Saturday 19 July 2014

Selling property...

...is absolute hell!!! At least that has been my experience and it's not one I intend to repeat for a very long time (if ever).

I admit that my sale was made harder by the fact it was a part rent / part buy property which meant that the landlord had to be involved in the sale as well - just what is needed, another layer of bureaucracy!!

The estate agents and solicitors were both appalling (Ward & Partners and Quality Solicitors Martin Tolhurst if you want to avoid them!). In general I think the solicitor only actually did anything if I was nagging her. To be fair to the housing association the girls I dealt with in the resale department were lovely but it appears that no-one in the organisation talks to each other so I was getting crap from one department when another department knew the answer etc etc.

This was the third offer I had had on the flat and so I was understandably nervous of it all going tits up, hence my keeping very quiet about it! It took six and a half months from offer to completion and 28 months from first going on the market. And to think at the beginning I was thinking I might have to move in with M for a couple of months!!

Anyway, once we finally exchanged contracts it was all systems go with getting my stuff shifted etc. There was a window of opportunity for the boss to drive up but as the sale dragged on that soon passed. As you know I don't drive so I got a couple of quotes from removal companies which ranged from £600 to £1000 - yeah, I gasped too! This is when I was very glad of Facebook as up popped Mr Removal on one of the Exeter sites. I got in touch and was quoted a much more affordable price that would include them packing up what was left to be done (I'd packed up quite a bit on a visit home in March).  They were fab, doing the whole thing in a day, having no issue with me not being at the Kent end, and just being generally nice chaps!!

I had purchased a double hi-sleeper so that I would gain the floor space taken up by a bed and I just had to smile sweetly at my landlords to move the current bed out so that I could get the new bed put up before all my stuff arrived. That would also involve sleeping on the floor for a bit as the landlords bed was a king and the hi-sleeper a double and my mattress was still in Kent!!  


The above was bed for a week - a camping roll mat and my doubled over duvet!
All set to have a friend come over to help put it up when he went and busted his shoulder. Some may say madly I decided to put the bed together on my own!!







And there you have it - bed put together single handed, all the stuff moved out that I wasn't going to use and everything else in a pile in the corner. I kept the chest of drawers and bookcase, and obviously the built in wardrobe. The cardboard boxes held what had been taken out of the drawers under the bed, bedside table etc.

After the removal men had been it looked like this...



At this point in the proceedings there was a book case and two wall mountable display cabinets in the hall, another bookcase and desk in the landlords study, plus some of the kitchen and bathroom boxes in their relevant rooms as well!! I managed to get the stuff off my bed that night so I could have a proper nights sleep but that was about it!

Ten days later the two bookcases and desk are in my room. The display units are still in the hall as they will be heading to storage. The boxes that were in the kitchen have been unpacked and almost all of their contents found homes. There must be at least one other kitchen box somewhere under the bed though as there are definitely some things missing - like my toaster!

I have a walkway from the bedroom door to the window and I can get at the bed and a comfy chair. I took two bags of stuff to the charity shop this morning and have already got some more stuff to go. 

The 50+ scrapbooks are going to be gone through. I will photograph things that I would like to remember and I will give myself a set amount of space that I can fill with physical items.  I'm thinking one of these bus suitcases from Cath Kidston!!

There will be stuff going to storage but this will be space that I'm not paying for and I will be VERY strict with myself about what I really want to keep that I just don't have room for here.

I'm getting there albeit slowly.

I love Exeter, my landlords are fab and on a good day I love both my jobs (although they have their moments like any others!!).

So I start my 38th year on the planet with a negative bank balance, surrounded by boxes, but feeling like a huge weight has been lifted. Smiles all round!