Selling our BTL in this economic recession... how's that for on topic?

silvercar

silvercar wrote: »

If this is a serious thread (and I'm sometimes not sure):

Cleaver wrote: »

It would be quite elaborate to 'create' a BTL property 12 months ago when I joined this site and keep up a running story about it right through to a sale. But I'm not trying to convince you that it's true, you'll have to make that decision yourself. When it comes to us selling it for a lot less that we paid for it you'll probably question why I didn't make up a more sucessful story where we make thousands and I somehow have a threesome along the way.

The written word fails again.

I meant that the thread had strayed, so wasn't sure of the ettiquete of bringing it back on topic.

lostinrates

silvercar wrote: »

The written word fails again.

I meant that the thread had strayed, so wasn't sure of the ettiquete of bringing it back on topic.

Always acceptable And it hadn't strayed that much, there are not many things more serious than the responsibilty of borrowing a book, and, despite Bluey's lack of faith in Cleaver and me the book is actually very on topic

SingleSue

Oh boy have we missed you Cleaver......I always quite enjoyed the Mewbie/Cleaver double act.

FoxtonsRIP

Pobby wrote: »

Is DD back? As himself or a sockie?

I think Harry powell is his latest moniker. but that one was rumbled fairly quickly. So prepare yourself for another one fairly shortly.

Cleaver

Week 1

Well, kinda week 1, and the past couple of weeks. The house offically went on the market today and we had two viewings this evening.I presume this is because there is probably a load of speculative buyers / voyeurs out there and not many properties to look at. Good feedback from the first couple who 'liked it', but a guy who looked round has a very expensive mountain bike and doesn't know where he'd keep it. The shed I suggested to the EA? I also said that as he was buying a two bed as a single person he could turn the spare room in to a mountain bike shrine if he wanted to. The EA didn't understand this, but I quite like the idea of a 'Second Bedroom / Mountain Bike Shrine'.

Firstly, the HIP. What a crock. Basically, you pay £300 odd quid and they send you a questionnaire to answer:

Is your house made of stuff? Yes
Is parking on the road, in a garage or in the lounge? Road
Erm, does it have drainpipes? Yes
Lived there long? A while, yes.
"Erm, that's it. Here's 59 pages of energy efficiency that no one will read. £300 please".

Secondly, it was a really interesting excerise chosing our estate agent. There were four in our town that we were prepared to use, including the place we bought our house from in the first place who we really liked (as far as you can 'really like' an estate agents). I cobbled together a 'Dear Sir' e-mail, explained the situation that we had tennants who were moving out in 3 weeks time, gave them our letting agency details to arrange a visit, asked them to visit and value, then get back to me. Out of these four, one replied two days ago asking if we were still interested. Two never even got back to me and the one we previously bought through did everything I asked in three days with no fuss. So we chose them. I quite like them to be honest. My basis for picking them wasn't their commission or sales record, it was the fact that none of them had wide knot ties or footballers hair. And they answer my phone calls and e-mails quickly, efficiently and politely. So I presume they treat potential buyers in the same way.

We bought the house in Jan / Feb 2004. We were in that situation where it came on the market on the Monday, we looked round that evening with a whole host of other people, loved it and put in an offer around 5% below asking which was accepted. Then they had another offer above this, so we went slightly higher... etc. etc. So we ended up offering the asking price. This was accepted, then we got a phone call again telling us that someone had offered £2k above this. At this point we pulled out, pretty p*ssed off. But then a week later, they dropped out, so we bought it at asking price.

As I say, this was in early 2004 and we've decided to stick it on the market now for 11% less than what we bought it for. We probably paid too much for it in the first place really. I have no idea if this is right, but I had a figure in my head, then the estate agent valued it at exactly the same, so it seems about right. C'mon my geeky house price comrades, is this about right? Get your calculators out.

lostinrates

Cleaver my Darling, why is the bed up against the wall like that?

Cleaver

lostinrates wrote: »

Cleaver my Darling, why is the bed up against the wall like that?

After seeing the photo I'm thinking the same thing! Will ask them to move it away from the wall.

Edit: No wonder you haven't bought yet, you fussy thing. You can put the bed in the kitchen or garden if you want once you've bought the place.

fc123

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:As I scrolled down...then the tennis court.:rotfl:

If you come back more I will too...with lots more narcissitic, self indulgent, small business retail anecdotal too...ooops, forgot, we just sold out to the corporate pound....so gossip about nasty Tescopoly types.

House looks just fine to me.
03/04 price seems about right too...but it's all down to the customer in the end.


Agree with lir....move the bed to centre of wall...and the cushion sprinkling on the mezzanine......not so sure but could appeal to a dopeden type?

In the end, your thread sums up a lot of of stuff...life goes on and we just have to live within the economic circumstances at the time as we make certain life choices.

I only ever realise how dam fine and clever we were from looking at graphs on here...we traded up in 96..absolute bottom of market....except we had no idea. We had to sell fast and move as we were having hell with some nearby neighbours.......we just could afford something a bit bigger and better by coincidence.

JanCee

Paint the wall. Otherwise it looks good. Care to reveal the price and then we can have a heated debate?

lostinrates

Cleaver wrote: »

Edit: No wonder you haven't bought yet, you fussy thing. You can put the bed in the kitchen or garden if you want once you've bought the place.

Silly you, I wasn't being fussy, I was getting excited.

I can email you some of the things we've been looking at if you like, you'll see I'm not fussy about where the bed is.