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Original poster

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

995 replies

DomusAurea · 14/03/2022 08:24

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)

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
Whippetquick · 27/08/2022 19:39

Never ceases to amaze me the people that view and they this is too small, downstairs bathroom blah blah....do they not look at floor plans

Whippetquick · 27/08/2022 19:40

Say not they

Paddingtonthebear · 27/08/2022 19:44

FWIW, as a buyer sometimes the floor plan doesn’t really give you the true sense of space. We’ve viewed houses where the actual space was so much better than the plan/photos, but in others it was much worse. You can’t really be sure until you’ve physically stood in the space.

Paddingtonthebear · 27/08/2022 19:46

We did actually view a house this year that had a downstairs WC that was not even included in the floor plan. But otherwise yes, stupid for viewers not to check if it’s a non negotiable

RidingMyBike · 27/08/2022 20:29

Whilst yes it should be obvious if there's a downstairs WC or not from the floorplan (otherwise there's a problem with it!) it can be hard to tell from them what the space is really like.

We viewed one that apparently had three reception rooms and looked quite good from the floor plan and pics. On viewing we discovered the third one was actually a conservatory with a fake ceiling under the conservatory roof. They'd cunningly avoided this in the photos! The space just didn't work for us whereas in the details it looked like it possibly might

Paddingtonthebear · 27/08/2022 21:16

Just reminded myself of a house we viewed that had no windows in the “third bedroom”. Not obvious from photos or floor plan 😆

Thefruitbatdancer · 28/08/2022 00:14

Whippetquick thank you. I am so worried that we'll lose our onward purchase. We're doing everything we can to secure another buyer, the market has dipped a bit since the spring. That's when we put it on the market & we'd sold by Easter. We'd hoped to move by now but our sellers had taken a while to fi d anything until recently. Fingers crossed we find a buyer soon.

InTheCludgie · 28/08/2022 07:36

Hoping you find someone soon @Thefruitbatdancer . Our neighbour said yesterday that they felt bad for us fixing our price and that whoever bought it was getting a bargain. But wheerrrree are all these bargain hunters?!

Neighbour also said they were taking all the negative comments personally re the stairs at the front. Their opinion was very much 'we think the stairs are a plus, you get great views!' but it seems the scales are falling from their eyes and now realising that 25 steps up to your front door is in fact not really a great thing.

LAS123 · 30/08/2022 14:37

Our buyers have pulled out days from exchange, back to square one we go!

SpaceyCake · 30/08/2022 16:34

Oh no @LAS123 ! That sucks. Did they say why? That's so frustrating. What are you going to do? We've had buyers pull out too and it's awful. We should be exchanging this week (?) but this is my fear too. We've had so many obstacles that I just know that someone will pull out. 😨I hate this property lark!

manateeandcake · 30/08/2022 18:13

Commiserations to those who've had buyers pull out -- must be horrible, and I dread it happening to us (but first we have to find a buyer 😬)

Our house has been on the market for a week and we've had three viewings and no real feedback yet. I'm trying not to panic. Another house just around the corner has just gone on the market with a different EA -- it's very similar to ours but slightly smaller, and imho not quite as nice (I accept this is subjective!) but the asking price is 10k more. I'm hoping this will make ours look like an even better deal.

Meanwhile we are booked in to view what looks like a great house for us on Saturday 10th, which is the first day it's being shown. I don't know why the EA has released details so far in advance of first viewings. Trying not to focus too much on this one property, but it would be great to have an offer before then.

Volterra · 30/08/2022 21:53

Oh no @LAS123 , it is horrible when that happens. I hope if you try again you get a new buyer quickly 💐

vinoandbrie · 30/08/2022 23:02

Hello, new to this.

We are going on the market imminently, and there’s nothing out there for us to buy it seems!

We’ve seen two properties, one of which we loved but was single glazed throughout and an EPC F(!), the other one was just too far from school and a bit meh.

Are we likely to see lots come on the market in September do we think?

Also, what to do about estate agents that we’ve had round but are not going with - do we send a courtesy note to say thank you for your valuation, we have chosen another agent but are grateful for your time?

Ugh, just don’t know what’s for the best.

RidingMyBike · 31/08/2022 08:12

Hi @vinoandbrie we emailed the two EA we didn't go with to thank them for the valuation and we weren't going with them. I did include a couple of sentences in feedback about why we'd chosen another one - had had had poor communication in the office from one and the other hadn't been very convincing about the price (he changed it twice during the viewing!).

One was subsequently really annoying sending texts and emails, sending a minion (with the same hair style!!) to hand deliver notes about how he'd got a buyer for us and to get in touch which made us very glad we hadn't gone with him. It was all cobblers as any potential buyer would have seen the house on RM but it would have been seriously disconcerting if we'd been older or unsure about what we were doing.

Whippetquick · 31/08/2022 10:27

Looks like I'm going to lose my onward purchase now my buyers buyer has pulled out. Its been a nightmare from the start, this is my third buyer and now this. Back to Rightmove .....

Volterra · 31/08/2022 10:38

@Whippetquick , I am so sorry. I don’t know what to say 💐

SquashSqueezee · 31/08/2022 10:52

@Whippetquick can the estate agents help to agree a grace period for you to find new buyers?

@LAS123 do you know why they pulled out?? It’s so so frustrating the whole process, we had the other way round our seller pulled out then by the time we found somewhere else our buyer pulled out and we lost that!

We have accepted the offer from the cash buyer on ours. They have given proof of funds to the EA. We are still nervous but only other offer was from someone in a long protracted chain.

Buyer had agreed two months for us to find somewhere o my problem is nothing around! We’ve had two offers rejected and now nothing on the market, hoping for a September influx. After rates go up again next week going to have to reduce our budget so it’s very demoralising.

Whippetquick · 31/08/2022 11:03

My onward purchase is end of chain so thinking of offering a bit more money if they will wait for me any thoughts on this ?

Whippetquick · 31/08/2022 11:06

Volterra sorry I didn't see your message. I can't see my sellers hanging on any longer but I'm thinking of offering more money in the hope they will wait a bit longer. Ready to give up but i have to sell my house wherever i end up

Twiglets1 · 31/08/2022 11:31

vinoandbrie · 30/08/2022 23:02

Hello, new to this.

We are going on the market imminently, and there’s nothing out there for us to buy it seems!

We’ve seen two properties, one of which we loved but was single glazed throughout and an EPC F(!), the other one was just too far from school and a bit meh.

Are we likely to see lots come on the market in September do we think?

Also, what to do about estate agents that we’ve had round but are not going with - do we send a courtesy note to say thank you for your valuation, we have chosen another agent but are grateful for your time?

Ugh, just don’t know what’s for the best.

The lack of double glazing wouldn’t put me off. You can have it put in yourself and improve the EPC rating overnight (unless it’s a listed property or something)

RidingMyBike · 31/08/2022 11:43

I'm not sure an EPC of F is worth being put off about though? We found they were very subjective - in the house we'd sold we'd made lots of insulation type improvements which couldn't be counted towards it as they hadn't got certificates or didn't fit the boxes on the form. We had a room above a car port and had insulated under it but nowhere to mention this!

Things like energy saving lightbulbs boost the EPC rating and are simple/cheap to change. You also get points for having the adjustable control valves on individual radiators and a new energy saving boiler (which you might need to do anyway) is another big tick.

Our current rental house is a C rating and has double glazing but it's really poor quality and so very draughty and little noise insulation. But it ticks the box for double glazing!

Presumably it doesn't have even basic loft insulation etc and you can get grants to have that done. Another big tick on the EPC rating.

ecochiroptera · 31/08/2022 12:01

Oh no, I am so sorry to read that multiple posters have had their buyers pull out. And so close to the finishing line too! That must be really demoralising. I understand pulling out after bad surveys etc but a day before exchange? That's just rude.

No progress for us. More viewings. More of the same feedback. Another one tomorrow but we're definitely reducing by the end of this week. Estate agent says to be patient but I think viewers are a bit disappointed when they view and are expecting more for their money. Since we're buying in a much cheaper area, we're not too concerned about achieving the highest possible price and I just want to get going. Patience is unfortunately really not something I'm known for.

Re the EPC. I have to say, it does put me off. I would not consider viewing one with E or below rating. But like others have said, they are not the most accurate and mostly just a tick box exercise. If you know the address, you can find the full one on the government's website, get some info on the current state of it, and check the suggested improvements.

Doubleraspberry · 31/08/2022 12:24

Really sorry to see so many stories of problems. Re EPC F and single glazing, how about looking at secondary glazing? Can be really effective and cheaper than replacing all the existing windows?

Our sale progresses. Our buyers have exchanged on the retirement property they inherited and searches are due back next week. They have apparently sent some minor queries to our solicitor which we haven't yet seen, and are waiting for quotes on some remedial work which presumably they intend to use to negotiate. We have an amount we can afford to reduce by which we're willing to do if reasonable to get this over the line, although the EA suggested one of the issues was cleaning guttering, which I very much don't think is something to lower our price for! But hopefully we are on course to complete by the end of September.

I've realised that we had such a long period of negative feedback from viewings that I'm not remotely convinced even our buyers actually want to buy our house. It's been depressing.

Our onward sale is being held up by mad lenders wanting to see DH's bank statement to prove he is being paid in his new job; apparently a list of bank transactions isn't enough, so we have to wait another week before his statement is issued (bank won't issue one before that) before they'll make a final decision on lending to us. But if we can't buy right now, it's not the end of the world as long as we get our place sold.

Whippetquick · 31/08/2022 12:26

Regarding ECP I think they don't give a true reading anyway. My house is a victorian cottage, double glazed loft insulation, new boiler but apparently because it has no cavity insulation that's why they gave it an E rating. When I looked at the report there were things on there that were inaccurate, if the the person doing the report (photographer that did my sale photos) had asked I could have answered. Another money making scheme in my opinion. 75 pounds had to pay for that. Joke

InTheCludgie · 31/08/2022 15:37

Sorry to hear that a few of you are having sales fall through, hoping you all find new buyers/sellers. @vinoandbrie I wouldn't be too concerned about ancient windows, they can always be replaced. The ones in the house we're moving to has very old windows too - from the front they are those old metal style ones and it wasn't until we viewed that we realised the ones at the back were wooden. Not ideal but the amount of work did seem to help us get the house, looks like others were put off by all the upgrading needing done.