December 9, 2013, by Olivia
Lesson One of House Hunting: Be (very) Patient
This past week my flatmates and I had our first experience at house hunting. However we got lost (in Lenton!) and were about 15 minutes late for our viewing slot. Naturally, the agent wasn’t very pleased with the five of us and proceeded to only show us one house out of our original plan of four houses. To put it lightly, none of us were impressed with the house. Disappointed by how the viewing turned out, we proceeded to walk back to the bus stop to head home.
However as we were walking we passed another agency and tried to see if we could squeeze in a viewing as we were already in the area. The agent informed us that there was one at 5pm for 5-bedroom houses if we wanted to tag along. As it was only about 3pm at the time, we hesistantly agreed, wanting to make the most of our little “trip”.
At 5pm we were back in the agency and proceeded to tag along for the viewing. It was only while we were on this tour we realized the house seemed pretty large for a 5-bed, so we asked the agent and he informed us that the house we were viewing was in fact a 6-bedroom house. Slightly devasted, annoyed and very very cold we made our way back to the agency to book a proper viewing for Saturday.
Luck wasn’t on our side again as on Saturday we were informed that two of the houses we booked to view had already been sold. However things took a turn after that, as we managed to view 5 houses, 4 of which we really liked so much so that we had trouble deciding!
Sketch of our house! I was so excited to blog about this I made a sketch! I’m not one bit as good as Eve our resident artist/blogger, but I think this will have to do?
Somehow we all agreed on the same house which was the right size and in the perfect location. We signed the contract that very day! I know it seems like a rash decision, but with a current household of 2 medics and 3 pharmacy students it was difficult to coordinate everybody’s schedules for a viewing let alone find a house everyone agreed on. This was definitely a match made in heaven!
To top off a productive day of house hunting there was a lovely sunset in Lenton, which I had to take a picture of!
Sunset in Lenton
Hope you have a great last week of term ahead. Only 15 days till Christmas!
Good to hear that you found a house that you wanted. One word of caution… Be careful signing a contract on the same day – it’s not much time for reflection or checking the small print.
You can always ask agency to take it off the market subject to an admin fee normally. That’s a safer way to make a big decision.
Good luck everyone.