Spring house selling/buying support thread

[PyjamasForever]

After quite a lengthy time on the market I finally have an offer on my house and have had an offer accepted on a house I want to buy. I’m feeling a bit uncertain it will happen with the current financial situation and wondered if anyone else in a similar position wanted a thread for a bit of moral support?!

We’ve instructed solicitors, filled out our TA6 and TA10 forms, applied for a mortgage and have some documents to send them… I then find the next bit the hardest bit about buying and selling when you have all those uncertain weeks with searches/surveys etc and it could all fall apart at any minute!

@jay55i’ve been hoovering under the sofa and bed every month or so since we had our offer expected so I’m not embarrassed when the movers, move the furniture 🙈😂.

I can’t focus on anything at work, we are imminently exchanging, but it is still in tenterhooks with dates and pushing forward etc. Some restrictions within the chain… really keeping everything crossed that it all works out… 🤞🏻.
I will feel sooo much better when it’s done! Ahhhh! Positive vibes please!

@pinkcow123 good luck, we are supposed to be exchanging today too, although that has been the case every day this week. My solicitor phoned earlier though to check for authorisation, so it might actually happen today. We have broken the chain so it's not that long, now, just two properties and three solicitors. we have already moved a lot of our stuff into storage and are moving the rest on monday, for completion on wednesday. The house looks much bigger without our stuff in it! Gonna do a deep clean on tuesday, although we have two dogs and two cats, so that deep clean isn't going to get rid of the pet smell. Fortunately our buyers also have dogs! I've already spotted a couple of stains from previous vomits before we got the wash vacuum 😬

@jay55 Packers arrived at 0830 and left by about 1500 (but still had beds and a few bits to do the next morning).

Such a stressful day today. Didn’t complete on our purchase until nearly 5pm… 4hrs after after completing on our sale.

@PyjamasForeverI have a question - did they pack the boxes into the van as they packed them? Or just packed the boxes and left in the house?

exciting times though!!! ❤️

@pinkcow123 into the van, and then into a storage unit overnight and then back into the van the next day. Must have been so much work for them!

Well our sale / purchase is still rumbling on. We are buying a new build and everything has been done for that, all enquiries and searches back with nothing else to do. We have sent our enquiries and an indemnity policy across for our buyers solicitors but we can’t get any answers as to whether they are happy with everything and have no more questions/ are happy with the indemnity policy etc. Our buyers are keen and have visited again to measure up and show the children so it’s all promising but with 4 weeks to go before the deadline for us to exchange on our new build purchase I’m starting to get anxious.

Finally completed on the sale of my Dad's house today. It's taken 18 months to sell it.
I feel sad and relieved. I hope the new owners don't just knock it down but it's obviously their choice.

Congratulations @jay55 and @AhBiscuits it's such a long and arduous process.

Good luck to everyone waiting on exchange.

Our suggested completion date got knocked back by our buyers' solicitor as they need another week to complete the file apparently. They suggested a week later which we were okay with and now the owners of the house we are buying said if they can't do the date we originally suggested they can't move for another four weeks. Aaarrrggghhh!

@AhBiscuitscongrats. It’s hell isn’t it? I hated every stressful minute of dealing with my parents house.

Still can’t sell our house. It’s been eleven weeks now and all we get are the same comments. ‘The third bedroom is too small.’ 🤬🤬 I still don’t understand. Firstly, it’s not a box room. It’s 2x3m so ample space for a wardrobe and bed (either a small double or a single). Or perfect as a nursery or office.

I can’t believe I dragged myself out of the house with flu on Friday just for another ‘too small’.

The house is on for £405-£415 in an expensive town in Sussex and it’s a new build. If anyone is expecting a huge garden and three massive bedrooms they’re dreaming x_x

What do we do? Is it time to switch agents?

Can you reconfigure Bed 3? Would a large mirror / bed on different wall/ repaint/ different floor covering challenge those negative comments? Pinterest might be your friend.

@TheBirdintheCave What furniture do you have in there? We had a similar sized room so I put in a small double and chest of drawers and everything else in storage. Even though the bed was against a wall, I think it made it more obvious the room was large enough for a double.

@TheBirdintheCave If you don’t have a small double, I’m on the West Sussex border and have one in the garage that I was planning on donating to charity… you’re welcome to have it and pass on when done.

I agree, I had a small double in ours. People mentally think ‘double room’

Slow progress here. Meant to be exchanging this week according to the developers timeline. That won’t be happening! I am hoping they will be ok, they are not one of the giant house builder companies, They have plenty of other houses for sale, so they’d be mad to give up on us after 6 weeks.

Hmm ok… It’s currently my office (there’s a book case, chest of drawers, shelves and a desk) but as I don’t have a job I suppose I could move the furniture to my brother’s garage and add a bed in there. It’s just a pain in the arse to do as it would be a lot of work.

That’s really kind but we’d have no way of getting it home as our car is tiny.

It is a pain in the arse but I found that people just can't see what a room could be used for unless you spell it out for them and actually show them! I think it would be worth the effort and might just persuade someone to offer.

We 'staged' our 3rd bedroom so it actually showed it as being a bedroom.

Before marketing it was an office/dressing room space/dumping ground!

We cleared it out, removed the desk, wardrobe and bulky furniture that was not being used and we added a small double bed which we got cheap. It actually made the room look much bigger and then people viewing could then look at the house as a '3 double bedroomed' house rather than a '2 bedroomed house with a small 3rd'

I hate to say it but it did make a difference and sometimes people need to visually see that you can fit a double bed in (although it was a small double) rather than look at a room and just see a small room.

Its a faff but definitely worth a try if all the feedback you are getting is that the 3rd room is small. You need to show viewers that yes, it is small, but look what you can still get in here.

I’ll ask the estate agents today whether they think it would make a difference.

@TheBirdintheCave there is a service called Shiply which is a one way delivery / courier service for things like beds. Now that I've moved I have used it twice to bring eBay furniture purchases to our new place. Staging is a necessary evil. Even if you have to spend £200-£300 on the room and two full days of labour the effort will definitely be worth it!

Joining in, almost at exchange for our onward move.
Re the third bedroom discussion. We’ve change our third bedroom from office to bedroom prior to listing. It already has fitted wardrobes and could fit a small double, but we’ve put a cheap single in it. We thought it’s liable to be a child/teenagers room and space would be a plus.
The bed was around £30 from Amazon, quite easy to build. We don’t have a mattress, so put a blow one up on the bed then used spare duvets to bulk it up. Pillows and lovely bedspread. We hung some pictures and bought super cheap bedside storage from B&M.
We haven’t listed the house yet, so time will tell.

We sold our house and of May after being on the market for 9 weeks. We had an offer accepted on a house, everything was going well and then our buyer pulled out last week :( just changed her mind. Luckily our vendors have given us a grace period to try re-sell.

We’re back on with a new (better) EA after dropping the price for a quick sale but have only had 1 viewing request so far. I know it’s summer hols but was really hoping for more interest. Really worried we’re going to lose the house we want :(

Estate agents said yes do it so I spent this morning undoing furniture and moving my son’s single bed back into his old room (the current office). Just got to get the desk in bits to my brother’s garage, get the bookcase screwed back into the wall and buy some cheap accessories 💪🏻

Oh @rootsandwings89that is so frustrating. Best of luck finding a new buyer.

Oh so sorry rootsandswings89, that’s so annoying. I hope you get more viewings soon, people are coming back from their holidays now.
Good that you can go ahead with returning the room to a bedroom, TheBirdIntheCave. I found removing the office vibe quite cathartic.