Blogging my Sale

franklee

If your house is really going to take up to three years to sell then you will go mad if you carry on like this. What I think you need to do is find ways to reorganise your normal life to accommodate the viewings better and cheat as much as possible on the clearing up.

Why not have the normal lunch but instead of putting the plate back in the kitchen where it will be in view leave it somewhere more out of the way. On your desk that the viewers won't be scrutinising perhaps.

Does the printer really need to be in the middle of the floor? You have a big house so why not permanently rearrange the office areas so that you can work and the viewers can view without the need to move furniture and printers about. A paperwork laden desk is fine.

Why the need to move the microwave for a viewing? Just leave it permanently in a usable position.

Anything you can't wash up or clean, find somewhere to hide it till you can clean. I've been known to shove sackfuls of dirty washing into the car and then park the car round the corner

Remember you are allowed to live in the house and so as long as the sinks and bathrooms and the underlying house is clean I don't see the problem in the old few things lying about.

Doozergirl

I've had a little scoot on https://www.rightmove.com and you have some stiff competition! There's a house with a loft conversion on at only £7,500 more.

I can see why you're frustrated. You've had something like 30 viewings now I have never had anywhere near that number of viewings before I sold a house. I'm sorry to say, but this, the SDLT threashold and the two offers you have had are as much proof as anyone needs that your house is worth £250k.

It just seems pointless that you continue to put yourself through this misery. Make a decision to

a)try and make improvements to carry it over the threshold (risky!),
b)if you really aren't prepared to sell at £250k then you pull the house from the market and hope house prices to rise enough for you to sell closer to that price.
c) reduce your price to £250,000


...Otherwise, you try for a short period to improve on what you have with as little money as possible. Matching carpets throughout a house are a VERY good way of tying everything together. Lots of cushions, pictures on the walls, soft lighting, flowers, everything scrubbed within an inch of it's life, nothing on show that isn't decorative; big yellow bins hidden out of sight...

If you really believe that your house is worth that much, you have to prove it to people because at the moment, they're not convinced.

lynzpower

Have you seen what alternative properties have actually sold for in your road?

PoochyChoo

Hi, i think perhaps tell the estate agent you only want buyers with a) the cash or b) a solid offer on thier own home, that will cut down your viewers....

but i agree with the above you sound like you are fed up with the buyers and really as long as they have the cash, let them bring thier 6 kids, 2 gerbils and a ferret to the viewing....

PoochyChoo

Hi, i think perhaps tell the estate agent you only want buyers with a) the cash or b) a solid offer on thier own home, that will cut down your viewers....

but i agree with the above you sound like you are fed up with the buyers and really as long as they have the cash, let them bring thier 6 kids, 2 gerbils and a ferret to the viewing....

earner

Phone just rang. It was the estate agent, somebody wants to come and view tomorrow. No chance.
I am working until 8pm tonight, then it will be dark outside and as nobody's been round for a month it needs a thorough going over. (1) Because it was Xmas so I had all the pulling out of things for that and (2) because at the end of this month it is my tax return so I've got boxes out everywhere.

The couple who wanted to look round haven't even sold their house yet. So I said no as I need 2-3 daylight hours to clean the house, so couldn't do it before Saturday at 12 anyway.

I had intended to contact a new estate agent and get their opinion about the price. But all the estate agents came round 2 years ago and all of them valued it then at more than I am selling it for now. And as this is a major growth area I can't see how it could have dropped in that time. It's just a peculiar house to sell. And I don't fancy dropping just yet because any money I lose I lose forever. Not buying another house, no pension, no savings, approaching 50, not in regular employment, no partner. Puts a bit more pressure on getting the price the estate agents insist it's worth.

Around me, half my neighbours have sold - some for more. One completely derelict house sold almost immediately 3 doors down for £200k - although to be frank I think that might have impacted on people's interest in mine as it looked awful.
Across the road another neighbour's lovely house hasn't shifted for 3 years and hers is £30k less. It really is a hit/miss "wait until the right person walks in the door".
Or maybe it is down to the agents.....

It's hard to tell who is selling and who isn't since most houses (mine included) do not have For Sale signs up.

Doozergirl

A for Sale board is really important if you're serious about selling. Apparantly, it's something like 40% of sales happen that way!

And, it really is down to the price and not the buyer. Any house sells if it's set at the right price.

lynzpower

Can I be brutal? If you refuse viewers youll never sell.

I believe you should keep your house in tip top condition if you are selling, minimise clutter, make it presentable, house dr it up until youve found a buyer, once youve done that you can chill a little bit and not manically clean daily. To be honest, the better the place loks, the less time it will take to sell. Its not rocket science. I dont knwo where you are thats so unique, but Id suggest this principle works nationwide.

EDIT- Ive jsut re-read what you wrote here

The couple who wanted to look round haven't even sold their house yet. So I said no as I need 2-3 daylight hours to clean the house, so couldn't do it before Saturday at 12 anyway.

if you started at 9 youd be done by 12, if you really do only need daylight hours to clean.

If you cant be bothered to have a quick tidy up, then why not just send it to auction then it will be over & done with & you dont need to make your home presentable for viewers

Personally, if I was your agent, Id be putting in as little effort as possible to drum up viewers as you seem to be full of excuses why you cant be bothered to sell your house.

pawpurrs

Never refuse a viewer, the person who bought my last house, wasnt even on the market at the time, she came, put hers on the market the same day as seeing mine, hers was under offer, in 24 hours and we had exchanged in 8 weeks. If I had refused the viewing i would have lost the sale.
Sorry but if you want to sell you need to change your attitude a bit, give everyone the benefit of the doubt, I work from home too, and yes its a bore, but either you want to sell or you dont.

earner

Re the postings above, while they are some good points taken in isolation, things are never "just one thing". I'll try and ramble a bit below, but it's tricky typing in this little box when you don't want to open up a discussion because things are never "just one thing", there are always other things that accumulate to being the one thing stated.

Firstly, I don't have any money to start trying to do the house up. I have no money, no eye for things, no help/assistance, resources down here are limited (people and items). I did spend £5k getting the house to this stage before I put it on the market. I added a high quality shower room and I reinstated Bed4 from being a damp avocado bathroom. I depersonalised a lot and had most of it redecorated in neutral shades, I had the front painted. I had nice new panelled fire doors fitted and glossed.

The suggestion of "Matching carpets throughout a house are a VERY good way of tying everything together" might work in other houses, but I spent £2000 floor tiles laid throughout the majority of the ground floor. So that wouldn't work. And upstairs I've spent £750 on carpets in two rooms.

None of the people looking round my house so far have actually wanted to LIVE in it - they are all looking to make money out of it. And they all come with their idea of how they want it to be laid out so they can do what the were planning.

So they won't be looking at the carpet as they will be looking at the general layout of the property and how it can be sub-divided/separated.

As for all those other posh things: I've never been able to afford niceties for myself and to borrow more money on stuff I haven't got a clue about so viewers think the house is nice is a big gamble. I wouldn't have good taste if it bit me on the bum.

I moved into this house from a bedsit, installed central heating, replaced all the windows with DG, did some other important house things then had a change of circumstances. I've still got the same curtains/carpets in the living room from when I bought the house; the 2 sofas in the living room I've had 16 years and the TV is just for show as it doesn't even work. The minimal furniture I do have is either charity shop, donated or I bought it 15-20 years ago.

I've staged the house as much as I can - that's why I like to go round and sort everything out just before a viewing, from tilting the blinds to match through to the right smelling bleach in the loo.

Some of the people have even made an appointment, got through the front door and said "Right - where are your plans". Which was annoying as the estate agent has a copy of those all along.

If they are going to bring kids/ferrets etc then I just need to do a different sort of tidying up - get things out of the reach of sticky children. They run wild through the house poking about your stuff, picking things up. I have never had children in the house, nor ever had any, so not used to them in the first instance. And the people looking round can't see the house as there is always one or both of them shouting at their kids to stop playing on the stairs, get off the ladder, put the teddies down.... have to have eyes in the back of your head.

I know what houses here have been selling for for the last 5 years. I also know in minute detail the differences between them. While 2 can look identical on paper, when you get there you can see why the difference is.

The one in my road at £7.500 is opposite the social housing, in a noisier part of the road, with less back garden and the rear access is less secure as it is a through road (my back lane only services 6 houses and it ends). Theirs is 6 bedrooms with the loft conversion, mine is 6 bedrooms AND planning permission for a 2-storey self-contained extension/annexe AND planning permission for the loft space, thus enabling people to decide how they want things to be done and ending up with more bedrooms. The sort of people (DIY, builder, developer) that come round could do the loft extension exactly how they wanted themselves for less than the difference in prices.

The other property also has less parking, no garage (mine is virtually a double) and no workshop. Things to think about in a seaside town where you can't park for love nor money in the summer.

So the two houses are really for completely different types of buyers. That one is "to live in", mine is "ideal as a B&B or splitting into 3-4 flats/houses or just a House of Multiple Occupancy". There's easily £150,000 if not double that, to be made from my house by a developer using the planning permissions. And for somebody just splitting it into flats and reselling, they would bring in a £100-150k profit without trying.

So, there's always more to anything than it looks.

But this weekend I will completely go through the whole house, do my washing (that's been piling up as it's been raining a lot lately), take stuff down the tip and charity shop and get the house ready to be viewed again. Ready for the next phone call.

I just need some daylight hours to do those things.