Just accepted an offer on our house & had an offer accepted on another house. Anyone want to join me in a hoping it all goes OK/preparing to move thread?

[jenduck]

We have just accepted an offer on our house of 183k, not too bad as it was on for 189k. The buyers say they are cash buyers with money in the bank (although my dad, our conveyancer, says always to be wary of people claiming this until you've seen the evidence ). We have also had an offer accepted on another house of 223k (was on for 239k). The vendors are 2 brothers who have rented it out & have to give a 2-month notice period.

From our side, there shouldn't be any problem with the legal side of things as my dad is our solicitor, plus I work there 1 day a week! Our mortgage has also been agreed in principle, have to go in at the weekend to sign some more forms.

We would like to be in the new place in time for the first May bank holiday, as there is a lot of work to do. Ddad says this is entirely realistic, given the chain-free nature of things.

I am, however, panicking about packing everything up in such a short time! We have tons of junk stuff & I don't know where to start! I also am mainly SAHM to DSes 4.2 & 22m for 4 days a week & can't really do anything with them around - DS2, in particular, will just unpack anything I pack! Thinking of asking Dgrandparents to come round for an hour once a week, to take boys for a walk or just sit with them while I go up in the loft of doom

Think I will start tomorrow by taking a few black bags of clothes to the cash for clothes place nearby whilst DS1 is in pre-school. We are putting any cash we get from selling things into a tin you can only open with a tin-opener & will then use it for furniture for the new house (Ebay!)

Is there anybody in a similar situation who wants to join me???

[Goodwordguide]

Exchane done! Now for the fun part

[LadyKooKoo]

Great new goodword. Now you can relax. I always feel like I am on tender hooks until the exchange happens!

[LadyKooKoo]

*news

[kid]

DS has been offered a place in our first choice secondary school. I already know he won't be going there but we have to respond by the 15th march as to whether we are accepting it or not. I think we'll have to accept and then withdraw once we get a school in kent.

We've had the contract from our mortgage advisor today. We have to sign it and return but leave th completion date blank. They are awaiting information of whether the seller has been billed for a right of way road outside their house, first we'd heard of it when we read the contract documents. We were told that our mortgage lenders provided the survey. We've now read that the survey only consisted of a valuation to make sure the mortgage was a good investment.

We now need to decide whether to get out own survey done or not. We plan to do another viewing with someone who knows about heating, boiler etc as the mortgage advisor is suggesting we check those things ourselves. Good job a member of my family is able to do that for us. I just need to ask them! I doubt we'll be able to go before next weekend but it will soon come round I suppose.

I don't want any stress. I want it all to go smoothly and quickly.

[Goodwordguide]

I just hope we've made the right decision!

[kid]

Lol GoodWordGuide its completely normal to panic about whether you've made the right decision. I've asked myself the same question at least a hundred times in the past few weeks.

[Goodwordguide]

I guess we won't know for at least five years! It's such a big complicated move - out of London, changing schools, changing commute, moving to a small town etc. lots and lots to sort out!

[kid]

I'm leaving London too! I've always lived in London so its going to be a big change for us. I will also be moving dc (14 and 11) to new schools and I'll be commuting back to London daily until I can arrange a new job.

It's a big decision, we rushed it tbh but we're in the perfect position and the house is lovely so we literally thought, why not?!

[jenduck]

We've all gone quiet! How's everybody doing?

Things moving along here, albeit somewhat slowly. My solicitors (Ddad ) have received memoranda of sale from all the relevant parties. We went into the bank on Saturday to sign our mortgage application. And we have been in touch with surveyors (basic survey free with mortgage) to get a survey done on the new house - £210 for a homebuyer's report, which seems fairly good value.

DPIL coming down this weekend to help us pack/occupy the kids while we pack. Also did a fair amount at the weekend, now running out of space to put boxes!

Just hoping survey doesn't show anything bad as the house were buying has a dorma extension for bedrooms 4 & 5, which has a flat roof (which we'll get redone in time, anyway).

[LadyKooKoo]

Buyer came out with builder friend and environmental health friend on Saturday and (I think) all of his concerns were satisfied. EA thinks the same but haven't heard anything since which is quite frustrating even if no news is good news. My solicitor confirmed that buyers solicitor had had all the searches back so am waiting for her to come back to me with an exchange date. We are definitely exchanging on new house tomorrow but not sure if completion is next Thursday or Friday as waiting for solicitor on that one too. Haven't started packing yet as refuse to do anything like that until we exchange.

[GoatsHaveStrangeEyes]

Hi, can i join?

We put in an offer on our house in Jan (140k with 7k off the asking price) which was accepted. We rushed everything through, got our mortgage offer really quickly only to find out the seller was being so bloody slow with everything. It was being rented out previously so is vacant and we are ftb, you would think it would be going swimmingly.

We have just had most of the searches back but now we need a mining survey done (live in Cornwall) so waiting to hear back from that.

We had a draft contract sent to us minus the fixtures and fittings report as the vendor hasn't bothered to do one so we are waiting for that too.

W e were hoping to exchange and complete by the end of this month as our tenancy here ends on the 2nd April but looks like we will have to stya here for another month at the cost of £750 for rent that we haven't really budgeted for. Trying to chill out about it all now though!

[kid]

We've had survey which came free with the mortgage back. It's fine apart from mentioning the flat felt roof on the dormer has a limited life span. As the extension was only completed last year, we're not too worried about that.
The land registry search is also back, just one query with that, regarding cost of the upkeep of a passageway we have the right of way to.

I'm sending signed contracts back today but leaving completion date blank as instructed by solicitor. Our mortgage is ready to be released so just the other 3 searches we're waiting on now.

I haven't even started to pack. We're currently living in a 3 bed house so will have plenty to pack. I need to get removal companies round ASAP for some quotes.

[Notyetthere]

Hi All,

Im behind you all in that I have just made an offer on the house we like. It has been rejected; we will wait till Monday to up our offer because its only been on the market 1 week and they have viewings for the rest of the week including the weekend. Here's to hoping that any interested parties are in disgustingly long complicated chains we are 1st time buyers in rented.

[Goodwordguide]

Hi everyone.
Packing boxes arrive today - house is an absolute state as DH is still painting for the new tenants. Beginning to tick off the list telling people/utilities that we're moving. Off to see the new house again on Sunday and apparently the owner wants to sell us some of her furniture, which could be really useful as we're leavingour house furnished.

Have you exchanged lady?

[ninjanurse]

Hiya, can I join you??

We have just had offer accepted on a great house, perfect location and size etc. We are in rented. Vendors are going into rented. Hassle free you would think? HOWEVER, my lease on my rented place is due up on 25th April, landlord is not going to allow a rolling contract and wants me to sign another 12 month contract, despite me explaining my situation. Timescales are getting a bit tight for an exchange and completion by then, so Im thinking I may have to put off landlord, exchange before 25th April and then complete in May. Will have to stay in rented over agreed time, but landlord would not legally be able to do anything apart from serve us with eviction papers, which take 2 months to process, in which case we would be gone.

So, yeah, its not ideal, but what else can I do, Im not going to sign another 12 month contract for when Im goin g to want to be out within a couple of weeks.

Im hoping with all the stress, I might lose a bit of weight, lol!

[jaynebxl]

Ninja what a pain. You would think the landlord would be a bit more understanding and let you stay a bit longer.

Things are moving forward slowly for us ... We heard on Monday that the people we are buying from have decided to go into renting so at last things are moving.

[theborrower]

Hello!

We accepted an offer on our place 4 weeks ago (were on sale for OA £105, sold for £101) and had an offer accepted somewhere today (OA £155, got it for £150). Our moving date is in 4 weeks. The guy we're buying from isn't buying a new property, so was happy to go with our date.

Our missives have been dragging on a bit - our buyer doesn't want to conclude until she has her mortgage papers issued - but I've been reassured there's no problem and it should conclude in the next day or two. I've been worried that it was all going to go wrong!

Now, we have to get our mortgage AIP finalised, and sort out all the other stuff e.g. removals. My husband wants to hire a van and do it ourselves, roping in friends and family etc to help, but I remember after the last time thinking "We're definitely getting removal men next time".

[jaynebxl]

I've only bought and sold once before and that was years ago. Please can someone tell me how long we can expect the process to take? We had the call from the estate agent Monday to say the people we are buying from have decided to go into rented, our buyers are in rented and have to give a month notice. We, and our solicitors, got the formal letters from the EA with details of the sale on Tuesday, and searches started that day. Can anyone give me a rough timescale? How long would it usually take to the point of exchanging contracts and from there to actual completion?

Thanks.

[LadyKooKoo]

Jayne, i would say minimum 6 weeks but that would be best case scenario.

We went and signed the contracts for the sale and purchase yesterday but the exchange probably won't happen until tomorrow. I think the completion will be next Friday for the new one and for our house the week after but am still not sure so feeling a bit in limbo! I guess I had better start packing! We already have 22 boxes in storage and that is purely my books and some of DD's clothes and toys. Heaven help me :)

[jaynebxl]

Ugh! I'm dreading all this and just holding on to the dream that maybe in a couple of months we will be in our new house!

[jaynebxl]

But is that 6 weeks up to completion? How long does it usually take to exchange?

[jenduck]

Hi again & welcome to yet more newbies

Kookoo that's good that your buyer seems satisfied, hopefully they will confirm that soon!

Goats hope you move in time so you don't have to rent for another month, there are so many hidden costs in moving!

Ninja that's annoying! Is there no family/friends you could stay with for a few weeks?

Jayne I'm afraid your question is a bit like asking how long is a piece of string? It depends, IME, on how many parties are involved (ie is there a chain?) & how keen they all are. So, you could have someone desperate to move, or you could have someone who has gone on holiday for a month so can't sign anything! My Ddad (solicitor, doing our conveyancing) reckons that the very shortest time everything can get done in (to completion) is 6-8 weeks, assuming no chain & no problems

Loads of people joining me for the packing party, I see I am just finding it so difficult to fit in around a toddler, a preschooler & running a house!

No real news here, Ddad says that our buyers are ultra-keen but, by contrast, they've barely heard anything from our vendors Still, we have ordered our survey (having a homebuyer's report), so just have to wait for the estate agent to contact the vendors to arrange a date, which they will need to agree with their tenants!

In the meantime, have cashforclothes coming today to collect about 5 black bags of clothes, which means I can't really leave the house today. This is good, as it will force me to do some more sorting (plus get house vaguely tidy for IL's visit this weekend!)

[GoatsHaveStrangeEyes]

I think ours is going really slow . We had our offer accepted at the end of Jan, had our mortgage application completed a week after that but they only started the searches last week.

We really wanted to be out of here by the end of march (which we were told was a realistic date at the start) but not going to happen.

Our mortgage advisor never contacted us when she needed more information so that delayed it. We have done all of the chasing ourselves. Our solicitor hasn't replied to any of our emails we just get letters in the post now and again.

But we are going back to the house on saturday morning to measure up a few things so looking forward to that.

[jaynebxl]

How come it took them so long to start the searches, Goats? Just because of the mortgage advisor?

[GoatsHaveStrangeEyes]

Because our solicitor hadn't heard anything from the vendor's solicitor til then.

The vendor apparently wanted a quick sale and for it all to be rushed through but he hasn't even been down to do the fixtures and fittings report which he said he was going to a fortnight ago!