling a 3 bedroom 1930's semi in Zone 4 West London, I may be your buyer and could save you EA fees, so please PM me if interested. I've already written a few letters, so posting on an MN thread full of sellers is my next mad step.

I sold my house last year, which was reasonably quick (10 weeks from RM to completion) due to stamp duty holiday. It's very much still a sellers market, so I'm sure you'll all do well with your property sales...all the best!

[quote DomusAurea]Dreamer1989 - welcome and - here's to your new start

@DomusAurea

BeryltheMenaceneePeril - 'Going with the Agent that scored lowest on the Bullshitometer' - amen to that! :)

I think I may have found The One. The estate agent to go with I mean! I asked about marketing strategy, ie, whether he intended to start high and come down or start low and encourage a bidding war and and he said he just puts properties on at the price he thinks they will achieve. Big tick!

Thank you - photos all done, I found it very stressful. I am not sure where I am going to end up, got a few properties I am interested in. I thought this was my forever home. Well, our forever home…

Hi all :) I am back at work after a few days' off today hence the lack of responses. Having my first valuation today - wish me luck!

Groan, that was a disaster! The chap arrived 30 mins early so I was still in a zoom meeting, fortunately my OH was home early from work as he could go round - however estate agents dealing is my project - so he wasn't prepared at all - he didn't really see the house properly and it came to a valuation lower than a smaller terraced house on our street sold for - so I do not know how he is calculating the valuation but I would have really challenged that.

So that goes without saying that we will not be going with these chancers.

I am really annoyed by how this has gone so far to be honest.

You can still challenge it. Work out the ballpark £ per sq foot range on your road, see where it falls and ask him to explain.

Remove pictures of people. Clean off refrigerator and inside, too. People will snoop in all your closets and drawers. Get rid of almost everything. If you have to rent a storage space, do so. Buy new linens for your bed and bath and remove all containers/bottles and put then in a basket under your sink. Watch or read house staging sites. Worst turn off is stuff-makes room look small and dingy. Clean up your yard, too. Put almost everything in storage off site. If you don't want to leave something then remove it. Clean everything very well. Remove curtains if they make the room dark and the rods, too.

@TatianaBis, thank you for the suggestions - I channelled the annoyance energy towards something proactive, and called the estate agents who sold the terraced and asked them to come round and give a valuation - they are coming tomorrow.

@RenoSusan

Remove pictures of people. Clean off refrigerator and inside, too. People will snoop in all your closets and drawers. Get rid of almost everything. If you have to rent a storage space, do so. Buy new linens for your bed and bath and remove all containers/bottles and put then in a basket under your sink. Watch or read house staging sites. Worst turn off is stuff-makes room look small and dingy. Clean up your yard, too. Put almost everything in storage off site. If you don't want to leave something then remove it. Clean everything very well. Remove curtains if they make the room dark and the rods, too.

I’ve never ever heard of anyone taking down the curtains and curtain poles to sell! I and I think most buyers would be put off by blank windows. I’ve also never known people snoop inside non-fitted furniture – fitted is fair game, so it would be madness to stuff all your bottles under the bathroom sink where everyone will subsequently see them.

Clean and tidy and stuff a few things in the car/lift, yes. Rent a storage space and hide your curtains, no. Nonsense.