Support thread for MN's trying to buy a house

[financialwizard]

I can't find another thread like this, and I thought we could do with a sister thread to the trying to sell.

Thought I'd kick off with my rage!

Currently exchanged on the house that I have sold and living in husbands work accomodation so my situation is not dire, but still.

We offered on a property in August. It is a vacant property, and we said that we would like to exchange contracts 18th October with a view to complete no later than 1st November. We got the house at 95.8% of the market price.

So far we have not received the fixtures and fittings list, even though the vendor completed them the week before last. I have been back several times to measure up for lino in the bathrooms/curtains/take pictures of holes in the wall (for my decorator - there are lots). Went back this weekend just gone to check a couple of things (I always forget something) and the vendor has taken all of the bathroom fittings (toilet roll holder, etc), all of the curtain poles, all of the blinds. Now I am beginning to get a bit worried she is going to pull up all the carpets as well (not budgeted for them). I know I am going to have to wait until I get the F&F list but I am feeling slightly nervous at the potential cost of replacing things like carpets now (the whole house - 5 bed is carpetted). Aaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhh.

My old man is going away for business just as we are due to complete as well, so it is going to have to be me to deal with it all. Really looking forward to this move.......NOT!!!!

Never EVER doing this again.

Ah congratulations to you both Spirael and FW!! Can't believe we are going to be in soon as well. Really looking forward to getting in and getting settled.

Me too, although not moving in until December 4th. Got works going on before then.

Hooray Spirael

We've been given the 14th Dec as our date and am anxiously awaiting the full mortgage offer coming through!!!

Congratulations Spiral & Finance
I'm really excited for you both.

I know I have completed now, but am soooo excited. Final quote for decoration should come in tomorrow and the guy should start at the weekend if the quote is any good. I feel like things are starting to move at last. Not least because I have also bought some very expensive tiles for the WC, Ensuite and Bathroom. Was originally getting vinyl put down but I can't help myself.

Well, after buying the expensive tiles I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the you will get a reasonable quote from your decorator. Good luck!

The house that we are hoping to buy may be put back on the market as of lunchtime today - Waaahhh

4 weeks down the line and the flipping mortgage provider still haven't approved our mortgage ..... The vendor is getting nervous due to our lack of commitment!!!

Has anyone else come across something like this? Shall I start looking for another mortgage? But that may take up another 3-4 weeks to come through!

I just don't know what to do.

Have you spoken to the mortgage provider and asked what the hold up is? At this stage I was chasing on the phone every 2 days very impatient person alert

I hate waiting for quotes. I wish they would just call me and tell me the damage.

Not going to the house today either, so I am going to be twiddling my thumbs after picking up my order from Wilko's (curtain poles).

Doing my head in!

Ours has fallen through so back to square one!

Oh no. So sorry noddy

Thanks FW back to square one! When I have been looking for 'projects' it has been easy but this is a home for us and we just can't find anywhere!Survey was dire though the seller had lied extensively

Finance the hold up is due to some deposits made into my current account. They are also querying the source of our deposit!! My mortgage broker says that they are wanting to reject our application but he's trying to hold it all together. I'm thinking well they can go to hell and I'll try and get a mortgage from elsewhere..... am I being very naive?!

Noddy I'm so sorry. You must be gutted.

Finance hope that you get the quotes through very soon. When are they expected to provide the quotes for you?

Sorry to hear that, noddyholder. :( Hopefully you'll find the perfect house soon and have an issue free purchase!

Agree with chasing everyone, LondonSuperTrooper. I hate phoning people and I hate feeling like I'm nagging, but for house moving it seems to be the only way to keep things moving. It also shows committment/dedication from your side and might reassure your sellers?

Things seem to be going smoothly here so far... Been steadily signing the various bits of paperwork for solicitors and mortgages, sending off all the various bits of ID and evidence, etc!

Touch wood, but no-one has indicated any problems so far and things seem to be happening promptly.

Still waiting for an estimated completion date though... How long should it take before we're given one? Really, really want to be in before Christmas!

Thanks am still optimistic even if dp isn't!

Spirael you won't get a completion date until your mortgage offer is in place. Just keep chasing!

London They are supposed to be coming back to me today but they are very laid back which frustrates the hell out of me. I have got someone else who has quoted (a lot) but I need to tell him today/tomorrow. I really don't want to be in a situation where I lose both decorators because the whole house needs to be done before 23/11.

Hi all,

Just thought I'd pop my head in and catch up with everybody. Congrats, financialwizard.

We finally got our mortgage offer last Friday, went into the solictors Monday to sign the contract and now need to hand over our deposit and stamp duty. Our moving day is provisionally 7th December, subject to the seller's agreement.

Our mortgage offer took ages to come through London, and our provider also queried the source of our deposit. I just kept chasing them.

London we are in a very similar situation - mortgage application submitted almost a month ago, no progress since, poor communication from our broker who has been away (and uncontactable) twice during that time, lender apparently losing paperwork, vendors threatening to put the house back on the market.

We decided enough was enough on Tuesday and have submitted a new application with a new broker who is fab and has already achieved more progress in 3 days than our previous one managed in 3 weeks.

Our old broker advised us against putting in a new application because it would damage our credit rating , but we passed the credit checks for the new application with no problems.

It still remains to be seen whether the new application is approved in the time frame the vendors want, but I would definitely consider changing brokers if you can find one that seems likely to do the job better. For us it has been worth it just to deal with someone who answers emails/phone calls and takes our concerns seriously.

Hi I want to join in although we're waiting to get an offer on our flat before putting in any offers on anything we've viewed. I have a few questions that I wonder if anyone can answer...

1. Are there properties for sale that are NOT on rightmove.co.uk? Is it worth walking down streets in your chosen town looking for for sale signs?

1. The very first property that interested us, that we had booked to view, was "sold" and our viewing cancelled. A few days ago it came up on rightmove.co.uk again. A month after it went off. The questions here are: can I find out why the sale fell through? Was there a survey, and the buyer requested to drop the price, and the seller refused? What I heard when we were interested was that the seller was not in a hurry and was holding out for a good offer. The building is empty and even boarded up at the moment. We passed it recently just to look and saw the boards. it's got sort of a shop front, huge windows (business potential though at the moment it is listed as residential). We were not sure about the area anyway, but it's so unusual we wanted to at least look.

Thanks

Oops just saw that that unusual property is "Sold STC".

However, I still want to ask about property coming back onto rightmove after being "sold" as another house we liked was also "sold" but has appeared again as a "new listing". So what's that about? Do we stand any chance of finding out why?

Hi
Mind if I join in? First time buyers here, and we've just had our first very cheekily low offer turned down on a lovely 4 bed semi (with a range cooker and built in spice rack in the kitchen!) so are about to start negotiating!

We also have a viewing on another house today which was the favourite one when we first started looking.

Hi, another potential buyer here. We've had plain sailing so far - someone's buying our place and seems keen, the person we are buying from has been really reasonable and is moving into a vacant property, so the chain is very small and all local. But this is the time when surveys come in...we think there is no problem with ours (buyers have had it for 2 weeks and want to come and measure up for furniture tomorrow, so nothing's put them off) but we've been told to get a damp and timber report and a structural engineer's report on the place we want by our mortgage provider...the area we want to move to does have a bit of subsidence so fingers crossed it is nothing more major than that. DP away with work for next few weeks so I'm doing all of it, glad this thread exists for support.

We have a spanner in the works - I LOVED the house we saw today - it needs a lot more work than the one we're haggling for, but a neon sign saying "project" started flashing on and off in my head and hasn't stopped yet! (I wondered why it was so cheap for a house that size!) Downstairs is pretty much renovated, the upstairs and the garden need quite a bit of TLC though.

DP loved it too but prefers the one we've made an offer on - I think they're neck and neck for me, so I'm happy to go along with the haggling, they both have great kitchens! So the one we looked at today is our favourite dream home #2.

Hi everyone,

We finally completed a couple of weeks ago, no Internet as yet so have nicked DH iPad.

It cost us an extra grand in the end as we had to rent our house by the day till HSBC released the money. They have agreed to refund us the legal fees though, dh wrote them a very stroppy letter!

FW congrats to you, we too are faced with a mammoth decorating task we had one quote in but was quite high, thinking of doing it all ourselves to save the money.

Indie - surveyors could just be covering themselves re damp, and timber reports and structural. Be wary of companies that say things need a course of damp proofing though - they often don't identify the cause just recommend unnessesay treatments. Lots of previous threads on the subject !

Mary - things come back on to rightmove all the time - buyers change their minds, long chains collapse or surveys throw up scary problems, the estate agents should tell you the reason .

Good luck ruby lovely to have 2 you like :)