To those selling in these difficult times Part Deux. AKA sellers support network!

frafferty

Morning all

May I join you please? We are SSTC at the moment after being on the market for 1 whole day :eek: I can't quite believe it and I'm expecting the worst at any moment. I'm absolutely dreading filling in the SPIF but that is another story....

So my question is this... we are in a chain of 3 with our house being the bottom. We have cash buyers for ours (divorcee and his new girlfriend) The people who we are buying from are going into an empty property so all is good to go. EXCEPT we had some wobbles about our new mortgage so decided at the last minute to shop around a bit and lo and behold we found a far better deal. However, we've not even got an AIP from the new company yet - we have a chap coming over tomorrow evening to start the paperwork with us. So how much of a delay is this going to cause? Our solicitor seemed to think that they would take longer to do their stuff than our new mortgage application would take but I'm so nervous as it was all good to go before then. Any ideas? I don't want our buyers to get cold feet as they were not 100% about the location but everything else was perfect. I don't want them to find somewhere in a better area in the meantime

goldengirl28

Hi frafferty,

I got my AIP verbally in 30 minutes 9backed up by an email) and then confirmed on paper within 3 days.

not_loaded

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

I'm not sure of the legality of paying the SD. Could be argued that the wrong price was registered with the Land Registry? I would talk it over with your solicitor before offering.
Only reason I mention is we nearly ended up in trouble as we offered just under the 250,000 level on one house, and EA suggested we paid £2000 more for the carpets and blinds. Our sol insisted these should be valued to show the Revenue that it was a fair price. Vendor refused, said she'd lost the receipts, refused to have an independent valuation. We refused to pay the extra as it left us open to a charge of tax evasion…

Yes, deliberately using F&F ‘money’ (or anything else) to evade stamp duty is illegal, and quite easily detected. Any half decent solicitor would strongly advise against that.

A sweetener like paying their SD though is perfectly okay and takes the c.£250k offer problem completely out of the equation. Otherwise buyers conclude there’s no such thing as a house worth £260,000 or even £270,000 of course. £20k off, just cos it suits you? I think not!

However sweeteners should only be paid over at completion: ie: they would actually pay SD in the normal way, but you refund it (or half of it or whatever) to them afterwards.

Hopejack wrote: »

…Lilac - know where you are coming from - I have two young children too - we didn't move back in to our house to sell it (we are renting) as I just knew it would be a nightmare. Hopefully though people see past all the toys etc! Someone earlier on gave some great tips of tidying around quickly when you have young ones - she mentioned keeping crates to store stuff in - have a flick back.

#2112 for the crate tip

Philippa36

We were going to offer to pay the stamp duty to get people to buy the house, instead of dropping the price (which we've already done). Its only a thought at the moment and only likely to happen if we're still waiting for an offer when our sellers are able to move without huge redemption penalties.

Viewers yesterday were looking for somewhere where they could have a granny flat for their elderly mother - a townhouse without a downstairs loo isn't exactly ideal then! So surprisingly, the feedback was, they loved the house but its not suitable.

Oh well, at least we've got people viewing - back to hoping our 1st viewers get their property sold quickly.

(I found it much much much easier tidying up after small children than dealing with stroppy, moody, teenagers who hate it when you 'mess' with their stuff! Although my sister moved out into rental and then re-carpeted her old house to make it more saleable and sold quickly for just under asking price so it definitely works for some - I think our house looks better lived in than empty though.)

LilacPixie

Crate tip sounds fab.

Our position is this: We are in Scotland, selling a 2 bed flat using the offers over system. We have hired storage and have been decluttering over the last few weeks. Gave alot of the baby stuff the kids had outgrown (travel cots, highchairs, toys, bedding, clothes) and some bits of unused furniture to the local womans aid. Stuff we wanted to keep but didn't have an imediate need for has went into storage Our home is big but the amount of 'stuff' we had made it feel cluttered. We have given the hallway a lick of paint. It is quite long and narrow with no natural light and was painted a latte colour which I liked but it did make the room seem closed in and dark. Its now been painted with wickes trade paint in soft green. It was £6.50 for 15 litres Our bedroom has also had the make over treatment and is now a pale lilac. My OH thinks its too girly but I like it and most importantly it makes the room seem so much fresher.

I am thinking of storing alot more of the kids toys, we have access to storage at anytime so it is easy enough to rotate boxes if they are bored of what we have out.

Advice re pictures/photographs required. I am naturally quite lazy and have never actually gotten around to hanging things on our walls like pictures. Trying to make up my mind if we should or not. Many people think out home is quite 'sterile' and 'impersonal' bit like a hotel room.

LilacPixie

Philipa - Do you seriously get viewers like that?? Surely they could tell from the schedule that a townhouse would not meet their needs. I dread timewasters

Philippa36

Yes, you seriously get viewers like that!
Unfortunately, you don't know they're timewasters until you've spent half a day cleaning the house, making sure everything looks neat, tidy and looking its best!

not_loaded

Philippa36 wrote: »

Yes, you seriously get viewers like that!
Unfortunately, you don't know they're timewasters until you've spent half a day cleaning the house, making sure everything looks neat, tidy and looking its best!

Noooooo! Don’t get me started on that. My medication’s wearing off!

LilacPixie wrote: »

…Advice re pictures/photographs required. I am naturally quite lazy and have never actually gotten around to hanging things on our walls like pictures. Trying to make up my mind if we should or not. Many people think out home is quite 'sterile' and 'impersonal' bit like a hotel room.

We went the storage route too. We both ran businesses and so had to convert office facilities back into bedrooms. We also decorated similarly, only magnolia…

For the pictures, before decorating we took down a lot of pictures, like groups of four and six that might not be to everyone’s taste (gotta pack em anyway!) and minimised the pictures everywhere. We now have just a few around that ‘go’ colourwise with the room. I don’t think viewers will care too much.

When I see a house with dozens and dozens of pictures it makes me think: 1) horrible dirty marks from heat rising, and 2) dozens of holes to fill when they’ve gone.

spirit

Hello all,

Well my update for this week. My buyers' mortgage survey was fine :T they had their buildings survey done yesterday. The surveyor took the keys from the agents office and said he knew those houses, they are fine, will be back in 15 mins and he was! First I knew was when I rang my son and he said he took a few pics then was off!

When I got home and went into my bedroom, I could see that he hadn't closed the loft hatch properly but I couldn't budge it. I don't know what he did but the catch is jammed.

Anyway, I'd been waiting all week to view a property for sale, that agent wouldn't let me see inside til the HIP was back. I'd seen it from the outside and like the area etc. Finally saw it lunchtime and put in my offer.(which has been accepted) it's a family selling the mother's house (she died) and needs a lot of updating. It has a fairly new boiler but needs kitchen, bathroom, windows and re-wiring. got it for a good price though.

Have booked my ticket for the Ideal Home Show to get some ideas!

PasseySam

Hi,

Just wanted to say good luck to all sellers out there - we are currently selling our flat (First Time Sellers - FTS?!) and although we've only had it on the market for about 3 weeks we're already getting fed-up! Almost all of the feedback we've had has been positive and people say they love the flat, location, garden etc. but then just don't put offers in! Not even any second viewings out of 12 viewings so far.... and we've reduced the price by £10k.

It is way more stressful than I ever imagined, we're on a tight timescale as we have to move with jobs and can't afford to rent it out so the pressure is on!

I really feel for everyone here, especially those who've had their house on the market for a long time. So good luck everyone!