Wednesday 3 February 2010

Waiting.....

Why didn't anybody tell me that this house selling malarkey was such hard work?



I have to admit that I am beginning to think that the bright pink FOR SALE sign that is very prominently sticking out from the middle of the garden hedge is invisible!

Our little house has been up for sale for 3 months now and so far there has been almost no interest in it at all. I suppose that on hindsight putting it on the market at the end of October was probably not the best timing ~ with Christmas and a new year looming ahead ~ but I just can't stand all the waiting about that is involved!

We thought that it would be a good idea to have our viewing by appointment and also to have open viewing on a Sunday afternoon. Sunday mornings involve running about like mad people doing all manner of household chores imaginable ~ washing, ironing, cleaning, dusting, hoovering, hiding things in cupboards etc......... And then Sunday afternoon we sit about WAITING for prospective buyers to knock on the door. We sit and we WAIT and we WAIT and so far not one person has viewed the house on a Sunday.

The estate agents phoned us on Monday morning to arrange a viewing for last night ~ and we got ourselves all excited ~ only to get another phone call from the estate agents to say that the viewing had been cancelled :o(

Now it's back to playing the WAITING game again!


Playing along with this game is the Raspberry Ripple scarf ~ which is patiently WAITING to be finished ~ it was supposed to be finished in time for Christmas but that just didn't happen!


Also playing along is this rather lovely pile of woolly colourfulness just WAITING for me to find some inspiration to turn it into some hooky goodness. But I'm not quite sure where my inspiration has gone right now as it seems to have got lost somewhere along the way too. Maybe I accidentally hid it in the cupboard when I was tidying up the house! :O)

13 comments:

Floss said...

It's very hard to get motivated at such an unsettled time. We've never actually sold a house we were living in at the time - the only two we've owned were sold, empty, some time after we'd moved away. It's easier in some ways... Best of luck!

Kimbles said...

Hi Jackie, how frustrating for you keep expecting viewers and being disappointed - Im sure its because we are having such a bad winter - it affects everything - including our motivation - I have stashes of wool here and there and can't get too motivated either! Take care **Kim** x

andamento said...

Lovely scarf and a fabulous bundle of yarn for your next project.

Hope you get some viewers (and a buyer!) for your house soon. At least it'll be all nice and tidy for you living in it at the moment!

Lesley (Notesfrommydays) said...

things usually start to pick up again in feb/march so your coming into selling season again very soon :-) speak to your agents about ideas to promote your house more - house of the week in local newspaper estate agents pages etc etc ! make them work for the commission!
good luck
Lesley x

Lyn said...

Hopefully now we are 'officially' out of recession the house market will pick up and you will sell it.
fingers cossed!
love
Lyn
xxx

N said...

I'm sure things will pick up soon & your house will be sold before you know it! Good luck with it all.

Natasha x

Maureen said...

I have looked at your house online and it looks lovely, so it isn't the interior or exterior putting people off.

Ask your estate agent what they think is holding you back. We sold our house and an estate agent said to us the only thing holdong back a sale is the price. We reduced ours and got our sale.

As a regular Bloomberg watcher it does seem to me that now is the time to sell - the double dip will grip in a couple of months.

It could just be the winter, but here the trend has been bucked and houses have sold at the same rate as the summer!

Time to ask yourself the hard question - how much do I want to move.

rockinloubylou said...

Hello! I'm back at last after a long break and your beautiful bloggy birthday giveaway present, which I was lucky enough to win, is weighing heavily on my conscience. I promise to fully acknowledge it in my next post. Loving your blog, as always. Good luck with the house sale. Hope things pick up soon. Friends of ours in a similar situation decided in the end to rent out their house and rent somewhere in the new location and that has worked out well for them.
Louise

Julia said...

Hello there!

Oh dear, I am rather impatient myself so can only imagine the frustration of house selling and all the waiting entailed!
On a brighter note, your ripple scarf is a feast of berryish beauty - I love it!! Your wool stash looks very inviting and when you find your mojo again I'll look forward to seeing what you make with it!

ps - lost my mojo the other week, I was like a lost soul for several days, and then I just happened to find it on a shelf in WHSmiths of all places...thats the thing with mojo's - take your attention off them for two minutes and off they go. Hope you find yours again soon.

Love Julia x x x

Anonymous said...

Hi there
I love your blog and I have read it for an age, and I hope you do not mind but I have added your blog to my blogroll on my new site. :)
Love
Melanie xxxx

Heidi@extraspecialtouch.co.uk said...

It will happen...keep positive!
We went on the market in Oct '08 and finally got an offer in Nov '09... and we move house this Friday!!

Tinyholder said...

I completely sympathise with you. House buying/selling is an absolute nightmare. Tim and I are pros now. I have a few tips that I hope will help you:

- You could take it off now, and put it back on in the spring. When people see that something has been on for ages they may be hesitant to look thinking there's something wrong.

- Let the estate agents do all the viewings. 1) make them justify their fee and 2) the less people in your house the better and 3) people will be honest with the estate agent, but won't when you're there.

- Is there anything you can do to make your house more appealing? Ask the estate agent to be totally honest (be prepared for negatives though). Could you paint the front of your house? Get them to retake pics on a sunny day? Plant lovely plants out the front?

- If nobody has come to view it could be that you need to reduce the price? Sometimes you do have to cut your losses. At least in this market you can buy the house you want for less so it evens out.

I hope some of those tips are of use to you.

Best of luck!

Sian x

Ghost said...

I am loving that Raspberry Ripple. I even love the name. How is the house selling going.