Possible probable hope-to-hell-we-have A HOUSE
Sooo, some of you will know and some of you won't know, but Ash and I have decided that this summer the stars are aligned in the right diagonal towards Pluto, and the flowers are dancing auspiciously, and it all signals that it's the right time to move in together (or more accuartly, my lease ends in June, and Ash dislikes both his current job and house, so we're in the perfect position to go for it).
We had a day of uber house hunting on Wednesday, where we went round eight houses with three different companies. We were meant to see a further two next week, but I'm going to call in and cancel that because-
WE HAVE FOUND THE PERFECT HOUSE. Two bedroomed terrace half an hours walk from town centre, cheaper rent than my current flat, spacious living room and a cute quirky kitchen. And a bth tub (Oh how I've missed having a bath tub!) And the estate agent was excellent as she fought off another (couple? single person? possible tennant anyroad) who wanted it too. We won 'cos we have jobs and they are on benefits. She also then got the landlord to agree we can have chinchillas for no extra cost (they usually chuck extra on the bond). (Oh yeah - we're planning on getting chinchillas, but that'll be months after moving in). We were squee!
Ok, so there's been some right ball ache applying for it. We filled in a form which wanted three years of living and employment history (a doddle for Ash, but more annoying for me who has changed jobs every year, and house once as well). It may have also wanted part of our souls for the cost of processing the damned things. Anyhoo - some sat down time with an estate agent, followed by some extra phone calls to add and correct stuff and we were done. We were told it'd be a week or so until we got the definite yay as they needed to check references etc, but the house was now considered off the market.
Yesterday, I get a phone call. The landlord was not happy that we couldn't move in until June, as the other couple could move in straight away. But he really didn't want them (ha ha - we rock). He offered us half price rent to take it on 1st May, which was lovely but not really affordable. So we sent the estate agent back to him with an offer of an extended contract (12 months not six, which doesn't bother us either way). So he came back saying that he really wanted to let it in May, and would knock £100 off our bond and still only charge us half price for May AND give us a six month contract. We kinda lept on that one.
Looking at it, it'll work out better. It knocks a couple of hundred quid off the mass payment of bond/first months rent/letting agency fee, which is nice. And it means we have a month to look at the place empty and work out where everything will go before having to drag all the stuff from both our houses. That'll make moving in less stressful. It basically works out that we're paying £90 for a month's rent too which isn't ideal considering it'll be left empty, but overall it means we can have the place.
I just hope the references and credit checks come back clean or it'll all have been for nothing!! But we expect they will. Now Ash is in job-in-Hudd hunt mode so he can move in at the same time as me (if not we'll stagger it). Fingers crossed for us people!
I'm really really excited by the way. Expect much squee if they ring to say we've 100% got it, and much tears and grumpy ranting if they ring to say no.
Ciao
~*Ruth*~
We had a day of uber house hunting on Wednesday, where we went round eight houses with three different companies. We were meant to see a further two next week, but I'm going to call in and cancel that because-
WE HAVE FOUND THE PERFECT HOUSE. Two bedroomed terrace half an hours walk from town centre, cheaper rent than my current flat, spacious living room and a cute quirky kitchen. And a bth tub (Oh how I've missed having a bath tub!) And the estate agent was excellent as she fought off another (couple? single person? possible tennant anyroad) who wanted it too. We won 'cos we have jobs and they are on benefits. She also then got the landlord to agree we can have chinchillas for no extra cost (they usually chuck extra on the bond). (Oh yeah - we're planning on getting chinchillas, but that'll be months after moving in). We were squee!
Ok, so there's been some right ball ache applying for it. We filled in a form which wanted three years of living and employment history (a doddle for Ash, but more annoying for me who has changed jobs every year, and house once as well). It may have also wanted part of our souls for the cost of processing the damned things. Anyhoo - some sat down time with an estate agent, followed by some extra phone calls to add and correct stuff and we were done. We were told it'd be a week or so until we got the definite yay as they needed to check references etc, but the house was now considered off the market.
Yesterday, I get a phone call. The landlord was not happy that we couldn't move in until June, as the other couple could move in straight away. But he really didn't want them (ha ha - we rock). He offered us half price rent to take it on 1st May, which was lovely but not really affordable. So we sent the estate agent back to him with an offer of an extended contract (12 months not six, which doesn't bother us either way). So he came back saying that he really wanted to let it in May, and would knock £100 off our bond and still only charge us half price for May AND give us a six month contract. We kinda lept on that one.
Looking at it, it'll work out better. It knocks a couple of hundred quid off the mass payment of bond/first months rent/letting agency fee, which is nice. And it means we have a month to look at the place empty and work out where everything will go before having to drag all the stuff from both our houses. That'll make moving in less stressful. It basically works out that we're paying £90 for a month's rent too which isn't ideal considering it'll be left empty, but overall it means we can have the place.
I just hope the references and credit checks come back clean or it'll all have been for nothing!! But we expect they will. Now Ash is in job-in-Hudd hunt mode so he can move in at the same time as me (if not we'll stagger it). Fingers crossed for us people!
I'm really really excited by the way. Expect much squee if they ring to say we've 100% got it, and much tears and grumpy ranting if they ring to say no.
Ciao
~*Ruth*~