Let the battle begin

avatar
(Edited)

An unexpected war started today, a war that hit very close to home - well, directly. We had our first open house showing after a private showing had fallen through yesterday and, we got two offers within 10 minutes of the very short showing slot ended, both offering our asking price. While I was confident it would go well enough, I didn't think that we might have actually undervalued the property.

One of the bidders is coming back first thing in the morning to check again to see if they want to up their bid a little as the second has. At this point, I don't mind so much as we were ready to see under the asking price anyway - but considering our renovation work, it is a decent place and priced to go. What I am hoping is that due to the competition, they don't get cold feet and I perhaps would rather just take the more stable of the offers. But then, we would very much need anything extra we can get - so let them go to war.

IMG_20200202_120505.jpg

This does bode well for our meeting with a bank for the renovation loan though, as one of the major concerns for all of the banks when it comes to money for renovation is whether it is going to be well spent. Normally, I don't think they care, but it seems that they have become a bit more cautious here of late, as perhaps they have been burned by people's decisions. It seems that enough people can spend a lot of money without adding much value.

We will now have some ammunition to prove that we are not those kinds of people, as we have been able to increase the value of our own apartment significantly with minimal monetary input - apparently. When it comes to houses, sweat equity is the only way to really get value that will go above what is spent on costs, including the taxes and the inflation rate. With this, I hope it is enough to secure a loan for us - if not, we will definitely need any extra from the sale price on our apartment, to get ourselves off to a start with the larger renovation work.

I don't like this part of the buying and selling and I am looking forward to it being over as soon as possible so that we can move onto the next phase, which is where I can get my hands dirty with the reno work. We were estimating that we would sell within two months at the outside, but knew that we might get lucky early due to the lack of similar in our area. This means that we might be able to up the schedule on the other place also.

What we are planning to do in order to speed up operations, is to allow the people at the house we are purchasing to move their stuff to a single room instead of move it out all at once. This way we could potentially move in and get started earlier, or get started a little before we move in, depending on what happens with our own place. Either way, it could give us an unexpected head start on proceedings.

As I said to my wife tonight though, don't count your chickens til they have hatched, as I know that these kinds of deals can quickly go awry, where someone says something and then contradicts themselves with the next tweet... 😂 But yeah, we are hoping that this goes through sooner, rather than later and all the necessary papers are signed, sealed and delivered fast.

Is it Sunday today? It doesn't feel like this was a weekend at all...

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

Onboarding



0
0
0.000
21 comments
avatar

The weekend has flown by, I need to Iron some shirts :/

Definitely wise to expect nothing to be signed & sealed prior to the fact, but I hope you get a bit of luck and things progress.

That tweet today, sigh.

0
0
0.000
avatar

That tweet today, sigh.

More FUD. I am wondering how much of it is translation error or, cut and pasting. Potentially just laziness. :D

The weekend has flown by, I need to Iron some shirts :/

Are casual Mondays a thing?

0
0
0.000
avatar

Never let em back in!!! Not until the bid is finalised or the papers signed! :0)

0
0
0.000
avatar
(Edited)

This is what I was pushing for - but they are here at 845 tomorrow.

Never let my wife talk to people. ;D

0
0
0.000
avatar
(Edited)

While I was confident it would go well enough, I didn't think that we might have actually undervalued the property.

Taraz, I've seen the pictures of your place on the site where it was listed. Not bad at all. And the complex isn't apparently as mismanaged as you led me to believe in some of our conversations here. I was expecting the housing corporation through which you own it to be in more debt but, in fact, it seems quite reasonable taking into account how much renovating has already been done. For instance, the old plumbing has been replaced and the bathrooms have been renovated. Living in the middle of a plumbing reno is inconvenient as hell. A lot of people wish to avoid it. And because it has been done, it is also known that no serious damage cause by leaking pipes has been found. Your building has been maintained very well and that is a major selling point.

0
0
0.000
avatar

On paper yes, but there were some bad design decisions made as well as some what I would call, shoddy workmanship. In some way, I had the feeling that there was a private arrangement with contractors. It could also be me expectations of professionals. All in all, it is okay however, and the place is in relatively good condition.

I would much rather live in this place (though a sauna would be nice) than the new buildings they are making. They are tiny and poorly appointed boxes, with no storage. My wife and I overheard some of the tradesmen talking about them at the shop one day and they were saying it is amazing it is legal to build such small rooms and call them bedrooms :D

0
0
0.000
avatar

I remember selling my first house. It's funny how estate agencies work in Ireland and not very honest either. Houses are put up around 15% less than the asking price just to drive interest. Not that its needed with the shortage of properties. Good luck with it all

0
0
0.000
avatar

@galenkp was saying that in Australia they do ranges (I don't remember this) say for example, from 100-110k asking price. I am guessing it gives room to outbid without needing an auction.

I hope it all goes smoothly

0
0
0.000
avatar

Oh!! You are letting them back in! I don't like them to second guess their own self! I hope it all goes well and I'm still away and scheduled some post but little time on... so I have missed the progression of things.

I am excited about the other house though! Good luck!! It's Sunday? Yikes.

Stay strong!! You got this!! I never heard of the Australian method of pricing!!

!tip

0
0
0.000
avatar

Oh!! You are letting them back in!

I don't want to and I was happy to take the first offer in this case, rather than chase a little more. I didn't know this was getting organized though.

I never heard of the Australian method of pricing!!

Perhaps @galenkp can fill you in. It is more in his wheelhouse :)

!ENGAGE 20

0
0
0.000
avatar

They had bidding wars here, then the housing market crashed. Nothing to support those prices.

They are climbing back up to a healthy price in some areas, tumbling in the high tax States. I am happy to stay put for a moment.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Yep, I am hoping that we have done a smart thing by taking a risk on the renovation. Worst case scenario is, we have a decent place to see out our golden years. Well, unless it really all goes to hell and we end up renters in a drug den.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Hope they get into a massive bidding war and you end up with much more than you were anticipating XD

0
0
0.000
avatar

No such luck, but we didn't push for it as we preferred to sell to one over the other anyway. We got what we were asking and hopefully hassle-free, so we are happy as we were expecting to accept a fair bit less.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Buying a house is equally as stressful as selling a house. It's a good thing you're selling and have multiple bidders, it can be just as bad when there are no interested parties in your house.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Yep. We designed our place to sell well to pretty much anyone. We accepted an offer today and hopefully it will all go through over the next 2 weeks.

0
0
0.000