House on market and I'm a bit lost

Fingers crossed for you Franbern, I hope one of the five puts in an offer so you can view your choices with confidence.

My fear of waiting for a better offer is that the house maintenance issues crop up constantly. I could well end up spending far more than £10K eg if the roof decides to go in the next storm.

I spoke to a fellow dog walker and he described the buying/selling lark as a poker game and he reiterated that the EA is working for me. Why they rang with a low offer saying that they 'may' be able to get more, I don't know. I haven't heard this morning, but do take on board the house is only worth what someone will pay for it.

The nice couple I was helping by collecting their paper gave me a box of Thorntons as I was passing this morning, I'm rationing them but rather enjoying one right now! I had a crown last year and it's almost instant toothache, but worth it!

If anyone knows how I can find out how to calculate how much my overall sale will cost me, I'd be grateful. Have returned from the IOW with a dripping nose and temperature, not good for googling! x

Mosaicwarts, no point her getting upset. Some people do seem to take it too personal as if the price somehow reflects a level of respect or similar. Its the price someone is willing to give...end of. There are plenty of more important things to get upset about....i.e. her Mum's happiness and welfare. Sorry if it sounds a bit bossy but you do not need to be smoothing her ruffles feathers about something she has no control over.

The sale of my house involved:

Estate agents commission .75%
Conveyancing fees
Removal fees
Buyer requests such as an up to date service of the boiler

and for me storage fees
and temporary accommodation fees.

Plus 20% VAT on the basic price quoted.

Obviously it will vary from area to area and property to property.

Hope that’s helpful.

Thank you very much Eglantine21. I'll make a note and think I'll have to go and lie on the sofa, I just made my bed and feel a bit faint. I went to bed with a Vick moustache last night and did sleep, but my nose is completely blocked but dripping today. i wish I'd kept some of Steve's cotton hankies, these tissues are like sandpaper. TMI I know, I need to learn my lesson and breathe out when people sneeze near me!

Aw sheesh Mosaicwarts, its probably more to do with your immune system being less than efficient from all the stress. I went down with several nasty cold type things that I would normally fight off. Then when things were settled a whole rash of mini migraines! So try to pace yourself and get as much rest as you can.
My DH is a handkerchief man still...I find myself muttering why can't he use tissues when I'm ironing them but its a habit he'll never drop.

Oh thank heavens, something potntially good to read at last. Mosaics, they all try the low offer, they did me and I was so fed up I was ready to capitulate. My EA squeezed another 5k out of them and every little helps. You need to get out of there before winter strikes and a builder would have seen the work and pitfalls and will be prepared. I am guessing but likely to be 2-3 months for your sale, if not quicker than that

My selling cost was 1.2% ( mates rates!!) to the EA

solicitor was between 1 and 2 k, I cannot remember actual figures

removals was tricky, 6 trips with 2 men and a sprinter van and a total of around £1500

Don`t be generous about leaving anything you could use, such as lampshades and think of yourself not everyone else with their memories. It has always sounded to me as though you and the house parted `spiritual` company a long time ago

Hilda is right, your immune system has taken a battering. As soon as you accept an offer then all systems go re getting ready and forget the garden and cleaning completely. You need to preserve yourself and act in little hops but every day. I don`t believe a builder will care about all those certs that I was asked for and I think your next stage will be smoother

Franbern, you too, I hope you get that offer, the one that takes you to your dream

You couldn't make it up, could you.

I walked the dog, then put on my comfy house clothes and dressing gown and lay on the sofa with another 2 paracetomol and a big herb tea. I have such a bad headache, I've been dosing every four hours. As I was expecting 'the call' today I put the house phone and mobile phone next to me on the floor. Watched a bit of tv and unfortunately fell asleep - woken up by my dog going mad and the doorbell.

The 'offer' family were all standing in my drive, his wife was on the steps as she'd come to the door. My sheltie was in my arms going barmy, and the gentleman had a dog in his arms. Apparently they were 'just passing' and found the dog on the road.

As I was so dozy and embarrassed, I mumbled where I thought the dog lived - rather than offering to take it, as I should have done - and the wife asked if they could have another viewing, which will be number 3.

I could kick myself. I should have offered to take the dog. When I'd woken up properly I went up to the neighbour to ask if they'd seen them - looks like they missed the turning. No idea if the dog was returned safely.

I do obviously have a very bad cold as my nose is completely blocked, I hope they forgave me, I'm sure I looked half asleep too I'm not awfully beautiful when I wake. I rang the EA to ask if they had his number, but they finish at 2 pm today, she was in the garden centre.

Will just have to put it down to experience, and if I have a nap in future, make sure I'm wearing my smartest clothes, ha ha!

Mosaicwarts. They really should not turn up on your doorstep without going through the EA. Its common curtesy as you could be ill....oh yes you are! Sheesh. Do not think anything of it but certainly let the EA know they 'popped round'. People can be a bit funny, we had one serious viewer who stood in our kitchen and made a suggestion we could have some sort of private arrangement! Nowadays you just could not get away with it any way but it did rather flag him up as a bit of a rogue and probably not to be trusted.
These people must go through the EA for any subsequent visits - that's how it works! Hope you get a decent night's sleep.

P.S. as to removals. We did go down the totally professional route and it was excellent. To be honest we felt it was good value - not cheap but they were so professional, polite and careful we could not fault them. We packed the boxes ourselves over a 4 week period. Starting with the least used stuff and eventually getting to the kettle, mugs and tea bags on the morning of the move. Bold felt tips very much needed to label each box! We were packed up one day....drove over ( 3 hours) and arrived by 5...they unpacked the bed, sofa tv and the kitchen box and over night bags and then drove to a secure site leaving us to settle down for the night after a supper of take out pizzas (excellent - had researched the week before). The next day they were at the door at 8 with the lorry and slowly took all day to unpack - they took their time so as not to rush us and were happy to rearrange stuff we realised would not fit (we had made plans but you never really know).
Any way it all went swimmingly. You know exactly what it will cost because they come around as soon as you call them and do a very detailed list. They only need an approximate date in the beginning but once you have a firm window they like to know. Then once you know the exact date its all systems go.

Sounds marvellous HildaW, thank you for sharing. I remember moving into our house here ... silly me wore a maxi skirt, I must have stood on the hem twenty times and shown my nix to the world going up the steps! I tied the door keys onto long pieces of string for us to wear as necklaces, my friend was locked out of her new home instantly! The worst thing for us was the mattresses - the smell of smoke from them was absolutely disgusting, they must have smoked the whole of the 400 mile journey.

I will tie my fingers crossed together, and hope they still offer after their third viewing. I've found a small rental locally that takes pets, with an enclosed garden - only £425 per month. I can camp out there whilst I travel up and down the country looking.

Will update after viewing 3! xx

I'm not the cleverest person in the world, and feel a bit scared today of what lays ahead. Steve always managed everything for us and I am wondering what he would do.

My friend, who has sold several properties both here and abroad, has just emailed and said to stick to my guns for £400K. It is such a lot of house for the money, and we've had a great life here. Both Steve and I spent our small 'inheritances' from our parents on the house, I wish now we'd had fantastic holidays instead. I have to leave so much behind - I'll miss my aga, and my bronze lions.

The original valuation was £600K, but when I mentioned the works that need doing, the EA I chose thought £500K was a more accurate price reflecting the renovation costs.

After six months of viewings over the autumn/winter/early spring they recommended I drop the price to £450K, which I have. The EA told me most viewer's comments are that it is too big a project. The few people I've had to show around due to the EA being unavailable have lived in modern properties. Taking on a 172 year old listed building is a completely different ball game. I have warned people of the 'photographers' as train/architecture enthusiasts love this station. Might have put them off, but it happens a lot. Only yesterday my dog alerted me to a man wandering around in my driveway yesterday taking photos. Now I'm alone, I find it unsettling, it would be polite to knock.

My friend also thought the couple may have 'planned' the visit, hoping I would invite them in.

I'd better do the rounds to make sure I'm ready for a viewing tomorrow. I'll also try and 'think out of the box' and buy some time by asking for time to think about things, rather than my normal impulsive responses.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. I do miss doing the big family lunches, I haven't peeled anything since Christmas Day!

Oh mosaicwarts....your poignant 'we had a great life here' tugs at the heart strings but selling houses is a heartless business and we all have to try to emotionally separate yourself from the whole thing. I think I was lucky in the fact that I REALY wanted to move - there were things that had made me fall out of love with the house which was a huge help. However, it did make me feel I was radiating 'needy and desperate'!
Like you I found myself far too chatty with viewers...I kept forgetting it was not a social thing, they were not visiting us, just looking at the house. The bizarre thing was that our eventual buyers confused me as it was two generations and a child in tow. I thought I was talking to the potential buyer and it turned out that it was the son who was the buyer - I had been chatting to his Mum!
Honestly when the right person comes along they just want the house (at the right price of course) so do not worry about what you are saying too much. That being said a wise friend did say do not let them know all the potential negatives initially....let their emotions sway them first.

If ever someone needed to downsize it's you mosaicwarts.
If you are on your own apart from the dog(s) it isn't going to get any easier.
How desperate you are to sell to these people though is another matter. It may be wise to keep them waiting and hold out for a slightly better offer.
I hope you have some idea of where you'd like to move to and know how much the move will cost.
You need to have some money in the bank to celebrate with!

Thanks Grammaretto. My elderly aunt is 82 and I can't talk to her about it, she gets upset as she says it makes her feel helpless. When I talk to the dog, he wags his tail at everything! I do have an elderly cat too - I'm worried about renting with her, she's been so used to this solitary life and fields of territory, there aren't any other cats here.

I've got an advanced viewing booked, a woman from Liverpool, coming on 10 June.

I feel really uneasy about speaking to the EA tomorrow.

I did get the impression they want me to accept whatever Mr Buyer offers as so many viewers have rejected the house - but now is the time when people really start looking. I was ready to go on the market last August and paid hundreds for a cleaning firm, but the EA moved offices and delayed by three weeks or so. My son's view was that I could wait a long time for another offer, and during the wait for perhaps another £20K have to spend double that. It's just a horrible game isn't it. Hot tap water was yellow today for the first time ever - I've googled it and it seems its 'minerals' in the tank.

Have been dozing again this afternoon and the razor blades in my throat have subsided, thankfully. I don't have tonsils and any infection seems to really affect me.

I'm off to Macdonalds as my frozen curry is out of date by about six months! I'll tell you how I get along with the paper straw, I love the chocolate milkshakes.

Hugs to all and thank you for your support.

There’s a kind of equation where you have to balance how much you want to move with how much you need the money. When we were selling my parents bungalow, after a few months, we had had one offer which was well below the asking price.

I was talking to my husband about whether we should accept it and he said (ironically) “Well of course, there’s all the other offers to take into consideration.”

It kind of put that one offer into perspective.

My son, who does a lot ofdeals in his work, says that you can only bargain when you are prepared to walk away. So are you ready to lose this buyer for the chance of getting more money later?

Having said that the first offer is pretty much a try and most buyers expect you to say no and then they make their real offer.

Relationships with EAs are complex. I can honestly say that all the decisions we made were supported by ours. They sympathised when the initial viewers said nice things but made no offers. They accepted without a murmur our initial refusals of quite low offers. In all matters they 'took our instructions' and acted upon them. In our initial talk the EA came up with the asking price saying it was a reasonable price but we should expect to accept a very slightly lower one. We had a long chat about pricing....accepting that some folks have unreasonable expectations etc. It was our choice to drop after 4 months of no firm offers which then quickly led to two decent (but slightly lower again) offers. All the time the EA would state the viewers price and condition and then say something along the lines of....I'll leave you to think about it'. On every occasion they listened to our responses and followed our instructions. We never felt the EA was setting the pace - we felt very much they were working for us. As things progressed the EA was very helpful - ringing us up the moment the proposed buyer had a query and making sure they acted as a buffer so that we never had to deal directly with them. It kept everything at a reasonable level of politeness and ensured no one lost their tempers. Every extra visit the buyer made was arranged through the EA (we had moved out by then) but they still checked with us before hand and let us know what was happening.
It is a fine line I know....but the EA is serving you....but they must also be allowed to use their professionalism to help you make the sale. For every scary EA story there is an opposite scary vendor story that an EA can regale you with!

I also relied very heavily on my EA and although I paid 1.2%, I felt they had earned their money. They held my hand all through and never asked me to do a viewing, they always came early to check things and kept me fully informed. Best part was when their legal secretary took over, once I had agreed the offer. She held it all together and used some `clout` when things were going too far with my buyer, she was the one who silently put the pressure on, to get the sale through on 10th may

Anyway mosaics, by the end I would have taken any offer, I was so psychologically affected and a house is only worth what a buyer will pay. It was the EA who said `wait, I will try and get a bit more` and that 5k paid for the solicitor and removals with money left over. She got a bargain and I got peace of mind. She is still not living there full time and I wonder what games she is playing now and I feel for my gorgeous neighbours, who are now running the management company single handed. They need to go but he is 83 and she is 65 and have not the energy, he will see out his days there and she will be left to clear their beautiful but over full home. She is already ill, was a gp and relies heavily on the mental capacity and humour of her husband and he is ill, his lungs are failing. They have waited too long and that could have happened with any of us

Buyers do not care about stuff which is easily sorted out. Buyers count the rooms and value the area the house is in. Of course, a dirty unkempt house will put people off but most reasonable people will know what is the main value in a house and garden rubbish will not stop a buyer if your house is right for them. I would also DEMAND the agent keep you informed and tell them I will end the contract and go elsewhere. The contract will oblige them to keep you informed. Never accept second rate work when someone is getting a chunk of your money. This sale is important to you... it is your house.. it is your money... the agent should do what you tell them to do... they are not a charity, you pay them.

Thanks for your replies, it does comfort me. Due to a silly remark I've lost my one and only friend up here, obviously only an acquaintance as she took offence at something so trivial. I've only just come to terms with it and do miss her.

I am also paying 1.2 % Craftyone, a fortune. My friend said to ask to renegotiate the fee with the EA, I am nervous to do so. I'm still not feeling myself due to grief. I do feel for your neighbour, I hope she has the strength when the time comes.

I emailed the EA last night and said the buyer had knocked and asked for a third viewing, and as I have a bad cold, could I have a few days to recover. Wish the 'hot flushes' would stop, I've got a temperature even with all the paracetamol.

Has anyone done anything special for a 'third viewing' - which may result in an extra £10K? Do you think I should leave a list of bills for them, electricity costs etc?

The difference with my house Johno is that it is a railway station on the live line, I knew it would be a difficult sale. It is a huge 2654 sq ft magnificent building, but needs the roof and windows done - and as it's listed everything has to be as the listing criteria.

As for the garden, it's also large, and growing like billy o and the new gardener can only come on a Monday. The BH's have messed up the month and it's looking dreadful again. He's coming today and I hope he will have time to both do the lawns and strim the other areas. I worked like a madman and managed to chop up all the branches in the stable from my original post and take them to the dump, but now have another large area of yew/tree branches near the line to tackle. Once I've cleaned the house I've run out of steam, really feeling my age lately.

Happy Monday! So overcast outside, is summer ever going to arrive?

Mosaicwarts, only supply things like bills if they are actually asked for. In fact our buyer did not ask too many detailed questions until we were well into the sale and they were done via e-mails through the EA. It turned into a bit of a ping pong session but it is so much better when there is the buffer of the EA as my initial response to some of the questions was things like 'what a cheek' and 'how very dare you'.
We paid a 1.25 % to our EA but boy did they work for it. I think its pretty much the going rate for larger non standard properties.
Hopefully your EA valued your home as a project....not what it could be. It would be disappointing if they had not realised how much might be needed doing. Of course any potential buyer will have their own plans....everything from a basic make over to a complete re-imagine.
We managed to sell FIL crumbling pile (part of the roof caved in on the day of completion - but buyer had had a survey so he knew what he was getting) just as the big slump of 2008 what hitting but it sold on position and potential. We saw it a couple of years ago on Right Move and it had undergone an amazing transformation...all glazed atriums and fitness gym. It was doubled in size and tripled in 'value'. What they potentially want to spend on the re-make should not really affect you. Your house should have been valued as is....not for how much needed spending on it. The only time that scenario applies is when something unexpected is thrown up by the survey - then sometimes a re-negotiation is needed.

I had a third viewing, just the buyer wanting to show adult children around and not a nit picky visit, so the EA said. The suspense is killing me mosaics, must be hell for you, not feeling well on top of everything else

The EA emailed back and said the buyer will have to approach them for a third viewing - then she went on to say she'd be phoning to see if they wanted to increase their offer. I assumed the third viewing was to see if they did want to increase their offer?

I've managed to get my friend's daughter to clean for me tomorrow, so hope they come this week and I know where I stand.

Just having a break from weeding the back kitchen courtyard gravel, why are dock leaf roots such deep and long concrete monsters! I love the herb robert, and have seen bullfinches feeding on the seeds, and am sorry to remove it but it looks dreadful. Should be finished in about five hours and it should be clear!

Have you tried having an Open Day? The EA arranges it and everyone comes on the same day to view - at staggered intervals obviously.

In London we are charged 1.5% plus VAT for sole agency fees. More if you go with more than agent. Must say, the lady at my EA is really working hard to get me a good sale.
Do wonder why people visit properties they cannot afford....Second viewing today and very enthusiastic, but offered twenty grand below asking price. I will accept up to ten grand below that price, but no more. Said they cannot afford to up their offer.
Still have the original offer on the table, but she has not yet managed to re-sell her house. Young couple desperate to purchase this and their offer is good (just five grand below asking price), Agent is just wanting to check out all their financial credentials before she finally agrees and takes my house off the market again.
Silly to care who comes to live here when I go, but would love for this young family to have it - but I will follow the advice of the EA. Accepted their offer, in principle - but keep house on market until checks have been made, not yet to contact my Solicitor.
On top of that EA fees are the Solicitors fees, both for selling and then again for the purchase of whatever flat I buy. Stamp duty on purchase also needs to be taken into account and removal expenses. A very expensive business moving house - I can quite understand why people prefer to extend their existing properties rather than move.

Mosaicwarts....There really are no hard and fast rules about what a third, forth or even fifth viewing is all about. Its just that the more complicated the house or the more dithery the buyer the more they want to make sure. One prospective buyer cam back a forth time to make sure the open garaging would accommodate his collection of land rovers....but without bringing a tape measure! Luckily we had some. Our actual buyer had a couple of extra visits once we were gone but the EA sorted those out and they were for particular things such as accompanying the surveyor round. We had one early muppet who could not get his head around the fact we were grade 2 listed and kept coming back to see if he could build a workshop on....he was told he would have to apply officially but even then he seemed to think it was open to negotiation.
In the end he walked away muttering something about the house being too far from the larger town!!! There really is no logic to house buying.