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)

That's great news @Whippetquick I really hope it works out for you this time!

So we have run into an unexpected complication. Bear with me, might be a bit long!

When DH contacted his solicitor about the sale of his mums house, which is being used to fund a fair proportion of our deposit, he told her we had an offer accepted on a place for ourselves. Solicitor then proceeded to tell him that the funds from the probate sale wouldn't be available immediately....MIL put her house into trust and apparently the trust needs dissolved before funds are released. We feel this wasn't made clear to DH, all he was told was that it was fine to go ahead and sell the house even though it formed part of a trust.

To complicate things even further, MILs home was supposed to complete this coming Monday but DH solicitor told him last thing yesterday that she hasn't heard from the buyer so yeah, completion is likely not going to happen on that day! We apparently need time between sale and closure of the trust, but the solicitor wasn't willing to commit to how long this could be. All she would say is at least a month.

I'm thinking we should do the right thing and let our vendor know, he's now found a place to move to so I don't think it's fair to hold him up ☹️

This is good news. I hope all goes well for you this time.

Can I join this thread please ? I’ve been reading for a few months. I originally put my house on the market back in April. I got two valuations of £515K and £495K. I went with the lower valuation. Since then I had 35 viewings - 5 second viewings and 2 third viewings but absolutely no offers. Twice over the duration with the first EA I dropped the price to £450K and then to £400K. I felt that I wasn’t get any feedback from the estate agents and although I realise that price is decided by the market I was surprised no offers even checking ones. It’s a lovely 4 bed cottage but does need work. So house came off the market last week and I’m relisting with a new estate agent in a couple of weeks on offers over £375K. Financially I have to sell so if it doesn’t sell in the next four months it’s goes to auction. It’s so frustrating but fingers crossed for the new agent.

@Webb27 That sounds awfully frustrating to have so many viewings and little to no progress. Third viewings even, I had no idea that was a thing before having even offered. I hope it works out better with the next EA.

We've had multiple viewings today and I'm a little grumpy. They all loved it but didn't like that it's on a busy road. I'm grumpy because I figured that it would be obvious to anyone checking the Rightmove listing. The house would easily cost £150k more if it wasn't in this location. So whenever I see suspiciously cheap houses I assume there's a catch and the first thing I do is check Streetview. You know, maybe there's a petrol station next door or something. Do people not look at the location?? Am I the only person who does that?

That’s so frustrating. I agree I would always check street view. It’s like the limited feedback I’ve had is always ‘it’s too much work’. It’s so obvious from my photos and my house if it was ready to move into would like you be worth 150K more. Fingers crossed you get someone who can see they are getting value for money.

No I get you @ecochiroptera - two of our viewers weren't keen on our stairs...but it's obvious from pics, description and even street view that there are lots of stairs!!

Jesus. That's some serious over optimism from the estate agents. I know there is a cost to it but if your house is unusual would it be worth getting a valuation from a surveyor? At least they are qualified and held to professional standards, unlike the Wild West of estate agencies.

We are crawling along and now at the stage we have replied to enquiries and awaiting draft transfer.
anyone have any clue how much longer it may be?

Sorry LAS123, but absolutely no idea. It is so tedious and painful (nearly but not quite as bad as root canal) isn't it?
I get an "update" from our EA every couple of weeks. Not sure if she is genuinely uninformed or just being vague on purpose. I have taken to letting her now the specific reason for the delay (it varies from week to week)
Still it is a long and complicated chain ( of 3) and the offer was only accepted as recently as March so very early days yet but would be great to complete before its time to put the sprouts on.
Good Luck

Thank you @LadyDP, its so so hideously long and frustrating isnt it.
I think I cling onto any update and see it as progress even when you know it isnt!
good Luck

We just completed in the last 10 minutes. I can hardly believe it’s finally happened. Third time was lucky. Good luck to all the rest who are still in this horrible process.

Congratulations ,@Chemenger that's wonderful news! Hope your move itself goes smoothly.

We exchanged yesterday but we (I) were (was) tested to our (my) limits. I'm awaiting a root canal next month @LadyDP and honestly- I'd prefer that over the stress of the conveyancing process (at least there's an element of control eg. Painkillers vs being left in the lurch by difficult conveyancing solicitors/buyers/vendors).

Congrats @Chemenger- what a relief. Best wishes for your new life in your new house!

Estate agent called yesterday. My new buyer has proved funds etc but their estate agents have let two managers go on holiday at the same time and left the admin person alone.

The sale of my house it still not official until paperwork etc done their side. This came about yesterday sfter my estate agent chasing. The person left in the office is not in a position to deal with this. So a week.wasted doing nothing. What sort of business allows both managers go on holiday at the same time knowing people can't move on with their sales/purchases....

Congratulations @Chemenger and @mussinboots . What a relief to finally have gotten there!

@Whippetquick That sounds annoying. My work won't even let two people from the same team (smallish) go on holiday at the same time, let alone two managers.

We have another viewing tomorrow but other than that, it's been quiet. I know it's the summer holidays and things are slow in August, but I am worried our EA is actually stopping people from viewing. After the first few viewers gave feedback that the house was too close to the road and they didn't realise (the location on the RM is correct, so they just didn't check the map/streetview), the EA decided that it would be best to give interested viewers a heads up that the house is close to the road... I don't know if I think that's a good idea or not. I think it would have put me off when we enquired about the house and then I would have never viewed it and fallen in love with it. Anyone else not having much interest so far?

Hi @ecochiroptera we have only had one viewing in the past week, we decided today to fix our price at the HR value. Our vendor has said he still wants us as purchasers of his house and is happy to give us more time, so it's a bit of pressure off but still need a buyer of our own!

MILs house is now completing at the start of September so I'm feeling a bit more hopeful about it all.

You just can’t tell which viewers like your property more on viewings as some are enthusiastic just to be polite whereas others downplay it to try to get a bargain when later negotiating.
One person who viewed our flat in London firstly told our EA she wouldn’t be making an offer before it was “on the wrong side of the block “ - it faced the wrong way apparently 🤷🏼‍♀️ Then a couple of weeks later she asked for a second viewing and put in an insultingly low offer because it needed too much work. When we refused she said it was massively overpriced and she wouldn’t be putting in an offer.
Unbelievably, this was the woman who ended up buying our flat! Unknown to us her boyfriend had a chat with the estate agent and said they wanted to be informed if anyone else put in a higher offer we were considering. This did happen and they immediately swooped in and offered more than the previous person. It’s a funny old business!

Bit of market anecdata from Cambridge villages - we went on market last day March, sold in April, offer accepted on our new place second week May and we exchanged last week. Chain of 4, our sellers moving to their second home (!) so we were at the top.

Our estate agent was completely brilliant - built the chain and held it all together, with the progressor chasing everyone and talking to all the solicitors. Solicitors were generally a bit crap and seemed to lose sight that the aim of the game was actually to sell houses, not be complete hardline Rottweilers. It would have taken much longer had we not known our seller and been able to catch up with him to let him know what nonsense his solicitors were trying to pull!

Everyone in the chain had fairly hard deadlines (baby arriving, mortgage offers expiring, moving for work) so it was a fairly motivated chain. Despite a last minute panic on exchange where one of the solicitors hadn’t realised we wanted to pass the deposits up the chain it’s been pretty straightforward. Our major problem is trying to find a removals company - they are all booked solid, and the ones who quoted for us are now booked for our completion date 🙄

good luck everyone!

@DazzlePaintedBattlePants when are you moving? I've barely thought about movers, though i did get a couple of leaflets through the door after the For Sale sign went up! I did factor in an imaginary amount for movers to our house move budget but I'm not sure if it's overly optimistic so need to get on to some people for quotes.

@InTheCludgie Moving early Sept, and we’ve basically had to just throw money at the problem🙈 We are stuck with a Friday move which is not ideal. Some companies take deposits to secure a date, but our preferred company wouldn’t book anything in until you’d exchanged and by the time we’d exchanged they had no availability. I thought we were ahead of the game as our friend who moved early July was let down by her movers at the last minute and had to hire vans and move herself!

We’ve had to go with one of the big nationwide companies as they have a bit more capacity to shuffle around. We tried 7 local companies and none had availability!

Back from our holiday with an update.

Had 8 viewings whilst we were away, slightly concerned as less than last time but half expected with it being school hols.

2 last min cancelled/no shows so 6 viewings and 2 offers!

First offer from guy divorcing, 2 already below in chain so we’d be top of chain at number 4. 10K over asking price. His ex wife was moving to rented but know from other threads she could change her mind adding more to the chain.

Next offer from a cash buyer 20k over asking, single female buyer.

First bidder then upped to 15k over asking.

read lots of tales on this board about cash buyers messing around, reducing price before exchange, actually needing a mortgage etc etc. EA are in process of getting ID and verifying funds.

I think it’s a no brainer? Our chain collapsed last time after 8 months and lost our purchase and buyer so can’t help but be worried. Viewed few properties so far but none suitable, another 2 viewings on Tuesday.

We were chain free, cash buyers. The only thing we offered to reduce for was to move on their date with outstanding paperwork. In the end, they delayed 2 weeks past their "absolute latest date we can move" for the price we initially offered at.

Who are you prefering? Is the current offer price likely to get valued down by the mortgage company?

Hi I've been watching this thread for months now whilst I get my house in order and ready to put on the market. Just wanted to

I've got 4 EAs coming this week for valuations with a view to putting on the market at beginning of Sept. It seems not the best time to be selling but plans are long standing and include a relocation for me to live with my DP.

I'm a bit nervous about the feedback I'll get although I know there aren't many houses on the market right now so that will be in my favour.

Hi all, our house is going on the market later today or tomorrow morning, and I have a feeling I may need some moral support/solidarity over the coming months!

At the moment I am more worried about finding our next house than I am about selling this one, though I may eat my words. We are in London and the main impetus for moving is secondary schools (elder DC is going into year 5) so we are quite restricted by catchements, though we are looking in more than one area. Anyway, it all feels a bit terrifying but here goes ...

The one take home message we learnt was to check the sales rate of your estate agent. It’s clear from market watching round here which estate agents value highly to get the business but the properties take ages to sell. Holding out for top dollar is a waste of time in a fast moving market - if you have an offer accepted you’re in a far stronger position than if you’re chasing an extra £20k or so. We weren’t taken seriously until we had an offer and in some cases we weren’t even being accepted for viewings!