I've already got a new EA in my life. Tom is popping round this morning to value the house. He's part of an internet only EA... so that means lower fees. I guess you could say I found him via internet dating...sort of.
Anyway, we shall see. Had a couple round on Thursday that the current EA said had lots of positive comments, but haven't heard back from them so still haven't sold this house!
Saturday 19 November 2011
Saturday 12 November 2011
Breaking up is hard to do
Relationships are complex things. When they work they involve two people achieving common goals in a way that brings happiness to them both. When they don’t work, they usually bring frustration and anger to the surface, until the point that it gets too much and one of the partners calls it a day. I’m sad to say that I’ve reached this point. After a few weeks of uncertainty, frustration, anger and complaining to anyone who is unfortunate enough to be within earshot I’d finally reached the point where I could see it wasn’t working. Now I just had work out how to tell him….
So here’s the sorry tale of how I finally worked up the courage to break up with my estate agent. He’d arranged to come see me at home to discuss how things were going. I was tempted to cancel the meeting, I knew what he was going to say and I’d no interest in hearing it. But at the end of the day I thought it would be best to tell him to his face. I’d been taking longer and longer to return his calls, and speaking to him no longer filled me with hope but like most men, he obviously had failed to read into the signs. He arrived at the door full of vim and vigour, his little briefcase clutched in his sweaty hand, full of printouts to show just how much he’d been thinking of selling this house and how hard he’d been working.
I had to be blunt, better to be cruel to be kind. Before he’d even sat himself down on the sofa I told him I’d decided to hand in my 2 weeks notice, as and from the 28th Nov we’d no longer be together. He did seem a little taken aback when I thrust my handwritten (the printer was broken) letter of termination of contact at him. And he may have had the right to feel a little hurt when I got him to sign the (also handwritten) letter saying that he’d received notice of termination. Where’s the trust? he must have been thinking.. do I mean nothing to you?
What followed was a ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ conversation, where I assuaged his feelings that I wasn’t happy with him or the amount of work he was putting in. It’s me, I said. I’m tired of having to rush home at a moment’s notice to clean the house from top to bottom so some person can walk round it for 5 minutes and decide it’s got the wrong aspect and they don’t want to buy it. I’ve got exams coming up in December, and it’ll soon be Christmas. I just don’t have the time to invest in this anymore.There's nothing out there that I want to buy, and I can't sell this place. I'm sorry, but it’s over.
His little face looked so disappointed I had to resist the urge to pat him on the hand and say “Don’t worry, you’ll find someone else with a better house, a bigger house with more commission to be earned. You'll soon forget about this place".
Rich of course made me feel like the female Alan Sugar, for handing out the ”you're fired” letter so soon into conversation. But I didn’t want the poor man to be lead on now did I ? Better to let him know there’s no hope.
Now all I have is his little print outs of the statistics of how our house is performing on Rightmove (above average clicks … but no bidders). What use is it to me to know how many bored people are gawping over our property details? I need someone to come here and give us a half decent offer. That’s why I told him I’m leaving him for someone else. Someone who won’t require so much effort and money, someone who can deliver on their promise. Someone who can sell our house.. I just need to find them.
So here’s the sorry tale of how I finally worked up the courage to break up with my estate agent. He’d arranged to come see me at home to discuss how things were going. I was tempted to cancel the meeting, I knew what he was going to say and I’d no interest in hearing it. But at the end of the day I thought it would be best to tell him to his face. I’d been taking longer and longer to return his calls, and speaking to him no longer filled me with hope but like most men, he obviously had failed to read into the signs. He arrived at the door full of vim and vigour, his little briefcase clutched in his sweaty hand, full of printouts to show just how much he’d been thinking of selling this house and how hard he’d been working.
I had to be blunt, better to be cruel to be kind. Before he’d even sat himself down on the sofa I told him I’d decided to hand in my 2 weeks notice, as and from the 28th Nov we’d no longer be together. He did seem a little taken aback when I thrust my handwritten (the printer was broken) letter of termination of contact at him. And he may have had the right to feel a little hurt when I got him to sign the (also handwritten) letter saying that he’d received notice of termination. Where’s the trust? he must have been thinking.. do I mean nothing to you?
What followed was a ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ conversation, where I assuaged his feelings that I wasn’t happy with him or the amount of work he was putting in. It’s me, I said. I’m tired of having to rush home at a moment’s notice to clean the house from top to bottom so some person can walk round it for 5 minutes and decide it’s got the wrong aspect and they don’t want to buy it. I’ve got exams coming up in December, and it’ll soon be Christmas. I just don’t have the time to invest in this anymore.There's nothing out there that I want to buy, and I can't sell this place. I'm sorry, but it’s over.
His little face looked so disappointed I had to resist the urge to pat him on the hand and say “Don’t worry, you’ll find someone else with a better house, a bigger house with more commission to be earned. You'll soon forget about this place".
Rich of course made me feel like the female Alan Sugar, for handing out the ”you're fired” letter so soon into conversation. But I didn’t want the poor man to be lead on now did I ? Better to let him know there’s no hope.
Now all I have is his little print outs of the statistics of how our house is performing on Rightmove (above average clicks … but no bidders). What use is it to me to know how many bored people are gawping over our property details? I need someone to come here and give us a half decent offer. That’s why I told him I’m leaving him for someone else. Someone who won’t require so much effort and money, someone who can deliver on their promise. Someone who can sell our house.. I just need to find them.
Thursday 3 November 2011
Boo
It's not a great picture, or even a good picture but it's the best Rich could manage since the kids had got at the camera and changed the settings. I've got them back to normal now, and bought a new memory disk having lost the old one (ironically I can't remember where I put it), so you can expect more pictures and less waffeling on here from now on.
Just had the kids parents evenings.. very interesting as Noah has already attained the level expected for reception child at literacy and numeracy after only 6 weeks. Which on the face of it sounds great, but does make me worry how low the level actually is if he's surpassed it before he's got his bum on a seat. Fortunately that doesn't mean he gets to take the rest of the year off..... I think he'll be filling his time playing at being a lion and trying not to swallow anything he's not supposed to.
Amie's report was a bit less clear cut...she's great at thinking outside the box, creative writing and socialising and to quote her teacher "Certainly does not suffer from any self esteem issues". How to take that one? BUT she does find it hard to follow instructions and her listening skills aren't great.. she's likely to go off on a tangent and do her own thing rather than what she's supposed to be doing (good for her I say... far too many people joining the dots... RUN FREE MY CHILD RUN FREE I SAY .. though not to her teacher of course.
We haven't sold the house, we have had an offer in but won't be able to buy a 4 bed if we take it. Have to weigh that fact up with the fact if we hold out for a higher offer it could take up to 2 years to sell this place.. then Noah's only on top of the waiting list, and so realistically there's probably no point in changing him as Amie will be getting ready to leave Hawthorns school anyway.
EA rang me this morning to suggest a meeting to "discuss the situation" which means he's going to come round and tell me we need to lower the price.
Just had the kids parents evenings.. very interesting as Noah has already attained the level expected for reception child at literacy and numeracy after only 6 weeks. Which on the face of it sounds great, but does make me worry how low the level actually is if he's surpassed it before he's got his bum on a seat. Fortunately that doesn't mean he gets to take the rest of the year off..... I think he'll be filling his time playing at being a lion and trying not to swallow anything he's not supposed to.
Amie's report was a bit less clear cut...she's great at thinking outside the box, creative writing and socialising and to quote her teacher "Certainly does not suffer from any self esteem issues". How to take that one? BUT she does find it hard to follow instructions and her listening skills aren't great.. she's likely to go off on a tangent and do her own thing rather than what she's supposed to be doing (good for her I say... far too many people joining the dots... RUN FREE MY CHILD RUN FREE I SAY .. though not to her teacher of course.
We haven't sold the house, we have had an offer in but won't be able to buy a 4 bed if we take it. Have to weigh that fact up with the fact if we hold out for a higher offer it could take up to 2 years to sell this place.. then Noah's only on top of the waiting list, and so realistically there's probably no point in changing him as Amie will be getting ready to leave Hawthorns school anyway.
EA rang me this morning to suggest a meeting to "discuss the situation" which means he's going to come round and tell me we need to lower the price.
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