DIARY OF A HOUSE SALE - in a "static" house price part of the country

moneyistooshorttomention

As per the "label on the tin".

I'm in a static house price part of the country. It's not either "blink and the price has shot up" part of the country on the one hand or "blink and the price has shot down" on the other hand part of the country.

It's 2013. Whatever happens - I won't be left in negative equity by the buyers of post-2007:D. That's one big blessing. I don't have a mortgage - it's now paid off:D

I want to move basically - rather than HAVE to move - so I'm not desperate enough to accept "silly offers". I obviously hope I will get a genuine reasonable offer pdq, but will wait and see what happens. I explained I don't wish to encounter any buyers in the current climate (as I've spotted some awful attitudes by some/a few of them on MSE) and that was accepted without a blink. I will leave a spare set of keys with the estate agent when I "push the Go Button".

Stage 1 now complete and I'm on the champagne to celebrate that that is now over. I've got the house to "ready for sale" stage and duly hidden all sorts of stuff that is obviously going to be out on view normally (eg that washing-up bowl and dish drainer in the kitchen and the set of coffeetables in my small sitting room, etc) for the sake of the photos. The person from my chosen estate agent was in this morning taking the details/doing the photos/etc. Nagging little thought to start with - some estate agents apparently only do 6 photos maximum and I didnt think to ask how many photos I get from this one. Need 8 - to cover front of house/all 6 rooms/backyard (whoops - "courtyard garden"). Yep- I'm okay - I do get photos of everywhere I want to - no rationing me to 6 photos only.

Person that turned up from estate agent - someone I havent seen before - so that seems to make 4 members of staff this little independent estate agent has then. Impression - genuinely pleasant/helpful - ie not "It's my job to appear so" sort of thing.

Impression of staff to date - out of the 4 they seem to have - 3 genuinely pleasant (ie not just an act to get the business) and 1 neutral.

House all gussied-up/tidied-up/cleaned-up and me feeling distinctly nervous (almost like its me personally under assessment):eek:.

Pleasant estate agent person no. 4 writes down all my comments - good and bad - about the house and takes her photographs. She spent over an hour here and her verdict was "reasonable condition/LOADS of storage space/yep...the loft probably could be converted into 3rd bedroom if buyer wants/lots of work done on the place by me/much larger than most 2-bedroomers/shouldnt be a problem selling this one". Told her about the MSE scandal over the weekend about a vendor who had had his bank statement photo-ed off and broadcast over the internet and she readily accepted that I will be coming into the office to show them my photo ID (ie passport) and a recent utility bill because of these modern "money laundering" requirements. She told me they will get the details ready of my property (description/plans/photos) and these will be sent to their proof-reader and I will be sent an email copy in about 2 days time for approval. After that - those details will be "on ice" until I "push the Go button".

Service from estate agent so far - 10 out of 10. Rare for firms to meet my errrm....somewhat exacting...standards...so far so good.

Contessa

Well done to be at that stage. You're ahead of me but I'm intending to have my house ready to market in a few weeks. I also live in a "static" area. I don't have to move but want to live somewhere nearer family now. I wish I could take my house and neighbourhood with me!

moneyistooshorttomention

I'd be interested to hear how things go for you Contessa - so do feel free to share this thread on your progress. I do get very frustrated at reading stuff re how things go in slow areas on the one hand or fast ones on the other hand - as neither are relevant to me personally here.

I wouldnt want to take either house or neighbourhood with me personally. No aspect of this house suits me personally - though I know it would suit quite a few people - but we all have our personal requirements and this house only meets the convenience requirement for me personally.

I wish to move to an area and type of house that will suit me personally much better than here and obviously now have to take into account the fact that my own personal requirements have changed somewhat because I'm now rather older than I was when I bought this house in the first place.

Having seen the mess that a lot of estate agents make of their details, then I want some time to check every last detail of my house description etc is exactly as I require - hence getting on with that being sorted out in advance of Green Button Time.

hazyjo

An EAs with a proof-reader? Jeez... there's a first! Or is it just one of them who has a GCSE in English? Cynical? Moi?

I have always had to proof-read their details. More often than not, they ignore some of what I say. One lot were more or less rewritten. I have never found so many mistakes in a set of details in my life. Shameful, seeing as that's their bloomin' job!

My favourite common ones are: 'dinning room'; accommodation spelt several different ways, usually throughout the same set of details. Over-use of explanation marks(!); and 'sort-after'.

Hope all goes well for you - will be interesting to hear how this one progresses!

Good luck.

Jx

moneyistooshorttomention

hazyjo wrote: »

An EAs with a proof-reader? Jeez... there's a first! Or is it just one of them who has a GCSE in English? Cynical? Moi?

I have always had to proof-read their details. x

I was a bit surprised to hear her say "I'll send this out to our proof-reader for proofreading and then send it to you for approval when she returns it to us" (errrmm...I sense a theme here - a high proportion of female staff...). I told her that I can do professional level proof-reading myself if need be - but will give this a scan when it comes back from their proof-reader:rotfl:

Give them their due though - I have never noticed any mistakes on details of any other properties they have sold to date - so benefit of doubt time here that they really do have a proof-reader...All details I have seen of their other houses to date have been perfect (and "perfect" is a word I very very rarely use indeed in this country....).

moneyistooshorttomention

Progress to date - proof-reader report of details awaited and meanwhile I have had some indication of what the estate agent wants to say about this house. I see they are describing it as spacious and well-maintained. Spacious - yep...it is indeed spacious in comparison to other 2-bedroomers (though I personally find it small - but thats my own take on how it feels to me). "Well-maintained" - whoo! I didn't expect that one and it wasn't part of the sample wording I provided the agent with. Again my own personal take on the house is "not too bad" - but obviously I haven't seen as wide a range of houses generally to know how it compares to the average for this type of house.

Energy assessment done already and I received my copy back from him about 2 hours after visit. Pretty pleased there - I have noted a few older houses being C-rated and was hoping I might get that, but expecting a D. The house got a D - but the points were so close to C that it would have got C if I had just swopped the lightbulbs to "energy-saving" type beforehand. Darn - if I'd known it was so whisker close I would have bought a few of those bulbs just for that and whipped them straight back out again afterwards and gone back to my "standard" type...

Nice energy assessor who said he pickes and chooses which estate agent firms he will work with and a lot of them don't make the grade and he won't do work for them - but mine does - and then proceeded to tell me approvingly about the place I intend to move to (as he has been there and knows what its like) and that he thought I was being given a lot of signs that it is the correct place for me to go to (didnt think professionals spoke in that sort of language ever:rotfl:).

Positive so far.:)

sinbad182

No offence like, but you sound insane.

moneyistooshorttomention

:rotfl::rotfl:No offence taken - as I see you like telling different people variations on this theme...:rotfl:

lessonlearned

Shall be watching your thread with interest Money and Contessa's contributions too.

Definitely second the advice to scrutinise the details thoroughly - the standard of English these days......:rotfl:

My original details when sent to me had the words "spacious and well maintained" three times in one sentance. When I suggested they use a thesaurus they didn't know what one was - as for punctuation.....

I ended up re-writing the damn thing myself. And having to call them back to redo some of the photographs. But then I freely admit I can be a bit of a control freak.

Good luck to you both, here's :beer: - to you. Should be champers for all your hard work and getting this far.

Fingers crossed for a good offer and a speedy and safe passage through to exchange and completion.

allthingsmustpass

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I don't wish to encounter any buyers in the current climate

Seems a strange time to get estate agents in then. This is not so much a diary of a house sale, more a diary of having a bit of a tidy. In fact I'd say the title is going to be rather inaccurate for some considerable time.

googler

allthingsmustpass wrote: »

Seems a strange time to get estate agents in then.

I think you may be missing the OP's point - he/she doesn't want to meet the buyers, so is getting the EA to do the viewings.....