New build house part exchange

[Maneandfeathers]

If anyone has been through this before...

When do you pay the reservation fee? After they agree to part ex yours?

How much inspecting do they do?

Then how does it work. So I hear your supposed to exchange within 28days. Does this mean I would own the new build but stay in ours until it’s ready?

It’s all very confusing. Ideally it would be a good option for us but I don’t know how easy it would be to complete within 28 days

We did this. We had a minimum part exchange price in mind that we wouldn’t go below, as it happened they offered us £5k above that but had they not I got the feeling they would have been open to negotiation.

We didn’t pay the reservation fee until we had agreed a p/x price.

They did do lots of checks and we had to get a gas and electricity certificate for our house. Bit of a faff and a small expense but nothing major.

You don’t own your new house on exchange, just at completion so there can be a while between the 2.

They put a for sale sign on our old house as soon as we agreed to p/x it. We facilitated viewings. They have us a £500 bonus if we sold prior to completion on the new house (sstc) which we actually did!!

They asked for a £500 returnable deposit to ensure we left the old house clean, tidy and cleared of ‘shite’, which we did and they returned the deposit within days of completion.

The other positive was we completed on the Friday, so got the keys to the new house but they didn’t want our keys till Monday morning which gave us the whole weekend to move.

My advice would be, be strict on what you’ll accept for yours and stick to it.

The only downside was I don’t feel we had as much buying power when it came to extras on the new house as perhaps someone not part exchanging would have had but we did manage to get some stuff for free (turf on the garden and an extra cupboard in the utility.

Good luck.

We did this with a Barratt house back in 1991 so I can't remember exact details.
Our new house was almost complete so it was ready for us to move into within about 4 or 5 weeks.
Someone from Barratts came to view our house. He did have a good look round but not in an intrusive way. We had an offer within a couple of days which we were happy to accept.
I do remember being advised to make sure anything that needed rectifying from the snag check should be done before we moved in because it can be difficult to get them back afterwards.
It was a good move for us.

Thank you @Crikeyblimey!

Ours is worth about 90k roughly. The new one is 200k so a decent step up.

Did you just ring and say I want plot X and I want to part exchange on it? They advertise part ex but don’t say on which plots.

It seems like a good option but the timing seems to be very tight in terms of exchange where if we did it on our own and sold there’s a fair bit less pressure to find money for solicitors etc instantly!
We don’t actually have any savings, all of our money is tied up in equity.

Even if you didn't part ex and just bought a new build they'd still ask for 28 day exchange.

You need to go into the sales office and speak to them. They may only consider part ex on particular houses of theirs.

Part-ex is usually on completed plots that they can't sell - have you viewed the new build, did they say it was a possibility when you went round?

We did part exchange with a 28 day exchange clause. Seem to remember we had three estate agents round to value the house then a surveyor appointed by David Wilson Homes came to inspect the house and suggest an offer amount to DWH. Our old house hadn't sold within 28 days so we effectively sold it to David Wilson Homes, then they continued marketing it and eventually sold it on. They gave us a good price for ours and they actually lost £20k on the sale as no buyers would pay that much. We continued living in it until our new build was ready. It worked really well for us. Agree with PP that we didn't have much flexibility on extras but that's not been an issue for us.

We paid a £500 reservation fee up front (on our first visit to the site) to secure our plot (we would have lost this if they wouldn't part exchange after the survey/valuations etc). Don't think there was much else to pay until completion but really can't remember it's been a few years now. Hope it all works out for you.

Thanks all.

I’m not sure if a 28day exchange would work for us sadly as we don’t have any funding that isn’t tied up in equity. It’s a shame as we weren’t intending to move for 6 months when we had saved up £ henve why ours isn’t on the market yet.

They have just started to market. All are being marketed off plan and building hasn’t started but the website/boards just say part ex available.

The plot we want is the first to be built so probably unlikely then

Pop into the office and talk to them. We found they can be quite flexible if they are certain you are a serious buyer. All depends on how popular the properties are of course. Good luck!

Op, if you don’t ask you don’t get. It might not be feasible but you will never know if you don’t discuss it with them. You might as well, go look and have a discussion. If nothing else it’s research for when you do move. Good luck.

I think they’re quite flexible. We did it about 15 years ago, but didn’t have to pay any cash up front. We chose ours from plan. We had been struggling to sell our house, which was why we decided to try part exchange, and they offered us the price we were trying to get via an estate agent. Our old house was an old terrace, and it was right on the limit of the age house they would accept, so I was a bit worried about that, but it was seamless. They didn’t market it until long after we left, so we didn’t have people looking round or anything. I’d do it again if we wanted a bigger house, but we’re looking more at downsizing now.

In case it’s worth mentioning our house builder was Crest Nicholson. We were the first in our road to move in, and lived on a building site for pretty much a year, but it was actually a lot of fun, very polite and respectful, and I quite missed it when they’d all gone.

If the new house isn’t built yet, go and talk to them. We bought off plan and simply part exchanged on the plot. We did exchange working the 28 days but money only gets paid on completion, so as they were Beijing in their build, we ‘sold’ in April and didn’t complete till July.
Your best bet is to have the conversation.

Behind not Beijing!!! That would be very odd indeed!!

If your deposit is tied into your equity then you can exchange on zero deposit.

Honestly your best bet is actually talking to them!

Thanks all!

I will try and talk to them. The sales office isn’t open for 2 weeks and the sales manager is a nightmare to get hold of.

Looks like it’s a possibility though!