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)

I've actually taken down curtains and poles in my bedroom and bedroom 3 (the smallest). It's amazing how much bigger the room looks without them. We have nice white taped venetian blinds, so it looks smart, whilst still homely.
I'm exhausted. The kitchen fitting is ongoing, and although the guy said "oh it's only one day that job, love". What he didn't say was that he would come for 1 hour a day for 2 fucking weeks. Literally taking the piss. Anyway, today we finally have the ability to cook again. Just the top units, tiles, floor, light, and finishing off to do. Not much then . The valuations are booked for next Wednesday, and I now only have one full day off left. I'm not sure we will be ready.
Today I practically killed myself pressure washing the back patio and slabs. Looks good, but what I forgot was that the back tap has a little "spray" issue. When I say little, I mean lot. I got drenched, my wellies were full to the brim of sloshing water. But I'm so up against it, that I just persevered.
I'm on a time limit because I have my 20 year old son staying at my boyfriends flat (his room is bed 3, the smallest) in order to decorate his room as it was truly disgusting. I'm not having him back in it until we are sold, so the quicker we are on the market, the quicker he gets back. I also would like to not be doing viewings in the Easter holidays with my little darling's around.
So it has to be done.
I will sleep for a month after this...

Ha! I get you - my 20 yo is studying abroad, that has made sorting out his room infinitely easier

@DomusAurea

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.

Your OH should have told him to go away and come back at the agreed time.

We have accepted an offer on our house, it sold in 7 days. The cupboards, garage and car were stuffed with things for the photos and viewings.

We made an offer on a house yesterday, the seller says they want to “sit on the offer” until they have an offer accepted. I asked the estate agent if they would have an offer accepted, without having accepted an offer on their house and she sighed and said they can only give advice and then do as the seller instructs. We are good buyers as well, selling to a first time buyer who is in no rush to sell.

No other houses for sale in the area we would really like so have some viewings booked over the weekend a little further out.

This is my son's teeny tiny room. Looks much bigger with a toddler bed! Those 3 kallax units were his bed! I've left his TV up, so now we look like shit parents with a massive telly in the toddlers room 🙈. Taking the bracket off is just a step too far though! There is also a shelf to add back (need to buy the white one instead of the grey one DS had, but they were out of stock yesterday ). Got to sort out the toys, and kallax boxes and what not. But we are getting there. If the bloody kitchen was finished, I'd feel a hell of a lot more happier!

Same room with a single bed in 😱

Wallace: 'Your OH should have told him to go away and come back at the agreed time.' - my OH is a far gentler soul than I am :)

ThisMustBeMyDream - it does look bigger and good work but where does your son sleep? I am now tempted to kick my whole family out of the house whilst we sell :D

Can I join you all? I’ve been lurking for a few days on this thread as I didn’t dare join until mine was listed and I had some viewings (just in case I didn’t get any )

I am very nervous. I last had my house on the market in 2017 and got silly offers. I am hoping it will sell this time for a reasonable price.

@ThisMustBeMyDream I can lend you a 17-year-old DS for pressure washing. He is wonderfully half arsed and has left big square patches and sqiggles all over the tarmac and wet trainers and socks scattered across the hall. It’s only cost me half a tank of petrol.

Have sold two homes THIS year, and buying our forever home now. Both were our homes, not flips.

All three of our agents have been brilliant so I’d say, be kind to people. Some of the negativity towards agents on here is quite unnecessary.

You absolutely do not need to waste your time seeing 7 agents. 3 will do.

If you feel they undervalue your home, and have a good reason for asking more, tell them you’d like to go for a higher price. But do your research on this. We put our home on for £100k more than the agent valued it at and sold at asking on the first viewing. The reason for this is that at the time, there were literally no other homes like ours on the market. It was pure economics. The guys bought cash and we sold in 6 weeks.

You will have to work closely with these people so do what you can to get the relationship off to a great start. Our second sale was trickery but we had a fab agent who navigated us and our FTB through everything.

Both our sales agents offered 24-7 care via a WhatsApp group. This is so useful as it kept the lines of comms open out of hours so made the process quicker.

One tip is to find a really good solicitor and pay proper money. That’s worth every penny.

Good luck

Wideawakeandconfused - thank you for stopping by and offering your experience - and glad to hear your experience with agents was positive. Best of luck with your forever home.

PrancingPalomino - best of luck with your offer - hope your seller sees the light :)

Hopefullymovingfinally - hi and welcome and maybe I will not have any viewings - but at least it's an anonymous forum so my shame will be hidden to the rest of the world and I can have a good rant here :)

I’ve just noticed a slate has slipped on our roof. Must have been within hours of me booking the surveyor for next week (Scotland so the vendor pays for the home report which is then available to everyone who is interested). Roofers are like unicorns round here, it’s rumoured that people have seen them but getting one is impossibleq.

Place marking. Photos being done next week. I'm downsizing and worried about finding something suitable.

We had photos done on Tuesday so waiting to find out when it will go up for sale. Very stressful getting ready for the photographer but she was lovely and admitted she feels bad for leaving a trail of stressed people in her wake.

I thought I'd decluttered over the last year but we still had to hide some things last minute so clearly still more to do. Plus I now have to find everything again.

There's been nothing really suitable for sale but yesterday two came on that had what we need so although it's unlikely we'll be quick enough to offer in either of those, at least more are coming on the market.

I’ve decided to only go with 2 agents for valuation and we’re booked in. They’re the best reviewed ones in the area so I don’t see the point in chucking an arbitrary 3rd in when I’ve already decided it’s one of those two. It’s damn hard being so rigid in my thinking!

I’m also going to stop obsessively checking the new build company website until we are at least on the market. If my dream house is released there is diddly I can do about it if we aren’t under offer so I’m just torturing myself!

We are on Rightmove!
The Agent took photos yesterday and recorded the online viewing. He has done a great job. It was worth all the hard work (but my finger nails look shocking) I am satisfied we went with the right Agent to sell our house, not the cheapest but the service so far has been excellent. The listing invites people to make appointments to view on the Open House day on Saturday of next week. Might go for a manicure that day.
Hope the weather forecast is accurate.

Well done Beryl! :)

Second valuation - done, it was exactly what I thought :) - also with the idea of an open day and offers over :) - I feel a lot better than yesterday :) all smiles here :)

using smiles as punctuation there

Boom, third and final valuation today: they’ve all come in exactly the same, which is good. The one today was slightly more circumspect about achieving it, citing ::waves hands:: the world binfire, but also that he’s doing lots of valuations and word on the street is lots will come on soon, lowering prices all round cos more competition.

Now to decide who to go with/who had the least hair gel. We saw two big national chains and one properly local and independent with 3 staff – valuer/viewer, sales progressor, photographer. Tiny outfit but knows the area and at least didn’t give me the “watch this head office video on my iPad” sales pitch…

We've had our first two valuations. Have our third and final on Tuesday. Carpets are being cleaned Monday and my OH is painting the door surround on Saturday so by the middle of next week we'll be photo ready. I'm more nervous than excited at this point as there's literally nothing on the market we want to view. First time sellers so feel a bit bewildered by the whole chain thing.

We've gone up for sale this week. First viewings tomorrow.

I'd ask agents what their strategy to achieve best price is. The one we went for seemed to have thought it out better.

On open days we're being advised against. They say the risk is that if you don't get offers after open days people will know this and so offers might be lower as they know there's no competition. Not sure I buy it entirely but it makes some sense.

Good luck everyone!

Quick question: how long have the valuations taken? I've got my 3 booked in consecutively next week at 12, 1 and 2.

Good look all.
Our valuations took about 45 minutes, had to listen to the sales pitch. We went with the small, local company, they valued at £9000 over what we thought and we have accepted an offer of full asking price.

Going to see a new build tomorrow, I didn't ever fancy a new build but this is in a lovely spot and looks so fresh.

ThisMustBeMyDream, first AE was in 20 mins max, yesterday AE spent one hour discussing everything.

PrancingPalomino - good luck :)