The emotional debates about putting the house on the market were intense, both between us and with our young adults. Deciding to sell up has crystallised a whole load of things. Buying Clacheranmor was one thing, but moving there permanently (although always our intention) is becoming imminent. Stopping work for both of us was no longer something measured in years, but in months or even weeks and, naturally, asking the kids to be fully independent brought home the harsh realities of no longer having the 'nest' to fall back on. The up-shot of the discussion was that putting the house on the market in August would likely result in moving out end of the year, if not January. We'd always spoken about selling the house in July '24 so really we were simply changing the timings by 6 months. It was always going to happen - and another 6 months would make what difference?
We believed that the sooner we moved forwards, the more likely we got someone who fell in love with our house and offered to pay top dollar, and summer was the best time to show off the house. We were in no rush to accept any offer, and September, apparently (Estate Agent speak....), is a prime month for sales as people come back from holiday having realised over the summer that the family home isn't big enough for the growing brood.
After we'd made the decision to sell, the first question really was: who with? We're not really fans of estate agents or solicitors but even in this day and age, most people still use them - £6000 fees (oh, plus VAT) to sell a house seems wrong to us, as does £2000 to perform the legals but this is the world we live in.
A little research narrowed our preferences down to Peter Clarke and Connell's. We'd used Connell's over 20 years ago to sell our previous house when the first agent we used failed to get us anywhere. They were sharp, on the ball - possibly aggressive. Online reviews were positive - the most negative reviews were from folks that had arranged viewings only to be cancelled at the last minute as the house had sold - I'll take that feedback as acceptable, as a seller! Peter Clarke were professional and good marketeers. We opted for Connell's mainly because their valuation was more positive (by £25,000 or 5%). Let's see what happens - we are sure the house will find its natural value in the marketplace.
Once we were committed to selling the house, we started in earnest to get it into shape for viewings and photography. It's amazing how much stuff you collect over 20 years in a house, even for folks like ourselves who tend to use then sell on through eBay or the like. There were also some 'adjustments' we needed to make to the house - in particular removing animal skulls, taxidermy and horns etc. from the living room wall! John also spent a good couple of hours pulling threads out of the carpet where the cats had scratched.
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