julicorn's journey 2 - Moving Up

Aimingforthegoodlife

Ahh I was hoping I would be reading the outcome, this is a cliff hanger! I have everything crossed, the apartment is beautiful!

Karmacat

Lots of positive vibes - there's a lot of potential happy outcomes here  

julicorn

I called up the EA for the flat again because I couldn't help myself, and they said the vendor is a teacher and about to finish work fairly shortly, and that they'll call me back once they have spoken to her. No idea what other offers are on the table, but the EA said he'll put a strong case forward for us (we already live there, love the community, are obviously pretty keen all round - the vendor has been in the flat for almost 20 years as well, maybe she'd like a neighbour moving in, who knows!).

The EA for the house are just calling me back sporadically to check various details and run affordability checks, so haven't put my offer to the vendor yet. 

I'll update as soon as I hear any more  

Nichelette

Hopefully third time lucky! 

julicorn

I had probably one too many drinks in the office, so this is a relatively late update (and also typed on my phone, because I left my laptop at work 🤦‍♀️).

There were 5 offers on the flat, out of which we are currently the highest, one is close, and the others are a fair bit lower. It's best and final offers by lunchtime tomorrow. I'm a bit torn with what to offer. We discussed £525k as the highest we'd go on the weekend. Part of me thinks we might not need to go as high as that, but I'd also kick myself if we put in a significantly lower offer and lost out. 

On the house I think we're the only new offer. The vendors will discuss it tonight and are allegedly quite happy with the offer (£625k), but might ask for a little bit more. I reckon a token increase might get it over the edge, but my heart is in the flat atm. 

Karmacat

It's so important to be flexible, isn't it!  Best of luck, julicorn  

beanielou

Go with your heart 

Sistergold

Good morning @julicorn. All fingers still crossed this end. Hope it’s good news soon. 

Regards flat, the past 2 years have been so stressful regards life, accommodation etc. The flat is sooooo beautiful I know but? I know you are moving from a flat so you know the pros and cons but? No garden? No balcony? Neighbor below? Did you say you wanted to start a family? Will/do you have a pet? The flat is a typical period property which you have shown you love but you can still get that in a house and have a garden of sorts. Garden does not need to be big(I am not green fingered myself) but you are waiting on an allotment so a garden will not cause too much upkeep hustle for you. I know it’s £100k under budget but would it not be nice to tick a few “would be nice to have boxes” to future proof a bit? BBQS with friends, glass of wine in the garden watching the sunset etc? 

Still hands down the flat IS beautiful. Just the moving from flat to flat bit. 

Positive thoughts for you always 🥰

julicorn

We've increased our offer on the flat to £525k now, will let you all know when we hear back  

@Sistergold we have a small garden at the moment, and use it very rarely because we go to our local park every day, and have beach BBQs with friends a fair bit. A big garden would be nice for sure, but where we are now it's definitely not as crucial. (Last year we mainly used our garden to grow some potatoes and tomatoes, but it's tricky when it's pretty much a patio with not much sun reaching any of the beds - most of the other gardens we've seen over the last few weeks were similar to that). For if/when we have a child (will see!), the most wonderful outdoor-sy nursery is about 5 minutes walk from here, they spend all their day either in the garden, in a forest nearby or on the beach. 
I'm also not particularly snobby about flats vs houses, a lovely home is a lovely home I know that's less common in the UK though, I mean back home under half of people even own their home. 

Nichelette

Good luck! I'm rooting for you and also slightly jealous  . I think unfortunately our housing system here is so screwed up which makes most people want to buy and in turn pushes prices up. I grew up in a council house (which my parents bought, they're part of the problem lol). If it was possible to have security of tenure like people got back then I'd happily have lived in a council place, but the idea of private rented with a child always had me on edge. My brother was one of 18 people looking at a rented flat recently. It's so hard to even rent now. Anyway, that's all another issue!