OVER 50's+ MOVING BACK TO THE UK - Part II
Apr 23rd 2011, 11:22 am
#6781
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Re: OVER 50's+ MOVING BACK TO THE UK - Part II
And thanks for the tip on the floors. I've written that down and will check it out. Our floors aren't scratched - they just look a bit tired. Maybe this will be enough.
Apr 23rd 2011, 11:25 am
#6782
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Location: Used to be New York, now North Yorkshire
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Re: OVER 50's+ MOVING BACK TO THE UK - Part II
I would choose #3 also Sally. A fresh coat of paint does wonders and the floors would look great if re-done. I am thinking of doing the same thing myself. Best bang for the buck as Fish says.
I know that you are in a very different area with different factors but here is a blurb that appeared this week in a local ad paper, written by a local realtor:
Most of the buyers do not want to buy a project. They want a home that is stunning in all ways. Last year I took an exclusive course on how to Stage a Home to Sell. Most Salt Spring homes are not Staged to Sell. To be frank most Salt Spring homes are not in perfect shape. Most of the buyers spend 3-6 minutes in the home on a showing and usually if the home is not perfect they leave in less than 2 minutes. Buyers shop in price ranges in most ranges (example of a range 500k to 600k) there are 20-30 or so homes for the buyers to choose from. Most of the buyers all want the same thing: a Perfect Home. Usually they all clamber after the same 1 or 2 homes in the price range they are searching in. The other homes are left to sit and sit. The sellers are left with the choice to drastically reduce price to sell or stage their home to sell. This is my specialty. No home is unsellable. It just has to be brought up to a modern look. This is usually much more cost effective than drastically reducing your price. Even if you reduce your price very few buyers want to do any work and the ones that do want a lot off asking.
I know that you are in a very different area with different factors but here is a blurb that appeared this week in a local ad paper, written by a local realtor:
Most of the buyers do not want to buy a project. They want a home that is stunning in all ways. Last year I took an exclusive course on how to Stage a Home to Sell. Most Salt Spring homes are not Staged to Sell. To be frank most Salt Spring homes are not in perfect shape. Most of the buyers spend 3-6 minutes in the home on a showing and usually if the home is not perfect they leave in less than 2 minutes. Buyers shop in price ranges in most ranges (example of a range 500k to 600k) there are 20-30 or so homes for the buyers to choose from. Most of the buyers all want the same thing: a Perfect Home. Usually they all clamber after the same 1 or 2 homes in the price range they are searching in. The other homes are left to sit and sit. The sellers are left with the choice to drastically reduce price to sell or stage their home to sell. This is my specialty. No home is unsellable. It just has to be brought up to a modern look. This is usually much more cost effective than drastically reducing your price. Even if you reduce your price very few buyers want to do any work and the ones that do want a lot off asking.
I've looked at houses in the price range we hope to sell for, and ours would easily be the best on the market for that price. I'm hoping that's enough to make it attractive to someone.
Apr 23rd 2011, 11:28 am
#6783
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Location: Back home now in my home town in England U.K. after 36 years in U.S. now retired and loving it,
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Re: OVER 50's+ MOVING BACK TO THE UK - Part II
Well today I did my little walk around the corner to the CO-OP and picked up the Sat mail, thats the paper my Mum likes!!! well right there was the first traditional size easter egg ive seen, £4.75 but it really wwasn'tvery big but looks the same as they were when we were kids just not as big thats all, you used to be able to by em real big,
Happy easter everyone.
Apr 23rd 2011, 11:55 am
#6784
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Re: OVER 50's+ MOVING BACK TO THE UK - Part II
You notice that in the banks' results (JPMChase and BoA) coming out this week and last they are showing much larger losses in mortgage lending divisions due to foreclosures, as this activity increases. Wells Fargo was an exception, and it released $1 billion reserves for loan losses and produced bumper profits BUT its mortgage lending division disclosed that new mortgage lending fell by a third (down $44 billion) as lending rates rose.
Apr 23rd 2011, 12:54 pm
#6785
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Re: OVER 50's+ MOVING BACK TO THE UK - Part II
This sounds really promising! Often when you have a house in mind that you can't afford, it spoils all the others you see. I bet these people have not been able to choose a house because they had yours in mind all the time. Now they'll come, look, and love it! I have everything crossed for you.
And thanks for the tip on the floors. I've written that down and will check it out. Our floors aren't scratched - they just look a bit tired. Maybe this will be enough.
And thanks for the tip on the floors. I've written that down and will check it out. Our floors aren't scratched - they just look a bit tired. Maybe this will be enough.
and yes trotty I also feel that these people who are going to see your house again for the second time will be the ones to buy it, ----- tell me if im being too nosy but how much have you lowered the price since they saw it the first time? and has it been a year since they last saw it?Good luck
Take care to both of you,
Rodney.
Apr 23rd 2011, 3:20 pm
#6786
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Joined: Nov 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 202
Re: OVER 50's+ MOVING BACK TO THE UK - Part II
We will rent for a little while until we get settled, but the problem for me with long-term renting is nothing to do with money and everything to do with the lack of security and the inability to make your home your own.
What happens when you've lived in the house for a few years and you love it and then the landlord decides he wants to sell up? The idea of being forced to move is horrible. And I'd hate to never be able to knock down a wall, or change the flooring, or dig a new flower bed just because the house doesn't belong to me.
In other news, we're definitely going home!! We've had some long chats the last few days and we're shooting for putting the house up for sale in late summer/Fall next year, and moving the following Spring, whether or not it has sold. The plan is dependent on us being able to save up enough money by then to have a bit of a cushion. If we don't have it, we'll push the move back one year.
But I am going home!! Time to get planning
What happens when you've lived in the house for a few years and you love it and then the landlord decides he wants to sell up? The idea of being forced to move is horrible. And I'd hate to never be able to knock down a wall, or change the flooring, or dig a new flower bed just because the house doesn't belong to me.
In other news, we're definitely going home!! We've had some long chats the last few days and we're shooting for putting the house up for sale in late summer/Fall next year, and moving the following Spring, whether or not it has sold. The plan is dependent on us being able to save up enough money by then to have a bit of a cushion. If we don't have it, we'll push the move back one year.
But I am going home!! Time to get planning
Apr 23rd 2011, 3:51 pm
#6787
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Re: OVER 50's+ MOVING BACK TO THE UK - Part II
To all a Very Happy and Peaceful Easter.
Jasper123....I am not sure what price they caught the house at if you remember we have lowered the price a few times. Well I know we started at the very start with $535,000 that was with the idiot Estate Agent. We were looking at properties in the UK and wanting to sell ours for as much as we could but we should have gone for less and it would probably have sold. 6months later we reduced it to 479,000 then we went with a new Estate agent and a more realistic price of 450,000 but then the bottom fell out of the market and we gradually went down to $375,000 and now its at its all time low of $349,000
By the way since that high price we had new counter tops installed and had granite steps installed. The counter tops cost over $3,000 but the old ones were formica and just did nothing for the house. We also had an attic installed. We did pay nearly $100 a month for a storage unit but decided it would be cheaper to install an attic floor and ladder. That cost $2,000 but we figure we got that back by not renting the unit. Over the months as I told you all I went through all the boxes I had stored in the attic over 100 of them and reduced it down to 20. I have one closet that I keep all my craft items in as I was tired of getting up into the attic to look for things.
I dont have any personal pictures displayed nor any of my Mothers china. The house is down to a very limited amount. This is what our estate agent recommended. It also makes it easy to clean. But I miss all my things. I do have my books in bookcases. I had them up in the attic for a while but it was not doing them any good. If anyone dislikes my books too bad. I did go through them all and get rid of the ones I decided i was not taking with me.bought the bookcases with glass fronts which I will take with me when we move.
My friend across the road who is putting her house back on the market next monday had her new esate agent over and she has had her take all her photo's down and many of her ornaments. Her home was very cluttered. When I look at pictures of homes for sale in the UK and compare them to many of the homes here I see such a difference. In the UK they had very bright colours on the walls, lots of black and some homes look really untidy. Here they want walls to be pale and no dark colours. I have two sets of curtains Winter and Summer. I look what the 'in' colour is for the season and buy some accent peices and add them to the rooms. Throws, pillows and towels. I buy some nice soaps for the bathrooms and keep baskets with towels and talcs etc. I go to Marshalls and T J Maxx they have lots of nice little extra's. But in the end its whether the people looking like the design of the house and the gardens. The other things just help to make it look good.
This is the website for 'Rejuvenate' which I use on the floor. The kitchen floor is always the last thing I do when I get ready for people coming to look at the house. Its the first thing they see when they walk in the front door so I think it has to look good.
http://www.rejuvenate.tv/
By the way we had sleet this morning and its now raining and very cold
Jasper123....I am not sure what price they caught the house at if you remember we have lowered the price a few times. Well I know we started at the very start with $535,000 that was with the idiot Estate Agent. We were looking at properties in the UK and wanting to sell ours for as much as we could but we should have gone for less and it would probably have sold. 6months later we reduced it to 479,000 then we went with a new Estate agent and a more realistic price of 450,000 but then the bottom fell out of the market and we gradually went down to $375,000 and now its at its all time low of $349,000
By the way since that high price we had new counter tops installed and had granite steps installed. The counter tops cost over $3,000 but the old ones were formica and just did nothing for the house. We also had an attic installed. We did pay nearly $100 a month for a storage unit but decided it would be cheaper to install an attic floor and ladder. That cost $2,000 but we figure we got that back by not renting the unit. Over the months as I told you all I went through all the boxes I had stored in the attic over 100 of them and reduced it down to 20. I have one closet that I keep all my craft items in as I was tired of getting up into the attic to look for things.
I dont have any personal pictures displayed nor any of my Mothers china. The house is down to a very limited amount. This is what our estate agent recommended. It also makes it easy to clean. But I miss all my things. I do have my books in bookcases. I had them up in the attic for a while but it was not doing them any good. If anyone dislikes my books too bad. I did go through them all and get rid of the ones I decided i was not taking with me.bought the bookcases with glass fronts which I will take with me when we move.
My friend across the road who is putting her house back on the market next monday had her new esate agent over and she has had her take all her photo's down and many of her ornaments. Her home was very cluttered. When I look at pictures of homes for sale in the UK and compare them to many of the homes here I see such a difference. In the UK they had very bright colours on the walls, lots of black and some homes look really untidy. Here they want walls to be pale and no dark colours. I have two sets of curtains Winter and Summer. I look what the 'in' colour is for the season and buy some accent peices and add them to the rooms. Throws, pillows and towels. I buy some nice soaps for the bathrooms and keep baskets with towels and talcs etc. I go to Marshalls and T J Maxx they have lots of nice little extra's. But in the end its whether the people looking like the design of the house and the gardens. The other things just help to make it look good.
This is the website for 'Rejuvenate' which I use on the floor. The kitchen floor is always the last thing I do when I get ready for people coming to look at the house. Its the first thing they see when they walk in the front door so I think it has to look good.
http://www.rejuvenate.tv/
By the way we had sleet this morning and its now raining and very cold
Apr 23rd 2011, 5:57 pm
#6788
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Joined: Jun 2009
Location: Phibun Mangsahan Ubon Province Thailand.
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Re: OVER 50's+ MOVING BACK TO THE UK - Part II
[QUOTE=cheers;9319121]Well we have a few things in common and we are pulling for new title, "Over 50's returning" and until that happens we can be imposters.
I also am 73 and we have a lot of advantages at this age. I have to wait until 80 to get a free pass on the TV license in the UK. I don't think I care much for TV in general anyway and one reason is it directed to a 8 year mentality audience.(off my platform)
Hello, The Free TVLicense, is from the age of 75. love Don (80)
I also am 73 and we have a lot of advantages at this age. I have to wait until 80 to get a free pass on the TV license in the UK. I don't think I care much for TV in general anyway and one reason is it directed to a 8 year mentality audience.(off my platform)
Hello, The Free TVLicense, is from the age of 75. love Don (80)
Apr 23rd 2011, 6:36 pm
#6789
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Posts: 2,606
Re: OVER 50's+ MOVING BACK TO THE UK - Part II
Piece of Cake Sally, we have a gloss white kitchen, easy to clean always looks right, it came from Home Depot 10 years ago, hasn't fallen apart, Mills Pride, I think its a Home Depots brand...
Apr 23rd 2011, 10:47 pm
#6790
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Joined: Aug 2009
Location: Back home now in my home town in England U.K. after 36 years in U.S. now retired and loving it,
Posts: 3,208
Re: OVER 50's+ MOVING BACK TO THE UK - Part II
To all a Very Happy and Peaceful Easter.
Jasper123....I am not sure what price they caught the house at if you remember we have lowered the price a few times. Well I know we started at the very start with $535,000 that was with the idiot Estate Agent. We were looking at properties in the UK and wanting to sell ours for as much as we could but we should have gone for less and it would probably have sold. 6months later we reduced it to 479,000 then we went with a new Estate agent and a more realistic price of 450,000 but then the bottom fell out of the market and we gradually went down to $375,000 and now its at its all time low of $349,000
By the way since that high price we had new counter tops installed and had granite steps installed. The counter tops cost over $3,000 but the old ones were formica and just did nothing for the house. We also had an attic installed. We did pay nearly $100 a month for a storage unit but decided it would be cheaper to install an attic floor and ladder. That cost $2,000 but we figure we got that back by not renting the unit. Over the months as I told you all I went through all the boxes I had stored in the attic over 100 of them and reduced it down to 20. I have one closet that I keep all my craft items in as I was tired of getting up into the attic to look for things.
I dont have any personal pictures displayed nor any of my Mothers china. The house is down to a very limited amount. This is what our estate agent recommended. It also makes it easy to clean. But I miss all my things. I do have my books in bookcases. I had them up in the attic for a while but it was not doing them any good. If anyone dislikes my books too bad. I did go through them all and get rid of the ones I decided i was not taking with me.bought the bookcases with glass fronts which I will take with me when we move.
My friend across the road who is putting her house back on the market next monday had her new esate agent over and she has had her take all her photo's down and many of her ornaments. Her home was very cluttered. When I look at pictures of homes for sale in the UK and compare them to many of the homes here I see such a difference. In the UK they had very bright colours on the walls, lots of black and some homes look really untidy. Here they want walls to be pale and no dark colours. I have two sets of curtains Winter and Summer. I look what the 'in' colour is for the season and buy some accent peices and add them to the rooms. Throws, pillows and towels. I buy some nice soaps for the bathrooms and keep baskets with towels and talcs etc. I go to Marshalls and T J Maxx they have lots of nice little extra's. But in the end its whether the people looking like the design of the house and the gardens. The other things just help to make it look good.
This is the website for 'Rejuvenate' which I use on the floor. The kitchen floor is always the last thing I do when I get ready for people coming to look at the house. Its the first thing they see when they walk in the front door so I think it has to look good.
http://www.rejuvenate.tv/
By the way we had sleet this morning and its now raining and very cold
Jasper123....I am not sure what price they caught the house at if you remember we have lowered the price a few times. Well I know we started at the very start with $535,000 that was with the idiot Estate Agent. We were looking at properties in the UK and wanting to sell ours for as much as we could but we should have gone for less and it would probably have sold. 6months later we reduced it to 479,000 then we went with a new Estate agent and a more realistic price of 450,000 but then the bottom fell out of the market and we gradually went down to $375,000 and now its at its all time low of $349,000
By the way since that high price we had new counter tops installed and had granite steps installed. The counter tops cost over $3,000 but the old ones were formica and just did nothing for the house. We also had an attic installed. We did pay nearly $100 a month for a storage unit but decided it would be cheaper to install an attic floor and ladder. That cost $2,000 but we figure we got that back by not renting the unit. Over the months as I told you all I went through all the boxes I had stored in the attic over 100 of them and reduced it down to 20. I have one closet that I keep all my craft items in as I was tired of getting up into the attic to look for things.
I dont have any personal pictures displayed nor any of my Mothers china. The house is down to a very limited amount. This is what our estate agent recommended. It also makes it easy to clean. But I miss all my things. I do have my books in bookcases. I had them up in the attic for a while but it was not doing them any good. If anyone dislikes my books too bad. I did go through them all and get rid of the ones I decided i was not taking with me.bought the bookcases with glass fronts which I will take with me when we move.
My friend across the road who is putting her house back on the market next monday had her new esate agent over and she has had her take all her photo's down and many of her ornaments. Her home was very cluttered. When I look at pictures of homes for sale in the UK and compare them to many of the homes here I see such a difference. In the UK they had very bright colours on the walls, lots of black and some homes look really untidy. Here they want walls to be pale and no dark colours. I have two sets of curtains Winter and Summer. I look what the 'in' colour is for the season and buy some accent peices and add them to the rooms. Throws, pillows and towels. I buy some nice soaps for the bathrooms and keep baskets with towels and talcs etc. I go to Marshalls and T J Maxx they have lots of nice little extra's. But in the end its whether the people looking like the design of the house and the gardens. The other things just help to make it look good.
This is the website for 'Rejuvenate' which I use on the floor. The kitchen floor is always the last thing I do when I get ready for people coming to look at the house. Its the first thing they see when they walk in the front door so I think it has to look good.
http://www.rejuvenate.tv/
By the way we had sleet this morning and its now raining and very cold
Apr 24th 2011, 12:20 am
#6791
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Joined: Feb 2011
Location: Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada
Posts: 2,060
Re: OVER 50's+ MOVING BACK TO THE UK - Part II
I have oak floors and the finish has worn off in the high-traffic paths so I suppose I shall have to do something. If I can get away with not doing the whole floor I will but don't know if I can make that happen.
I'm actually a bit nervous about what will happen when I list it. Here the market is so fickle that I don't know what to expect. It seems to bear no relationship to what is going on in surrounding areas and, as I said before, no 2 houses are alike.
When I listed it before for 60 days, I was looking for property on the island here and couldn't find anything comparable in the same price range, i.e. no hardwood floors, studio, suite, new fireplace etc. but it didn't seem to impact the listing price and the buyers weren't lining up at the door even though I understand there was a potential buyer when I took it off listing.
The market has been down and up but I think there are a lot of properties on the market so who knows?
I think it would be worth just having a chat with a couple of realtors about the market here in general, just to mentally prepare myself.
Apr 24th 2011, 10:11 am
#6792
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Joined: Aug 2009
Location: Back home now in my home town in England U.K. after 36 years in U.S. now retired and loving it,
Posts: 3,208
Re: OVER 50's+ MOVING BACK TO THE UK - Part II
(blue skies and sunshine as far as the eye can see, and the birds are just so happy chatting away as they fly from tree to tree
) there you go theres my bit of made up poetry for the day,The other day me and Mum were talking AND I said to her Wow this is great weather for spring and she said no this is not Spring its Summer, she said in England its Summer as soon as the clock goes forward an hour and its done that already, ----- Im used to Vegas where its not officially Summer until I think June 17th, but I always thought that April is spring everywhere, I think Mum is wrong ---- but so be it
Oh Just realised this is chit chat and I should be on the other thread ---- oh well too late now ---- here goes,
Apr 24th 2011, 11:47 am
#6793
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Joined: Sep 2010
Location: Las Vegas, Nv
Posts: 1,000
Re: OVER 50's+ MOVING BACK TO THE UK - Part II
Barb Ive heard that on the weather forecast about the thunder & lightning storms in parts of England but here in the South nothing has changed, for over a week now we have had just perfect days,
(blue skies and sunshine as far as the eye can see, and the birds are just so happy chatting away as they fly from tree to tree) there you go theres my bit of made up poetry for the day,
The other day me and Mum were talking AND I said to her Wow this is great weather for spring and she said no this is not Spring its Summer, she said in England its Summer as soon as the clock goes forward an hour and its done that already, ----- Im used to Vegas where its not officially Summer until I think June 17th, but I always thought that April is spring everywhere, I think Mum is wrong ---- but so be it
Oh Just realised this is chit chat and I should be on the other thread ---- oh well too late now ---- here goes,
(blue skies and sunshine as far as the eye can see, and the birds are just so happy chatting away as they fly from tree to tree
) there you go theres my bit of made up poetry for the day,The other day me and Mum were talking AND I said to her Wow this is great weather for spring and she said no this is not Spring its Summer, she said in England its Summer as soon as the clock goes forward an hour and its done that already, ----- Im used to Vegas where its not officially Summer until I think June 17th, but I always thought that April is spring everywhere, I think Mum is wrong ---- but so be it
Oh Just realised this is chit chat and I should be on the other thread ---- oh well too late now ---- here goes,
Its just called summer time when the clocks are moved forward, but its not actually summer yet its still Spring, ..lol. The weather has been lovely, although to be honest the humidity is getting to me a bit, not used to it having lived in the desert most of my life. Also the lack of A/C is something I am trying to get used to..I guess its something I just took for granted in Vegas...
Hope everyone is well..
Jackie..
Apr 24th 2011, 2:27 pm
#6795
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Re: OVER 50's+ MOVING BACK TO THE UK - Part II
