veronica
24th May 2005, 12:02 AM
I'm not too keen to bore everyone on the forum (and beyond) with too many personal details but just want to tell our house sale saga.
We left the UK just over a year ago, leaving our youngest daughter the daunting task of clearing up 15 years of belongings and decorating the house. The haste we left in was because we were shutting down a ski business in the UK and trying to get the stock here in time to get premises and open up in NZ for the winter here. :exit Time frame end of April til begining of June
She did a sterling job :clap and after a few weeks the house went on the market. after about a month we got an offer, not unreasonably far from the asking price and only a chain of 4....things were set in hand. 6 weeks down the line and our buyers, buyers sale collapsed, :eek could we please give him a couple of weeks to find another buyer, one found but he had to reduce the price, could we help him out. :uhoh ok we agreed to drop a few grand. 8 weeks down the line and the same thing happened, :eek :eek by this time we had dropped 10k but all was on line to complete the end October. one week before completion and it all went pearshaped and we weren't prepared to drop a further £17k and to be fair neither was our buyer. So that was that at the worst time of the year for the house market and us all those miles away. :wah
By this time we had bought for the business out here (2 houses for the backpackers) and were suddenly finding the money for 3 mortgages. Not a lot of fun. :no Well early Feb. I had to go home and there were a few interested parties coming out of hibernation so while I was there maybe 4 or 5 people drifted through but nothing really happened. Then the original buyer made an offer which was a lot lower than before so we said nothing doing, he then made an even lower offer (go figure) :? so it was a case of no thanks again. then there was a real flurry of interest from quite a few viewers and another offer made very close to the asking price, BUT they hadn't got their house on the market yet.......
Meanwhile, you've guessed it the original buyers upped their offer to what had been agreed last year and were really keen to buy it. We stalled as long as we could but eventually said that they could progress the legal side if they chose to but we were leaving it on the market. A couple of weeks before they were in a position to exchange, beginning of May we got a cash offer within 2 k of the asking price and a request to complete by the end of May.
Contracts were exchanged last Friday (I had a mild celebration by myself here in chch not in proportion to the relief I felt though) and Pete is over in the UK at the moment finishing off emptying the house and getting all our stuff in the container and Kerrys stuff to a temp accomodation in our village. I don't envy he and Kerry the task, I know how much stuff there was there. I haven't a clue what they have thrown and what they are bringing out but in the grand scheme of things its not really an issue.
I really feel bad about making our youngest homeless and can't wait til she gets out here in a year or so's time. :yes :yes She has been a real star and worked her butt off through a very stressful phase of her personal life for us and we owe her big time.
The whole time this was happening you were all giving your house sale stories but I was too superstitious to mention it just in case it jinxed it. now the sale has gone past exchange of contracts and is due to complete 31st I feel secure enough to say it....So all of you out there in house selling limbo, things do happen and the mythical cash buyers do exist. (shame about the exchange rate)
We left the UK just over a year ago, leaving our youngest daughter the daunting task of clearing up 15 years of belongings and decorating the house. The haste we left in was because we were shutting down a ski business in the UK and trying to get the stock here in time to get premises and open up in NZ for the winter here. :exit Time frame end of April til begining of June
She did a sterling job :clap and after a few weeks the house went on the market. after about a month we got an offer, not unreasonably far from the asking price and only a chain of 4....things were set in hand. 6 weeks down the line and our buyers, buyers sale collapsed, :eek could we please give him a couple of weeks to find another buyer, one found but he had to reduce the price, could we help him out. :uhoh ok we agreed to drop a few grand. 8 weeks down the line and the same thing happened, :eek :eek by this time we had dropped 10k but all was on line to complete the end October. one week before completion and it all went pearshaped and we weren't prepared to drop a further £17k and to be fair neither was our buyer. So that was that at the worst time of the year for the house market and us all those miles away. :wah
By this time we had bought for the business out here (2 houses for the backpackers) and were suddenly finding the money for 3 mortgages. Not a lot of fun. :no Well early Feb. I had to go home and there were a few interested parties coming out of hibernation so while I was there maybe 4 or 5 people drifted through but nothing really happened. Then the original buyer made an offer which was a lot lower than before so we said nothing doing, he then made an even lower offer (go figure) :? so it was a case of no thanks again. then there was a real flurry of interest from quite a few viewers and another offer made very close to the asking price, BUT they hadn't got their house on the market yet.......
Meanwhile, you've guessed it the original buyers upped their offer to what had been agreed last year and were really keen to buy it. We stalled as long as we could but eventually said that they could progress the legal side if they chose to but we were leaving it on the market. A couple of weeks before they were in a position to exchange, beginning of May we got a cash offer within 2 k of the asking price and a request to complete by the end of May.
Contracts were exchanged last Friday (I had a mild celebration by myself here in chch not in proportion to the relief I felt though) and Pete is over in the UK at the moment finishing off emptying the house and getting all our stuff in the container and Kerrys stuff to a temp accomodation in our village. I don't envy he and Kerry the task, I know how much stuff there was there. I haven't a clue what they have thrown and what they are bringing out but in the grand scheme of things its not really an issue.
I really feel bad about making our youngest homeless and can't wait til she gets out here in a year or so's time. :yes :yes She has been a real star and worked her butt off through a very stressful phase of her personal life for us and we owe her big time.
The whole time this was happening you were all giving your house sale stories but I was too superstitious to mention it just in case it jinxed it. now the sale has gone past exchange of contracts and is due to complete 31st I feel secure enough to say it....So all of you out there in house selling limbo, things do happen and the mythical cash buyers do exist. (shame about the exchange rate)