house buying/selling help please!

[JustBonnie]

We've had our house on the market and accepted an offer a couple of weeks ago from a first time buyer. We've found our ideal new house which luckily enough is empty, therefore no chain either side. We've not had a survey done on our house yet although our buyer has told us that they have sent the cheque off so it shouldn't be long. What do we do next? We've got an appointment with our mortgage guy on monday but don't want to start paying for anything until our surveys been done, but at the same time don't want to lose our new house (got a good chunk off the price and are scared they're going to get a better offer!) I've also had a breakdown of charges from my solicitor for buying the new property but it doesn't say anything about dealing with the sale of this one. Do I pay again for that?? I might sound really thick but have never bought and sold at the same time. Is it best to wait until my survey's been completed and is fine before paying for one on the new property or will that delay things?

any advice would be greatly appreciated

we were in a similar position and decided to rush ahead with the survey on the property we were buying because we were so keen on the house. we then hassled the estate agents acting for us to get those buying our house to hurry up. TBF, if they have sent the cheque, that's a very good sign. There is a small time lapse between cheque arriving and survey being done. I think that waiting to avoid wasting money is possibly a bad move. There has to be trust on all sides. The best advice I can give is to get email and phone numbers of your buyers and those selling to you and keep in constant conversation with them.

BTW, we move into the new house tomorrow. Hurrah!

our solicitor cost £581 in total if that helps. most of the costs are involved in the buying, not the selling. he also threw in wills. he is a joy to deal with.

thanks for your reply and congratulations on your move. good luck tomorrow I can't wait until we actually get in the house. We keep going to look at it and are very tempted to pull down the 'for sale' board that's outside It's just all so stressful (especially when you're not sure what you're doing).

Our solicitor is only charging £300 but with all the other costs (search, stamp duty etc) the bill is over £2500 Oh well, will be worth every penny if it all goes ok.

i agree justbonnie...my dp had bought 4 times before. i had never bought so i was petrified the sellers would find a buyer who would offer more, but we really built up a friendship with them - and liked them, and then we trusted them. Shame they are moving really!

If your offer has been accepted then the board should be changed for "For Sale" anyway. If you don't have a survey done you run the risk of delay due to the market picking up and the people you are buying from may not think you are serious and continue to accept viewings etc. You can ask your solicitor to quote for the sale too but there isn't much for them to do on that until the survey is done.

on reading this we'll go ahead and pay to get it done. Really don't want to delay anything.

I also thought the board should say 'under offer' as well but it doesn't. Maybe the agents are waiting for the survey to make sure we're genuine. I'll be happier once it's changed.

yes, estate agents are crafty. our house (the one we just bought) was still being advertised 'for sale' in the estate agents window four days before exchange of contracts. no 'under offer' board ever went up outside the property.