House movers and shakers how's it going?

Sounds good HH, hope that the neighbour living in rented accomodation buys it, at least there wouldn't be a chain then.

We're hoping to complete in the next week or so with a view to moving on the 21st Aug. can't wait, it's been the longest 8 weeks since we had the offer accepted.

That's a lot of viewings HH - something has to come of them all shoooorly?! ?

I've spoken to our solicitors today and made an appointment to go in and sign the contract and transfer deed rather than have them posted to us. Our solicitor is based in Exeter and we're down there next week for a family thing anyway but we'd like to move the sale forward. Rang the EA and asked them to pass on the message to our buyers that I was sorry I was a bit harsh yesterday with the no measuring up thing but I wanted to drive the sale forward and hoped he was reassured by our news. And suggested an exchange date of 21st August (!!) as both us and our solicitor will be away for a fortnight from the 23rd and nothing will happen during that time. The EA felt that my keenness to communicate what we're doing and keep everything transparent would ease the buyer ... who still insists on ringing them everyday panicking that we'll pull out on him!! First time buyers eh? Bless! ?

Positive vibes for those that need them. Will check out your details Nonie. ?

It's a beautiful day today and the agent is coming around to take some pictures, the garden man did our lawn at the weekend and I put a lovely plant next to the front door so i'm hoping the final result will make a few people want to come and view. Just got to wait for the HIP and then it'll be officially on the market.

We need to get very near the asking price to even think about being able to move, offering us silly money just isn't an option and even then i'm still having wobbles about whether we can afford to move. We'll see in time I suppose.

I'm off to look at Nonie's pics.

Well, the good news is that of the two viewings we've had, both have resulted in offers. Unfortunately, the first lot were rejected by the housing association as they couldn't afford it, and yesterday's are currently making a bloody cheeky offer which has actually really p1ssed me off - it's a cheap house anyway, particularly for Oxfordshire, and the asking price is based on the surveyor's valuation not some figure a 17 year old estate agent in a cheap suit has pulled out of a (cheap) hat.

So, having heard the offer at 10am, and told the housing association what our bottom line was - about 3k more than they were offering as a minimum - then I've heard no more. So another day's polishing, cleaning and changing sofa cushions for nothing. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Gah.

Just booked in viewings 30 and 31 (apparently - estate agent told us, we haven't been keeping count).

Fed up with EA. Her feedback from the viewing on Friday was "oh, it was very very negative". Charming. She then said that the woman had two children and was looking for a three bed flat with lots of space. Quite why she was shown our quite small 2 bed flat, I'm not sure.

EA has already lost our keys once and left us showing people round at 6/6.30 pm on at least four occasions, which when you have children is no joking matter. If she weren't with the company that our friend works for I'd have sacked her, but we're getting mates rates commission.

Bah. Hate it.

Good luck everyone! When you've finished your transactions could I have some vibes please? Thanks awf'ly.

?
xxSJxx

9 months on the market and counting. Had update from our EA yesterday - the couple that have offered are 'desperate' to get their hands on our place, yet still have a 2 bed cottage to sell before they can proceed. The other couple from Somerset, that are also terribly keen but haven't offered yet are also still waiting to sell their place.

It's worse I think, knowing you have 2 very eager over keen buyers that can't proceed yet.

I'm pissed off and fed up.??

Aw Dave - I can understand your frustration. Why oh WHY do people think they can put offers on houses when they haven't sold their own first? The offer is almost worthless. Fingers crossed you get some better news soon. ?

Sounds frustrating - I've got all this to come, we're just in the process of getting ours ready for market, hopefully to go up in autumn.

Nonie, lovely pics - I'm not far from you (OL11)

We've sold and our buyers are desperate to talk exchange dates but we haven't yet found anywhere to move to. There's nothing coming on the market now so we're just hoping it'll pick up in September. If our buyers pull out it's there loss just now so we don't think they will. If they do we should sell again pretty easily, possibly for more. But it's all horribly unsettling and I just want it sorted.

Couldn't you move into rented Hazel?

Can I join in?

We went on the market 2 weeks ago. The estate agents were so positive that our property would sell quickly that I was disappointed that we didn't get any viewings in the first week. However, last week we had 3 viewings and 2 offers but we turned them both down. We're hoping that the lady who made one of the offers will come back with a bigger one but she's on holiday now - she made the offer the day before she went away.

Not seen much out there at the moment but we haven't viewed anything yet. If we accept an offer in the next few days we may view a few places over the weekend.

If it came to it we could though I'd rather not because if we don't find anywhere we could end up stuffed.

Our house is progressing nicely. Roof should be on by the end of August. I'm going up again tomorrow to see how it's going (much to H's amusement) but this is how it looked last Wednesday:

Because some people can afford it?

We put in an offer on our house before we sold our old house and, seriously, she wanted us to jump through hoops. She (the buyer) wanted to see our wage slips, bank statements and a letter from our accountant to say we could afford it because we were in her words "awfully young to be taking on two houses". Cheeky cow. But then she was bitter because we offered asking price the summer before and she turned us down because we needed a couple of weeks to get the finance sorted. Then she had no further viewers until we went back and got the house for £50k less ?

We rent out our other house now - its been on the market 2 years though!

Oooh well done you for getting it at a bargain price from the old witch, what a cheeky moo she sounds!

She was a nightmare. She told us there was no chain - then it got to the day we were due to exchange and she rang and said her onward sale had fallen through- which wasn't a chain as it was only one other house......she'd forced us to be ready in 4 weeks - which we were after loads of stress then we had to wait another 8 weeks for her. She kept trying to get more money out of us.

When we moved in it was filthy - it had been immaculate on the surface but it was horrendous. Uses syringes on top of the kitchen cupboards (they were insulin ones but you still dispose of them properly), dirty underwear and nail clippings left in drawers, the dining room stank of urine. It was just awful. I had to set too and clean it by myself. The kitchen was so filthy that with scrubbing grey ooze was coming out of the cupboards.

Hecate - ewwwww. What a vile old trout.

Can I have some "sensible offer please" vibes for today? The couple who are interested in our house want it, apparently, but as of yesterday were making an offer that was frankly insulting. We can drop a bit but not that much. We've let them know what our minimum expectation is and they were thinking about it last night... so fingers crossed they see sense (and/or can afford it) and I can start getting my possessions out of cupboards and the garage again. Sigh.

Good God Hecate, that sounds bloody awful!

PL - decent offer vibes on the way to you!

Sad thing was she wasn't - I'd have put her at early 40s. She was just bitter at having to sell and took it out on us - which was very stupid as we were doing what she needed in buying her house.

PL - loads of sensible offer vibes heading your way

I accepted an offer last week, only a week after it had gone on the market! I was seriously lucky that buyers who wanted to stay in the town but move to a bigger house had sold theirs, they loved mine and although they spent 4 days negotiating with the EA we got them up to what I wanted as a minimum. They are only in a chain of two and their surveyor came yesterday so fingers crossed I will have a quick sale - I will have to go for a rented place because I am currently not working but that makes it easier for the house sale.

Anything that doesnt move in our house is being packed, I've told my kids to keep moving at all times or they will be in a packing crate wrapped in bubble wrap!

Well recent feedback has been

1. upstairs is too small compared to downstairs [downstairs has been extended]
2. house is too dark
3. house is too big
4. road outside is too busy [it is - but we are set back a long way and have an access road in front so getting on the drive is never a problem - in fact you can by pass the busy road altogether if you want to]
5. bloke really keen - asked if we would consider renting - said yes depending on acceptable offer - not heard anything else from him

getting a bit hacked off now.

Gah.

hope people wanting their offers upped get what they need ?

We should be exchanging next Friday (also read as handing over our carefully saved deposit ?)...I can't wait to have a place of our own now.

We are still on to move w/c 5th Oct...yay!

Hopefully ours will be on by the end of the week, it all seems so real now. I fear we may be in Hazel's position in the not too distant future. We've started looking but there really is nothing about and what is about is over-priced, we could end up having to buy brand new because everything that's on needs work and we just won't have the money.

Viewing another house at the weekend.

We've had our house for a few months now, and finally, finally, finally we are looking at being able to move in to the thing.

We have put in some lloft ladders, new windows and a door, I have bricked up a door with my own hands (if you ever met me, you would realise how improbable this might seem) and are finishing off the rewire ready for the plasterer and kitchen fitters to come in when we are on holiday.

Yippee!

Going back to the offering thing if you haven't sold - does that apply to new builds? Is it worth offering on a new build if ours is only on the market but not sold?

Depends on the local market - local developments to us are only accepting offers from people who are proceedable, because the places are selling so quickly

It depends on how quickly they're selling I suppose. I'd say if you haven't sold then register an interest and put forward a tentative offer telling them you realise that the house you want to buy would still be on the market as you cannot proceed, but it does give you an idea as to what they would accept.

We have done this with a house we really like, and been honest, told them we have a tentative offer on ours pending them selling a house, so we can't proceed but registered our interest with a tentative offer to gauge what they would be prepared to accept. Their house is still being marketed as is ours.

Sunset - is it worth checking whether the builders are doing any part-ex schemes?

They are but having talked to a lady from the same building company at a different site we wouldn't get as good a deal doing the part ex as we would selling our own property. And they won't part ex until the roof is on or something and chances are by that point the house will be sold to someone else.

The lady at the site we're interested in is particularly unhelpful but then maybe, because we've always gone in when we weren't on the market, she doesn't think we're serious. I'm just not sure the best way to play it. They have a house ready to move into that we aren't interested in but I know they're desperate to sell and that is the only one marked as 'available' on their website. MrSun is desperate to offer on another house that's partly built but I'm not sure there's any point if we haven't sold. Then again I don't want to hold him back and us miss out on getting it. I know that the house that's occupied in the cul-de-sac was bought at a bargain price because I looked it up online.

Best feedback yet from a Mrs C, yesterday.

She loved the house, the garden, the location, the layout, the decor...

...but she spotted someone having difficulty doing a 3 point turn outside the house and she thinks it might be a difficult road to get out of.

?

Oookkkkkk..... so at what point did she expect the victorians to build turning spaces in their no-through roads in Reading?

I'm quite tempted to use the bangy head man, but I shall save him for when we have problems exchanging. ?

That isn't absolutely the case - builders tend to differ dramatically as to what they offer at different sites - even within the same company. Its possible to make an offer on the house but they will make you pay a deposit and if you aren't ready to proceed to exchange within 4 weeks its likely they will keep your deposit and remarket.

HH you've gotta laugh or you'll cry........ as ever, buyers comments amaze me.