Mortgage Free now aiming for FIRE

savingholmes

Hi TG

On the estate agents - it is normal to get 3 or 4 different ones to value your property before deciding what price to market it at. You'll then get a flavour of which ones are talking sense and which ones are just trying to tell you what you want to hear. The fees between EAs can vary quite dramatically too. I sold in a quiet market within about 2 months or so. It all depends how well 'staged' your house is. Do you need to do any decluttering and depersonalising of the space before getting photos done etc... ?

LadyWithAPlan

Your pattern cutting class sounds great - am missing mine. I was away when trousers and waistbands were covered so am finding another class in Sept.

Great you and DG on the same page timing wise.

TallGirl

savingholmes said:

Hi TG

On the estate agents - it is normal to get 3 or 4 different ones to value your property before deciding what price to market it at. You'll then get a flavour of which ones are talking sense and which ones are just trying to tell you what you want to hear. The fees between EAs can vary quite dramatically too. I sold in a quiet market within about 2 months or so. It all depends how well 'staged' your house is. Do you need to do any decluttering and depersonalising of the space before getting photos done etc... ?

Thanks Savingsholmes I agree that is the best approach and I did that 5 year ago when I last sold. I did not like any of them (I dislike estate agents) so when I wanted to sell this one I reached out to the one who sold us this house but he never replied (he might have left). The other one who came around has been on leave but was back Tuesday so I thought he would have been in touch by now. Obviously if he is not interested then I will know but I have just asked what they charge and then I shall see. I think I can negotiate on the fee from them as he said they are very quiet right now. As for the staging and decluttering there are things that needs to be taken out of each room before pictures but it is not masses. Maybe just a box would do. We do have a very steamlined house with not many ornaments and stuff so easy to tidy up. We do have a complete photo wall in the bedroom so that could be an issue but it takes the paint off the wall when you try to get the pictures off so reluctant to do that. 

LadyWithAPlan said:

Your pattern cutting class sounds great - am missing mine. I was away when trousers and waistbands were covered so am finding another class in Sept.

Great you and DG on the same page timing wise.

The class was great last night LWAP really helpful to understand how to lengthen properly and how to do the darts. We also did some measuring which was really helpful I think I can now see why my trousers never fit properly. I am definitely inspired to make some more clothes.  We are on the same page but DGs work means there is little time for anything else and then I end up resenting having to do everything such as arranging stuff around the house sale. 

In other news it was a NSD as I did not leave the house. I had so many meetings and I spoke to my mentee last night she has her interview this morning so fingers crossed she gets it. 

I am most likely taking on 2 new projects for a region I have not done any work in. It is miles away from where I live so I cannot see me being able to go there in person. The work really needs to be face to face so they can all get to know each other and then with me remote I just cannot see it. We shall see I have two weeks to decide while my manager is on leave.

We are going to watch the footie at our friends house tonight. We are not drinking as we have plans to play golf tomorrow after work. It is finally nice weather so kind of a shame we do not have time to go in the pool. I want to go to the gym at 11am DG has some kind of stomach bug so wont make it. 

TallGirl

Football was stressful but I am happy with the result as a small Nation we do not have the large expectations so this is good enough for us. Got back about 8pm via Lidl and had a very carb dinner which was not great just before dinner. 

We are having a friend over for lunch on Sunday so handy we got some stuff at Lidls for that at least. Still need some more bits but can all be sorted Sat as it is after we play golf. 

Got quite a bit of work today but going to take some time off this afternoon to play golf. Also planning on getting in the pool finally it is lovely and hot already. We used to go in at lunch time during covid so just a habit we have got out of. 

New clean bedding will be put on and the summer quilt will come down from the loft. 

I do need to water the garden tonight it is getting very dry in the pots but other than that now a lot of maintenance as I do not have much veg this year. 

I am still convinced our team will disappear in a year's time. They have just move the senior person of a another team that got halved by restructure to look after this round of restructures and her team is now under my senior person. This is going to be strange as although we work together we are not going the same work we are actually specialist. One of them I cannot stand and she is the one I always end up working with the others are all fine. Not sure if we have to see them in person I doubt it as our work is so different would be hand if we did not. 

Can't wait for the weekend! No further forward with the to do list, not heard from the estate agent I do not think he is that keen so will definitely look to get someone else to come and take a look. You only get one chance with these sorts of things. 

savingholmes

I'd definitely approach a few EAs and get a better feel. Never good to let an EA feel they have you over a barrel either. Remember even set fees can sometimes be negotiated or freebies thrown in. 

Hope you have a good weekend and DG recovers quickly.

TallGirl

Thanks Savingsholmes I am going to pop in to few this afternoon when we go into town the other one didn't call or contact us so I'll leave that one for now. I do feel I'm running out of time to get everything sorted so it's ready to list when we are back from holiday. We need an EPC but I can't imagine they are that difficult. 

This morning went to get McD breakfast which was lovely but we had everything in the freezer to cook it ourselves. Dg is working a few hours this morning after we took the afternoon off yesterday so I've booked our train for Saturday and looking into trains for Gatwick. The trains no longer run direct from our station which was the great thing about it so now have to change in London. Annoying and looking at the cost it's £67 for both of us (we don't have a together rail card but we're also coming back at different times). Looked at parking we can get meet and great for £125 plus £12 for driving into Gatwick and I can then get the train back. It's so annoying to spend money on parking but dg is coming back on a Sunday and it's saying rail replacement which she really does not need. Hopefully this will be the last really expensive parking at Gatwick as when we live there we can use Stansted and DGs friend lives 10min from there. 

I'm going to have a look now at getting a second Facebook profile so I can start advertising the other side of DGs business. Worth a try I did not sign up for the council marketing course as I was not eligible and dg does not have time for it. 

Hope you have a lovely Saturday we're off golfing later and maybe even another dip in the pool. 

TallGirl

Morning up early and have already done some work. Only doing one gym class today as my legs are quite sore after yesterday's golf. It was a lovely sunny day and we enjoyed having our friend over for lunch outside. 

Have had a go at posting on Facebook with the new page but it has been declined in the one we really wanted to get into as the page is too new. Fair enough I have a lot to learn but I have posted on two other sites so we shall see. Slow and steady I think is best anyway. 

We are going all in for the diet this week back to low carb and no sweet stuff other than fruit and yoghurt. We need to do something the Civil Partnership Ceremony is approaching fast. 

We did not go into town to visit estate agents as DG worked quite late so they would have been closed Saturday. I did put my details into a comparison site for estate agents and someone is going to call me today. I am still not sure about listing it but then again I want to know so we can plan better. Why is this adulting so HARD!!

Hung the washing out already I love it when it dries so quickly. Cleaner is back this week god I have missed her and the house really needs her. 

TO DO
- Silicone around the front door surround 
- Change my address and marital status on DK site
- Paint the 2 back fence panels 
- Sort will out to include civil partnership
- Find all documents for Civil Partnership appointment DONE app booked 26/06/24
- Start process of registering business premises in my name got title register and title deeds STARTED friend back from holiday next week so can progress then. 
- Find out how to take 25% lump sum from pension. Booked PW app 10/7/24
- Book cats in for free health check DONE
- Decide when to list house -estate agent is calling today- did not call but have another one call today hopefully.

LadyWithAPlan

boo indeed to adulting .... not sure whose idea it was...

ouch at the Gatwick parking .... I used to live 2 mins walk from a station that went direct to Gatwick even hourly through the night  .. such a joy - now its more like 15 min walk but still its the few upsides of living centrally 

daisy_1571

If it was me, I'd only advertise once i was ready to sell.  Anything is only worth what someone is willing to pay at any given moment.  So if someone LOVES it or for whatever reason is desperate and offers £500k (for example) you might think wow that's great, i'll advertise for that next year then you sit for a year making plans based on that.  (I have no idea what your house value is but imagine 500k is a lot more than you are expecting)

Heres what I think might go wrong with that scenario: the person is all excited imagining living in your house, putting in the offer, tell their friends and family all about it, can't concentrate until they hear whether they have it etc only to be told you've taken it off the market.  If that was me I know I'd be wishing you bad karma into your next 6 lives and beyond lol.  Especially if I ever found out you'd just been testing and had no intention of selling.  Anyway that's just that aspect and my own personal opinion.   As far as price goes, you don't know why they offered that.  The next 5 people's bids that might have offered in another few days might all be in a more realistic region of £350k.  So you waste a year planning with wrong figure and next year when bids come in you think they are all under priced.

As above but this time you are disappointed to get no offers or what you consider low offers.  Its upsets you for the next year thinking your house won't sell.   Next year you advertise and loads of people are interested and you get 5 offers.

What im trying badly to portray is a bid received this year cannot guarantee what you might get next year.  Something might happen with a neighbour and suddenly you have a show garden or a pit of a garden next to you.  A new housing estate starts being built nearby that attracts the same market as you would be marketing to.  Mortgages might be easier or harder to come by.  A local employer goes bust or has a great year making redundancies or hiring new staff.  So much, or nothing, might change that I don't see how marketing it now and again next year will help your planning.  Some potential buyers might even remember it and see it coming back on the market and think there's something wrong with it or that you are a dodgy seller or be delightedits back on market and come racing round.  I know i looked online at houses in the are we now live for probably 5 years before we were ready to move here.

Anyhow, no need to explain, just my musings.

Daisy xxxx

Ps more links to lovely Danish property please.  Did you see this series of George Clarke is in Denmark?   Thursday at 9 I think, second one will be on this week

 

TallGirl

Thanks LWAP we too used to live really close to a London station with fab access to Gatwick yes I do miss that and night busses. 

I've got the other estate agent coming out on Saturday and thanks Daisy for your musings it's really helpful. We would move into rented if we got an offer say late this Summer of course we would as you say it's not fair otherwise on the buyers. If someone wanted to offer and say we must move in the next two months I think we would decline but as most sales takes 6 month maybe 8 according to the local agent it's not that many months out to 1st Aug 25. By waiting until next April we could find ourselves waiting for an offer say for 2 to 3 months then another 6 months on exchange and suddenly my job could have ended or whatever. It could also be the buyers in April 24 have their house fall through a couple of times making it take longer. I will see what the agent says Saturday and make the final decision. If we list in August 24 the election will have been and gone and things should hopefully be a bit more stable. 

Been in the pool since finishing work that's when our garden is really at its best and I think that would sway buyers. We have a motor way and a electricity pilon close by so that detracts from the house big time the garden in the other hand is a massive plus you would not see in Winter when the pool is covered out and everything looks sad. Let's see what they people say on Saturday. 

Daisy thanks for the tip about George Clarke I love him I'll look that show up for sure. Here is another nice Danish house the area is not great though.