Selling a house

[Hairraiser]

So our for sale board went up this morning & by the time we got home at 5pm we had someone knocking on the door wanting to buy the house
I was a little shocked as didn’t expect it. We kept our cards close to our chest, we want to give others a chance first who may offer above asking price. This just suddenly got interesting

 

[judgejohndeed]

I would do the refreshing, the damp patch, and the sealing of the bath - but I would definitely not paint the whole house or replace the carpet. You’re literally just burning money, most people will get in and change those things anyway.

 

[BelleAmie]

Personally I wouldn’t worry - most people will want to redecorate when they move in to a new house

 

[JoeBloggs]

Looking for a bit of advice for my daughter whose sale and purchase is completing on Monday next week
They marketed their house in November and had an offer from someone in their village who wanted to buy it as a buy to let which my daughter wasn’t keen on and he underoffered so they accepted another offer
Early January the buyer pulled out and they then got 2 offers for the asking price ( £10k more than the buyer who pulled out had made )
One was from the previous chap they had turned down but now for the full price and he said he wasn’t letting it apparently his girlfriend was pregnant and they would be living there themselves. The estate agent recommended they go with him as he had mortgage etc in place etc
The other buyer even came and knocked on the door the next morning begging to buy it but they had accepted the other offer and were worried about losing the house they want to buy
The buyer has been a bit difficult not wanting to pay for various items in the kitchen and threatening to pull out so they accepted this as it’s gone so far

daughter called me early this morning to say their house is listed on a local Facebookpage as being up for rent from Tuesday next week and he used the pictures from the listing that my daughter paid for.
she’s very upset and would pull out if she could.
spoke to estate agents Who said he apparently got drunk and listed it by mistake abs would be living in it himself

One of the reasons they really wanted to sell it to someone who would live there is they have elderly neighbours either side
Are they wrong to be upset ?

I do not think she is wrong to be upset, but realistically she has not right as to what they do with the house once it is theirs. You can try to sell it to your ideal buyer but who is to say their situation will be the same. They could buy it, extend it and sell it on within months. While trying to be a good neighbor is nice, she needs to focus on her move and her new house. Just because it is tenanted doesn't mean they people will be bad, I rented for 7 years and I would like to think I am the same as I am now in my own home.

 

[WilmaHun]

Hi joining in… I’ve found this thread really helpful as we are just getting ready to put our first home on the market.
We are replacing the carpets in a couple of weeks (they were poorly fitted originally, despite being very expensive and have been shot to pieces by us, our young daughter and cat! ) and just generally tidying up/de-cluttering/touching up. We’re new to the selling process, so I was wondering if anyone had any advice on estate agents? I know things will vary depending on the part of the country you’re in (We’re south east England). Has anyone tried Purple Bricks? What’s the catch on the no commission?!

I work in conveyancing and whenever Purple Bricks are the agent we roll our eyes. They're a nightmare to get hold of!

I would personally get quotes/valuations off a few local agents and go with the one who feels most genuine. If they try push you into using a specific solicitor, don't. Find one who suits you, again, by getting numerous quotes and going with the one you think seems best. If an agent is pushing you to use a specific conveyancer it's because they get commission for referrals, and not because the conveyancer in question is really good!

 

[Choco88]

Looking for a bit of advice for my daughter whose sale and purchase is completing on Monday next week
They marketed their house in November and had an offer from someone in their village who wanted to buy it as a buy to let which my daughter wasn’t keen on and he underoffered so they accepted another offer
Early January the buyer pulled out and they then got 2 offers for the asking price ( £10k more than the buyer who pulled out had made )
One was from the previous chap they had turned down but now for the full price and he said he wasn’t letting it apparently his girlfriend was pregnant and they would be living there themselves. The estate agent recommended they go with him as he had mortgage etc in place etc
The other buyer even came and knocked on the door the next morning begging to buy it but they had accepted the other offer and were worried about losing the house they want to buy
The buyer has been a bit difficult not wanting to pay for various items in the kitchen and threatening to pull out so they accepted this as it’s gone so far

daughter called me early this morning to say their house is listed on a local Facebookpage as being up for rent from Tuesday next week and he used the pictures from the listing that my daughter paid for.
she’s very upset and would pull out if she could.
spoke to estate agents Who said he apparently got drunk and listed it by mistake abs would be living in it himself

One of the reasons they really wanted to sell it to someone who would live there is they have elderly neighbours either side
Are they wrong to be upset ?

I don’t think they’re wrong to be upset that he lied but it’s his house it’s up to him what he wants to do with it. Just because tenants will be moving in doesn’t automatically make them bad neighbours.

 

[rubyred66]

In my experience, giving the house a little refresh for sale can add some money onto the home.

 

[Sunflower91]

I’ve just bought a house after looking for quite a while and even though it was already freshly painted, I’ve re-painted it to something my taste. I never really paid attention to the paint work so wouldn’t worry about getting it all painted. But one thing that used to put me off little was things like holes in the wall - something easily fixed but when looking for a house it was something that felt a lot bigger than it was. Selling point for me was the potential something had to become a home and a general home feel.

Something that almost made me drop out was the estate agent (not a fan of the best and final offer thing- I went in with my serious offer and it made the acceptance process 2 weeks longer than it needed to be) and the lack of documentation for things like the boiler. They actually refused to have it serviced so now it has no warranty, but also the back and forth of solicitors as a result of this was around 3 weeks.

 

[HoGi]

Her main problem now is the 5 year old doesn’t want anything thrown away ie given to charity . My late mum who died 8 weeks ago was a hoarder so looks like great granddaughter has inherited it from her

The little one is just picking up on change and tension etc.

I was reluctant to get rid of things when we moved when I was a child and everything that mum got out to send to charity was exciting and "new" again because it hadn't been taken out of the cupboard for months.

Stick things in a box and take it to charity. She will never remember everything she had and will not miss the bits that go.

 

[georgiecait]

So our for sale board went up this morning & by the time we got home at 5pm we had someone knocking on the door wanting to buy the house
I was a little shocked as didn’t expect it. We kept our cards close to our chest, we want to give others a chance first who may offer above asking price. This just suddenly got interesting

Mine sold in 5 days in July last year, not surprised it's all happening this quickly now!

 

[Calmyourtitsdown]

I work in conveyancing and whenever Purple Bricks are the agent we roll our eyes. They're a nightmare to get hold of!

I would personally get quotes/valuations off a few local agents and go with the one who feels most genuine. If they try push you into using a specific solicitor, don't. Find one who suits you, again, by getting numerous quotes and going with the one you think seems best. If an agent is pushing you to use a specific conveyancer it's because they get commission for referrals, and not because the conveyancer in question is really good!

Thank you Oh dear… nope I’m not having people that hard to get hold of I’m dreading the doing the whole process again, it took 5 and a half months last time and there was no chain!
Brilliant advice, thank you

Hi I put a post on my local areas Facebook group asking for estate agent recommendations. A lot of people commented saying to avoid purple bricks because they are really slow.

Great idea, thank you! Yeah, I’m defo not having that! The process is slow enough without having to chase estate agents, I found last time, they were after us!

 

[Hairraiser]

Our house sold today!! It has been on the market just over a month.
I was hoping it would of sold sooner but tbh we’re struggling to find somewhere anyway. But exciting news none the less!
may need to rent somewhere till we find somewhere.
everytime a new house comes on the market, we book to view it, within days it’s sold. Feels like we’re literally fighting with the tide

 

[Bobbleowl90]

Throw a rug over the burn mark. Don’t replace the whole carpet.

 

[Snippysnips]

Throw a rug over the burn mark. Don’t replace the whole carpet.

I wouldn't really advise that, it's being dishonest an new buyers have a time limit where they can replace damaged things that haven't been mentioned an charge the original home owners for it, the new owners could buy the most expensive carpet an end up charging it, I'd just go for a very cheap carpet an replace it, it would then be up to the new owners if they wanted to keep it or not but they wouldn't be able to charge for it since there was nothing wrong

 

[JoeBloggs]

Sorry to hear that, you would have been in your right to charge them for a new carpet for being sneaky at hiding that, I can't remeber as it was years ago now if it's 4 weeks or 6 weeks after selling you have that time frame to charge anything wrong that was hidden or not mentioned

I don't believe a mark on a carpet would count. While I think making the house look presentable, I wouldn't go out of your way to spend loads of money and time. I personally would seek the opinion of the estate agent, it depends on the market. Are people desperate in the area and therefore not that bothered or is the market slow and people are being picky and therefore you need to make your house stand out.

 

[Choco88]

Thank you, And the same to you ! It’s not a straight forward process so all the best!
it’s like that near where I live too, we viewed a house on Thursday that had on gone on the market Tuesday & it has already SSTC. So I’m really hoping that ours does the same
Tbh finding a property might be the hardest part

we’ve seen a property we like, we haven’t viewed it yet but I’ve watched a video tour online and drove past and it looks nice. It’s been on the market 2 months which is making me wonder what’s wrong with it as other houses seem to be selling much quicker. The only thing I can think of is that it’s about £10k overpriced.

We are looking to sell ours after our wedding in October.

At the moment our biggest job is fixing our bedroom ceiling. One of the boards is hanging down slightly, so that will need to be re done and then we will just need to repaint the room as there was a damp patch on that wall.

other than that, we aren’t doing much.

we have some slit marks in our bedroom carpet from when my fiancés dad cut something with a knife over it… it’s under the bed, so you can’t see it, but I’m debating what to do with it. Personally I always change carpets straight away in a new home so a hidden mark in a carpet wouldn’t bother me, but it might other people.

Yeah I would personally replace all carpets. Good luck with your sale when the time comes and the wedding of course

 

[Choco88]

So we’re hoping to get our house on the market in the next month or so. We’re in the midst of a massive clear out, I also plan to replace the living room carpet (massive burn mark from dropping the iron), paint bathroom ceiling (damp patch) and reseal the bath/fix dripping tap.

My mum thinks we need to paint the whole house, do you think this is really necessary? We haven’t decorated other than the kids rooms in about 5 years so it could do with a refresh (scuffs on skirting boards, paint peeling on bannister etc) but I really cba to paint the whole house.
Any advice/must dos when selling would be appreciated

 

[georgiecait]

Our house sold today!! It has been on the market just over a month.
I was hoping it would of sold sooner but tbh we’re struggling to find somewhere anyway. But exciting news none the less!
may need to rent somewhere till we find somewhere.
everytime a new house comes on the market, we book to view it, within days it’s sold. Feels like we’re literally fighting with the tide

Congrats!!! It’ll all come round so quickly, just be on the ball. I’m moving tomorrow

 

[Choco88]

So our for sale board went up this morning & by the time we got home at 5pm we had someone knocking on the door wanting to buy the house
I was a little shocked as didn’t expect it. We kept our cards close to our chest, we want to give others a chance first who may offer above asking price. This just suddenly got interesting

thats great news

 

[Choco88]

Our house sold today!! It has been on the market just over a month.
I was hoping it would of sold sooner but tbh we’re struggling to find somewhere anyway. But exciting news none the less!
may need to rent somewhere till we find somewhere.
everytime a new house comes on the market, we book to view it, within days it’s sold. Feels like we’re literally fighting with the tide

Congrats on selling! Fingers crossed you find something suitable soon.

I still don’t feel like we’re any closer to being ready to go on the market, it’s been one illness after the other in this house so havv by e struggled to be productive.