Posts filed under ‘Diary of Seller’
Sell my home blog: We’ve done it!
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
The move from our old house to our new house went very smoothly in the end although I forgot to read the meters so had to contact our buyer for these. Luckily she is lovely and sent over the final numbers and has been redirecting our bills too.
Now we are in and all the utilities are up and running we are starting to notice a few quirks to our new home. There is a door and some windows that we can’t open and also a fan in the bathroom that doesn’t seem to go anywhere. We found out that the property has been empty from 2010 so after a good airing it is starting to feel a bit less damp and smell more friendly. I am now fully educated in the ways of knot weed and am glad that I have a copy of the five-year guarantee for work that was done – they will be visiting the garden and re-killing when necessary. We should also be able to purchase the freehold in the next 12 month which is excellent news.
The absolute best thing though is being able to walk into our own garden and sit in the sun, living in London this is one luxury that we haven’t had since moving here 10 years ago.
And so this is my last post for the FindaProperty blog about selling a home. Thank you for reading and I hope that some of my meanderings have been informative.
(Although saying this, the husband already has his eye on a new purchase just down the road!)
Sell my home blog: We’ve finally completed!
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
Well, quite a bit has happened since my last post so I am dividing it into a before and after over two entries. Here’s the first one.
After a lot of waiting, the sellers’ estate agent finally started getting some answers and we were able to move into a position to exchange. Our solicitor advised that as there were so many parties involved in selling the property, there might be some questions that would never be able to be answered.
At this point I was getting a little worried as our buyer had a move out date of 10th March and my bump was growing at an alarming rate! When the exchange date was agreed I then asked if we could have a quick completion date. So at the start of March our deposit came to us from the buyer and went straight to the seller (along with an extra couple of quid). We then had a furiously hurried week of packing and gathering before completing at 9.30am on our sale and then 10.30am on our purchase the following Friday!
With all the waiting that we had, it seemed crazy to have such a mad dash finish especially as we even had some work done by the seller on the property a day before exchange. In the end we could have done it all in 2 weeks….well maybe!
Stay tuned for Hannah’s final blog, coming soon.
Sell my home blog: My plan to get chains moving faster
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
Being in a chain means you are always conscious of time frames and keeping your buyer on side. As there are only two people in my chain (the place we are moving to is empty) we are really lucky, but I can understand the pressure that comes with a chain of 10 house buyers all wanting to move at the same time.
We are moving on very slowly and waiting for some answers from our sellers, which they are taking their time about. I have been thinking about how to make sellers answer quicker and have hit upon a solution that should, in theory, keep everyone more on side.
It’s this: if the seller and the buyer each have to contribute to the estate agents fees then this would help the agent to be proactive in both directions. At the moment, the agent is only working for the seller and I definitely think a cash incentive would help the smaller agents move projects along faster. Fees would have to be more regulated and standardised, but this would help people budget when selling or buying a home for the first time. It might also help more nervous house buyers get a better deal from their seller as the agent would be thinking of both sides and remain more impartial.
Next week I will be discussing my solutions to the rest of the world’s problems, but only after I have read through the exciting knotweed guarantee that I have just been sent.
Sell my home blog: Half way through the process
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
At the start of our search we signed up for email alerts from all the agents and property sites. As I haven’t cancelled the alerts yet I have had a plethora of lovely homes to buy in our budget being sent to me daily. As well as keeping me informed about anything new coming to market it is also calming my nerves in case our current purchase falls through.
We are probably about half way through the process now with our solicitor sending me daily letters regarding water surveys and land registry reports. They also need a lease plan from the current owner and we are just waiting for the results of a damp survey but apart from that we are nearly there.
Our buyers solicitor also has everything they need and as yet, fingers crossed, have no questions about anything - so huge sigh of relief there.
All in all everything is going OK but as with every property purchase, you never really know about the property until you actually live in it. Hopefully with a lick of paint and a deep clean it will look fabulous.
Sell my home blog: The selling and buying juggling act
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
My juggling act to sell and buy a home is now in full throw, although working with two estate agents on two separate transactions is proving quite challenging .
Agent 1 who is looking after the sale of our flat told me this week that our solicitor was holding up the sale and hadn’t sent the buyers’ solicitor anything. After a rushed phone call to my solicitor, I found that the buyers solicitor had acknowledged receipt of paperwork last week and even thanked them for a quick response. Agent 1 then confirmed that he had made a small mistake by not looking at the date of the email.
Agent 2 is dealing with the flat we are buying. We had a survey last week and they and the bank’s survey asked for a more rigorous damp test, which I subsequently arranged. On visiting the property, agent 2 couldn’t get in because he had the wrong keys and so the damp man has to come back next week.
It’s all a bit frustrating, but I know I shouldn’t complain too much as we are only a month on from the offer confirmation and I’m well aware that it takes some people a lot longer than us to get to this stage.
