My husband (boyfriend at the time) decided he was fed up of renting and wanted to buy somewhere, we hadn’t been together long, just a few months, but i decided to buy with him. So of to the bank we went, no problems there, then off to the estate agents, again no problems. Two house viewings later we found the one we wanted and made an offer. In under 3 months we were in the house. Very straight-forward.
That was 8 years ago and we are still in the same house. Whilst we both love this house, and everything it represents, we have outgrown it and have been trying to move for sometime now.
We initially put the house on the market at the end of 2010 with estate agent number 1, we priced the house at a lower value than they suggested as their valulation was so far above the others in our area. We were on with them for 12 weeks and didn’t have 1 viewing.
After 12 weeks we changed to Estate Agent number 2, they did get us the odd viewing but not much and when we asked for feedback from the viewings they were very generalised, which was no help at all. We stayed with them for 5 months before taking the house off the market as i was then pregnant. So we decided to wait until after the baby was born.
Fast forward 8 months, our daughter was born and was then 4 months old, so we took the plunge and went back on the market. We felt positive as in this time we had a lot of work done to our house including a new kitchen and various pieces of decoration and updating. We went with Estate Agent number 3 this time. We had a number of viewings with them but didn’t get any offers.
We even had a few second viewings, but more annoyingly with these the viewers didn’t even provide any feedback!!So after 12 weeks we added Estate Agent number 4 to the mix……..the more the merrier right? And we figured it would provide a little healthy competition. Really we were just desperate to sell!!
Our desire to move had only increased since our daughter was born, as my husband works an hour away and being at home for 12 hours a day just me and baby is draining without any help. And my husband really wants to see our daughter more during the week as he loves spending time with her. So the pressure was on for us and every day that ticked by without a sale was excrutiating!!
At this point Estate Agent number 2 contacted us and asked if we wanted them to also market our property, so in our hazy, desperate state we agreed and so we were on the market with 3 estate agents! crikey!!!
The viewings flooded in and each one meant i had to tidy the house and then me and our baby girl had to make ourselves scarce for the agent and viewers to wander through our home. Exhausting!
But ultimately worth it. After just a few weeks Estate Agent 2 got us an offer for just under the asking price which we eagerly accepted. Yes i know…..we didn’t even haggle!! Normally i would, but it was a fair offer and there was no way on earth we would risk losing the buyers!!!
So all’s well that ends well.
We were on the market for 5 months and had countless viewings. Frustrating. But house selling always is i hear. But what was more frustrating was the incompetence of the agents! Each one was just as bad as the other. Turning up late for viewings so that the viewers were just stood around waiting, not knowing the details of the house despite having a set of particulars, not following up with us about anything! I can’t count the number of times i heard a viewer ask if there was parking and the agent say “i’m really not sure” when we had told them over and over there was a garage and a parking space! I thought Estate Agents were sales people, but not once did i hear them try to sell the house, just guide viewers from room to room with a cursory “this is the bathroom” i’m so glad we are paying them all that money to state the obvious!!
I cannot wait for this house sale to complete so i can get my sanity back again!!
The purchase of our new house is a whole other story…………….
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