Sunday, 30 May 2010
Last Sunday
A nice touch was that the out-going CEO of Tanglin along with two of his school heads flew in to say hello and answer some questions. The main one being, where will we be living? Think everyone's keen on finding that out!
Saturday, 29 May 2010
What?
No viewings? I was expecting something for the weekend. Obviously James exhausted his little database of contacts. Get marketing my friend. We want viewings and soon!
Friday, 28 May 2010
No offers yet....
So the other reasons, not enough room (she had one son plus triplets), garden too small (it is a courtyard garden), and the cost was too high (she is currently paying £350/month less than we're asking). So, all good reasons and now we wait for more viewings. Rather hoping that we get a good offer soon as trying to keep the house clean with two kids. We had the carpets cleaned on Wednesday and they've come up fantastically! It does make one rather paranoid about spillages though (no more red wine for us!). The cleaners did us proud even though broke a vase. They did apologise and then clean an extra hour for free so that was good!
Having been at work all week phone calls and things getting done feel like they're lagging behind somewhat, need to get back on it. Gas service and safety certificates to organise today! Sounds like fun!
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Housey, housey
So this evening was spent rapidly tidying the house after a phone on my way back from London confirmed that we would be having five(!) viewings tomorrow evening. Glad I asked the cleaners to come in tomorrow. You have to wonder how many more viewings we'll get when the house actually gets put on the market! By the sounds of it it might not make it that far. James (from Coopers), is confident we'll have an offer on the table by tomorrow night. Glad I raised the asking price by £50 yesterday. Better to negotiate down than up I say. And hopefully there'll be no negoatiating over price at all. Can't believe how quickly all this is moving now! Still, the house never been so clean. And soon we'll have a new back without a big hole in it that let the previous ecumbent's dog in and out! Funny how it's taken us to let the house to get that changed!
Monday, 24 May 2010
Decision made
Monday, 17 May 2010
Uh Oh!
OK, let's phone the bank and get them to tell me what the damage is.
'Well, Mr. Chapman, providing you start letting before 1 September you won't incur any charges unless you change the terms of your mortgage with us'.
Say that again? Your letter says from 1 September.
'Oh, yes, but only if you haven't got an existing letting agreement, which you will have. I suppose the letter could be a LITTLE AMBIGUOUS'.
Er, yeah, you could say that, anyway thanks for your help.
'Anything else I can help you with today Mr. Chapman?'
Er, CPR? No, thanks, I'm fine, bye.
So, no fees. Yippee (although it was more like pee my pants there for a while!). Let's get letting!
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Decisions, decisions
On another note I managed to get hold of an old acquaintance of mine to come and do the EPC (Energy Performance Certificate, seen by most in the industry as a complete waste of time!), for me at half the price the Lettings Agency were talking about. I get the feeling there are going to be a lot of 'extra' charges necessary to get going. So, although the initial 7.5% might be great there is going to be a hefty lump sum on top.
Going to have a beer with a an old mate of mine tomorrow. He's been letting properties in London for years, so he should have a pretty good idea of the ins-and-outs of the trade. And he'll probably scare me half to death will his stories!
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Letting agents
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
What I will not miss
Sunday, 9 May 2010
Clothes - what to take, what to leave?
Not too many replies to the invites I sent out during the week. I hope somebody turns up to our leaving do!!
Thursday, 6 May 2010
110 cubic feet
On the front of the brochure he left with all the move details there was a happy smiling family.
Let's hope this is our frame of mind by the time we get in to our new place! It was all very matter of fact and he promised to beat Sterling's quote so it should all be good!
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Only ninety nine days to go
On another topic, the family went up to Ashridge yesterday to see the extraordinary display of bluebells that appear in the woods every year at around this time. It got me to thinking that this would be one of the things I'd miss about living in the UK. So I thought I start a couple of pages about what I'll miss and what I won't miss while I'm away. I'm sure once we're actually over there the list will change somewhat dramatically. But until then, Ashridge is the first entry on the list of things to miss.
I'll be adding others when I think of them and I expect there will be quite a lot, on both sides!
Luckily, T's parents have said they'll come up and babysit the kids while we jolly off to London to meet up with the rest of this year's Tanglin recruits. It'll be really good to meet them in a familiar place, without the inevitable stresses and strains of having moved overseas with two young children. Should be fun with any luck!