Viewing Thread:
"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?

----

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 :)

If you don't count moving with parents I've only moved once from a rented house into buying my own and to tell you the truth I hated every minute of it.

Too many different people and they all need to work together and do their jobs before someone else can do theirs etc and the amount of delays and broken promises was unbelievable.

We eventually completed 3 months late which was only 2 weeks before the mortgage offer ran out so it was getting quite stressful towards the end.

Although it is worth it all in the end - don't want to put anyone off!

Oh dear, either my big post put everyone off or no one has ever moved before :(

My girlfriend said she's moved a lot, most of her life infact. 11 times I think she said. That's just too much, you can't get attached to a place if you're only there a few months or years.

This house is 103 years old and we've only lived in it for 26 of those years. So that means this house was home to many other people in the last 77 years.

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?

----

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 :)