Is this the quickest sale ever?

[suki1964]

Ok so I know technically Im not sold yet but I rang the estate agent on Tuesday . He came around to look around and to discuss marketing and price

Hour later he rang and asked if we could do a viewing within the hour as he had a buyer looking, so we said yes

Wednesday he came back to do the measurements, photos and video

Halfway through he takes a call, can he bring the viewers back without us there - sure

4pm Thursday hes back saying buyers have offered 5k over , are in position to proceed , everyone in their chain is , my new house I have on reserve will be ready in January, will I accept

Not even a brochure published and the house sold STC

We only thought about moving a week ago and now it seems we are

Where do you live?
Viewings with the vendors present is not a thing now.
Have you moved at all lately?

Most sellers vacate their home.
They go for a ride in the car, go to a pub or cafe, or for a walk, shopping, visit family.

And most viewings are at weekends or daytime no later than 5pm ish. Buyers often take time off work to view, or EAs arrange open days at weekends where up to 20 buyers view in 15 minute slots. It's called 'open house'.

This isn’t strictly a sale. You’ve had your offer accepted etc but you’re in chain.

To me sale = money in bank.

The fastest I’ve done offer to completion is 14 days, but that’s cash no contigencies.

OP your new house sounds so good for you and I really hope you enjoy it. I totally understand you being happy with the offer and wanting to get on with moving to a more suitable home.
We are also empty nesters but we never upgraded our intown family home for a large property out in the villages like some of our friends so we now don’t have to downsize and I am realising it was a great decision. We paid off the mortgage, and I don’t have to spend hours gardening and cleaning every week.

This is so true

I ring and say can you come and what do you think is achievable . He replies he cant say till he seen it. He sold it to me 20 years ago. Since then a lot of changes and when here, and we were discussing , he asked me how much would I be happy to get and my figure was too low, I found his to be frightening high. So we agreed offers over

He knew the buyers - he had sold theirs, they were desperate as their chain could collapse at the bottom if mortgage rates moved So he knew how much they were willing to go to , he knew what I would accept for a quick sale and move date - he bought us together :)

As for why they wanted us not there for their second viewing, it was with the EA, someone detached from the property who's not going to white wash

There are just three homes on the new site up for grabs - 11 out of 14 sold off plan. I had to be in a position to move or I would lose it. And if that house wasnt available Id not even have thought about selling !!

Moving quickly still seems to happen in our area, anyway. We've sold our last two houses off-market to cash buyers after agent approaches. Last time, someone moving back from Europe had missed out on another house nearby and we were approached by their agent. The timing was good for us as we were starting to think about moving a bit closer to the DC's school. Weirdly, a year later, their DC ended up at the same school as ours and we became friends and sometimes have each other over for dinner.

In our new house, we get several letters a week from agents, but we're done moving.

Hope it all goes smoothly and you love your new home @suki1964

Based on what? We don’t know the house price and whether or not it is undervalued. Bit presumptive of you.

Estate agents have people who want to buy houses but if a limited supply is available when the right one comes up they let them know. Don’t forget that often they won’t allow someone to bid on a property until they have agreed on their own home, so if someone is ready to move and a house comes up in the area they want then why wouldn’t they put an offer in the same day.

There is an estate near me that I want to live in, a house came up for sale in it so I put my house up for sale, had I been able to I would have put an offer in on the new house the same day it came up, because I knew I wanted that estate. Unfortunately mine didn’t sell within the 2 weeks it took for the one I wanted to sell, so I stayed here. People move quickly to avoid situations like that where they miss out.

We bought this house 20 years ago because we could move mum and step dad here as well. Step Dad was on last legs and mum couldn't cope alone with him. This house gave them independent living, without the stress of maintaining a house and garden . He passed within 5 years, mum passed this year.

This being the lump of house it is, meant they had their privacy and peace, whilst we had the kids and grandkids. They didnt have to be sat in the same room , no one arguing what's on the tv or someone wanting to play classical music and another wanting heavy metal, the house allowed us to do all that and not kill each other

Now there's just the 2 of us, whilst the space is lovely for the kids and grandkids visiting, its a lot of upkeep so we are moving , still have room for visitors - but in a more manageable space.

Makes me laugh how some people read something that was never written :)

First line of my OP is - OK so I know Im not technically sold yet :)

Just because you don’t need more money doesn’t mean you should give something away for less than it’s worth .

Not read the replies so sorry if I am repeating what someone else said, but this sounds fishy.
One estate agent puts a value on your house
Then magics up a buyer pronto who offers over
You think you have a great deal

You need to get at least 3 valuations, he could have undervalued it in the knowledge that he would then get a quick sale and commission if someone offered over, especially as he had someone lined up who he knew wanted a house like yours.

I'm sure most estate agents are ethical but last time I bought a house we had one who wasn't, I found out they were feeding info about us to some other people also trying to buy the house we were buying (as they were selling their house and we had put ours on the market with them briefly but not sold through them so they wouldn't get commission if we bought it) so when it went to sealed bids I called her and told her we were at the top of our budget and could only offer an extra £1k. The we put in an extra £8k and got the house. Her face was a picture 😁as she had obviously fed this back to them and they had offered £3k over

So does that mean mean I should pop down the charity shops that have kindly taken tonnes of stuff from me this year and go stick it all on vinted because I can assure you, what they were donated was worth a lot more then they were selling at

I have known the EA and his family for 20 years

We live in a very small community, everyone knows everyone, indeed neighbour across the road, her family is from the same village as my buyers and as soon as I mentioned the name - she knew them

Not everyone is a crook or a greedy money grabber

But thank you for your concern

My house sold to a buyer who viewed it before it actually went on the market. A good estate agent will know what their prospective buyers are looking for and will give them advance notice if something comes along that they think will suit them.

I also once offered 5k over on a house because I loved it so much.

You’ve made the decision that the time and hassle of selling the clothes yourself isn’t worth the money you’d get for them, so have given them to charity.

Similarly with the house maybe you’ve decided that taking a lower price is worth is so you can get moving with purchasing the new house, or you don’t want the hassle of more viewings etc.

But on its own, ‘I don’t need the money’ isn’t a valid reason for taking a lower offer.

That's good news!

Horribly outing if she is reading but one of our neighbours hid behind our garden fence when the buyers came round.

I agree

Since then a lot of changes and when here, and we were discussing , he asked me how much would I be happy to get and my figure was too low, I found his to be frightening high. So we agreed offers over

I can't figure out why you were so quick to take what is in effect a low offer compared to the value.

If he said £800K and you felt it was worth £700K, why not compromise on Offers over £750K rather than selling it for less?

Given he has produced a buyer so fast and they have offered over your 'guide price' it does see they have a bargain and you're at a loss.

You may not NEED the money now, but you may have another 30 years ahead of you when that £50K+ would be very useful - for your own children if not yourselves.

You seem to have panicked a bit by being worried you'd lose your new build and I understand that, but the best option would have been to advertise it higher and take lower offers. If it's so sought after, it would be snapped up anyway.

Two weeks from viewing to keys? I've NC for this because it's not my buying experience, but that of DS and DIL. It's a set of circumstances that came together in that moment perfectly and I doubt it will be repeated.

This was 2018 so don't bite my head off if I get a tiny detail incorrect.

DS and DIL were first time buyers, with a very good deposit saved and a 'mortgage in principle' (if it now has a different name, I trust it still has a similar one). DIL's DM is a conveyancing solicitor, which is relevant too.

DNiece worked for an estate agent. Her employer had 'sold' the house she'd bought 'to do up.' It wasn't her family home. The day before she was due to complete the sale her buyer unexpectedly backed out. The buyer had paid for a full survey.

Coincidentally, the house was in the only area DS and DIL were looking to buy. DNiece rang DS up and asked if they were interested in viewing that morning.
DS and DIL viewed, offered and the offer was accepted all on that same day, a significant date to my family. The obligatory front door photo (when they collected the keys), was exactly fourteen days later.

It must be noted that the estate agent and DIL'S DM have known each other for many years and we all live in the same small market town.

DS and DIL still live in the same house today. .

I rang the agent and asked to buy my house at asking price the day it was listed (without viewing) - we'd missed out on another house on the same tiny street a couple of month before, and knew it was right one for us. the agent insisted we view first, but kindly held off on other viewings.. there was no time for a for sale board to even go up!

That was in the old days.

Anyone buying now has to fill in pages and pages of forms on their ID, money laundering questions, their savings, produce statements from their bank showing their income, and their valid mortgage offer. This happens before anything else (legal stuff) can happen. It can take days, literally, to get that sorted and even if it was provided for a property that fell through, it has to be done again after for a new agent/ new house.

And unless the house is new, there are surveys- most companies if they are decent will have a 2 week wait at least, then a week or more to produce the results. And that often leads to reducing the offer etc.

We had four viewings of our house the day it went on the market and they all put in offers the same day. It was a starter home in a city centre where there were very few properties that weren't flats - ours was a tiny two bed house with a little garden. One of the offers was from a buy to let landlord and the others were first time buyers, so none of them had a chain. We hadn't really imagined anything would happen as fast as that - we hadn't even been to view anything ourselves.

I bought my current house just like this. We knew it was the one. Offered at the asking price which got accepted that same day.

I'm aware but my offer was accepted by the seller and formalised the following day. I moved in about 6 weeks later. Happy now, @ThatOldWomanNextDoor ?