Homeless at last....

Well, a plan has to have a start a middle and an end. Last Friday the 24th February  was the turning point - the middle.

We completed on the sale of our home of the last 21 years, 6 months and 26 days. It has not been a home really for the last couple of years as we have let our son and daughter in law live there and moved back in and then I have spent the last 16 months DIY'ing to get it something like to attract the right buyer.

For my record it went on the market in June, we accepted an offer in early October and despite being asked to have it ready by the end of November to move into it took about 5 months to complete from the offer.

There is no doubt in my mind there are still a few areas of business that need a real kick up the backside and the buying and selling of houses is one of them. There is a shocking lack of appropriate timing and associated customer services. The antiquated practices and lack of engagement with modern communications methods and data accessibility do not fit with what is now expected. They deserve to be overridden by technology. We see it in the estate agents side - no %'s anymore, fixed prices and all competing. The 'conveyancing' needs to be shaken up.

Rant over and house gone, it is a big relief not to have the liability of an empty house as well as the costs each month on services hardly used. Plus come the growing season one less large lawn to mow.

So several weeks now until the next but not final part of something discussed many times and planned in some detail over many decades.... more on that later.

The other good news is we have had an offer accepted on a property and exchanged contracts on it. It ticked all but one box and that box can be retrospectively ticked if needed.

For now though a picture of our home of the last 21 years. Lets hope the house looks after its new owners as it did our family and if they are half as happy as we were while there they will  be rich indeed.