We did it!!! I’m not sure exactly how, but we did it. And it
happened all so fast! When I wrote my last post I had the property pretty much written
off. We were still negotiating the price, but there was a gap between what the
bank said they’d offer and what the vendor said he wanted. So, we pulled off
completely. That’s when I wrote the last post. We weren’t in the position to
offer him in cash the asking difference.
However, he must have been in need for cash quickly because
he agreed! He agreed on the money offered to us by the bank, which matches the
surveyor’s evaluation. We received that phone call on Sunday the 20th
of October, the day that JJ was flying back to Cape Town to visit his family. We
were over the moon. We opened a bottle of champagne and everything. Following
Monday we gave the order to our solicitor and mortgage advisor to go ahead.
We can now call this our own (in 25 years).
That’s when the thriller started. On Wednesday of the same
week the vendor changed his mind! He said that we’re taking things too slowly
(rubbish excuse) and put the property back in the market! There is absolutely
no way that a bank can approve a mortgage and the contracts to be created in
two to three days! That’s completely unrealistic. He probably thought he could
get more money from the property and got more than one real estate agents and
put the property back on the market. He even tried to find tenants to rent it!
Both I and JJ from South Africa were on the phone with our solicitor and bank trying
to sort things out. I can’t point out enough how stressful these weeks have
been. We could see the place online on offer. We were also pretty much harassed
by our estate agents to hurry up, since they didn’t want to lose the sale to
the competition.
Anyway, on Friday the 1st of November we got the
report. On Monday the 4th we exchanged contracts and Tuesday the 12th
we completed. For those of you familiar with the property market, you would
understand how fast that is! At some point I thought that there could be a bad
reason and the vendor is pushing things so quickly. However, we got the
property on the exact price that was evaluated which I think doesn’t happen
often. We got it around 11.3% less than
the preliminary agreed price, which was already £15k less than the first asking
price. We can’t really complain.
And the place is perfect. It was built in the 30’s. It has
some really nice features like cute little wooden doors and fireplaces in every
room. It has 2 to 3 bedrooms, the third one is very small and could be a study
or boudoir. It needs some TLC because it was rented and the tenants didn’t
really took care of it, but that’s exactly what we wanted. We wanted to put our
own stamp on it and make it our own. So, we’re planning on moving in the
following weekend. We’ll try to fix things in the house before then and try to
prepare it for our arrival! Exciting stuff!!!
So, that’s what’s been happening. I’m very sorry I lost
contact recently with you guys. I haven’t read or commented on almost anything.
I hope I haven’t missed something ground breaking. If I have, please excuse me.
I’m not sure how I’ll manage to catch up and how often I’ll keep on posting,
but I plan on returning when the dust settles down.
