We finally had an offer for the house last week. Initially rather low but the guy upped it to an acceptable level which we have accepted in principal but the chances of it coming to anything are slim. The guy has only just put his house on the market and he lives in a part of town where people want to move from not to. It will likely be months and months before he is able to sell and since the prices on that side of town are some £25k below the offer he may well need to stick out for his asking price. Added to that he bought the house with his girlfriend and they have now split up so presumably she’s going to want half. It’s a very slim lifeline and we hold out little hope.
A couple of days afterwards we had a viewing that was much more promising. A young couple, first time buyers, complete with her mum and dad and his mum traipsed all around the house and were suitably impressed especially considering that ours is the cheapest 3 bedroom house on this side of town. The following day we had a call from the Estate Agent to say they were very interested and could they come back for a second viewing? That was arranged for this evening. We had assumed that mummy and daddy and mummy were going to help them out with the finances, otherwise why would they all come round? So it was looking good. This afternoon we had a call saying that they would not be coming as they had discovered that they didn’t have a big enough deposit and were therefore not in a position to buy. What? Five of them and not one bright enough to work out beforehand how much money they had? Good grief. Surely you have some idea of what you can afford before you go looking? Otherwise why not traipse round the million pound mansions as well?
Now for an annoyance. About three weeks ago I met one the the first couples who came round over two months ago down at the storage depot where I was renewing our storage and they were renting a new unit. Turned out that they had only just put their house on the market (some five weeks after viewing ours). They had made excuses that our house was not much bigger than theirs but strangely theirs went on the market at £20k below ours. Rather odd for the same size house? Actually it is considerably smaller. Anyway I keep looking at all the boards now as I drive past and, guess what? The buggers have only gone and sold it in less than three weeks! Here we are two and half months down the line with just the one tiny nibble.
At least mum-in-law’s house has been sold. Or has it? The offer was made six weeks ago and we assumed it was progressing but we had a call from the agent today to say that the buyer’s surveyor had thrown up lots of scary remarks about various cracks in the plasterwork which has sent the buyer into a panic. She hasn’t quite pulled out yet but, just in case, the agent has now put the house back on the market. There are various cracks in the plaster but they are nothing serious. I had a good look at them while I was there and they are nothing that can’t be sorted with a quick application of Polyfilla and a coat of paint. I was tempted to do it while I was there as I anticipated this kind of problem but mum-in-law put the kybosh on it by bursting into tears whenever I mentioned all the things wrong with her house! Now she is depressed. Should have bloody listened to me shouldn’t she? I would have filled all the cracks, painted everything, ripped up the tatty carpets and it would probably have sold a lot earlier. She’s got double glazing and central heating you know!! As we have discovered to our cost that’s what everybody wants!
The buyer is, as far as we can gather, a woman on her own and some bloody-minded surveyor has probably frightened the life out of her with a scaremongering report designed to cover his back by including the minutest details in the most overblown fashion. She most likely knows nothing about building work and, understandably, is having a panic attack. It really annoys me how these ‘professionals’ put the frighteners on people. He’s probably got a mate in the building trade who can ‘do a good job for you’. I know damned well that if I had filled those cracks and painted over them the bugger would never even have noticed that anything had been done.
So it all looks like back to square one. There is still some hope though. I’ve found a one bedroom house on Lewis for just £40,000! I could buy that and move in on my own and let Sandy and her mum sort out the house selling! That wouldn’t work though as, although mum-in-law, would be more than happy not to move to that ‘cold back of beyond’ Sandy would probably commit suicide and then I’d be left with mum-in-law to look after on my own. Christ almighty!!
Tags: house for sale, still
There are two very similar houses for sale on our estate both 3 bedroom link-detached looking identical on the outside and not dissimilar on the inside with both being nicely decorated. The major difference is that one has central heating and double glazing whilst the other doesn’t although it does have an extension at the back which could make it a 4 bedroom house. The other major difference is the price - one is £20,000 cheaper than the other and the expensive one is not above the usual valuation for such houses around here. The cheaper one is by far the cheapest 3 bedroom house on the estate.
So buyers look in the estate agent’s window and decide that the higher priced one is £20,000 more than they can afford so they come and view the cheaper one. Guess what? They then turn round and say ‘but we’d have to put in central heating and double-glazing’. Why the f*** do you think it’s £20,000 cheaper?
There was a time when a young couple (which once we were) would be chuffed to bits at the chance of owning their first home. The fact that it had no heating nor posh windows or was a bit run down wasn’t a consideration, all those things could come in time - if they wanted it. There was never, ever, the thought that the house had to be completely finished to the highest standard at the lowest price. Not so now. First time buyers want everything right now at a price well below what everything costs. They can’t entertain the thought of waiting, and saving, and working to get the things they want. They have no idea of the joy of turning a house into a home through their own toil and their own imagination. Maybe they all grew up with Nikes and Playstations and foreign holidays and had everything they wanted given to them by parents who should have known better? Sod the lot of them, They’ll never find that perfect house because it doesn’t exist. Why? Because they can’t bloody afford it.
The excuses (and lies) come thick and fast but this week topped the lot. The agents have been brilliant in chasing up viewers to get their feedback and on Monday Michelle phoned with the feedback from the viewing she had booked on Sunday. The guy had said that it was a very nice house but he was looking for something with more than three bedrooms and somewhere that he could do a bit of work on whereas ours was already finished. Same old excuses really only this time the bugger never turned up for the viewing. He made the whole bloody thing up!
Getting rather fed up with it all now but I’ve got to try and be nice again in half an hour’s time when another casual house viewer is due to drop by and waste another twenty minutes of our lives.
Mrs and Mrs Housebuyer (standing in our living room)
“It’s much bigger than our house, we haven’t got a separate dining room. With the extension I would definitely call it a four bedroom house rather than three.”
Mrs & Mrs Housebuyer (when the estate agents phone to see if they are interested)
“It’s about the same size of our present house. We are really looking for a four bedroom house”
Mr Housebuyer (in our kitchen)
“We would like a bigger kitchen but we could easily extend through to the extension”
Me: “You might have problems as that’s a supporting wall”
Mr Housebuyer “Not a problem at all, I could put in an RSJ and make a really great kitchen. It’s got loads of potential”
Mr Housebuyer (when the estate agents phone to see if they are interested)
“No, the kitchen’s too small”
Mr Housebuyer to the estate agent when cancelling a viewing
“I drove past last night and there’s not enough parking”
Well maybe not for a car dealership but we parked our camper van, our Volvo estate and my work Astra van in the front for a couple of years!
Well after the initial flurry of interest it has now gone rather quiet with no interest in the house for the past week. A couple came last weekend and were very impressed saying it ‘was just what they wanted’ but I suspect that they were not actually intending to buy but just seeing what is about. Their house (just up the road) doesn’t appear to be for sale. Guess we’ll just have to weather this sort of thing.
Real limbo time now. A few things left to do on the house but I can’t get motivated to do them. Keep looking at the estate agents sites in the Western Isles but all it does is make it worse! If only we had been sensible when we were young and saved our money instead of spending it!
Two weeks in and we haven’t sold the house yet! I know, I know, but now that’s it’s up for sale we just want to get out and get the van hired for the long trip north.
Seven viewings in the fist week and they (almost) all said the same thing - Lovely house, beautifully presented but there’s no central heating. So? Put the bloody central heating in then and knock the cost off the offer. I would jump at the chance of putting my own heating in rather than putting up with someone else’s radiators. Underfloor heating or skirting board heaters are far better options than trying to squeeze your furniture around inefficient radiators.
Anyway this evening we had a viewing from a lady and her son - she wants to buy a house for him to go to the local uni. Now if a young, strapping, student can’t cope without cushy central heating, lord knows what the future will bring. Thought we were supposed to be concerned about global warming anyway.
