Well after the excitement of accepting an offer we are now preparing ouselves for the long haul of finding somewhere we like. We, or rather I have always managed to find places not quite right for us in the past andthis time we want to get it exactly right. However we are right on the limit of being able to afford a 3 bed in Brighton, so we will have to be lucky with what we find.

 

There is also a distinct lack of any properties with our spec in the area we are looking. We even did a letter drop at the weekend on some of our favoured roads, so it will be intersting to see if we get any response. So please cross you fingers for us!

 

The sale of our house is proceeding okay so far. Looks likely there will be a gap between selling our place and buying the next so we are going to need to speak to our mortgage company to sort out 'porting' the mortgage. Bit of a pain as we will have to pay the redemption fee up front (over £7k!) and then we will get it back once we resume the mortgage when we move into the next place. We'll be in for a shock in April when our two year period ends. Don't think we'll be getting the 4.59% we've been enjoying up until now!

 

Hoping for some interesting properties to come our way this week. If they do we'll stick them up!

 

Well hit us over the head with a wet kipper! We spent Friday negotiating over an offer from the son of a lady who is interested in the property, and we finally accepted. They really liked the place and she has just sold her 5 bed in North London, so keen to move in asap - 5 to 6 weeks apparently! So, far from a summer of discontent, we are now going to be spending our time running up and down to Brighton looking at properties.

 

Trying not  to count our chickens until we exchange. So back to property searching. Will use all the usual suspects (Rightmove, Findaproperty, Propertyfinder etc) and see what we find. If anyone had any recommendations for other sites (auctions sites as well) it would be much appreciated!

Well, I could have said I’ve been away on holiday for a few weeks, but I would be lying. The sheer lack of activity in selling our house in ‘Sawbo’ has meant that there has been little reason to update. This has turned out to be more of a blog about the trials and tribulations of selling a house rather than minefield of buying one. We’ve got all that excitement to come....great!

Well we’ve has two viewings in the last few weeks. One lady loved it, vowed to come back with her father for a second viewing , and as we yet have heard nothing. The other was a gentleman looking on behalf of his 90 year old mother. She wants the central village location (perfect) and needs to be close to her son (perfect). She has just sold her house and wants to move quickly (perfect).

However, she is 90 years old! When I was showing her son around on Tuesday, I was pointing out all the things they would have to consider to enable her easy access. For example, hand rail on the stairs, better access for the bath, caution about the floors and even suggested that they would need to convert the downstairs utility into a toilet so she wouldn’t need to go upstairs each time. Now I know I’m supposed to be selling the place, but you have to have a heart. We really don’t think our place is suitable...she may be a sprite 90 now, but in a few years time she may not be. She really needs a bungalow. However they are coming back today for a second viewing, so we shall wait to hear how that goes.

Finally we do have a viewing on Saturday from a lady moving out of London, evidently looking for the better 'value for money' further out. This is exactly the route we took over a year and a half ago. As a prospect this one ticks a few more boxes, so we're a bit more hopeful..

Viewings of property in Brighton have been put on hold. We have decided there is no point in doing a 4 hour round trip every weekend to view properties we can’t actually make an offer on. What’s the point in teasing ourselves? Also, it seems the market in Brighton has flattened a bit now so we don’t have to worry about the escalating prices down there and losing our relative purchasing power. The interest rate rises seem to be starting to have an impact as well as is the traditionally slow summer period.

 Frankly there is not much to get excited about at the moment. Does anyone know the Property Features write for the Telegraph? I know a lovely little house they could do a front page splash on...

 

Well back from the seaside...another wonderful weekend of rain, sunshine, rain, sunshine etc, etc....We have noted some of the advice and feedback/comments and wanted ot respond.

Peter and Bomber, we’re in complete agreement with the ‘it’s only worth what people are prepared to pay for it’. I guess we’re just impatient and we figure that life is too short to just wait for the right price and in the mean time not move to the next stage in our lives. In dropping our price, we’re hoping for a quicker sale.

We are getting a lot of interest at this price now (three lots of second viewings), so hopefully we can talk more about buying in Brighton and not selling our place in the weeks to come! Incidentally, we haven’t deleted any comments from you Bomber, so sorry your comment seems to have disappeared, not quite sure what happened there.

Thanks JC for your kind comments. The photos of the property in Brighton reflect one of the properties we looked around recently. We are not planning on buying as there is just too much work needed. We hope to add more pictures of viewings as we go along. Hope your exchange comes sooner rather than later.

HPC – Thanks for the link. Always at the back of our minds is the worry this market cannot keep rising and that maybe there is a correction just around the corner. Ideally we sell, market crashes for about 3 months, we buy, market then shoots back up again. What do you think the chances are?(!)

Expat.- The house was a complete dump when we moved in. We treated it as a bit of a project really and stripped it back (although there were no features left at all). We put in oak flooring, a new kitchen, bathroom and some room changes that mean we now have a dining room and large living area. We also landscaped the garden and fixed leaks, damp and you name it really!  Incidentally, we found the ‘lurid pink furniture’ on www.treaclefurniture.co.uk they are actually original antiques, just reinvented for more modern tastes.

Paul Turbull – we just did lots of work in the house, and yes – actually house prices in this neck of the woods are pretty crazy. A two bed down the road went for £379,000 last weekend and that’s not unusual.

 Lady Bluebell- how kind of you to offer this advice. Yes – you are probably right about the expectations of buyers. The house is most definitely not in keeping with the period (inside).

The problem is that the damage was done before us. The house is two cottages knocked into one, all features were removed and there was lots of work to do on the layout, making fairly unusable spaces into usable ones. It is a modern take on a Victorian cottage and you are probably right about the furniture being a little ‘avant garde’ for many, definitely something to think about. (Although I think we might wait a little longer as we have had loads of interest this weekend.)

Let's see what this week brings!