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Home Buyers Support Thread Part 3

991 replies

juneybean · 21/07/2014 17:37

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 :)

OP posts:
BauerTime · 02/12/2014 09:54

ohh can I join please? I might need a bit of hand holding! Second time buyer here but it seems so much scarier this time now we have to buy and sell (plus pack with a 1yo)

We had an offer accepted on a house last Thursday, having been looking but not seriously looking for a few months. Because of this we have had to frantically arrange getting our house on the market, luckily we had it valued a few months back so all we needed to do was photos and paperwork with our preferred estate agent, and it went online yesterday afternoon. We also have an appointment to start a mortgage application today. Still all a bit surreal that we are actually doing this but very exciting!

Im going to try and get this thread read too for some tips!

MillionPramMiles · 02/12/2014 10:30

Bauer: one tip we had and that I've been meaning to post on here is to market your property with an estate agent in an adjacent area where property is more expensive (rather than your immediately local area). Local buyers will see your property on online searches anyway but buyers with bigger budgets looking nearby, won't necessarily.

It worked for us, our property sold very quickly at the asking price. The buyer has been very committed as they're delighted to have finally found somewhere much bigger than they thought they'd be able to afford. We're both pleased not to have been messed around by fickle buyers/sellers.

Can work out in London where buyers can be fixated on only searching for property in particular postcodes.

LizzieMint · 02/12/2014 13:22

Sad we've just discovered that the current insurer of the house we're buying won't insure us on it because they now assess it as high risk of flooding. We're a bit floored by this, although the house is technically fairly high risk, it hasn't flooded since the current owners have been there. Although I'm sure we can get insurance from somewhere, we're now reconsidering on the basis that it presumably will make it really difficult to resale down the line. Argh, what do we do?!

CantSleepWontSleep · 02/12/2014 23:26

Wow Bauer - I'm amazed that your vendor accepted an offer without you being sold yet. Is it a 'yes we'd agree that price in principle' kind of acceptance, or are they actually withdrawing it from the market for you?

Eek lizzie! Were you planning on this being a long term home for you, or just a few years? Can you try getting more quotes online and see how many will offer cover?

I got my full building survey report today, including estimates for some of the work that he had mentioned to me needed doing. We contacted a roofer re one of the problems, sending him photos taken by the surveyor, and he gave the same estimate. It's a lot of money. So I've just drafted a letter saying that we want to reduce our offer by double digit £k for this and one of the other problems. We would still need to pay for the third thing ourselves (but I think it wasn't hard to guess that the third thing would need doing).

BauerTime · 03/12/2014 09:28

Cantsleep its an 'i'll take it off the market' acceptance. I know its mad but they have been on the market for six months and are apparently very keen to move.

We were totally up front with them but as they haven't found anywhere (they had but it fell through as they took so long to find a buyer) I think that they like that we aren't going to rush them into finding a new house.

We have our house on the market now and our mortgage application is all done so they will be able to see that we are serious.

Talking of mortgages, I was dreading yesterday due to the 'new rules' and all that, and the fact that apparently it was going to be so much harder to get a mortgage. So far I cant see a difference in the process. I know we aren't through the woods yet (we have been approved in branch but obviously its not set in stone) but it seems no more stringent than when we applied for our last mortgage. Anyone else found that? or are there problems ahead?!

hereandtherex · 03/12/2014 10:07

bauertime. I think you are being very optimistic on both your mortgage application and time it will take to sell your house. That's sell as in 'get the money' rather than sell as in 'someone will buy my house when they sell theirs'.

Bank branches just take an application and pass it on. Thats when the real hard work and questions start.

I think being in a chain where no is a rush is going to guarantee nothing ever happens and you both sit there waiting for months to years. If there's no rush why are you moving?

BauerTime · 03/12/2014 10:39

here we are moving for schools, but DS is only 16m at the moment so that's what I mean by no rush. We have to move in the next 18 months to be in the catchment area for school application time as he is an August baby so have to apply when he is only just 3.

I don't really understand what you mean by the 'time it will take to get the money' comment as surely that's true of everyone in any chain? In any house move that involves more than 2 parties there is always going to be an element of waiting for the next part of the chain to do something isn't there?

marymoocow · 03/12/2014 19:24

is anyone else feeling pleased with Mr Osborne?

BauerTime · 03/12/2014 19:28

Oh my god yes! We will save £4k! I want to kiss him Grin

marymoocow · 03/12/2014 19:30

Us too. Rather glad our first house fell through now Grin . Feel for those who have only just completed thoughSad

LizLemon · 03/12/2014 19:34

It's good for us, good for our buyer, but bad for our vendor. We'd feel worse about it, but the delay has come from their side as well as ours. TBH the savings only cover the extra legal costs our buyer's solicitor has made us have, so really the only clear winner is our buyer. Though technically he is homeless at the moment, so he may not feel like a winner...

This house sale has been a barrel of laughs.

BauerTime · 03/12/2014 19:37

Oh dear liz, I've not had a chance to read any of the thread yet but that sounds like a LOT of extra legal costs! What went wrong?!

CantSleepWontSleep · 03/12/2014 20:12

Yes yes mary! We also save over £4k.

I wouldn't worry about your vendor liz - I think that people already in the process can choose which set of rates they use, so whilst they won't benefit, they shouldn't lose out either.

LizzieMint · 04/12/2014 06:54

Ok, so have had a very stressful couple of days. We have found two companies willing to give us insurance - one for £11,000 and one for 'at least' £4,000, don't have final figure yet. So, we've decided to pull out. There's no way we can either afford that or take the risk of being landed with a very unsaleable house in the future. Now have to frantically find something to rent, because we're due to move within the next month. Sad

BauerTime · 04/12/2014 09:57

oh lizzie that's just awful. But probably the most sensible thing to do in the long term. You haven't exchanged have you?

Stressful now but try to think of it as a lucky escape. Imagine if you hadn't found this out until it was too late.

dottyaboutstripes · 04/12/2014 10:12

Lizzie that happened to us in a roundabout way too. I won't deny its been stressful

LizzieMint · 04/12/2014 10:40

No we haven't exchanged so there's no issue (apart from having to have somewhere to move to ASAP!). Feel desperately sorry for the vendors though, they're absolutely lovely and have been just as blindsided by this as we have and are now likely to be stuck with an unsaleable house.

marymoocow · 05/12/2014 20:32

GrrAngry . Well we managed to get everything in place for today, so that we could complete next Friday, to be told that our buyers are still waiting for searches to come back! Yet the EA were putting pressure on us back in November because they wanted to complete on the 21st, and had the cheek to ask us to reduce our price as compensation for them not being able to move when they wanted! I'll leave you to imagine the conversations and emails they have had with my dh todayWink .

CantSleepWontSleep · 05/12/2014 23:11

Oh lizzie. What a horrid situation for all concerned. Sad.

BauerTime · 06/12/2014 09:24

Right, we are having an open house today as EA had so any interested potential buyers. House only went online on Monday! Just trying to get the house looking swish which has involved 2 trips to my parents with toys.

marymoocow · 06/12/2014 19:00

hope the viewings went well Baeur. Maybe some Wine needed now?

marymoocow · 06/12/2014 19:01

oops Bauer

redmapleleaves · 06/12/2014 19:47

Hello all, can I join.

Very (over)excited, my offer on smashing house accepted today and hoping to exchange on our house on Monday. Currently renting. Had hoped that staggering things like that might make this a less stressful process, - but even just reading two pages of this thread I can see that being one of many in the same process is going to help.

BauerTime · 07/12/2014 11:54

Lots of Wine consumed last night mary but not house-move related!

We went out and left the EA's to it yesterday and didn't come back until they had gone so haven't had any feedback yet but I'm hoping that we get some offers. I think they collect offers (if there are any) on Monday and then send them all over to us together.

I'm just sitting her enjoying my toy free living room with a cuppa before I go and collect DS and all of the mess returns!

Congrats on getting your offer accepted red!

chicaguapa · 08/12/2014 13:22

I think I need this thread now!

We're at the beginning of our chain as we're in rented at the moment. We had our offer accepted EIGHT weeks ago and we're still waiting for the person at the top of the chain to find a house to buy. There are 4 people in our chain so far.

There has literally been no progress on our part in the last 8 weeks. We have been told by the EA not to do anything until everyone's ready to proceed. We're just sitting and waiting to instruct the surveyor to do the valuation and the solicitor to do the searches.

I'm not even sure what to do now as my patience is running out.