In Praise Of Our Estate Agent

As the dust settles and we wake up at a motorway service station on the first day of our new life we’ve time to reflect on the events of the past couple of months.

It’s just 76 days –only eleven weeks – since we arrived back from the caravan to find Karen Potter’s For Sale board outside and, in the current housing market, that has to be something of an achievement.

They say that selling houses is a matter of the 3Ps – Price, Preparation and Presentation and we followed that philosophy with a vengeance with the Preparation involving researching what had been happening in the local housing market of late and which agents were selling the most houses. A few years ago For Sale boards around our area were rare sights and went down almost as quickly as they went up; but over the last couple of years they have been going up and staying up resulting in a forest of boards around Churchtown and very much a buyers’ market.

Preparation involves Presentation. We paid a handyman to tidy up all those little jobs we meant to get around to. He came and re-grouted tired tiling, he fitted brand new taps in the kitchen and cloakroom, he repainted a couple of rooms, he repaired a damaged front door (first impressions matter) and worked for us for about a week. Marion bought new towels for bathrooms and specimen plants for the porch and conservatory to create a wow factor. We bought new external lights to fit by the front door and colourful new kitchen storage jars and a coffee machine to brighten things up. We de-cluttered by removing most of the family photos to make the house neutral.

As further Preparation we needed to research prices and, using Zoopla, RightMove and many other sites we checked out asking prices and sold prices over the past few years. It was scary as, not only were asking prices way down on their peak, the number of houses sold in our price bracket was miniscule – we realised we were facing a challenge.

So now we were all set to choose an agent. We drove around the area to see what names where cropping up on the rare SOLD estate agents’ boards; and one name kept cropping up regularly – Karen Potter.

We then looked at the quality of all the local agents’ websites and narrowed it down to three. Karen Potter was in the three so not only did she have the most SOLD signs but also had one of the top three websites. We asked all three agents to visit. They all loved the house (and though I say it myself, it is a lovely house) and they were all keen to sell it. Two agents were convinced that they could sell it easily; Karen was realistic and felt that, whilst it was a great property, we had to understand the market. Three valuations duly followed. Before they arrived Marion and I had come up with our own price. Karen’s valuation matched ours. The others were £10,000 and £25,000 higher. None came close to recovering what we had spent on it but we spent it to enjoy the house not as an investment.

When you have the chance to receive an extra £25,000 there’s always a temptation to run with it but we’d bought a property in Suffolk and didn’t want to be stuck with two and, however confident that agent was, we didn’t see many of his SOLD boards around.

So we gave the sale to Karen Potter and I have to say that we were extremely pleased with the results. She took over what seemed like a hundred photos and included plenty of them in the selling particulars. She was extremely professional in her presentation and (a very nice touch I thought) sent around her sales team to get to know what they were selling.

But it’s a buyers market and buyers are thin on the ground. We’ve spoken to sellers who have told us they’ve had just a couple of viewings in a year and we didn’t expect a flood. But we did get a trickle and, while we were away at the caravan in May, one of Karen’s team showed our eventual buyers around and the rest, as they say, is now history.

I can’t praise Karen Potter and her team of efficient young women enough. They presented the property well, they followed up every viewing with feedback, they contacted us every week to discuss progress, they showed people around the house and sold it, they were there to act as go-betweens when we had some trivial legal snags holding things up and were even there for a sympathetic hug when I handed the keys in having left our lovely house for the very last time.

If you’re selling in Southport you really don’t need to look anywhere else.

And We're Off

Well, almost. We've one more night here in Southport before we begin four months as nomads and have just booked our first (of no doubt many) night in a Days Inn on the M6 and five nights in a Premier Inn near Ipswich. I know they aren't the most exciting places for us to stay but we've got to be sensible about the budget and the cost of every night spent in a hotel could pay for something at the new house. In honesty both the places we have chosen have good write ups on Trip Advisor and if that life was good enough for Alan Partridge it will be good enough for us.


The removal men reckon that they will have finished by lunch time tomorrow. That will leave us an hour to do a final tidy and clean before we hit the road with the car laden down with everything we might need for the next three weeks - after Ipswich we've an unknown stay in Rochester for the anticipated arrival of our second grandchild. After that it will be a return to a sort of normality with a period in the caravan in St Andrews.


We've just got back from a week there. Unfortunately it rained almost constantly so we were unable to get out and about on the bikes but we did enjoy the week. We celebrated our first granddaughter Rose's first birthday with a super trip to Edinburgh where we stayed at Tigerlily - our room was almost as big as the ground floor in the new house. On Friday we visited the wonderful Taste Edinburgh. This was a brilliant show and we were able to sample some fantastic food from some of the best restaurants in the city. My favourite was the desert from Chez Roux - a wonderful bread and butter pudding style of sweet that was one of the nicest things I've ever tasted. What a tragedy for the organisers (and exhibitors) that the weather caused the cancellation of the final two days of the event as it was a truly excellent show.

Just part of the suite at Tigerlily

Sarah, Duncan and Rose enjoy a taste of Edinburgh

Taste turned out to be a good show for wellie sellers

After Taste we headed back to St Andrews for Rose's birthday party on Sunday.

We helped Sarah to put on a lovely spread for family and friends.

Sarah made Rose's super Very Hungry Caterpillar cake.

It's hard to believe that she's one already.

That's all for now. WIFI permitting I hope to keep updating the blog with our big adventure as it develops.
 

We've Sold The House

I suppose that if you've read our accounts of packing on this blog over the last couple of weeks it will hardly come as a surprise to you to hear that we've sold the house. When we put it up for sale I said that I wasn't going to report how things were going on here as I didn't want to risk jeopardising the position; after all, it's not over until the fat lady sings (or in this case exchanges contracts). And, although we found a buyer four or five weeks ago, the fat lady took a long time to arrive on stage.

We had an offer for the full asking price on the day that the house went up for sale. But the buyers had not sold their own house and we had to decline. Over the next couple of weeks we showed three more couples around and they all made very positive noises and clearly liked the house but maybe I'm not too expert a salesman in pointing out the one or two minor flaws instead of concentrating on the hundreds of positives in the property and it was the first time that the estate agents showed the house while we were away that our buyers' offer came. 

The buyers were perfect for us having sold their own home and moved in with parents so we were not faced with the horrors of "the chain". And, as we have bought a house and have no upwards chain, we were also the perfect sellers for them. We agreed to move out - although that means living in the caravan until November - and the deal was done and dusted.

And, if it were not for the black art that is the world of conveyancing, things could have moved quickly. We responded to all the enquiries immediately and were ready to exchange contracts two weeks ago but then, as late as this Monday, the buyers' solicitor raised five enquiries. Why did this take so long? The enquiries were simple to answer but one related to restrictive covenants that were placed on the property in 1930 and under which we had to have permission to carry out some alterations. We researched these thoroughly fifteen years ago and the owner of the covenants told us that they were no longer interested in them but now, within 24 hours of the planned exchange, we had to sort it out. Being hundreds of miles away and with virtually no mobile reception and WIFI that works at less than a snail's pace we had no option but to grant an insurance indemnity at a cost of £218. If the enquiry had been raised two weeks ago we could have saved that money.

We were desperate to exchange as we were being asked for a firm booking from the removal company and, as we are giving most of our furniture to Paul and Josephine who are also moving next week, we didn't want to let them down and leave them with none of the things we'd promised them.

We were finally all set to exchange yesterday morning having agreed to the insurance. We decided to go to the pictures and see the new Spiderman movie. I switched on the phone after the film expecting a message to say it was a done deal but instead had an enquiry about whether the lounge curtains and pole were still for sale. As we offered these four weeks ago but heard nothing we got a man in last Friday to take the (very expensive hence getting a man in) pole down - now we've got to put it back up again.

Oh well. It's all done now. The removal van arrives on Tuesday and we're off to Framlingham to try and sort out a builder (or Rochester if Paul and Josephine's baby decides to make an early appearance). Poor Marion feels like she's been to hell and back again. People do say that moving house is one of the most stressful events in life. If it wasn't for our peculiar system I think it would be much simpler and far more relaxing. Let's hope we don't have to do it again.

Packing Up Is Hard To Do

It was just four years ago this week that our loft conversion was completed. It's a lovely room with a fabulous en suite bathroom and great views over the garden. But we're moving on and, as we started our packing at the top of the house it was the first to get the full treatment.

Here's how it looks today now that Paul and Sarah have told us which of the boxes in the attic they want to keep and which are to go into store. We were able to empty all of the cupboards beneath the eaves and put everything into about twenty boxes ready for the removal men. We'll miss this room;  at the top of the house it was a safe haven and we used it as a guest room and sometimes for ourselves as a cosy weekend retreat.

We found Sarah's favourite Poochie and Rag Doll up in the attic and, after a quick session in the washing machine, they're all set for the trek up to St Andrews after twenty odd years here in Southport. Paul's guitar and amp are all set for the trip to Rochester (God help his new neighbours) and today we got all our patio pots together ready for the journey to Framlingham.

We're likely to be homeless for up to five months and everything is going into store but the removal firm have no facilities for looking after plants and, as we've got a huge collection (this is less than half), we've arranged for a gardener to tend for them in Suffolk until we get there. It's costing over £300 to ship them there but the alternative is to lose them all and start again from scratch which is not an attractive prospect.


We've arranged for the conservatory here to be decorated before we leave; it was one of just two things that really needed doing and we don't want to leave the new owners with anything that looks less than immaculate. But it's been a hell of a job arranging it. The weather has kept putting the decorators off but finally, yesterday, the scaffolders arrived and erected the scaffolding in preparation for the painting. Just one problem. When I got home they'd left. They'd erected it in the wrong place - an area that doesn't need decorating and now they can't get back for a couple more days. This job seems to be fated and it's annoying that doing something at our own expense for which we'll see no benefit has caused so many problems. The second job is to re-grout some tiles and that's all in hand for next week. Our timetable has us completing the packing by then so maybe, just maybe, I'll get a chance to get out with the metal detector before we leave. 


It's twenty three years since we last moved and this last twenty three years has been the most active phase of our lives with the children growing up. So consequently we've got so much more stuff than we ever had in the past and packing it has involved planning with military precision. It's a good job that Marion is so well organised. We've got a timetable written down that covers every day now for the next two weeks. So far we're sticking to it precisely. Let's hope that everything continues to run smoothly.

A Flying Visit To Glasgow

We're clocking up more miles on the Prius tomorrow when we take Sarah to Glasgow to apply for a passport for Rose. When I bought the car I optimistically told the lease company that I expected to drive ten thousand miles a year but somehow after just twenty eight months I've managed to clock up almost forty thousand. At least when we move to Suffolk it might calm down a bit (hang on Framlingham's about three hundred kilometers further from St Andrews than Southport is). Anyway, our emergency trip came about because Sarah and Duncan were planning a last minute holiday when the penny dropped that a certain little person didn't have a passport. So Sarah managed to get a fast track appointment at the Glasgow Passport Office and hopefully the holiday can go ahead.

We treated ourselves to a trip to the cinema in Dundee today. We went to see Pirates In An Adventure With Scientists and for the very first time we had the whole screen completely to ourselves. The Odeon in Dundee is an enormous multiplex so it was a bit strange having a private screening. We both loved the film; it's full of all the little observations we've grown to expect from Ardman and, with a nostalgic 80's soundtrack, it's got something to please children of all ages (even late fifties).
  

Our home from home at Craigtoun Meadows in St Andrews is looking a lot more crowded now.

Here's how the site looked from our caravan a few months ago. If you compare with the previous photo you can see that the empty plots opposite ours are now full but we can't grumble as we always knew that was going to happen. On a positive note, the other owners are mostly weekenders who start to arrive in small numbers on Thursday evenings, in larger numbers on Fridays and then depart on Sundays so we get the best part of four days with things completely to ourselves and only have neighbours for the weekend.  It's been a pretty wet week so far but it's been a very relaxing wet week.

Meanwhile our proper home went on the market today. If you are looking for a wonderful family home in Southport look no further. We've been there for almost twenty three years and love our house so it was hardly surprising that Marion shed a few tears as she clicked on the estate agent's details click here.  It will be a huge wrench leaving the house (if we sell it that is) but what's the point of two old codgers rattling around in a five bedroomed house? There comes to a point in life when it's time to move on. Let's hope that we've got that timing right.

Blogging Again

Readers may have noticed that it's been very quiet here on my blog lately. The death of a loved one certainly knocks the stuffing out of you and I'm glad that most of us only have to experience it just a handful of times in a lifetime. It only seems five minutes ago that we were at Flo's bedside but well over two weeks have passed and yesterday was a culmination of those seventeen days as we went to Mortlake Crematorium and scattered her ashes in the rose garden where we scattered those of her husband Doug and where the same was done with other family members. Seeing a remaining pile of dust certainly drove home the significance of 'dust to dust' - it was an extremely moving moment.

We cobbled together this montage of photo's from her lifetime and used it on the printed order of service. If you click on it and look at the images I think that it captures the essence of Flo's love of life and overall genial disposition. We held a reception in her memory for her London family at the Richmond Hill hotel. It was similar to the one we held at the Ramada here in Southport and, although one can never forget the reason for being at a wake, it was a happy experience rather than a gloomy one. Once again we made use of the hotel's facilities and, after converting them to digital, we projected old cine films and photos of Flo's life onto a plasma screen. These caused so many happy memories to flood back to the family in the room and the conversation flowed.

I picked up a few more stories about Flo's life. Although her straightening of the Eiffel Tower will always remain the abiding memory for me, her sister-in-law Maureeen told me that when Flo and Doug lived with the family in Richmond, Maureen and Doug's mother had just one heirloom - a hand painted antique glass rolling pin brought home from the Boer war by an ancestor. This was dearly treasured. It hung on a wall and young Flo was under strict instructions not to touch it. However, Flo couldn't put up with a bit of dust or a cobweb that she spotted on the pin and ignored the family's wishes. No prizes for guessing what happened next and the ensuing crash brought family rushing from all corners of the house to find Flo standing amongst the shattered remains. "Didn't it make a noise!" she said.

    
As a diversion from the sorrow, I've been enjoying playing Words With Friends on the phone with some old work colleagues. I've been playing random opponents for a fair few months now and have to say that I've done pretty well with just three defeats until this week. But I seem to have met my match with Craig and Jenny from Instanta. It's worse than playing my computer at Scrabble. Every time I think I've come up with a killer word, they'll come back with something I've never heard of and worth at least fifty points - brainy pair! It's good to play a real person though. Whilst all the random games have been against "real" people, they could be anybody and I much prefer playing against someone I know, although if I keep losing like this I may change that opinion.

We've done it. The house is up for sale. We chose Karen Potter to sell it for us. We asked three estate agents to come and value it for us. They came up with prices with a spread of £25,000 which means that they were all within 5% of each other and, more importantly, within a few thousand pounds of what we thought the house was worth. We decided to choose Karen because we liked her website, had recommendations from a friend and she created the best impression. We sold our previous three houses on day one - watch this space.