If you’d have asked me a year ago about selling our house I’d have said no way hose. But as project matcha evolved, selling our house seemed like a way to make our dreams come true.

So when we got back from an incredible trip in the Alps, the question was looming. Sell or rent our house. It broke our hearts a little to think of selling the home we loved so much but we thought we’d first get some valuations to see what’s what!

The first person that came round was the same estate agent we bought our house from, and we’d had a pretty good experience when buying. But boy was this a different experience. Their view on the area we lived in was pretty awful and he zoomed through each room. He also valued it for £20k under what our minimum amount was that we needed to sell the house for so there is potentially a bit of bitterness coming from my side there! But in the end this was such a good thing to happen. Because we both felt deflated and depleted that our dreams were on the line. So it opened our eyes to realise we do really want this.

So we had a few more viewings booked in with estate agents and the last one gave us the glimmer of hope we needed. It was valued at £80k(!!!) more than the first proposal. She absolutely loved our house and said she already had a few buyers in mind. The feeling we got from her was sooo different to the first person and we knew we had a deal!

Now it felt really really scary putting our house on the market. Seeing the listing was WEIRD. But we had in our heads throughout this process that it hasn’t actually cost us anything to put it on. It’s only when you accept an offer and instruct a solicitor that you start to spend money. So there was nothing to lose.

So January 1st 2024 comes round and our listing goes live (pics below!). We get a call the next day saying 5 people are interested. Now we needed to hold off on viewings for a week whilst our bathroom was renovated so we tried to carry on life like normal. Then the day after the first viewing we get a call to say they have put in an offer. We were like ok ok, gosh this is pretty real and serious now. And although there were a mix of feelings going on as this had all happened so quickly, we knew deep down it was the right thing to do.

So by the middle of January we’d accepted the offer on our house and it was officially Sold STC. We did our absolute best to stay optimistic through the process of selling because you hear some proper horror stories but the optimism paid off and we officially sold our house 3 and a half months later.

Now one of my favourite parts of this story is the buyers. Thankfully they wanted a second look around and I was the one to be in the house to let them in. I was so excited to meet them and they are the most lovely people ever. Turns out they’d put in an offer for a house before and it was a massive chain and it was all going to pot so the 1st of January 2024, they thought they’d do one last look on rightmove and there our house was. And they said they fell in love with it the moment they saw it. They even had the same lego campervan in their house as we did in ours! So talk about a story of things being meant to be.

And something I’ve never been able to do before which I did throughout this process is let go. I let go of control of the outcome of the house sale, I just let it happen as it needed to. It leads to an incredibly stress free sale, happy sellers, and happy buyers! (Although the 3 week wait towards the end with no communication from anyone was still a bit hard for me to let go of!!) If you want to read more about the limbo phase whilst in Sold STC territory, I’ve written about it here.

So there you have it. The sale of our first home. We will cherish our time there forever but change is good. And so is following your heart.