ARRRRGHHHHH..... The stress begins....

[Deleted member 1258]

Best of luck mate, lets hope it all goes well.
We've moved 3 times, the first was from a bedsit to a 2 bedroomed house, took a couple of hours with the help of a man with a van, with the last move down sizing from a large 3 bed three floor Victorian 3 up 2 down to a smaller 3 bed needed a full size removal lorry and crew, for months before the move we were decluttering and it took a couple of weeks after the move to get sorted.

 

[Julia9054]

Best of luck. It is stressful - and time consuming.
I have been in my new house for 3 weeks. Although I sold my old one within a fortnight, it has consumed my entire summer. I have hardly been on my bike (apart from going to work) and I feel unfit and flabby!
The worst part is being reliant on other people - mortgage companies, estate agents, others in the chain.
We have gone the other way and downsized. Looking forward to having half the mortgage, not crapping myself every time something goes wrong with the car and - of course - spending more money on bikes!

 

[simon the viking]

Estate agent booked (he has details from last time we tested the market...just new photos needed) Mortgage broker rung..... dealt with him for 20 years on and off.... he's run the figures through the system.... and the mortgage amounts he could get us seem crazy! we aren't planning on going anywhere near the top......

I'm looking at deposits, equity etc and reckon... I can find at least a grand for a new bike...... However it seems Mrs V doesn't share the same thoughts....

 

[Globalti]

Wasps and estate agents: what are they for, actually?

 

[simon the viking]

I will add in my estate agent's defence.... He rides a classic Raleigh Record (or did last time I spoke to him) and is on Strava.... so can't be that bad a person.....

Edit.... He may even be on here......... (I don't know.....)

 

[Profpointy]

Wasps and estate agents: what are they for, actually?

leaving aside the wasps, estate agents offer a service which you can take or leave. My dad sold a house many years ago by putting adverts in the paper and a professional looking sign outside. I've previously sold houses via agents and the good ones certainly had to earn their fees. The crap ones were crap, and did f-all, granted.

Now surveyors, not been impressed with them one little bit

 

[Globalti]

The building and property business is a disgraceful mess of so-called "professionals" all scratching each others' arses by bullying home owners and developers into paying for ludicrous surveys, which mean nothing because they will lace the report with disclaimers.

A cycling buddy of mine is rebuilding a derelict barn as his residence and has been forced to pay £17,000 for half a dozen surveys before starting work. He can't dig any holes in the ground without the presence of an archaeologist, for whom he has to pay.

 

[jonny jeez]

The building and property business is a disgraceful mess of so-called "professionals" all scratching each others' arses by bullying home owners and developers into paying for ludicrous surveys, which mean nothing because they will lace the report with disclaimers.

A cycling buddy of mine is rebuilding a derelict barn as his residence and has been forced to pay £17,000 for half a dozen surveys before starting work. He can't dig any holes in the ground without the presence of an archaeologist, for whom he has to pay.

I doubt he is being forced.

Its his choice, if he wants to develop an area of architectural significance, then he'll have to accept that there will be costs to do so. Are the builders also "forcing" him to pay for bricks, or labour.

That's a bit like suggesting that English heritage "force" people to adhere to listed buildings consent. Its your friends choice to develop the building or not but he cant have his cake and eat it.

I do totally agree about the lacing of disclaimers. Also these surveys that offer lifetime guarantees (timber and damp is a really good example)...means nothing when the firm in question closes down every three years and re-opens in another name.

 

[Globalti]

A friend of ours, an "early retired" WPC, bought a bungalow on which she had a full structural survey. What the surveyor failed to notice was that on that particular design of bunglaow the gable ends were beginnng to fold in the same direction, still joined by the ridge, due to lack of cross-bracing when the houses were built. Almost every other bungalow in the road had the same leaning gable or had already had a rebuild yet the muppet failed to spot it. The survey was, of course, worded carefully to exonerate him from blame but he and his practice reckoned without her steely determination to get redress. She fought the bastards tooth and nail (I helped her with some of the correspondence) and ended up winning back the cost of the rebuild, since she argued perfectly reasonably that she wouldn't have bought the bungalow if he had done his job. Victory!

 

[Salad Dodger]

Best wishes Simon for a swift and (relatively) painless move.

When we moved, about 3 years ago - bloody hell, where did that time go? - the best thing we did was to hire a storage container and decant over 30 years worth of acquired cr*p into it, allowing us to "dress" the house for sale with relatively little furniture and stuff on display. Not turn it completely minimalist, as we still had to live there and needed day to day stuff on hand, but at least to be able to reclaim the 3rd bedroom from being a "junk room" and show it as a bedroom. Likewise the garage was partially emptied, which hinted at the possibility of a purchaser being able to get a car into it, something we had not achieved for at least 20 years!

The process of shifting stuff to the container also made us evaluate how much of it we really needed. Some would obviously end up going with us to the new, smaller, house and a few bits were earmarked to be passed on to our daughter for her flat, but a lot went to the charity shop or to the tip.

Luckily, the storage place was near to my work, so I could go in during my lunch break to put in/take out stuff as required.

 

[simon the viking]

Best wishes Simon for a swift and (relatively) painless move.

When we moved, about 3 years ago - bloody hell, where did that time go? - the best thing we did was to hire a storage container and decant over 30 years worth of acquired cr*p into it, allowing us to "dress" the house for sale with relatively little furniture and stuff on display. Not turn it completely minimalist, as we still had to live there and needed day to day stuff on hand, but at least to be able to reclaim the 3rd bedroom from being a "junk room" and show it as a bedroom. Likewise the garage was partially emptied, which hinted at the possibility of a purchaser being able to get a car into it, something we had not achieved for at least 20 years!

The process of shifting stuff to the container also made us evaluate how much of it we really needed. Some would obviously end up going with us to the new, smaller, house and a few bits were earmarked to be passed on to our daughter for her flat, but a lot went to the charity shop or to the tip.

Luckily, the storage place was near to my work, so I could go in during my lunch break to put in/take out stuff as required.

I did think about some storage.... but not too much clutter on display (loft and under stairs are a different matter....) But Mrs V did de-clutter the book case and Little-uns room.... I went to the car boot to find a box of books and a Large wooden girraffe-clothes-horse type thingy on the back seat...... The giraffe has sentimental value apparently... It was hers originally as a child so is going back to her mums house..... The clutter under the stairs is going to be sorted and boxed up neatly and put back.....

 

[Globalti]

You can't have too many plastic storage bins.

 

[simon the viking]

Its now on Rightmove 48 hours after ringing agent! (still had details on system so new photos and off we go.....)
Last time we were enticed on to the market by a couple of cheapies... that went. This time quite a few options but limited with Schools and Mrs V job as she can't drive so any 3 bed in our (term used very loosely...... ) Village is being considered if in price range...

I am NOT going to get stressed about it.... (Mrs V could be different though) I'm going to let all the people I'm paying earn their money....

 

[PK99]

I often consider starting a boutique agency in my area, very small client base, with extremely personal...upfront, frank advice and support. Celebs love that approach (I had many celebrity clients in my day) so why wouldn't everyone.

our local eatate agent used to be managed by a wonderful lady called Esther.

Esther had in eidetic memory for houses, people and requirements - and had ALL the business in the area.

Short version of the long story, people would move into the area, not quite finding the house they wanted (most often smaller than they wanted), but were so keen on the (Conservation) area they would take what they could get.

A few years later they would get a phone call from Esther: "I've found the perfect house for you!" & folks who had not even been looking bought and sold in a matter of weeks, moving a few hundred yards!

Esther retired and now the market is fragmented between a dozen agents.

 

[PK99]

Its now on Rightmove 48 hours after ringing agent! (still had details on system so new photos and off we go.....)
Last time we were enticed on to the market by a couple of cheapies... that went. This time quite a few options but limited with Schools and Mrs V job as she can't drive so any 3 bed in our (term used very loosely...... ) Village is being considered if in price range...

I am NOT going to get stressed about it.... (Mrs V could be different though) I'm going to let all the people I'm paying earn their money....

London flat market 2 years ago was so crazy that on of the agents advised that right move etc were a waste of time, he had to put his properties there to show a "presence" but by the time it went up at 9pm, he would have already phoned round his waiting list and populated the viewing diary for the coming weekend