How long did it take you to find a house, from the first viewing you did?

[openerofjars]

I'm 38+1 and we have a lovely first time buyer that we don't want to mess around, so we are looking now (i.e. since we accepted the offer on Friday).

We have a shortlist of 13 houses, have seen 5 and discounted 2 of those. Of the remaining 8, we have booked viewings with 4 and are waiting to hear back from estate agents re the rest.

Is it unrealistic to want to be aiming at getting an offer in and accepted by my EDD, or is that pie in the sky?

Other party has no chain at all and the bloody estate agent won't disclose other offers made, so you have to basically guess what they are and go one up on that. It's like eBay, but where you don't know what the current high bid is.

Good job my blood pressure is low normally.

The vendors also want to move quickly as they are relocating, so for them it may be a balancing act between us having a higher offer versus the other couple having no chain. However, we almost have no chain and are very nice.

Am considering booking a second viewing, with huge bump and adorable toddler in tow, just to try and emotionally manipulate them into selling to us...

so they haven't got back to you straight away? not good.

Well, it's gone to best and final offers tonight, hope to hear back in the morning. We either get it or we don't and there is now, finally, nothing else we can do. There is only one other contender, so hey.

But we had the brilliant news from our own estate agent that our buyer's financial stuff has all gone through and that we are on to surveys etc now. So even if we don't get this house, we are all set up and in a brilliant position if we need to offer on a different property, which is now only a 50-50 chance.

my house gets surveyed thursday

i really hope it goes well for you - i find it quite nerve wracking !

Oh, good luck! Do you have any reasons to be v nervous or is it just the idea that someone is coming round to poke about in your home? We need to arrange survey tomorrow and I don't really know what it entails, but we have a first time buyer who will most likely just go for the cheapo one.

Nerve wracking isn't the half of it! I reckon I will only go into labour when we get an offer accepted as my mind is going to stop the baby from coming out when I am this tense.

I'll keep you posted & wil you let me know how the survey goes? Meet you back here for a beer unless I am giving birth (but totally intend to do live birth thread now I have portable Internet access!).

i think the house is in good nick but we bought it without a survey ourselves, so have no idea what they'll be looking at. also the buyer got a very detailed survey before walking out on a friends house.... (she wanted money off for the internal doors!) but that was because she'd have needed £20k off asking to buy...and the survey didn't bring up that much in deduction.

Meep. She sounds... interesting.

Our house has no serious issues but if there is any reduction we are going to need to borrow more, not ideal but doable.

Okay, must try & sleep!

I hope you like hills!

Yeah, I live at the top of one of the other six! Calf muscles like a Tour de France winner, me.

We got it!

Squee!

Well done you!!

pops cork<

survey tomorrow. house clean. wah.

All the best and am sure it will be fine. DH is a maintenance surveyor and seems optimistic about our house so I think the main things they will look for are rot, damp and subsidence, basically anything that might cock up the insurance. Our survey is Monday, unless I am actually giving birth in the dining room at the time. Would it be quite evil to pretend to go into labour, or at least clutch my back dramatically, while the surveyor is here?

Anyway, fingers crossed for you for tomorrow - keep us posted!

you could try that one if he starts looking too hard at things...

enjoy your fizz, well deserved! :)

Probably better than the ol' low cut top routine which wasnt all that effective even ten years ago, tbh although that really isn't the first bit of me that most people notice atm (and it would be terribly demeaning).

Night night and good luck!

surveyor was here at 7.30 this morning!!!

arghh..if i hadn't been worried, i'd have still been wandering around au naturel yelling at various nude cherubs to get dressed.....still, husband thinks it was a positive report..

i really hope so!

Oh, brilliant! Fingers as always crossed.

But 7:30? Bastard! What was he, a giant lark?

I may use my naked cherub as an annoying distraction on Monday morning. Hmm. Nice one.

Or I may just ask DH to paint over the dodgy bits on Sunday and see if my ILs fancy having DS again while I do fuck all supervise the painting job.

We had our mortgage guy round today and signed the next 30 years of our lives away. DH in terrible shock and talking about getting rid of the LoveFilm subscription etc.

Eeek, our house is being surveyed tomorrow - hope the surveyor doesn't turn up at 7.30! Did your surveyor ask you any questions, Edless? I'll be leaving for work at 8.30 and dh is going to London mid morning some time. Is it OK to just leave him to it do you think? He's picking up the key from the estate agent. Are we crazy to be so trusting as to leave him in the house on his own?

Snap on the mortgage, opener. We did first appointment together - 1.5 hours in a hot room with the 3 dc (had to bribe them with film on ipad, sweets etc.) Dh has just done second appt on his own and is talking about cancelling subscriptions too.

PMSL. If we just actually budgeted properly for the first time in our lives, took sandwiches to work and ate far less takeaway, we'd have as much disposable income as we do now, give or take. Mind you, maternity leave comes at a bad time...

surveyor asked us about the extensions and when they were done (we had paperwork from previous occupant)

he asked Dh to open our garage door for him as he has been accused of damaging them in the past!

didn't look under floors, didn't bring ladder so not a comprehensive survey as it might be.

4 years and counting.

Dude...

Survey went fine, as far as I can tell. Nothing urgent and nothing drastic, so hopefully won't affect the sale.

Phew!