So another tense afternoon yesterday. The Estate Agent was still waiting for the buyer to provide his solicitors details. Without them they could not post out letters to us, the buyer and the solicitors and as such the solicitors could not commence getting their paperwork together, contacting land registry mortgage companies etc.
The Agent rang me at lunchtime to advise that they were still waiting but would ring him. At around 1.30 they came back to me having spoken to him about the need to move a bit quicker and to explain our position of concern. He said he was speaking to some solicitiors during his lunchtime still getting quotes. He said he saw the sale sign had gone up and that gave him some reassurance. The Agent pointed out that us as sellers needed some reassurance as well, and he promoised to make a decision. I cannot believe how much he was expecting to save.
Anyhow lunchtime came and went. At 4.30pm the agent rung me and said they had good news and some not so good news. He had engaged an solicitor, but low and behold chosen the exact same one as we had. Legally you cannot have the same solicitor to buy and sell a property. The agent went back to him to tell him to change. In the meantime I rung them back and said if there was a problem with cost going to another agent I would pay the difference, after all it could not be much. I knew that you could have the same solicitor working for both parties as long as it was two different branches. So I was just holding for my solicitor to see if I could move to the Cheshunt branch, when the agent called back and said he had now selected another one, the original one recommneded by the Agent. Shame it took so long to get there.
Anyhow letters have now been posted to all parties and now there is nothing more we or the Agent can do. It is down to the solicitors and the buyer. The Agent advised it could take around 5 weeks to get the contracts exchanged but was confident that the solicitors being used are the best two in the area.
So now we go back to normal living hopefully, put the move to the back of our minds, there is nothing we can do to progress it anyway and wait for phone calls and letters.
We are putting our whole future in the hands of our buyer, should he pull out at the last minute before exchange we will be left with very little time to find a new buyer before Helen has to hand her notice in.
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
6th March 2012
The waiting is agony. I know it's only 3 days since we had the offer but because I am one of those people who move and do things quickly I expect everyone else to.
Yesterday the Agent rung us and said that our buyer had yet to sort out a solicitor and until he does they cannot send out letters and get the process under way. He also said as he was working he could not get to see the Nationwide until Saturday to sort out the survey.
The Agent said they told him they would need him to select a Solicitor today as one of the conditions of us taking the house off the market was to move to exchange quickly. So I am hoping he gets back to them today.
It is not the time it is taking which is the problem it is the certaintity of it. If someone could tell me that this was definately going to happen and in 10 weeks we would exchange then that would be fine, but they cannot and each day things go through my mind thinking that something could go wrong. For example this morning the TV was saying some lenders were putting mortgage rates up, would this deter him from buying and decide not to? Yesterday it was an internal door we had fitted which is smaller than others, was this upto current standards? I wish my mind did not work this way but try as I might I cannot stop it and we have moved from one stressful process of finding a buyer, to the stressful process moving to exchange.
Thinking about it though, whoever put an offer in to buy our house, we would be in the same position. Better to be in the process now than to have an offer in a few weeks and to start that process then. The buyer we have is not in a chain, he is in rented accomodation, we also know he is desperate to move out from this, so things could really not be much better. Lets hope today he sorts his solicitor out and we can really start the process moving.
I think the other thing is that in my mind has all the things that we need to do, before we move but I cannot do any of these until we have exchanged. It is a period where there is nothing for me to do, nothing I can influence, we are in the hands of 1 man. How quickly he does things, what decisions he makes, it is our future in his hands.
I think the next few days and weeks are going to seem like a lifetime, but the rewards at the end of it will be worth it, I know it is the only thing keeping Helen going, as work is getting worse and each day she comes home with more things to do, changes to what they are doing and there are just not enough hours in the days or weeks for them to do everything and have time for a normal work/life balance.
So please Mr Buyer, get things moving and please don't let us down.
Yesterday the Agent rung us and said that our buyer had yet to sort out a solicitor and until he does they cannot send out letters and get the process under way. He also said as he was working he could not get to see the Nationwide until Saturday to sort out the survey.
The Agent said they told him they would need him to select a Solicitor today as one of the conditions of us taking the house off the market was to move to exchange quickly. So I am hoping he gets back to them today.
It is not the time it is taking which is the problem it is the certaintity of it. If someone could tell me that this was definately going to happen and in 10 weeks we would exchange then that would be fine, but they cannot and each day things go through my mind thinking that something could go wrong. For example this morning the TV was saying some lenders were putting mortgage rates up, would this deter him from buying and decide not to? Yesterday it was an internal door we had fitted which is smaller than others, was this upto current standards? I wish my mind did not work this way but try as I might I cannot stop it and we have moved from one stressful process of finding a buyer, to the stressful process moving to exchange.
Thinking about it though, whoever put an offer in to buy our house, we would be in the same position. Better to be in the process now than to have an offer in a few weeks and to start that process then. The buyer we have is not in a chain, he is in rented accomodation, we also know he is desperate to move out from this, so things could really not be much better. Lets hope today he sorts his solicitor out and we can really start the process moving.
I think the other thing is that in my mind has all the things that we need to do, before we move but I cannot do any of these until we have exchanged. It is a period where there is nothing for me to do, nothing I can influence, we are in the hands of 1 man. How quickly he does things, what decisions he makes, it is our future in his hands.
I think the next few days and weeks are going to seem like a lifetime, but the rewards at the end of it will be worth it, I know it is the only thing keeping Helen going, as work is getting worse and each day she comes home with more things to do, changes to what they are doing and there are just not enough hours in the days or weeks for them to do everything and have time for a normal work/life balance.
So please Mr Buyer, get things moving and please don't let us down.
Sunday, 4 March 2012
5th March 2012
So we have entered a period of calm. Dont get me wrong I still have a ton of stuff going round in my head, will the survery be Ok, will the buyer change their mind etc etc, but now we have nothing much to do apart from wait for solicitors and surveyors to do what they have to do and sign anything they need us to.
No more viewings or stressing because no one is coming for a viewing, constantly keeping the house tidy in case someone comes to look at short notice, life is peaceful again, well for a while anyway.
For the 3rd time we took passports and utility bill to be checked, this time by Agent 3 who had sold our property. Helen went in and was chatting to them and telling them about house prices where we were moving to, 3 bedroom houses comparable to 2 bedroom flats in London. She said the girl in the office jaw dropped when she heard the difference.
Craig had his 2nd Mathss GCSE exam today, now we wait for the results from that. Hoping that he can get a C and then retake in Summer, knowing he has a C and maybe turn it into a B.
Having done some packing already by putting away the things we really do not use that often, we are in pretty good shape, but I am resisting starting anymore until we have exchanged contracts. Dreading doing the shed, so much stuff I have kept thinking "that might be useful one day", I think we might need to order a skip.
Mum and Dad were sorting out with us things for when we stay with them, clearing draws for us to use and where we will sleep. The one daunting thing for me is that mum wants me to do all the meals. It is difficult doing 3 different meals for us let alone add another couple in. Not too bad doing the cooking but it is just the weighing out of weight watchers meals that we have, although if they are happy to have what we have then most recipes are for 4 people so should not be too bad.
No more viewings or stressing because no one is coming for a viewing, constantly keeping the house tidy in case someone comes to look at short notice, life is peaceful again, well for a while anyway.
For the 3rd time we took passports and utility bill to be checked, this time by Agent 3 who had sold our property. Helen went in and was chatting to them and telling them about house prices where we were moving to, 3 bedroom houses comparable to 2 bedroom flats in London. She said the girl in the office jaw dropped when she heard the difference.
Was waiting for the Agents to confirm the our buyer had sorted out a solicitor. At 4.30 they rang to say they had spoken to him, he had got a quote from one solicitor but was waiting for another quote before deciding. This is frustrating as the Agent cannot put out the letters until he confirms his solicitor. Also the survey will not be until at least next week as he is not going back into the Nationwide until Saturday to discuss this with them.
This is a different type of stress now from when we were looking for a buyer. All the time that goes on now is time that, if this deal falls through, we have lost working towards our end of May deadline. There is nothing we can do, we have to wait, he is a school teacher so works long hours as well and we are going to have to be patient. Our agent assures us that they believe he is honest and wants to buy our house but the next 2 or 3 weeks could be very long indeed. I am fairly sure that once we buy up in Kings Lynn I will not be putting myself through this again.
Still at least we have Kirsty’s 8th Birthday coming up to distract us from this. Cannot believe she is 8 this Friday. She has a school trip to London Zoo as well on the day and then on Sunday it is bowling and Pizza Hut.
Having done some packing already by putting away the things we really do not use that often, we are in pretty good shape, but I am resisting starting anymore until we have exchanged contracts. Dreading doing the shed, so much stuff I have kept thinking "that might be useful one day", I think we might need to order a skip.
Mum and Dad were sorting out with us things for when we stay with them, clearing draws for us to use and where we will sleep. The one daunting thing for me is that mum wants me to do all the meals. It is difficult doing 3 different meals for us let alone add another couple in. Not too bad doing the cooking but it is just the weighing out of weight watchers meals that we have, although if they are happy to have what we have then most recipes are for 4 people so should not be too bad.
Saturday, 3 March 2012
3rd March 2012
Today is a very good day. Having had the 2 second viewings yesterday, one of which involved a half hour grilling by the buyer and his mate over everything from how secure the roof is to does the underneath of the stairs meet health and safety standards, we went to bed last night expecting an offer or possibly two.
As normal at the moment I woke up early and then it seemed ages before it got to 9am, when the Estate Agents opened. 9.30 and no phone calls, at 10.00 I dropped Craig at school for Maths revision, and still nothing. 10.30 came and went and we both thought maybe nothing is going to happen.
Then I was just about to tweet that I need to control my expectations, and Agent 3 rang to say they had an offer of 235k for our property. This was accepted by us almost without question, but he requested that we take the house of the market. We agreed to accept that offer but based on a quick exchange. This meets all what we want and we can sort of sit back for a while now, we only need to worry about the survey now, lol.
The buyer seems very honest and genuine and I have a lot of trust in him, I hope my trust is not thrown back in my face.
I phoned Agent 2 and told them about the offer and that we wanted to take the house off the market. They said that there 2nd viewer had also expressed an interest and was looking at one more property and they felt they could get her to offer more than 235k. I know they are only doing their job and of course the extra money would be nice but I said no, we had given a commitment to the first buyer, we had accepted their offer so was not interested. I hope he provides us with the same honesty.
Now the only problem I have is that Helen feels it is ok to not to keep the house tidy any longer, I was enjoying that aspect of it.
Don't think this is the end of it, we have survey, exchange, completion, storage, renting and buying process still to go through, and of course the weeks/months we have to live with mum and dad which I think will challenge all of us. At least we have progress and the journey is sort of starting.
As normal at the moment I woke up early and then it seemed ages before it got to 9am, when the Estate Agents opened. 9.30 and no phone calls, at 10.00 I dropped Craig at school for Maths revision, and still nothing. 10.30 came and went and we both thought maybe nothing is going to happen.
Then I was just about to tweet that I need to control my expectations, and Agent 3 rang to say they had an offer of 235k for our property. This was accepted by us almost without question, but he requested that we take the house of the market. We agreed to accept that offer but based on a quick exchange. This meets all what we want and we can sort of sit back for a while now, we only need to worry about the survey now, lol.
The buyer seems very honest and genuine and I have a lot of trust in him, I hope my trust is not thrown back in my face.
I phoned Agent 2 and told them about the offer and that we wanted to take the house off the market. They said that there 2nd viewer had also expressed an interest and was looking at one more property and they felt they could get her to offer more than 235k. I know they are only doing their job and of course the extra money would be nice but I said no, we had given a commitment to the first buyer, we had accepted their offer so was not interested. I hope he provides us with the same honesty.
Now the only problem I have is that Helen feels it is ok to not to keep the house tidy any longer, I was enjoying that aspect of it.
Don't think this is the end of it, we have survey, exchange, completion, storage, renting and buying process still to go through, and of course the weeks/months we have to live with mum and dad which I think will challenge all of us. At least we have progress and the journey is sort of starting.
Friday, 2 March 2012
2nd March 2012
Finally things might be happening. Not counting any chickens yet though. Agent 1 has now emailed again and hopefully I have dismissed them now. I asked him why originally they over valued our house and he had the cheek to say that the people who had told me it was over priced were "idiot agents" I let him know who these people were and he has not replied since.
Anyhow Agent 2 set me a nice report yesterday, summary of what they have done. 22 Viewings in 3 weeks 0 offers. Did not make great reading and I thanked them for the report and asked them if they were happy with that and have had no reply. They did send me two new viewings but I was to set them up myself because they were in meetings. I did this, and both people failed to show. Fair enough traffic was the problem for both, one id coming at 12.30 today and the other said he would make another appointment.
So to Agent 3. Well they sent round a couple with a child who are renting just round the corner from us. He is a teacher and they arrived at 7pm and spent about 25 minutes with us chatting about the property and having a real good look. This morning I had a call from the agent saying they were really keen and wanted to have another look tonight at 7pm. It seems this man is very keen to get an exchange done before the end of March to avoid any stamp duty increases. Wow thats going to be tight but it would be an ideal situation for us. Exchange quick, maybe a longer completion date and then the stress will be off.
Anyhow this is only Agent 3's second person they have sent round and it would be so nice to have this go through and show up Agent 1 and Agent 2 for their failings.
We have fingers crossed but are keeping expectations low so as not to be disappointed if nothing happens but at least it is something positive.
Anyhow Agent 2 set me a nice report yesterday, summary of what they have done. 22 Viewings in 3 weeks 0 offers. Did not make great reading and I thanked them for the report and asked them if they were happy with that and have had no reply. They did send me two new viewings but I was to set them up myself because they were in meetings. I did this, and both people failed to show. Fair enough traffic was the problem for both, one id coming at 12.30 today and the other said he would make another appointment.
So to Agent 3. Well they sent round a couple with a child who are renting just round the corner from us. He is a teacher and they arrived at 7pm and spent about 25 minutes with us chatting about the property and having a real good look. This morning I had a call from the agent saying they were really keen and wanted to have another look tonight at 7pm. It seems this man is very keen to get an exchange done before the end of March to avoid any stamp duty increases. Wow thats going to be tight but it would be an ideal situation for us. Exchange quick, maybe a longer completion date and then the stress will be off.
Anyhow this is only Agent 3's second person they have sent round and it would be so nice to have this go through and show up Agent 1 and Agent 2 for their failings.
We have fingers crossed but are keeping expectations low so as not to be disappointed if nothing happens but at least it is something positive.
Thursday, 1 March 2012
Estate Agents
So where to start. Anyone reading my blog will have seen how much I have been pulled this way and that way by stories, promises and valuations by so called professionals. So much so I really now do not trust anything that any Estate Agent wants to tell me.
I had my weekly email from Agent 1 asking if they can get involved again as a sole agent. So I asked them why they had initially over valued my property. The cheek of him to say that actually all the people I have spoke to and said 225K to 230K max are telling lies and that they could still get over 240K for it. It is clearly obvious to me that 24 viewings in and no offers yet show that people do not think it is worth that price.
Anyhow to top it off this afternoon and to highlight the lies they tell me, I had a call from Agent 2, he had someone who only wanted to see our property, no others just ours, however he was in a metting and could not show them. Could I ring and set up the viewing. Sure no problem, so I call the lady and ask her what time and she says "well we have some other properties to view, how about 6pm". So much for only wanting to see ours.
It must be in the Estate Agent training or conditioning - ensure that when you speak no truth comes out.
I had my weekly email from Agent 1 asking if they can get involved again as a sole agent. So I asked them why they had initially over valued my property. The cheek of him to say that actually all the people I have spoke to and said 225K to 230K max are telling lies and that they could still get over 240K for it. It is clearly obvious to me that 24 viewings in and no offers yet show that people do not think it is worth that price.
Anyhow to top it off this afternoon and to highlight the lies they tell me, I had a call from Agent 2, he had someone who only wanted to see our property, no others just ours, however he was in a metting and could not show them. Could I ring and set up the viewing. Sure no problem, so I call the lady and ask her what time and she says "well we have some other properties to view, how about 6pm". So much for only wanting to see ours.
It must be in the Estate Agent training or conditioning - ensure that when you speak no truth comes out.
1st March 2012
So yesterday was a much better day. I just carrried on as normal, not expecting the phone to ring, not chasing up for feedback or to see if any offers. I felt much better, no headaches, no stress just going to leave the Estate Agents to contact me as and when they have information or to book viewings. No more making assumptions that this person is suitable, that person might make an offer. We have the viewings, get the feedback and leave it there.
The new Agent passed on their first viewing yesterday. She came round at 3.30, she has sold her house in Wood Green and needs to move quickly. Well very impressed that by 5.00pm the agent rung back with feedback. She felt the 3rd Bedroom was too small, seems a common theme, so a new plan, when I show people around I am now going to tell them the middle bedroom is bedroom 3. They can no longer say bedroom 3 is too small.
The new Agent has another viewing with us for tonight. This guy is in rented accomodation just around the corner from us, so knows the area, traffic etc, so in a good position hopefully.
The other agent even rung me with feeback for the viewings from the day before without me having to chase. He said one was a waste of time. We had a young couple view who I got a good vibe from, she knew one of the teachers at Kirsty's school and his sister had just moved into a similar property in the road behind us. The feedback from them was they wanted to be nearer primary schools, well based on who they know surely there was no point in viewing ours, but anyhow they did like the house and may come back.
The last viewing, well actually the first of 28th February was a lady who was buying it to rent to her brother. She really liked it but wanted her brother to see it. He was travelling down from the north today so may want to come back today or tomorrow to view and see what he thinks. So that sounds promising.
Lastly we were on a shortlist of two and waiting for the guy to decide, well he rung the Agent yesterday and said that he chose the other property as it was much nearer to Enfield Town. Fair enough, he did say if anything went wrong with that he would come back to us. So once again we will see.
Had dinner last night with some people I used to work with. We meet up every few months and we had a lovely time, chatting away it is amazing how quickly the time goes by. We went to Brookmans Park Hotel and the food was great, and even better as we had a voucher which meant it still only cost me around £20. Thats always a plus point.
The new Agent passed on their first viewing yesterday. She came round at 3.30, she has sold her house in Wood Green and needs to move quickly. Well very impressed that by 5.00pm the agent rung back with feedback. She felt the 3rd Bedroom was too small, seems a common theme, so a new plan, when I show people around I am now going to tell them the middle bedroom is bedroom 3. They can no longer say bedroom 3 is too small.
The new Agent has another viewing with us for tonight. This guy is in rented accomodation just around the corner from us, so knows the area, traffic etc, so in a good position hopefully.
The other agent even rung me with feeback for the viewings from the day before without me having to chase. He said one was a waste of time. We had a young couple view who I got a good vibe from, she knew one of the teachers at Kirsty's school and his sister had just moved into a similar property in the road behind us. The feedback from them was they wanted to be nearer primary schools, well based on who they know surely there was no point in viewing ours, but anyhow they did like the house and may come back.
The last viewing, well actually the first of 28th February was a lady who was buying it to rent to her brother. She really liked it but wanted her brother to see it. He was travelling down from the north today so may want to come back today or tomorrow to view and see what he thinks. So that sounds promising.
Lastly we were on a shortlist of two and waiting for the guy to decide, well he rung the Agent yesterday and said that he chose the other property as it was much nearer to Enfield Town. Fair enough, he did say if anything went wrong with that he would come back to us. So once again we will see.
Had dinner last night with some people I used to work with. We meet up every few months and we had a lovely time, chatting away it is amazing how quickly the time goes by. We went to Brookmans Park Hotel and the food was great, and even better as we had a voucher which meant it still only cost me around £20. Thats always a plus point.
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