The Great Escape - we have lift off

Assuming all goes well, step one has been achieved and then some!

The motivation to get some real progress on sorting the house out came from a phone call from the agents who sold our dear departed neighbours house. Weeks after the sale had gone through, they were still receiving calls about it and they had a queue of people wanting to buy a similar property

We had had them value our place as it stood and the answer came back at a level that was unsurprising but somewhat less than we really needed to achieve. Given what next door had sold for, and the level of interest, the agents were now suggesting we could almost certainly reach the minimum we needed to move forward

So last Wednesday, with the house tidier than it has ever been in the seventeen years we've lived here, round came the photographer and the measurer to get the info to create a nice sales brochure. They didn't mess about, by mid-morning the next day I had a draught copy in my in-box and after a couple of tweaks to the wording by mid-afternoon the house was on the market.

And that's when it went mad. Berserk even. We had two viewings on Friday afternoon and I'm pretty certain the first couple would have put in an offer in due course. Then Saturday afternoon just got silly! We, literally, had people queuing in the street to view the place.

The first couple to view were clearly in love with the place. They hadn't gone away whilst the second lot were viewing and then they collared the agent conducting the viewings and tabled a genuine offer of £5k over the asking price to secure the place.

Having talked to them extensively myself and having a clear picture of their circumstances and what they wanted, we had no hesitation in accepting the offer on the spot and taking the house off the market without further ado. The remaining viewings were cancelled and that was that

(They have sorted out their solicitors already and want to complete asap so they are not messing about!)

So that brings us to phase 2 of the cunning plan - buying a flat. Or not

Because it has become increasingly clear that a flat is not actually that good an option. There are two reasons - flat prices in the Kettering area have shot up way faster than house prices (reflecting a national trend apparently) to the point where there's not a huge gap between the asking price of a two bed flat and that of a two bed terraced house. In fact, some flatts we might have been interested in are actually dearer than some houses we might fancy!

The second reason is something we had no previous experience of. Ground rent and service charges. It turns out that on average in this area these add up to upwards of £80 a month and often more than £100 a month. When you add that monthly outlay onto the cost of the mortgage on, say, a £90k flat you have an outgoing that would comfortabke fund the mortgage on a £100k plus terraced house

So we've adapted to suit and the search is now on for a two bed terraced house within walking distance of Kettering town centre.

And yesterday we found one. A rather nice one. In fact, it's an absolute cracker. Vacant possession, right location (near enough) and in absolutely apple pie order having been recently redecorated and fitted with a new kitchen

The fly in the ointment is that it's £10k over budget!

The selling agent and the mortgage advisor are looking at ways and means to do a deal on it so it's not a complete non-starter but frankly I don't think it's going to come off so the search goes on