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)

Thanks OP. Will do that now!

We are still waiting for the photographer (Tuesday 29) so this weekend is CRAZY CLEANING and FRANTIC STAGING - then we won't even breathe until Tuesday.

I am happy about the timing as the flowers are starting to come up in the garden although my little rose corner (won't call it a rose garden as it's quite small) still looks a bit like a collection of thorny sticks :)

No prob Xtraincome, hope it helps you :)

@ThisMustBeMyDream it looks lovely! I must admit I did disappear down a wormhole of why is the nature reserve called a 'flash' which was fascinating! Fingers crossed for many viewings.

The previous time I sold was 13 years ago when it was still lots of printed brochures so the speed at which it can go online now initially threw me!

@NewHomeDream I don't think a few cm out on the floor plan is unusual. They tend to put a disclaimer on those anyway?! We paid more attention to things like whether it was possible to get a king size bed into supposedly double bedrooms etc.

I was comparing square metreage of houses with our old house and realised that the floor plan measurements when we bought it are different to the floor plan measurements when we sold it!

@Xtraincome And here’s the filter on the RM phone app. I think a part-fixed-up house is a more appealing prospect if it’s a large semi like yours: room to do the work and shift the furniture, and workmen don’t need to come through the house. Ours is a tiny terrace so any one room having work = absolute hell and dust everywhere else.

@ThisMustBeMyDream Your house shaped up beautifully! Good luck!

@DomusAurea Lol, I am out in the garden every day shouting at things to grow! The worst is our huge – and very beautiful in summer – grape vine. It absolutely makes the garden from April onwards, gloriously green, but of course right now looks like half the garden is dead. Think the estate agent thought I was a bit mad when I took him on a tour of all its buds: “And look, here you can quite clearly see life.”

@RidingMyBike Aye, our new floor plan shrinks it by 8sqm from two years ago, though if anything we’ve made it bigger by knocking out the under stairs cupboards and using that space. I’m inclined to trust our floor plan more than the last one as that estate agent and vendor were full of LIES.

Got a call from the EA saying they're launching on Mon with viewings for the following weekend. There'll he no relaxing on the sofa each evening this week for me. I'll be frantically scrubbing the place from top to bottom and dh will be his usual bumbling self! I want to cry, I opened the linen cupboard and everything fell out, he'd just shoved everything in there. All my freshly washed sheets are crumpled

Thank you for the lovely messages! I'm just so exhausted from all the work. I also had a massive issue with the builder and his subcontractors last night, so I'm tired from crying and not sleeping well now!
First viewing just came through. Is it silly that I'm a little disappointed that it is a cash buyer, and clearly an investor? I envisaged it being a family home for a first time buyer maybe with a baby or planning a family. I love my house so I'm emotionally invested, which I know I shouldn't be. I've accepted the viewing, but I do hope I get some more so I can look at all the offers and try and let my head rule my heart and make a decision.

@NewHomeDream our floor plan is slightly out too, only a couple of cm. I'm trying not to sweat it. I take a tape measure with me at viewings and measure myself anyway. Some have been out by a good 50cm or so! Typically when there are fitted units. Just pure laziness on the EA's part!!!

Good that you've got a viewing and an offer and a bit annoying that it's a cash buyer. My EA is very anti investor and is adamant that my house should go to a family so it looks like he'll be doing gate keeping on my behalf. My current house has always been owned and lived in by families so it'll be sad if it was bought by an investor.

Interestingly, my EA mentioned that a lot of investors are selling their houses ahead of the buy to let rules changing. So we should be seeing more houses for sale as well as sadly covid-19 probate houses as well.

@ThisMustBeMyDream and @RidingMyBike

Thanks for the calming reassurance about room measurements. What is it about the house selling and buying process that makes me think and feel so irrationally?! If I'm that twitchy already, goodness knows what I'll be like further down the road! Sorry to hear you've been having such a bad time @ThisMustBeMyDream.

Well done to all those who have already had viewings, I'm hoping mine will go live on Monday.

Right, off to investigate the deep and dark depths of the garage and see what I can find to chuck out or send to the charity shop. I may be gone some time..!

[quote stuntbubbles]@Xtraincome And here’s the filter on the RM phone app. I think a part-fixed-up house is a more appealing prospect if it’s a large semi like yours: room to do the work and shift the furniture, and workmen don’t need to come through the house. Ours is a tiny terrace so any one room having work = absolute hell and dust everywhere else.

@ThisMustBeMyDream Your house shaped up beautifully! Good luck!

@DomusAurea Lol, I am out in the garden every day shouting at things to grow! The worst is our huge – and very beautiful in summer – grape vine. It absolutely makes the garden from April onwards, gloriously green, but of course right now looks like half the garden is dead. Think the estate agent thought I was a bit mad when I took him on a tour of all its buds: “And look, here you can quite clearly see life.”[/quote]
I proper snorted at showing the estate agent the buds that’s the sort of thing I would have done, luckily my clematis is greening up nicely

@stuntbubbles - hahaha same here on the garden front - I am going 'growgrowgrow' to the plants still dormant and 'pleasepleaseplease don't die yet' to the bulbs -

@NewHomeDream & all in a mid-phases stage: best of luck!

TBH @stuntbubbles I tend to use the floor plans to get an idea of the layout before viewing and whether configurations would work for us eg built-in storage, wanting DD's bedroom somewhere near ours, proximity of kitchen to where you eat the food type stuff rather than exact measurements.

I've used them for comparison purposes this time round, but simply in the sense that we knew we needed bigger than the house we'd sold so there was no point viewing something 30 square metres smaller! We did view houses that were in about the same size range just because we knew measurements could be out and different room configurations/storage can mean better use of space.

@ThisMustBeMyDream a cash buyer doesn't necessarily mean an investor though. A lot of investors/developers will take out a mortgage (either buy to let or using equity in their own home), then make the money back when they either sell or let it out.

A cash buyer could be someone who has inherited money and wants to buy a family home (this was the case for the first house I ever bought - I'd inherited money from my Gran and my Dad dying and was buying in a cheaper part of the country) or someone relocating from a more expensive area who has built up a lot of equity in their home. These could easily be people wanting a family home.

There are also some people who end up being buy to let landlords/investors because longterm they need somewhere to live themselves - eg I have several friends who are vicars. They get a package that includes a not particularly great 'salary' plus free housing. But they don't get a house in retirement, so if they want somewhere to live when they retire they will often, if they can afford a deposit, buy a house in a cheaper area and let it out to cover that mortgage cost. Then they have somewhere to retire to.

@NewHomeDream I had to clear a garage in a hurry last summer and found the Olio app incredibly useful for getting rid of stuff! People get rated on it for turning up when they say they will so I found it a much better experience than Freecycle.

Good luck!

Back in the house recluttering after an afternoon of viewings… Early feedback: one cancellation, one “too small”, one “don’t like the road”, three positives. Another viewing scheduled for Monday.

Waiting for anything further and resisting urge to phone estate agent and go “And? And? Can you phone them all up and ask if they’re offering? And?” is actually harder than the two week wait. Give me fishing BFNs out of the bin to squint at any day over this TORTURE.

So we had our Open House today. 26 viewings booked. Will await news after the weekend. No chain our end. We would love a family to buy the house. For us its not about the highest bidder able to proceed the fastest, its about the most committed buyer that will proceed to completion.

Good luck, everyone. I hope Monday brings good news.

@stuntbubbles, remember the thread mantra:

Nerves of steel, skin like and elephant and BELIEVE! :)

Good morning all - I have been up since a stooooooopid hour as I booked Tesco for the 6-7am slot, normally is always sold out so I thought, 'oh I have just lucked out' (airhead that I am) - then yesterday afternoon it dawned on me that AAAARGH the clocks change so this morning OH and I were loading up the fridge in pitch darkness - he wasn't best pleased .

Yesterday the clean-clean-clean plan went well, also mowed front and back lawn (I so want the next house to have a bit less lawn) today we'll do some decluttering - we are relatively good but my home office is going to need a bit of a thin down - not looking forward to it tbh.

Beryl - 26 viewings - wow! Hope you'll find your committed buyer soon - :)

Watching with interest. We listed two weeks ago have had about 7/8 viewings a lot from seeming time wasters some of whom are not on the market or obvious nosers. Tired of it all two weeks in we did look at some houses but until we get an offer on our house that puts us in a position to make offers we are not looking anymore. Our house is immaculate with lots of great features for a welcoming large family home. I was hoping it would just fly off the shelf. As to what we are looking for - there's literally nothing on the market. Our EA said there's like 70% less on the market than at any time he's ever known. Good luck to all going through this hugely stressful business.

@ThisMustBeMyDream

Thank you for the lovely messages! I'm just so exhausted from all the work. I also had a massive issue with the builder and his subcontractors last night, so I'm tired from crying and not sleeping well now! First viewing just came through. Is it silly that I'm a little disappointed that it is a cash buyer, and clearly an investor? I envisaged it being a family home for a first time buyer maybe with a baby or planning a family. I love my house so I'm emotionally invested, which I know I shouldn't be. I've accepted the viewing, but I do hope I get some more so I can look at all the offers and try and let my head rule my heart and make a decision.

@NewHomeDream our floor plan is slightly out too, only a couple of cm. I'm trying not to sweat it. I take a tape measure with me at viewings and measure myself anyway. Some have been out by a good 50cm or so! Typically when there are fitted units. Just pure laziness on the EA's part!!!

You are being slightly silly in seeing it in these emotional terms (sorry) - buying and selling is actually likely to be the biggest business decision of your life so far.

We wanted our flat to go to a nice couple but ended up selling it to someone we didn't take to at all, in fact we were so suspicious of them that the estate agent insisted they pay a 10k deposit or we would have refused their offer. It's a time for head over heart or you could lose out on thousands of pounds.

Just because I see it that way, doesn't mean I won't make sensible choices! I just would like my hearts desire to be the best offer IYSWIM.

How are others getting on? I've got 5 viewings booked in now, happily 4 of them are tomorrow all in a row which worked out nicely.

For sale board has just appeared outside of the house like magic! I wouldn't have even known if the kids hadn't shouted to alert me!

I'm impressed with the agent so far, other than the silly woman who did the valuing. The app is brilliant, cuts out the middle man. You get the requests immediately to the app, with a text to alert you. You can accept or ask to rearrange the time/date. You can message each other back and forth to sort out, so none of the messing about between a 3rd party.

It also went up online within minutes of me uploading my pics and writing my own blurb (which I liked as I know my house, area and all the selling points!).

Open house was Sat, 7 bookings, 5 actually showed. One bullshit offer today £20k under, one second viewing tomorrow and one couple talking with mortgage advisor tomorrow. Please let me actually have a good offer?