House buying help needed!

[Carmenere]

There are four of us living in a rented 2 bed flat atm. For the past two years we have been waiting for my parents to come into some cash as they have kindly offered to buy a house for us to rent from them. The money nearly came through about 6 months ago and I had started to house hunt, however it fell through and we missed the properties we had our eyes on.
The money is expected to come through on Tuesday and we have to find somewhere without a chain to buy immediately as our flat is on the market. Now the problem is that there is very little on the market just at the moment that fits our criteria, basically we need 3 beds but have a two bed budget. I was feeling very dispondent and thinking that we would have to give up the idea of a garden and my dd really needs one for the summer.
I have scoured all the property websites for the past year and know that lots of properties remain on the sites even if they have been sold. So I was not surprised to see the house I really wanted and that miraculously fitted our strict criteria was on a couple of them. But tonight I saw it on a site that says when it was uploaded and the date was last wednesday. I am now really excited and worried as if this is just an error I will be upset again. But if it is not an error we may actually get the house that, although it is not perfect, it could be really good for us. Anyway mumsnet anyone know if this is likely to be somekind of website error? Please keep your fingers crossed for us, thanks

Fingers crossed, Carmenere! How exciting - hope it all works out for you.

can you go round to the house tomorrow and knock on the door, smile sweetly explaining you are in no chain and cash buyers.....
or if not i would always go for the worse house in the best street. stressful renovating but it will be the shell and location that you want and you can slowly do it up. you won't be paying extra for someone elses work and taste

Thanks mfhm (love the current name btw). I would go round there shrub but it's empty. I know we are in a strong position and you are completely right about the worst house on the best street, particularly as it's my parents money. Dp used to be in the police and is very fussy about where he will live (understandably).

knock on neighbours doors to see if they know owners. my friend bought her house this way by just asking around on the street she wanted to buy. there was an empty house and she contacted owner. another tactic is if its sold, post handwritten cards in every house on that street explaining no chain, cash etc. there is usually at least one person that is thinking of selling. you may get it cheaper if you don't go through agents as there will be no fee for seller to pay
best of luck. it took us over 2 years to find our worse house in best street, but it was all worth the waiting and frustration.so glad we didn't compromise

fogot to add you do have to be rather bold to knock on doors, but if its a nice day people may be milling about

They are really good ideas shrub, I would love to take estate agents out of the equation, thanks

Ok - house is back on the market and we are going to view it this afternoon. We are very interested in this house and hope to put an offer in tommorow. The last buyers pulled out as the survey found damp and apparently the vendor had the palce treated and has a 10 yr certificate but they pulled out anyway.
We have cash and want to move asap but my problem is how much to offer. We are acutely aware that the market has changed considerably in the past 6 months and that they will not accept what they would have done before. But 6 months ago they were very keen to sell it and dropped the price 3 times so surely they must be still anxious to get rid. We want to make an offer that will be treated seriously as we do want this house but every 1,000 is important to us. The house is on for 194,500 what should we offer baring in mind that we can exchange in a matter of weeks?

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That was my instinct but dp says as there are so few similiar houses on the market in the area that we should offer £190,000 or even £191,000 but I think that is not taking advantage of the excellent buying position we are in.

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Just spoke to the agent, there is another offer on the house . She wouldn't tell me for how much but just that it wasn't at the asking price. Am in a pickle now, not sure what to offer at all. Have just spoke to my mum who says she thinks the asking price is actually fair and would be happy to pay it, but I don't want to pay over the odds.
I am worried that if we go in too low we will miss it and be stuck with very few other options.

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I think you are right ggg, I will ask what position the other buyers but I think we are a pretty good bet for the vendor as he is sure to want to speed things up having been let down by the previous buyers.

i would start quite cheeky
they have already had one sale fall through and that problem is still there regardless of what treatment they have had done(however, my last house showed damp on survey, but stupid machine had actually picked up condensation on walls as it was winter..heating on, dinner in over, kettle and washer dryer on!), you are cash buyers (say your prepared to rent again if you dont get something that fits the bill, even if you wont/cant)and a house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it!, so let them know how much of an 'easy buyer' you can be ie:moving quick, mortgage in place etc..good luck

don't despair - you could do the following - offer the full asking price. get middle/full survey done and highlight faults and take a copy to estate agents to renegotiate price down. still say you really want it but it will cost xyz to make good the faults. remind them at the same time - if they put it back on market the same faults will keep coming up and you are no chain and cash.
usually once seller commits to you buying it they won't want another sale fall through.
the reason i know this is this is what happened to us when we were selling, but then we had to do the same when we bought our next house - horrible but it worked.
good luck

Ok well, we have just been to see the house and have put in an offer of 193500 or 194000 with some furniture (a really nice antique pine wardrobe and chest of drawers and a couple of other bits).

The rising damp that showed up in the survey has been treated and the chimney has been repointed, but the last buyers still werent happy with the survey afterwards. I have to say I'm not too worried about this as my dad and brother are architects and unless there is something very seriously wrong I think we would buy it anyway but the offer is still subject to survey.

The vendor lives in Thailand and so we are waiting to hear back whether the offer has been accepted or not but it is night time over there so it will probably be tommorow.
The agent said she thinks he will accept the offer as we are cash buyers and he wants rid fairly fast.
Please keep your fingers crossed for us x

Good luck!!

I HATE house buying and selling - going through it at the moment and it's horrendously stressful

oohhh..the waiting game ..arrrrrrrggghhhh
good luck

Ok the offer has been accepted and the solicitor has been instructed and I am now waiting for my parents bank in Ireland to email the estate agents to let them know that they are ok for the money. Please mumsnet keep your fingers crossed for us - believe me we are due a bit of good fortune!

Just spoke to the agent - all going well with the survey he's hoping that we can exchange in 28 days . All the legal work has been done on the vendors side already because of the previous sale and he says our solicitor is a really fast worker so we just have to have the structural survey done and it should move really quickly after that. They are happy to supply us with a copy of the previous survey which I would imagine they wouldn't do if they were hiding something, so it's looking pretty good really

brill!..hope all go's suickly and wel for you