The decluttering, cleaning, vacating, pandering, nailbiting antics of the stressed out house sellers continued...

[CuddyMum]

Thought I'd better start a new thread... :)

thanks wonky; appreciate the information and your take on the matter. All the quotes so far have been from local, individual surveyors who know the area well. One response in particular stood out as thorough and thoughtful - but he was obviously pushing the full building survey.

We haven't had a quote anywhere near the prices others are mentioning, even for a Homebuyer survey.

As I said, still considering and grateful for opinions. Maybe we should go for the homebuyer survey and just consider it good news if nothing is found! It just seems like if anything is missed then at that point the surveyor will simply say we should have paid for a full survey.

Hi Ghosteditor we used localsurveyorsdirect.co.uk which was recommended to me to find ours. Quite a range of quotes and we're paying £500 for a full structural (although we are in the North).

In the next could of days I am waiting for final mortgage offer. This is a bit nailbiting because we are 'non-standard' so have had to go through a broker and provide masses of info. We have approval in principle and the lender did the valuation survey last Friday so we are waiting for the results. If it all falls down at this stage I think I will cry!

Once we have that (fingers crossed) we will send our own surveyor in.

Good luck to Terrysno2 and everyone else waiting for a phone call or two.

Thanks Pendulum, that's a great recommendation, I'll take a look.

I just wanted to share this. I sent my DH an e-mail telling him how frustrated and stressed I am because our life is in limbo at the moment waiting for our buyer to decide and I am worried as our Nanny is leaving at the end of June and I can't find alternative childcare as we don't know where we will be. So I told him to cheer me up.

He replied with this:

You are now, I'm afraid, in a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

Waiting for a survey to be written
or the buyer to agree
or waiting around before you are smitten
or waiting, perhaps, to be able to plan
or for an architect, or a builder man
or a childminder, or a better school
or an Epsom future, or a garden with a swimming pool.
You are just waiting.

That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

Its from Oh the Places You'll Go by Dr Seuss which we read to DS a lot so this actually made me cry with happiness as I was reminded again that whatever happens my life is pretty awesome.

Anyway, I thought the poem might be good for others too (as well as a shameless showing off of my awesome DH!)

PS - the new house doesn't have a swimming pool but I guess he couldn't find anything else to rhyme

Terry I'm jealous! I dont think My DH is that thoughtful. He would probably try and say something funny though.

that made me smile too terry, what a lovely gesture!

Keeping fx that you get sorted soon.

I have a viewing happening now - I can't concentrate on work! I am hopeful for this one, as there would be no chain at all. We're asked to leave when viewings are happening so we never know what's going on, so frustrating!

Oh good luck ghosteditor! I think it is better to be out for the viewings, frustrating as it is for you. When the vendors were in houses I was viewing I always felt a bit inhibited and didn't spend as much time as I would have liked looking at the house.

Terrysno2 I love that poem and your DH's reworking of it! I often read it to the DDs and am secretly saving it to read at their weddings/ graduation celebrations/other landmark event.

Still no news on our mortgage

Blimey, so much has happened with you lot over the weekend and today! I'll try to catch up later...

We are getting somewhat closer to being able to complete on our sale for next Thursday! Had a slight heart failure though when I received an email from the solicitor stating that the credit card debts had to be paid BEFORE I could draw on the funds. I have since clarified with the Nationwide that this is not entirely the case as that was the point in me borrowing extra to settle half of these debts and that the other half is to be settled when my husband receives his bonus this month. Thankfully, my solicitor has had a conversation with the Nationwide too and they are confirming this in writing within 48 hours! Thought I was going have to prostitute myself - not sure I could raise that amount before next week though :)

So for now, I don't think I need to look for alternative accommodation, although I don't feel happy to start ringing around everywhere to change addresses just yet.

Doglover ? how exciting. Hope the survey goes well.

Terry ? have you heard from your resurrected buyer?

Ah, Turkey ? sounds like they have not been totally honest ? what will you do?

Congratulations Ruby!

Ghost ? get that survey done! Good luck with the viewing. It?s a really good idea to be out of the way for viewings.

Hello Pendulum ? hope you hear re your mortgage soon.

So we've organised a structural engineer to come and look at the house and hopefully he'll say its ok and overrule our dodgy survey done by our buyers lying toerag surveyor. But he can't come until Friday and so god knows when we'll all get the make or break report.

Meanwhile the sellers of the house we are b

Buying are getting twitchy and want to exchange asap. They are ignoring the further queries about the building regs that ww still don't have satisfactory answers to. Plus they have form for randomly pulling out if they don't like what you are doing.

What a flipping nightmare!

hinky - our buyers were described as being "volatile" - hence the reason we were happy to exchange quickly before they pulled out.

Yay! We have our mortgage offer!
The valuation is considerably lower (approx 9%) than we have agreed to pay, but it is OK because we have a large deposit. At first I was quite worried about the mismatch in the numbers but a bit of googling reassured me that lenders' valuations tend to be pretty conservative, and based on what they are very confident they could secure in a forced sale.

Anyone else had this? Our own surveyor will go in later this week, will be interesting to see what he says.

Cuddlymum - wow you are getting so close! I guess you won't believe it until the keys are in your hand, though....

Yay for the mortgage offer Pendulum. I won't believe it until the keys plus a large G&T are in my hand! :)

Pendulum very pleased you have your mortgage offer. 9% is quite a big difference though. Did you think the price was high? I.e. have you paid a premium for a reason or this surprised you?

Just hoping the house we are selling and the one we are buying are priced correctly!

The house I'm buying was valued at £500 more than we paid - so very close. Hopefully that means we got it right!

We have probably paid a little bit over the odds to be honest. The house is a one-off with nothing similar to benchmark against, so it became a case of its value being what we were prepared to pay for it.

Also, although a Victorian house it is immaculately done out with new bathrooms, solid wood floor etc so there is nothing that we need to pay to change. Other houses (different period/ style) we looked at were cheaper but would have needed bathroom, kitchen etc replacing as soon as possible, which would have made up the difference.

Sounds a fab house pendulum! We're moving to our first Victorian house.

Congratulations pendulum!

A friend of mine who just moved had a lower valuation and used it to negotiate a lower price in the end. She was moving north though so it may have been on the market for a while.

Btw we emailed to book a building survey last night

Glad you're getting a survey ghosteditor!

Are any of you moving a long way, like I am? We are effectively moving from one end of the country to the other. It's 'back home' for DH but like a foreign country for me! Although I like it very much I am a bit worried about how long it will take to feel like home. It also means I can't do drive-bys of the house to make sure I still love it!!

Pendulum the house we want is an hour away and somewhere neither DH or I have ever lived and no-one we know is there so it feels like a big change. But then I always liked new adventures!

Check out google streetview, its still only pictures but you can have a look at the house / area from different angles.

Had a nice e-mail from our buyer saying she hasn't received the survey yet but when she does she will let me know. Come on Mr Surveyor!!!!

We're moving 10 minutes away but to a different county. This means we have a new council to deal with re council tax etc. and new schools. Went to visit new school with DD2 today. She starts on 3rd June. We have the new uniform too! DD1 starts in September (in Year 9).

Have driven past the new house twice today (on the way to and back from school).

I'm a bit of a streetview addict!

We're moving 14 miles away - same district council but a new area for us (we've lived here for 6 years). No schools to worry about yet with 16 mo DD