WelcomeIf you are new to Poms In Oz and migrating to Australia or currently living in Australia feel free to say hi to all the other either in or moving to Oz.
We have also had problems selling - put house on market in May and first viewer put in offer. Had left his wife and him and girlfriend wanted to start afresh somewhere new! After 12 weeks decided to go back to wife and so pulled out of purchase. To add insult to injury a neighbour wanted to move to bigger house saw ours was sold and have bought and moved elsewhere - told us that they wanted ours but couldn't do anything as it was sold!!!
Back on market and market is slow! have also had 2 viewers who haven't shown so now have advised Estate Agent that only want people who can proceed to view, we have put house on market £10k under market value and offering £5k cashback on completion - have some viewings this week! Am hoping to sell in time for us to be able to move before Xmas (visa approval permitting)
A friend of mine asked for a £1K non-refundable deposit when selling her house as she had been messed about so much - don't know whether this is going to the extreme though (What do you think???)
Our house is a three bedroom mid terrace - ideal family home, near to a good primary school, close to local shops (incl. hair dresser, beauty salon, dry cleaners etc.). On public transport route and close to bus stops going to nearby cities i.e. London, St. Albans, Watford. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long before the house re-sells, although estate agent has advised that market has slowed down. We have also instructed that we will only accept offers on buyers that are 'ready to go'.
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Sharmaine
Applied Sept 2006
TRA passed Nov 2006
PCC's sent 25 May 2007
Med's sent 31 May 2007
Visa granted 03 July 2007
(House sold 04 June 2007) (House re-sold 30 Aug 2007)
Contracts for House exchanged 09 Oct 2007 - Completion 22 Oct 2007
Tickets booked: South Africa 25/10 then on to OZ 19/11
Living in and loving Adelaide : 20/11/07
Hi guys, we decided to put our house on the market as soon as we got our TRA back which was in May, we knew it would not sell quickly because it is in a small but desirable village and is a large detached. therefore we are looking for buyers who are prepared to pay for this. Having said that 2 in the village have sold so maybe things are on the up. We haven't got our visa yet awaiting CO done everything else so hopefully all will happen soon so we can go as soon as it arrives( fingers crossed). Also reduced it so not much else we can do! Good luck everyone!!
Only had 4 viewings in 3 months, so.....changed agents, dropped price by £10K and......bingo!! Had 4 viewings in the first 3 days that we were on with the new agents at new price!! We've got a 4 bedroom house.
Now we're negotiating. Had offer at £5K less than new price, so just trying to bargain a little more.
My sympathies with anyone else selling. My nerves are completely shot and it's so hard not to let it dwell upon your mind every minute. Could drive a gal crazy
Best of luck everyone.
Rachelx
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Big Stu, Little Rache,
Accepted to study in Melbourne, July 2008.
Confirmation of Enrolment received 26.4.07.
Police Checks requested 06.12.07
Location: From Blackpool Lancashire to Burpengary QLD
Posts: 109
Thanks: 8
Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts
My Mood:
We have had ours on since the end of April, we needed to validate the visas before December so we booked our flights and accomodation, changed agents and the first viewer on Thursday made a offer on Friday and wants to complete in 5 weeks.
We are still going out to validate and look for a house and will be going for good the first or second week in January.
Good Luck to all of you waiting it will happen when you least expect it.
Well, sod's law, I've been renting ready to go to Oz, and the house I'm renting sold in one weekend. Mind you, it is nice and I stupidly cleaned the windows and cut the grass just to be a good tenant. Three lots of people came round, two of them made offers, and the owner has accepted an offer from someone who said she'd wait until I leave in November (and she has a sister in perth!) It looks as if London is still crazy for selling property.
Good luck for all of you struggling, it feels far worse than the visa application IMHO.
Only had 4 viewings in 3 months, so.....changed agents, dropped price by £10K and......bingo!! Had 4 viewings in the first 3 days that we were on with the new agents at new price!! We've got a 4 bedroom house.
Now we're negotiating. Had offer at £5K less than new price, so just trying to bargain a little more.
My sympathies with anyone else selling. My nerves are completely shot and it's so hard not to let it dwell upon your mind every minute. Could drive a gal crazy
Best of luck everyone.
Rachelx
Fingers crossed for ya Rachel!
We took an offer less than we had hoped for but they have no chain their end either so can move v. quick (end Sept!). Will be moving in with in-laws till Jan so figured we can recoup some of that lost money in interest on equity and no mortgage/council tax/utilites etc which for us is a massive bonus. Also, if it goes pearshaped we can put it back on market quickly and hopefully not lost too much time.
Ours is 4 bed too and it really is amazing what a change/addition of agent can do!
We added an agent but lo and behold, doing that seemed to generate loads more interest from original agent and buyers came via them within a week of adding other agent!
Also, (I may have already said this so apologies in advance!!) I kept my house spotless and beautifully presented - if I say so myself but our buyers came along on a midweek day when I had just not bothered to tidy up, make beds, clean bathrooms etc (getting demoralised/too busy etc) and 16 yr old son was still in bed when agent arrived! (I was at work) so not totally sure about this house doctor thing. Could have been luck but I think people need to see that a house is actually lived in (within reason of course!!) as opposed to total 'show home' standard. The buyers also said this too apparently (comments came via estate agent).
We're having the same problem trying to sell our house. Ours is also a 4 bed. Although we also have it up for rent which ever comes first. My advice is to get your house on the market 12 months before you leave. We only put ours on the market at the end of June as we didn't really want to sell. We fly out on the 7th Sept, so will now have the headache of the house, with no-one in and not yet sold. It is a major concern, just have to hope for the best that the market picks up soon.
haven't been on for ages and ages, well at least since before we got our PR in June as we seem to have lost the dream - it just seems even further off than when we were waiting for the blxxdy PR to come through - and that in hindsight was the easy bit.
We are in the same position - we've dropped 15 k so far and I want to drop it to under the £250 limit to see if it will encourage anyone put off by the stamp duty. Property seems to be rising fast on the Gold Coast and around south Brisbane, so much so that I've managed to convince the OH that it's just not worth holding out for the sake of another 15k. Christ we need the money - who doesn't but I need my sanity more. It's bank holiday monday - I'm sat in a call centre until 1am tomorrow morning 'cos I used up all my holiday thinking I would have left by now..... you get the picture - hence I've come on to cheer myself up and try and rekindle the dream.
At least I know feel like we are not on our own - thank you.......
PS - as anyone seen the news about the couple in Huddersfield/halifax that are raffling their house for a fiver a ticket....... now there's an idea......
Changing agents was definitely the right thing to do for us, oh and dropping the price by £10K......within first 2 days with new agents had 4 viewers round.
Had silly offer - declined then much better offer from different couple. Finally agreed a price which is £17K below what we initially put the house on for back in April. But at least we've sold. There are at least another 10 houses for sale along our (admittedly very long) road. Yes we could have kept it on at a higher price, but we were getting next to no viewings at old price.
Thanks Lyn, think your fingers crossed did it for us!!
Now to start looking for a rental.....
Good luck everyone.
Rache x
__________________
Big Stu, Little Rache,
Accepted to study in Melbourne, July 2008.
Confirmation of Enrolment received 26.4.07.
Police Checks requested 06.12.07
. To add insult to injury a neighbour wanted to move to bigger house saw ours was sold and have bought and moved elsewhere - told us that they wanted ours but couldn't do anything as it was sold!!!
. Could drive a gal crazy
but our buyers came along on a midweek day when I had just not bothered to tidy up, make beds, clean bathrooms etc (getting demoralised/too busy etc) and 16 yr old son was still in bed when agent arrived! (I was at work) so not totally sure about this house doctor thing. Could have been luck but I think people need to see that a house is actually lived in (within reason of course!!) as opposed to total 'show home' standard. The buyers also said this too apparently (comments came via estate agent).
then much better offer from different couple. Finally agreed a price which is £17K below what we initially put the house on for back in April. But at least we've sold. There are at least another 10 houses for sale along our (admittedly very long) road. Yes we could have kept it on at a higher price, but we were getting next to no viewings at old price.
