I put our 1930's 3 bed bung 'on the market' in Sept. last year for £325k with the top estate agent in Cornwall (Lillicrap Chilcott)
My thinking was that although they charged the top commission of 2.5%, if they get me a better price than Joe Bloggs, I'll be quids in.
Two months down the line and no offers, and not many viewings either, so I had a conflab with Lillicrap and they had the exact figures for the amount of times people had viewed my property on-line + how many people had actually downloaded the full details and - it wasn't looking too special, so - I agreed to reduce the price to £295k - a £30k reduction!
A large chunk of wedge yes, but - I didn't rate the property much above say £265k really as that is what I paid for it 4.5 years ago, and prices have dropped a tad since then, so I was more-than happy with an asking price of £295k,knowing that a similar property a few doors along went for ... £235k!!
Anyway, that brought the punters in alright and within a few weeks or so we had an offer from a Mr & Mrs Purchase (I kid you not)
£285k, and I was quite happy with that figure + they wanted to complete ASAP which suited us OK, then comes the dreaded survey!!
They had a full buildings survey carried and I was informed it would take him 4 hours (OMG!)
Now, I knew that this (that) bungalow had been built with what is known down these parts as Mundic block www.maywhetter.co.uk/mundicblock.aspx
but a previous owner had had a mundic survey carried out and it was found to be what is classed as A/B which is not ideal but is mortgageable where as I know of various properties that were purchased without a survey and which are un-mortgageable and usually sold for cash and often pulled down and rebuilt, often as flats.
To add to that, the roof tiles were made by using about 10% Asbestos (back then) AND the original ceilings would have been Asbestos as well (hehe!)
Previous owners had replaced most of the ceilings with plasterboard or just had them plastered in 2 cases, but you could still see Asbestos in where the electric meter was, and where the boiler lived, it didn't bother me though, it wasn't as if it was blue Asbestos + the blimmin stuff is OK if left alone, anyway - along comes the surveyor and for the 1st hour of his 4 hour stint we talk about (you guessed it) cars but - he was very thorough and came up with 'issues' even I didn't know about (minor) but he also missed a few things that I did know about.
I managed to get hold of a copy of the survey (don't ask!) and it was quite dire really, so - Mr & Mrs Purchase came along to discuss 'the issues' with me in person, I gave them the full facts of what I knew including stuff that their surveyor had missed, and ... they were still on board Re: buying the place, AND the property we had decided to buy was still within our reach.
www.flickr.com/photos/43576259@N04/5799455624/
We agreed on a date for completion which was the 16th of April but when we drew close to exchange of contracts, things started to go quite wrong, the buyers of the buyers of Mr & Mrs Purchases property had a problem, and although there was in place what Solicitors call a release for the exchange of cons to take place - it didn't.
No one knew what the problem was, including my wife who works for the Solicitors that do our conveyenceing (for free), Mr & Mrs Purchase had gorn or to the Isles of Scilly, and I had resigned myself that 'it' just wasn't gonna happen.
Eventually of course 'it' did happen and I had to rush around sorting out the utilities, phone, bb, removals etc., etc. as it was just 2 weeks to completion, I phoned a half decent removal Co. but they were fully booked, so I got a local chap to do the job with his Luton Merc sprinter which I (quite rightly) thought wasn't up to the job, so I hired a long wheelbase VW LT which once you get used to the gearbox, is a blinder of a van with a delightful engine.
We moved on the 21st of April in glorious sunny weather, I loaded up the LT virtually single handed so I can't be ready for the bone yard just yet!, we had no phone line for weeks and no bb for even longer, but hey ho - we were in the cottage, so all was OK with the world.
I didn't have a survey carried out on the cottage as I could see it had undergone restoration + an extension added in the last 4 years, but I would recommend anyone without my knowledge and experience of buying property - to always employ the services of a local surveyor, or an experienced builder.
Well, we've been here 6 weeks already, no problems (so far), the cottage being made of stone (granite) is quite cool inside but I'm reliably informed that it will be cosy come the next ice age, once I fire up the multi-fuel stove.
We only have one neighbour Betty who has farmed here for the last 40 years, so it's very quiet and peaceful (apart for the Lambs!) and it's a cottage so we have to go upstairs to bed for the first time in 19 years!
The bird table right outside attracts collared doves, jays, woodpecker, goldfinch, and I am forever having to chase orf the blimmin squirrels, I've sent Milo the Ridgeback out there after them a few times, but he has got no chance!
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Woof, woof woof, woof-woof - Zero
