Sarah Beeny Autumn 2017 - 54
REAL life 17 January THE KIDD FAMILY TOOK FIVE MONTHS TO FIND THEIR NEW DREAM HOME, A NEW BUILD WORTH £790K STARTING THE SALE 'We chose a local, independent agent, Sacha Scott. Run by the parents of one of Charlie's friends, they have an excellent reputation in the area for their professionalism. 'Sacha said we should expect to sell for £630K-£650K and to put it on the market at £650K. Within just half an hour of the board going up outside the house, she'd called to tell me about a viewing for that very day. er I uickly tidied the house, the potential buyer turned up with her mum and sister. She liked it, but had a couple more to see. However, she came back that evening with her dad and husband. I had driven my own dad to the airport that morning for a trip to Cyprus, where my parents have a second home. "Don't worry, Dad," I'd told him. ou'll be back in pril and I bet we won't have moved by then. ittle did I know what lay ahead! 'Two other interested buyers viewed the house on Wednesday and Thursday, but both had reservations over the size of the third bedroom.' E I E ION I I an o er of , which we turned down. Eventually, they came back with £640K, and we accepted. ippee! It was surreal. ad called to say he'd arrived safely and I told him we'd already found a buyer! 'We went straight back to the developer. The house we wanted to buy was on at . We made an o er of £790K because we knew the house had been sitting empty for six months and it was the last one to be sold on the development. Our current house was now under o er and the developer wanted to e change in days on the new place. But the agent said we had no chance. We then went up to £805K, but they still told us to come back with a further £10K. We weren't happy about that so made the decision to stick to our o er. ut I really wanted that house and over the weekend, I started to put pressure on hil. I reasoned that we could a ord the e tra because we had got more than expected for ours. Even the children started badgering him. 'He was dithering, when out of the blue, we got a call from the developer's agent: they had accepted our existing o er of because we could move uickly. Hurray! It was full steam ahead with the house move.' EN 21 January WO I E W N E H HO E N O E HE WEE EN I E O E E ON HI E EN HE HI EN E E IN HI ' THINGS SPEED UP ' he first couple made 054 | OCTOBER 2017