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"Moving house for the first time"

Sorry for such a long post, if you like, please add your comments and experiences with selling a house and/or moving house. Did you do much of it growing up? What was it like for you?

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In 1979 after finding out they were going to have a second child, my parents decided it was time they left Worcester and find a bigger house in a more suitable area to raise a family.

My mum grew up in Tewkesbury and my dad was from Kidderminster, they bought their house in Worcester with my dads savings and ended up making a nice profit. They had their hearts set on returning to Tewkesbury and while visiting my grandparents they noticed one of the semis next door was for sale. He knocked on the door to enquire, not long after they were moving in.

It's a big house, about 103 years old. Stands out well from the other houses in the area which were probably built in the 60ies and 70ies. It's very similiar to my grandparents house, which is far bigger and not a semi. The garden was huge and if you were to put it on the market now would be worth atleast £500-£600,000. To give you an idea how big, the garden now holds 2 block of flats and the house is now home to people with disabilities and their carers.

Our house has 4 large double bedrooms, 2 living rooms, a dining room, a 3 room basement, a driveway for 6 cars (most houses round here turn their front garden into a drive) and a garden 44m by 9m long. Yep it was quite a good house. Can you imagine they only paid £29,500 for it 26 years ago? If only houses cost that much today.

The second child I mentioned earlier was me, and 2 years later my little brother came along. I have so many memories of this house. Playing football in the garden, playing hide and seek all around the house, throwing little army men with plastic bags as parachutes out my bedroom window. Yes it was great growing up in this house. But I always wondered what it would be like if we moved.

That day has finally arrived, it's been several years since my dad passed away because of lung cancer (that's a topic on it's own) and we are finally moving out. Unfortunately with us boys leaving home, this house is just far too big for my mum and the cat. So for the last few months I've been cleaning the house, tidying the garden and throwing things away. My god did we collect a lot of rubbish over the last 2 decades. Why on earth would we save so many broken DVD players and hifi systems. So much rubbish that I'm already on my 3rd skip.

We always wondered how much the house was worth and we were a little suprised by some of the estimates we got. The lowest was £240,000 :S that can't be right the house is worth far more than that. The guide price was £275,000 but hoping for atleast £250,000. Soon we started getting people to view the house. lots of people, lots and lots of people. We were getting atleast 3 viewings a day, the estate agents just couldnt cope. We were getting phonecalls to book more viewings while we had several couples already being shown around the house.

Only a week had gone and we got our first offer £250,000. Wow, a nice offer so soon, my mum was pleased. We put them on hold and carried on with the viewings. Soon we got another offer. £265,000 :o even better! Then the other couple came back with £270,000 - hangon it's only been a week and we're already approaching the guide price? Then the other family came back with £275,000!! Blimey, what happened to the £240 estimate? It had only been a week and we were being taken off the market and all viewings were cancelled. The 2 couples fighting over the house had just under a week to put in their highest bid by Monday 12 noon. Ooo this was going to be exciting.

Monday came and we finally had a winner - £281,200. Incredible! Selling houses is easier than I thought, or atleast in our case it was. :) Before we were on the market we heard stories of people still trying to sell their house after 2 months, yet it hadn't even been 2 weeks for us and we were already accepting an offer. Well I'm glad we don't have to keep cleaning the house everyday but I kinda missed doing the viewings. It was as if we had opened our house up to the public. Mum always joked we should have started charging admission. heh

Now that we've accepted an offer what happens now? Well unfortunately a lot of paperwork, more than you can imagine, slow work too. It could be a month or more till we actually move out. Oh we have a new place already, it's actually not far from here and only cost my mum £200,000. So now I just carry on cleaning and throwing things away while my mum sends paperwork back and forth between her the solicitors, the estate agents and everyone else involved.

So this is just the start of it really, still have a lot more to do in this whole moving process but I hope it's going to be as easy as it was selling the house. Maybe I should update this thread as and when things happen. Perhaps even post a few pictures :)

Sorta good news, the other couple that did against the original couple (who have now backed out) are still interested in the house. We've given them 2 weeks to sort themselves out if not then we go back on the market again. It's still at the same price they offered.

The estate agent thinks the reason why the couple backed out and wasted so much money, was because the might have found another place that doesnt involve so much work.

Today was turning out to be a really great day too. The weather was really nice when I went for my walk. I was in a great mood and looked forward to starting my challenged tonight.

Then we get the phonecall telling us the people buying our house have decided to back out. It's stunning really as we were so close to selling the house. We had already started clearing and getting ready to move.

They said they changed their mind because of the survery they had done about 3 weeks ago. But they visited the house just the other day. It's a shame they had to go and do this and mess up everything.

Apparently this is what buying a house in the UK is like. You can change you mind at any time until the very last moment.

Now it seems we'll have to try and sell the house again, which means more viewings. Grrr!

Oh and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you too @ngel :) a nice big house for you and the 3 boys ^^

Yeah I heard that it's quite long, annoying, crazy etc our way of buying and selling houses, the whole process and being able to drop out at the very last minute.

You have a lot of experience moving around Sleepy, suprised you've just moved too. Glad it went well, I hope ours does, well it should as we're just going down the road. :)

We're hoping the couple who bought our house don't drop out and that their building surveyor didn't notice anything too bad about the house. They seem well off and they certainly sounded like they wanted to invest a lot of money into the house and changing it.

They're spending £290,000+ just buying the house off us (including stamp duty), so I hope they'll have enough money to do whatever they plan to do.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you as well. The waiting was probably the worse part of the move. The buyer can pull out at any time. Fortunately he was getting a divorce and didn't have a lot of spare cash. Hmm - that doesn't sound quite like I meant it too....

What I meant was he'd already laid out a far bit of money on the searches so he wasn't going to pull out. He did pop round one Saturday morning to assure us of this fact as his solictors seem to be taking an age to get their paperwork done. He was afraid that we would decide not to sell (we had taken the house off the market hours before he put in his bid) but we assured him that we would be definitely moving.

Ill hopefully (fingers crossed if all goes well). Moving in 6 weeks. House has just sold so waiting for it all to go through. already started enquiring about my new home :) Fingers crossed i hope i get it i really do.

I've moved several times. Three times with parents all within roughly the same area. Bought a house with my sister (and that was a lot of fun) but the numpty up and got herself married so we sold up and I moved back to my parents for a while.

Got married and moved out of parents into our own home which again was in roughly the same area I was raised in.

Eventually was ready to move from there (Rothwell, Leeds) and bought a house where hubby was born (Huddersfield). However we both work in Leeds so he soon got tired of all the travelling on the M62 despite the fact that I do all the driving so last Friday we moved into our new home in Castleford.

It went like a dream, no problems on moving day, removal company turned up on time and just took over shifting all our gear. Picked the keys up on time - that's the main worry, waiting for the money to clear the banking system in good time - and we were in the new house by 2.30 pm.

By 4.00 pm I had rebuilt both beds and plumbed in the washer. Spent most of this week setting up the TV, video etc again and building a new workstation for my computer. Next job is putting the computer back together (tonight) and hopefully having no problems getting back onto the broadband which is already live according to my ISP.

Which only leaves unpacking, sorting and putting into a database (which I haven't yet built) all my books.

From the first house I lived in when I was born to the places I've lived in since only covers about a 3 miles radius.

In fact all my close family apart from 2 of them live in about a 10 mile radius.

Ive moved about alot, it gets so boring moving time after time and im soon going to be moving again. New home, but still same town.

***Started of Living in Bimbrook, lived in the village in a flat. You know a village that knew everyones buisness. Everyone knew each other. I was very young so i dont know much about living there but its where i lived when my dad was still alive.

***Then moved from there too the RAF home in Bimbrook which was on the camp. Much bigger 3 bedroomed house. Fair walk back down to the village to school though, up and down what then is a huge hill. But then when i have been there again looks nothing like a hill. Must have just been me and my little legs.

***Then Lived in Shotley in Ipswich, loved living here a big house 3 bedroomed loved it huge front and rear garden. Again RAF :S But still cant complain.

***Then we moved to be stationed at RAF cottesmore. The only thing worth moving about was the good houses :) Meeting new people although you just dont stick around for to long till you up and move again.

*** Next move was to Grimsby, this time was when we actually bought a home in a Village there. Was great from the minute we moved in it felt like home. Loved the area too, Seen as we bought the home i thought great we wont be moving again... How wrong i was.

*** Next move Germany (Stepdad was stationed at RAF LAARBRUCH)Kicked up such a fuss about moving there. Soon as we got there was the best move i think we ever made. Spent 2 years out there and i loved every minute of it. (while we were there for that 2 years we rented out our home back in grimsby.

***After 2 years we moved back in to are home in grimsby.

***Moved out of there when i was 17 and went to live with partners mum and dad while we were looking for a place to rent (yes rent, never lived with him on my own before so it was just a trial run :)...) Lived there for about a year in the end LOL.

***Then found a place to rent finally. 2 Bedroomed house was ok to start with. Then it wasnt till we lived in there a few months and it reached christmas time we noticed there was alot of damp. The electric bill etc.. was costing us a fortune. We decided then that yeah we could live together but we had to get out.

***Moved back to his parents, I was pregnant when moved back so we were now looking in to buying a home. But by the time my little one was born was still living there, then me and his mum had a huge fall out.

***So moved to my mums for a month or so while paper work was getting sorted and we had to do the whole house out, wallpaers stripped carpets out new in, new windows, central heating put in, decorating etc done in our new 3 bedroomed home.

*** Finally moved in to our home :) was great loved every minute of it. BUt after a few years and another new baby things slowly started going wrong in the relationship. Now the house is up for sale and im ready to move out... and i cant wait....

Im sooooo ready to move.... Just me and my boys!

This is probably going to be the worst bit. Any minute now we're having building surveyors round. I have no idea what they're going to do but it's going to take them 4 hours. What could they possibly do that takes 4 hours? I know they're getting paid lots but I'm not getting paid a penny to sit around and wait for them to finish.