Home Buyers Support Thread Part 3

[juneybean]

Part 2 here -> www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/a1905904-Buyers-support-thread-part-2?msgid=48420379#48420379

Hope it's okay that I made the next thread :)

Excellent news MissMystic feel like we've been on these threads together forever!

Good luck in your new home (when you finally get in!)

Bye bye mystic and good luck in your new home! Hope you make lots of lovely memories there. Thrilled that the journey has come to a happy end for you. And I may see you on the painting and kitchen threads when we complete. 5 days to go....x

Bon voyage Mystic. See you on the other side :).
Fingers crossed for your exchange fizzie.

Cheminotte, is it possible to replace the lock rather than the full window. It would be cheaper than moving, I'm in shock at how much we're having to pay for mortgage fees, surveys, solicitors.
No harm in putting your house on the market to test the waters though.
Nothing new here. Mortgage approved and waiting on contracts, my solicitor is blaming the vendors solicitors but hopefully it'll all come together soon. Purge for wouldn't agree to pay the difference in damp surveys so the v frustrated estate agent is making up the difference. Completion date being discussed is 5th sept so hoping to exchange by next fri.

Well I suppose it depends where you are And your budget, but moving costs at least several thousand pounds with EA fees, legal costs, movers, surveys etc and if you have to pay higher rate stamp duty it can cost £20k easily. I don't know about the allergy situation, but all other things being equal I think I would convert the loft. But as others say, no harm in looking, and putting the house up to see how it goes.

Gemma I'm afraid to ask if you have any news...

Hey ladies... Well I have news but it's not good

We were all set to exchange today after finally sorting out the arse in the middle of our chain.... or so we thought.

He has just pulled out of his purchase (the second time he has done this!) because at the last minute his sellers were not prepared to drop their price by 20k!!!! So he then tells his buyers (who are our sellers) that he is going to pull out of selling to them and will put his house back up on the market in 4-5 weeks and they can make another offer then!!! Needless to say our sellers have told him to take a running jump.

Our sellers called me to tell us and are so disappointed - but mostly for us! They asked if we still want to buy their house as if so they will start search now for a new property - if not they would stay put. So told them we still love the house and if they can find somewhere soon then we will wait.

We have however probably lost our buyer (who has almost certainly now lost her buyer). I have asked EA to find out what her plans are. If she wants our house still we will not put it back on the market - if she doesn't then we will. We sold it for asking price in under 24 hours last time so hopefully we would sell it again soon. However, I don't want to pull out on our buyer when she has been waiting as patiently as us. If she still wants our house and is willing to sell hers again quickly then we will not put ours back on the market.

Gutted as this is the second time that just before exchange our chain fell through. Means we miss the school application deadline but hopefully we will get on the waiting list once we do finally move.

Will also have to reapply for our mortgage as it expires in 3 weeks - hope we get through the new MMR rules!

One tiny thing to smile about though.... The three EAs involved (who dominate the market where Mr arsehold lives) have all emailed to say that he is an immoral time waster and that no EA in the area has any interest in selling his property for him or in selling him a new property - what goes around comes around

Thanks for everyone's kind words over the past stressful weeks. I really hope your exchanges and completions go smoothly and hiccup free

Will no doubt be back once we are back at end of chain again!!

Just heard from solicitor that he is now holding cleared mortgage funds ready to complete next week! So I think I can officially relax now and continue tackling the mountain of packing still left.

Oh Gemma !! That's bloody awful! What an utter dick he is!

Things going well my end, have sent balance of deposit to Solicitors hopefully completing on 29th!

Gemma I'm so sorry to hear that, what an absolutely awful person he sounds. Fingers crossed you can work something out with your buyer and seller.

Juney sounds like you're nearly there.

Freud - me too! Just heard the mortgage funds are in, so all set for competition Tuesday. Starting to look at floor sanders and paint. Think I need to stalk the DIY threads a bit more!

Oh Christ Gemma, how awful!! Utter, utter bastard. I'm glad the EAs are boycotting him. If he knew this would he change his mind? We applied for our mortgage post mmr and although it was a long, long process the lender was v reasonable in terms of affordability. Hopefully you'll get a new mortgage approved soon.
Juney, hurrah. The end is in sight.
Msfreud, happy packing!!

Oh Gemma I'm sorry. What a twat. I hope you end up with your dream house somehow. I would be so tempted to contact twat and tell him what I thought of him!

Sorry not replied before, have been massively struggling with the new mobile site and either posting multiple times (as above) or not at all. Am now on laptop.

Sheriff and Celtic - it is a bit more than broken window locks, that was just a not very good example. Talking about it with DP yesterday, we reckon £20k approx. in moving costs (estate agents fees, stamp duty, solicitors, other stuff). But cost of extending upwards (to get extra bedroom) and sideways (to get utility) and fixing windows and other repairs that will need doing in the next say 5 years is prob £60k all in. So an extra £40k and we will still have issues around the location. Would we be better off putting that money towards a better house? We are already one of the larger houses in the street so would be unlikely to see the money back iykwim.

Have almost decided to put the house on the market. The question to ask estate agents is - what happens if we sell and then can't find something to buy? If our buyers pull out we are back to square one presumably? If we want to pull out, are we still liable for the estate agents cut?

Also does anyone have any experience of estates direct? They offer a fixed price rather than a percentage fee. DP visited a house on sale by them this week, was not impressed by the sales person, (talked too much apparently), not sure if that's a reason not to use them!

Lepa - really don't want to go down the renting route, it would mean unsettling the dc twice and would feel like burning money while the house prices (possibly) increase. When we were FTBs and saw how 'popular' that made us, we said we would rent to give us that power again, but the idea of doing that with 2 dc is really not attractive.

Chem, if you want to be in a different location eventually, then you're right, it doesn't make sense to invest ££££ you won't get back. It's only ever worth over investing when it's your home for life.
I think it's common these days to have an offer on your house before you offer on the one you want although you will obv be looking in the meantime. It prob depends on the local market here though. The market crashed and bottomed out here so sellers are happy to accept your offer provided you are actively looking for something yourself. Where are you based?
No experience of the EA you mentioned, sorry. Though if your husband didn't get a great vibe, I'd take that as a warning. Maybe start a separate thread asking for advice on local estate agents? More people will see it then.

Right everyone. Hopefully we get a few more exchanges and completions this week.

I would negotiate on price with EAs too, and on timescale with exclusive deals. Our EA was adamant he could sell the house easily so we said ok and signed up for two weeks. Afaik it's ok to pull out, they get paid on completion.

We found that once EAs knew that you were speaking to lots of them, they became more generous. My friend even invited 5 EAs around to his house at the same time, sat them round a table and said he would sign with whoever gave him the best deal! Once left and said he didnt work like that but the others began competing! I wouldnt be that brave but it worked for him!

We managed to get our EA to reduce the notice period from 16 weeks to 1 week because houses sell quickly where we are. We got the rate reduced to 1% too.

We spent the weekend cleaning our house from top to bottom so that it would be ready to put back on the market today after our chain collapsed again on Friday...

Just heard that our buyers are not going to pull out and even though they are unhappy with the delay (who can blame them, we sold to them in February!) they still want our house and will wait for our sellers to find somewhere else.

They were selling to an investment buyer who's mortgage offer expires this week. He thought about it over the weekend and has also agreed not to pull out. He told the EA that he accepts house prices have increased so financially he is better of re-applying for his mortgage.

So at least the bottom of our chain is back on track (and all three of us are ready to exchange). So Im taking the good news whilst I can!

Just need our sellers to find somewhere soon!! As soon as they do we will re-apply for our mortgage.

Hope we have lots of exchanges this week on the board xx

Just a note to say thank you so much to everyone for the support and advice. We are off to pick up the keys to our first house after completing this morning, so excited and can't believe it's real. Wishing everyone lots of luck for exchange competition and lots of lovely times ahead x

Right we finally have some movement. We are not in a chain but it has taken weeks and weeks of going around in circles and we are finally looking as if we may be picking up keys on Friday or possibly Monday.

AM trying not to get excited now.

Well done Fizzie good luck in your lovely new home!!

I'm too excited for Friday completion! First thing I'm going to do is take the cat for a sniff around.

Good luck Gemma !

Congratulations Fizzie!
We're completing tomorrow. Just had last take away from favourite Chinese and feeling a bit nostalgic about all the 'lasts' in this area. Still, I know it will be so worth it to go from a flat to a house!