Diary of a Scottish house move....I hope

MissE001

Thanks frugalmacdugal - the couple are looking to move to this area and have another few houses to look at so I'm just going to put it out of my head now and wait for the next viewer.

1987kim1987 - you're absolutely right, this forum is all about money saving. For me, getting the best deal on an EA is also all about money saving . Of course, it would have been cheaper to do it using an on-line agent and I'm really pleased that worked out for you. I often have to work strange hours and having access to an EA to do the admin is really helpful for me. Horses for courses and all that

Got a builder coming to give me a quote this afternoon for the rendering work....

MissE001

Not much to report with the house move over the last week or so....

I got the quote to repair the rendering - £250. I haven't decided whether to do it or just let prospective buyers know the cost. I spoke to the surveyor who completed the Home Report and he didn't seem to think it was a big deal. I think I might wait until after 3 months is up as I would need to get the HR refreshed if an offer came in after that.

HR all signed off and registered online now. I need to access it with a password etc so I'm not really sure who else has access - does anyone know?

I'm looking to move to a 3-bed property and decided not to look until I have a buyer.....but seen a 2-bed property which has character and decided to go and see that tonight. The property is really nice and quirky on first viewing. I want to find out if there's any scope to extend and get a copy of the HR. Not that I can do much until mine sells

MissE001

Quick update to report no progress and no more viewers yet.....

My mortgage payments have reduced this month - decided to save the difference in a regular saver account at just over 3% interest. I've got an appointment in the branch on Thursday to get that set up.

EA has hinted that we may look at changing the price in a few weeks. It's on at FP of £95k just now. If we're changing, I think it would need to go down to O/O £90k otherwise it won't appear in any additional RM searches. Hoping to sell for £93k.

Any thoughts on whether / how I should structure the price??

MissE

googler

54druids wrote: »

We have fixed our 2s but my understanding is that cant get hr changes unless we pay for a refresh - does anyone know if that is right?

In a word, yes. The surveyor has to visit your property again to verify this, otherwise they'll just be taking your word for it, and that's no basis for a qualified surveyor to put his name to the report...

MissE001

The house has been on the market now for just over 8 weeks and only had 1 viewer.

Does anyone have any advice / opinions on whether I should hold my nerve at Fixed Price of £95k or change to Offers Over £90k?

I'm thinking that changing to O/O £90k will bring the house into more searches on Right Move as it goes up in £10k brackets....just not sure if people actually offer "over" any more and would like to get £93k

Any comments appreciated - thanks

MissE

moneyistooshorttomention

One viewer isn't many in that timespan. I brought my own down (very) slightly when I thought "Should have had more viewers by now". Then the viewers started coming in at a reasonable rate and I decided that meant the house must be priced at a reasonable rate and the fact I had only had one (too low) offer was something I needed to ignore and keep thinking positively that I felt sure my (eventual) buyer had seen my house on the market at the outset and was only holding back on viewing it in the first place in the hope/taking the gamble that I would reduce the price again if they held out long enough before coming to view it.

In the event, I proved to be exactly correct. My (eventual) buyer had indeed been watching my house all along and gambling as to whether it would go down in price again. So I held my nerve and waited for them to give up hope that I would reduce the price again and come and do the darn viewing of my place. They DID give up hope that I would do another price reduction, DID stop waiting to come and view in the first place and came along and duly "fell in love with the place" (as my estate agent put it) and offered at last.

My mind boggles as to how someone can "fall in love with" a place and still wait and wait and hope there will be a price reduction/further price reduction...but I suppose that is how some people function and they must have more of the "Gambler" in their nature than I have in mine.

They did drive me nuts waiting for them to stop gambling and come and start viewing and they finally decided they had better stop risking losing mine and come and physically see it 2-3 months later in the event.

Two-three months is how long it takes in my own personal area to convince a "wait and see gambler" that the price isn't going to go down any further and they might lose the "gamble" if they wait any longer. It will obviously vary from area to area....

Thank goodness for perceptive estate agents in my case, as I got informed after First Viewing that buyer had "fallen in love" with it...

Boy...my "fall in love with" price bracket is a lot higher than this...but there's no accounting for taste...

MissE001

Thanks for the reply moneyistooshorttomention

I wasn't in a huge hurry to sell although now that it's on the market I find that I just want to get it done!

I wonder if I should wait until school holidays are over before I consider re-pricing.....

moneyistooshorttomention

Personally...I can only say what I did...and I had found a website that laid out how long it took ON AVERAGE for houses in different price brackets to sell. I input my own area and price bracket into that and came up with that 2-3 months figure as the average.

I am now trying to remember just which website that was, but I found it useful for both the area I am currently in and the one I am moving to and it was pretty accurate (as far as I could see - with my double-up checking I was doing by watching Rightmove with the Property Bee add-on). I had done my own checking as to how long it seemed to take for properties to reduce their price slightly (if they were going to) and how long it took on average to sell that pricebracket in that location and that other website and Rightmove Property Bee matched very well for that.

I was giving myself up to 2 weeks longer for the Gambling Buyer to turn up at last before the property went into "longer than average time on market for the pricebracket and location" and they pretty much turned up on the scene that 2 weeks before the house went into "longer than average" territory. In my area I knew an intial tiny price reduction was due at about 6 weeks into "on market" if it hadn't sold by then (judging by what other similar houses had done usually)...that will vary from area to area.

Suggest you look up what your own areas "longer than average" territory is for your price bracket and that will help you to work out how long any Gambling Buyer might be hanging out hoping for an initial slight price reduction and then a further price reduction.

In London "longer than average" might be only 2 weeks. In a long....long-drawn-out area it might be 6 months...You know your own area better than we do.

A lot of it is down to guesswork though, as to exactly how desirable (or otherwise) your house is (without any rose-tinted glasses on...just straight objective valuation) and how you assess your own willpower at holding out for the price you've worked out the house is worth as compared to the willpower of any Gambling Buyers that are watching your house. You will have to do some very very straight talking with yourself to be as sure as you can be how well you think you can work out those two factors. I was pretty sure on my assessment of my current house and very very sure on the strength of my willpower compared to most peoples.

DaftyDuck

Re average time to sell...

I am now trying to remember just which website that was

Several sites give that information

THIS ONE does so for free.... note that page allows postcode or town search....

MissE001

Ooh, thanks for the link DaftyDuck - apparently, the average time to sell in this area is 31 weeks! So 8 weeks is nothing