House buying today.

Kirsty Allsop from location, location, location often advises people to send a personal letter to the seller, explaining what the particular house would mean to the purchaser. Let’s face it buying a house involves a lot of emotion and sentiment. If as is said the sender is going into a nursing home, I feel sure it would bring them a great deal of comfort to know that their treasured house full of memories will be loved and cared for, for years to come. I wish your GD and BF every happiness with their new adventure of owning their first home.

My daughter and her partner bought their first house last year (in Cambridge so their two bed is worth more than my four bed 😳).
There was a “guide price”, which they offered but there were several such offers they had to offer more.
They did eventually get it at around £8k over the guide price - but theirs wasn’t the highest offer.
They had to fill in some kind of questionnaire and stated that they were first time buyers. The highest offer was from someone who wanted to buy to let, but the vendor had himself bought the house as a first time buyer and wanted it in turn to go to another ftb.

We bought a flat in a rapidly rising market - it doubled in value in 18 months. We had 3 offers and asked the agent about the bidders. We chose the local young couple even though it was slightly less than the highest bidder because we had made our share, and they needed a home to marry. Highest bidder was buy to let

I'd just say,well we need a home,and its in our price range,if youre willing to accept our lower offer we hope to lavish attention on it.and leave it at that.(it really is nothing to do with the sellers why you want it,but maybe theirs was the lowest offer so they might be persuaded to let it go for less if they know its to be cherished?)Personally if i was selling i wouldnt care why if they met my price.

fancythat

But when?

Why has it not been done already?

And the biggest issue of all, and especially in light of the request of a reason to buy as well, does the daughter really want to sell. In her heart of hearts.

4th I suppose - why has she dragged her heels thus far in emptying the house/getting it ready for sale. Properly ready.
Though there may be excellent reasons for doing that,

Agree fancythat, I'd worry that the daughter was maybe too emotional. I've moved a dozen times and never been asked to write anything such as this.
I have known of a few people who've written a few lines for the agent to pass on to the seller, because they have fallen hard for a property though!
This senario sounds like a reversal of this.

This property is a small semi in Stockport.
Not much to commend it but the price and the excellent condition for a young couple starting out with their first house.
I may win a million tomorrow on the Premium bonds….. then again I might not.
If I do they can start upping their criteria.

We sold my Mum's house through an invite to bid by a certain day. We certainly wanted to know the buyer's intentions. It was an old house with all the original fittings and we just wanted to know that it wasn't going to be a builder who would come in, tear it down and build soulless boxes. Our family had lived there for over 75 years so we were emotionally invested. We only sold it to pay for Mum's Nursing Home Fees.
My cousin's did the same with their father's property. Once again, his family had lived there for 70 years.
I'd be more worried about the terms of some of the estate agents' sales these days. My daughter looked at a house and she had to make an immediate non-returnable deposit before survey, pay loads of different fees and if her property sale fell through, she would be liable for costs if the other side didn't want to delay the sale whilst she found a new buyer.

Sometimes, if there is the opportunity to extend or build in the grounds and therefore add a lot of value to the property, vendors may put a clause in the sale agreement that they receive a percentage of the 'uplift.' That could be a possible reason

Seems to have been standard practice for buying and renting in London, Brighton and Bristol, that I know of, for th3 past 7/8 years. It’s due to the huge demand. Th3 seller/renter likes to know more about the people seeking to buy/rent.

We ended up with four people all competing to buy our house, all with a house to sell. First to sell, bought the house. All were young childless couples wanting to buy a family home and start a family. Fortunately they were also all very nice and we were delighted with the couple who did buy it.

We were still living in the house and as we were downsizing we were able to sell some of the furniture to the new owners, sell some and put the rest of our belongings into store until we had a ne home to move to.

The new owners also sent us a card afterwards to thank us for leaving everything so clean and in such good order.

Oreo

fancythat

But when?

Why has it not been done already?

And the biggest issue of all, and especially in light of the request of a reason to buy as well, does the daughter really want to sell. In her heart of hearts.

4th I suppose - why has she dragged her heels thus far in emptying the house/getting it ready for sale. Properly ready.
Though there may be excellent reasons for doing that,

I also wondered if the person selling the house had the legal right to do so?

Ownership of the property and legal right of the vendor to sell it, are the first thing a solicitor checks. In this case they'd be looking at land registry and then the extent and legality of any POA held by the daughter.

The contents can send a powerful message to viewers about the property's care and maintenance by the recent occupier and vendor.

Our property's 100 yr old (deceased) previous owner had owned it for 30 years. It was for sale by her Executor (son) who lived 400 miles away. (Useful gossip gleaned from neighbour)

It was still fully furnished right down to kitchen utensils and linen cupboard. Everything, furniture, fittings and ornaments spotless and absolutely immaculate, all in the style and taste of a wealthy and very particular old lady who bought the best and employed excellent tradesmen and housekeeper.

Her taste and style was irrelevent. The level of care and expenditure and maintenance were a powerful selling point to any experienced seller and buyer.

Never heard of it. If its an old person who is leaving her much home perhaps she just wants reassurance it will be loved and cared for . I would make it honest and brief in what they say. When my home is sold I won’t ask for a letter but I will know by meeting them. It is not just a house to me, I want it loved however daft that sounds.

As MOnica said, you could give any number of reasons why you want to buy a house, but once the deal is done, who knows what might be done with the property?

Regarding stuff in the house, my elderly neighbour has been in a home for over two years. His house went on the market a few months ago, and was soon snapped up.

His family have had a lot of clearing out to do. (Very clean and tidy, but lots of ‘stuff’)

I am pretty sure his clothes etc were still in the wardrobes and cupboards when the viewings happened.

Also, although the family had POA, I know the solicitors saw the owner at his nursing home and he had to do some signing, to make sure he was well aware of all that was happening. (He is still very good mentally).

He just wanted the property sold and sorted.

That's bizarre alright.

If you need a roof over your head then you buy/rent somewhere. Obviously.

Perhaps this particular property is in a conservation area with a bunch of caveats attached to it?

Weird, and no mistake.

So different here. What business is it of the real estate agent why they want to purchase? It is more the banks that worry about whether or not you can afford the place and the banks are the ones the loans go through, not the real estate agents. Usually the house will go to the highest bidder and once an offer is accepted that is it. No up staging, it is binding after a 2 day ‘cooling off period’. It has been a seller’s market , several offers for every house and most sell after a period of about 6 weeks. Definitely slowed down a bit - it used to be a couple of days . Some go to auction and either sell on the day or get passed in .

Unless she really dislikes the neighbours and wants to be sure it will be a party house!!

Yes, I have seen that. This is where you write a beggar's paragraph as to why the sellers should choose you to be the new owners rather than another couple offering the same amount. Just a note about who you are, children or not, where you are from and that you plan on living the home forever. If you write that you are from the middle east or China or are an investor or a builder planning to do a tear down then, no, they will choose the other prospective buyers.

If the mother lived alone and is being paid for by the Local Authority on an interim basis because her savings have run out, the house has to be sold to pay her fees, it sounds like that may be the case here. If so, the daughter has to do all the work to empty it, which is hard for her I’m sure. It might mean though that she is willing to leave white goods and furniture behind, which coukd be a bonus for young buyers.

I would write to say that it was obviously a well loved house with a friendly feeling about it (or whatever) and I would tell them all about myself too. The lady in the nursing home may actually be the one making the decision - and it might make her feel better about the sale this way.
I know this is supposition but see no harm in it.

We had to do this once for a tenancy (and got it). I suppose you do want to know more about potential tennants though.

I know the people selling the house to one of my daughters sold it to her for less than their "best offer" because they thought she would love it the most.

...And my husband's aunt actually exchanged her big house for a much smaller one because she liked a young couple round the corner who had a young family and couldn't afford a bigger house.
People don't always do everything just for money you know.

I wonder if the house is having to be sold to pay the fees for the mother’s care and the Daughter is dragging it out as long as possible for some reason.
If ( heaven forfend) the mother dies soon it may not need to be sold and some family member might want it.This is all speculation on my part of course and my GD and BF have two other viewings booked.

fancythat

But when?

Why has it not been done already?

And the biggest issue of all, and especially in light of the request of a reason to buy as well, does the daughter really want to sell. In her heart of hearts.

4th I suppose - why has she dragged her heels thus far in emptying the house/getting it ready for sale. Properly ready.
Though there may be excellent reasons for doing that,

I also wondered if the person selling the house had the legal right to do so?

I always leave furniture and contents in a house when selling it. A furnished house sells much better and uicker than an empty unfurnished one. I have never not had the house completely empty well before the completion date.

I sold my father’s house in a cul de sac in small Norfolk village a couple of years ago. Many of the owners had lived there for decades as had my parents. There were a few people interested. In the end I accepted a lower offer from a lovely young family with small children who I felt would integrate well into the small community and reinvigorate young life into the aging community there.
Having gone back to visit when my dad was in a care home I know that it was the right choice. The children are in the village school, they are adored by the other residents, and have brought new life into the street.
I would never have forgiven myself if I had sold the house to someone who didn’t “feel right” for the house and community.

50 years ago we saw a house we wanted to buy. It was being sold by the Scottish National Gallery as the owner, a well known artist, had bequeathed it to the gallery. It was in a village south of Edinburgh.

We were asked to submit an application letter along with our closed bid.

We agreed to put a blue plaque on the house and I said I would have a pottery studio there. We bid all we could afford which was several thousand pounds above the upset price.

We had a long wait until the closing date and we were disappointed that we were outbid and annoyed that a builder bought it and immediately divided it into 2 homes.

We felt sure that the artists wishes had been ignored in favour of making the highest price.

But when?

Why has it not been done already?

And the biggest issue of all, and especially in light of the request of a reason to buy as well, does the daughter really want to sell. In her heart of hearts.

4th I suppose - why has she dragged her heels thus far in emptying the house/getting it ready for sale. Properly ready.
Though there may be excellent reasons for doing that,