Admiring the view

Four properties today, though we’d only originally had appointments to see three and the fourth was pure luck as it was the same agent who had the coded keys for both properties in the same road.
We were on the road early, our first appointment being at 11am.
Traffic was bein rerouted around one of the major towns en route, but we had made allowances for that and the journey actually wasn’t that bad.
We stopped for a potty break and later a cup of roadside tea, then started the fun and games of looking for the place.
We got lost, and had to phone the agent to say we were on our way but might be a few minutes late. As it turned out we arrived with five minutes to spare. A nice little bungalow which was empty and needed quite a bit of work, had a lovely view and had just been reduced as it had been on the market a while.

Our second property was about a half hour drive away, but in the middle of nowhere.
Our appointment was at 1pm, and we were going up and down some of the most horrendously steep single track roads. Memories of househunting some years ago in these very same roads came flooding back, and I confess my heart was in my mouth at so many blind corners.
We eventually found it, a lovely bungalow with a beautiful view. It was way beyond our budget really, but had been for sale for some time. The vendors didn’t have anywhere to go yet and didn’t intend to look until they had secured a buyer. We would have had to buy a 4X4 vehicle as our little Hyundai I10 would not be able to cope long term, but it was practically toothbrush perfect, so worth discussion.

The third was a small dormer bungalow (2 bedrooms upstairs and one downstairs) which was like a Tardis inside. It was massive, way too big for us really, but needed new windows and had some serious ventilation issues.
Our bonus property was literally just down the road, and although cheap, it was a mess.
Hubby used his damp detector and it registered 113% humidity in the walls…… all of them.
The property, like the preceding one, was empty, and had been for almost a year. The heating had been left on miser, but the damp, black mould and smell of wood rot and decay was overpowering.

We went into Aberaeron for something to eat, and weighed up the pros and cons of the first two properties we’d seen.
By our rough calculation, the first needed about ten thousand pounds spent on it, but it was already double glazed throughout, was empty and a blank canvas for us to put our mark on it. It had been reduced by £14,000 as it was an executors sale, probate had been done, and the family just wanted to move on.
The second was, as I said, toothbrush perfect. But location was a serious issue, and buying a new car was not in the budget, let alone running costs of the beast. It was also way beyond us, even though it had been reduced by £10K, but there was no way I could see them accepting a lot less to comply with our budget.

We listed fors and againsts for both.
And put in a cheeky offer on the first.
It was naturally refused, so we were asked if we could raise it.
For once the Estate Agents listened to us, knowing we were on a strict budget with little wiggle room, so we upped it by £3,000.
The vendors accepted!
Now we have to wait to see how things progress.

 

Will keep you posted!

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