Diary of a house buyer - and seller  Part VI, September 2012

4 September: Just returned from an afternoon walk at Oldway Mansion (http://www.torquay.com/attractions/ oldway-mansion-paignton) to see a BT van in the drive, someone come to check our line – with no advance notice!  There seems to be a problem with the line so therefore they’ll be unable to connect us on 6 September.

6 September: Another operative from BT came, said the line had been mended, so now we could be connected up.  But that we weren’t to use the phone/internet for several hours.

7 September: At last we have phone/internet!   Now we need to tell everybody and seek some sort of compensation from Talktalk for the extra costs involved.

13 September: Just returned from Derby where we saw two bungalows which could be suitable.  We were looking as the house we were originally to move into has had an offer, but not too much as no point in looking to be disappointed.  

We were lucky to be able sell on the house survey which we’d paid for, for just over half price, which recoups some of the money expended on the house - and lucky for the new purchasers.   Perhaps in the long run it'll be better as we'd really rather have a bungalow than a house - easier maintenance.

The good news is that our new bed  (it was to be new house/new bed!) has arrived and it's magic.  It has controllers on both sides of the bed and the mattresses can be raised and lowered, either separately - or together.  I just hope I don't get sandwiched in the middle!


15 September: No more viewers, despite the house having a big spread in the local paper last week.  Sounds like we are definitely back to square one - but at least we now have a (comparatively) tidy, minimalist house.  I'm keen to do more unpacking and sorting, once the weather deteriorates.  

In the meantime, it's a lovely Indian summer, so the solar panels are doing us proud.  The end of this month will be exactly a year since they were fitted so we'll be able to see how much benefit they've been.  We have had a reduction in electricity bills (although haven't noticed much as the cost of fuel has increased astronomically) but by the looks of things we may be on target for as much as £1,600 in feedback tariff - not a bad return on the original investment of £13,770 made last year.  It's a pity that potential buyers don't realise that this amount of money is guaranteed (tax free) for the next 24 years.

20 September:  Today we had some viewers, a young couple who are very busy, so can only look at prospective properties at weekends.  They're looking at about ten houses every weekend until they find somewhere suitable.  This must be quite boggling (did that last house have a sunny garden - or was that the one with the pokey loft?).  However, the upshot was that they wanted a more 'useable' garden, somewhere safe where the children could play and didn't feel that our garden fitted that category.  I agree totally as it's so important to have a child-friendly garden.

28 September:  Today it's exactly one year since the solar panels were fitted and we have made £1,604.25 profit - plus the reduction in electricity costs over that period.  This scheme was certainly worthwhile.

29 September: Still awaiting the compensation from Talktalk for loss of service for nearly six weeks which, it was promised would arrive by yesterday.

Diary of a house seller and buyer - Part V August 2012 (note I've started putting the year, in case we run on into 2013!)

4 August: Apparently there may be another person who’s interested in another property near here, a very similar one but with a bigger garden, and that one’s already under offer.  So perhaps a chance here.  If so, will be likely to have heard from our Agent by the 7^th or 8^th .  Fingers crossed.

7^th August: Haven’t heard from anyone, except from the Agent of the house we wanted to buy, to confirm that we would not in a position to go ahead.  Apparently the vendor is to rent out the property again for six months, whilst keeping it on the market, so fingers crossed.

8^th August: As we haven’t heard, we’ve decided to put away all the boxes and tidy up in case the Agent brings anyone round to view.  We think it would be a good idea to rent out the rooms on our ground floor, on a short let, until we’ve sold properly.  What a lot of work!

9 August:  The garden’s a jungle, probably because of the weeks of torrential rain we’ve had, so no chance to get out there and weed.  And also the lovely sunny weather we have now has encouraged the plants – and the weeds – even more as they have lovely damp feet..  It’s amazing how much convolvulus there is, although probably no more than usual, it’s just that I haven’t been on top of the job.

10 August:  Our agent visited today, naturally laid most of the blame at our solicitor’s door, which may or may not be correct. But we’ve resolved to pester everyone more next time – both agents and solicitors – and also to move out as soon as we’ve sold.  The people who could have been interested in this house have chosen the other one which they viewed, well at least that takes on more off the market and gives us more chance to sell.

The agent suggested that we limit any packed boxes to one, or at the most two, rooms, leaving the kitchens and bathrooms as free as possible.  The thinking behind this is that kitchens and bathrooms have fixtures which will be staying so it gives buyers more idea of what those rooms will look like.

11 August:  I’ve unpacked most of my craft stuff and set up a craft room, it’s great!  David’s unpacked his tools up in his shed, so he’s happy too.  I’ve also been sorting through boxes as they’ve been unpacked and got rid of more stuff, so that’ll save time when we do eventually sell again.

16 August: Our phone should have been reconnected today, having had no phone/internet for over two weeks – and guess what? Nothing happened!  So rang up talktalk and apparently we have to start all over again and apply for a new number.  To access this information has taken nearly two hours of telephone calls, explaining the same thing over and over again.  …. Will be new telephone will be installed in three weeks’ time.  This has severely curtailed my internet use!

17 August: House was in local paper again today and produced one interested party.  They are to view on Monday – help! – the place needs cleaning and tidying.  How do we manage to make the place such a mess?

20 August: Well, what a hard two and a half days’ work! -  but the place has been transformed.  We won’t need to clean again for ages.  The viewers came, loved the house and found it very suitable for their needs.

21 August:  A low offer has been received which we rejected, this was increased slightly but it’s still too low, so now it’s back with the agent, seeing if he can encourage the proposed purchaser to make more money available.    

In the interim, we found a house many weeks ago which looked very suitable but was far too expensive.  It’s now come down in price – still too much – but we could make an offer.  Just to see if it’s in the frame, I’m going up to Derby to view it and then perhaps make an offer and see how much will be accepted.

22 August: Offer withdrawn as prospective buyer’s buyer has pulled out, as he’s not happy with the state of their garage wall.

So back to square one again…

I popped in to see the agent today, to explain about the benefits of the solar panels.  He thinks we should lower our asking price – even if we’re not prepared to accept much less, which is certainly worth thinking about. 

24 August: We have the chance of some good tenants for downstairs.  She works full time and he would only be here at the weekend.  This sounds good.  The downside is that we’ve got rid of so much stuff, so we’re now going through our (already packed) boxes to see what we have which could be used to equip the downstairs accommodation.  So we’ve been busy unpacking, sorting and … stuff.  Hard work.  All the empty boxes are to be flat packed and stored in the attic spaces, although we’ve decided not to put any other things in the attics or they’ll just multiply and end up being more work later.

25 August: Our new bed’s coming in two weeks – yippee!  Then we can put our bed downstairs for the new people.

Had another viewer, a distinct possibility but they haven't yet put their house on the market, in which case they could be many months!

The saga of the new telephone continues, with a letter just received giving out bank details, ready to set up the direct debit – but it’s in the wrong name! – if the bank is approached with those details it’ll hold up it’s hand in horror and refuse to honour the request.  This is very strange as we’ve been with Talktalk for over eight years, so you’d think they’d have copied our former details onto the new contract!

Solar Electricity for newbys

My mother in law has just had solar panels fitted to her roof - at the age of 91. 

This set us thinking that perhaps, having a large house with commensurate high bills (electricity bill is about £1,200 a year) and a good-sized WSW facing roof we are likely to benefit considerably from having some installed, so we are investigating.

A friend recommended the Energy Saving Trust as a good starting point: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/

On this site it says that for specific questions contact the Renewable Energy Association: http://www.r-e-a.net/

16/8/11

We've found this site to enable us to compare the various panels on offer, which we've consulted and found very useful:

http://www.solardesigntool.com/compare-solar-panels-modules.html

September: We've now ordered a 16 panel system, paid the deposit and had the survey done -  will let you know how it pans out.  It's due to be fitted in about two weeks time.


22.9.11: The panels have arrived, they're pretty big and are scheduled to be installed next week, fingers crossed.