We have just received a second offer for the house which is much more acceptable. Not as high as we would have wanted but one that will turn a profit.
The Estate Agent is just negotiating the final figure and then it looks like we may a have buyer.
I'll post an update as soon as I have one.
Time has flown by and it doesn't seem that it has been three weeks since I last updated this blog. That sounds like a confession "bless me father for I have sinned, it has been three weeks since my last update....."
That means the house has been on the market for about five weeks and whilst there have been plenty of viewings there haven't really been any meaningful offers. I say "meaningful" in this context as we did get one offer which the agent had the sense to reject before I even had the opportunity to comment on it. Interestingly this was the right call as I said that if they were prepared to "move a bit" we might be able to reach a deal but they then didn't get back to us at all – not even to reject our approach. I am confident that these people would not have progressed with a purchase even if we had accepted their original, low offer.
The house remains on the market but we have now decided to investigate the rental market as well. This was always a backstop position (outright sale was and remains the preferred solution) but it is far from a disaster and many people have commented privately that they believe this to be a better approach anyway. It appears that people make decisions on rental quite quickly and there are already a couple of people who have expressed an interest.
Should we end up renting I will then re-mortgage this house to free up as much cash as possible from it. Strictly speaking the house is currently owned outright but that is because we funded it from the current family home. There is nothing wrong with doing that but I have been told that it is harder to offset interest on loans against tax if you don't have a specific loan for a rental property.
More news as soon as I hear anything.
The blog has been a bit quiet of late but that is really because there is not much to report.
Today (Saturday) really marks the end of the 2nd week that the house had been on the market and available for viewing. We have had 5 or 6 people round so far and no offers to date. I am not worried about this although it would have been nice to have had an offer of some kind – even one to turn down! At least that would stop Tim pointing out signs in estate agents windows saying "Under Offer" and reminding me how much I have lost in interest payments during the time it took to eat a curry!
The agents initially estimated that they would "sell the house in a fortnight". The last time she made a prediction was when we sold our old house and she got that right. I think that somebody is going round for a second viewing today so you never know – she could be right again.
I hope nobody minds but as this is my blog I think I should be allowed to hijack it with an off topic post if I want to!
I am running the London Marathon in April. If you would like to sponsor me (all donations to Asthma UK) I could really do with the support. You can get to my donations page by clicking here or by using the widget on the right hand side of this blog.
Thank you.
Mark (aka APD)
There has been a last minute flurry of activity with some bills I had not anticipated (mainly for materials) but I believe everything is now accounted for. The house is finished and I am led to believe that all the snagging is done.
In the end the total expenditure on this project against budget is show below.
Budget | Actual | Variance (£) | Variance (%) |
£40,677 | £42,123 | £1,446 | 3.55% |
It is clearly disappointing to be over budget at the end of all of this but I am not sure there is much I could have done to have prevented this over spend. I have yet to see the final receipts for all the materials but there is not much I can do about it now. It is certainly the case that much of the variance was caused by legal and professional fees and materials.
So that's it. We move to the final phase of this project – selling it.
As mentioned before, Mrs APD was round at the house yesterday giving it a quick clean before the viewings started. She heard a knock at the door and went to investigate. It was a representative from a rival estate agent who clearly wanted to sell the house. I had assumed that this type of door stepping had long since stopped but it appears it is still alive and well in this part of the country. He appeared very keen to gain entry and has such phrases as:-
"We sold one over the road for more money recently"
We have loads of buyers that would want this"
Can I just take a look inside?"
Would you like us to sell it for you?" and so on .... you get the idea.
Anyway the line that re-enforced his credentials and reminds us all why estate agents are not universally popular was "Are you the cleaner?". Mrs APD is not one to take offence but enjoyed the retorting "No I'm the owner" before closing the door.
No victoria sponge for him.
