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 :)

Seattle, I'm with you on that! You need to have had a valuation or survey done in order to get your official offer, unlikely to happen within a week. They could give you a decision on how much they will be happy to lend subject to all the other stuff being ok though, that usually doesn't take long. Maybe that's what she meant?
Fingers crossed for you truffle.
I've got another day of waiting by the phone for exchange to happen.

We had our first viewing in 3 weeks yesterday so please send some positive vibes - somebody please buy our house! We've changed it to a guide price on right move and and some new photos should be going up today so hopefully that will help.

I have stupidly fallen in love with a new build we have seen (I hate new builds normally) but this is in a great location and has so much space, problem is there's only 1 left and it will probably go quickly. They do part exchange but we're stuck in an EA contract now, DH didn't get a copy when he signed it and doesn't know how many weeks it's for We requested a copy yesterday but I think we will be too late for this house.

We had an offer on a lovely house declined 3 weeks ago and they wanted more than we can afford. Viewed tons more since and none come close :( The nice house people came back to us and accepted our original offer yesterday! Not sure I really believe it!
So now we have to wait until I do my next tax return to get the mortgage (asap this year!) and then it's full steam ahead.
Keeping fingers crossed for good survey etc and everything to go smoothly.
and sending good vibes to everyone else...
There was a clause in our contract with agents about part ex, bananamonkey. Hopefully you won't have to miss out...

Well we have had requests for further documentation today so hoping that's a good sign. God this is stressful.

Hello all, can i join in to keep me sane? We went on officially last Friday and have a couple of viewings lined up ( one Friday and one Saturday ).

Only moved here 18 months ago and now ( must be mad ) moving back to where we came from ( long story!) Anyway will look forward to reading all of your experiences and keeping my fingers crossed for all of you getting close to exchange and completion :)

Phew, we've exchanged! Big relief.
Rosie, I'd be interested in your story, we've just moved away and suspect it won't be long before we move on again or move back. How did you decide to move back?

I haven't been around for a week or two but here's where we are at...
mortgage approved yesterday and solicitors are awaiting searches. What happens next? I'm so glad this thread is here to keep me sane through this!

Lizzie we moved from Wilts to Devon and DH has really struggled to get well paid work down here.

He was offered a job in London and he can commute between Wilts and London and tbh that seems to be where a lot of his work is so we have decided to move back.

He did get a job here before we moved but it came to an end after just over a year ( It was contract work) and there have been a few bits and bobs about but they just don't pay enough really.

Devon is beautiful and i am from here originally - its just if you go away for over a decade i guess you can't expect everything to be the same when you come back and added to that DH is off again on Sunday night for the week ( won't be back until Fri) and DS 1 and 2 ( who are only 6 and 2 ) will really miss him.

I had our first viewing today ( been on a week) and another tomorrow - i think they loved it but there are a few disadvantages to our cottage such as being on a busy-ish road and only having on street parking. We do however have amazing views and the cottage is very pretty so fingers crossed something comes up soon as we have seen a property we really like the look of and i won't view it till we get an offer ( knowing my luck it'll probably be gone).

Mommathatwearspink - great that your mortgage was approved, thats the hard part over i always think. My DH is a contractor and its always a nail biting time when we are getting the mortgage approved as they ask for all sorts and i always worry that something will go wrong.

Its the beginning of a long road - our last house fell through three times when we were trying to move, i hope to goodness this move is smoother, we just have to find a buyer first!

PS congrats on exchange Lizzie - you are home and dry ( just about )

Just rejoining. Was on this thread about 6 month ago, trying to decide whether to go on the market before winter. W didn't but have finally put it on this week with photos taken in September. No interest so far, so already worrying if we've priced too high. Pretty stressful leaving the house super-tidy every morning in case we get a call asking for a viewing that day.

Thanks rosie I hope you find a buyer very soon and your sale goes quickly and smoothly!

We hit a bit of a wall yesterday and I'm confused about what to do next. Our buyers are wanting 1k knocked off the asking price due to something that came up at survey. We have agreed. The EA suggested a quick amendment on our mortgage, however when speaking to them this morning they've said it would be a whole new application which we don't want to do. Need to speak to our solicitor but they are closed for the weekend Does anyone have any experience of this?

Momma, we knocked £1k off our sales price too, the contract had to be amended and the buyers mortgage company informed but as we haven't yet bought anything else it didn't affect an ongoing mortgage. Is there any way you can scrape up the extra money? Or does the extra £1k alter your mortgage LTV? It seems rather ott to make you go through an application again if not.

Mixed news here, we completed on our house sale which is great but the house we're buying has potential issues and we're considering pulling out. Gutted, there's nothing else on the market we like. Really unsure what to do.

Urgh, have pulled out of house purchase. Absolutely gutted. Trying to get new viewings lined up but my heart really, really isn't in it.

Lizzie, we were in your position back in November, and 2 days after pulling out viewed 7 houses in one weekend. I was exhausted and fed up and didn't want to bother.
The first one we viewed that weekend had just been reduced by 25K that week, putting it into the top end of our budget. We have now been living in it for the past 10 weeks. Every morning we wake up and are so glad that we had the courage to pull out of a house that we thought we loved, but in hindsight would have cost us a fortune to put right. I'm a great believer that things happen for a reason and you will find the right home for you.
Good luck .

Thanks Mary, I think that's just what I need to hear at the moment! Viewed one house today and 5 more lined up for tomorrow (kids are loving it - NOT). Just so fed up it's happened twice now, how can we find yet another dream home?

According to the mortgage broker our application is undergoing final sanity checks (whatever they are) and she expected the valuation to be instructed today. Not yet!

Hello again, just checking in to see how you are all doing - I find the whole mortgage process utterly stressful so really feel for you Seattle.

Lizzie really sorry you had to pull out - that is so frustrating. I am really hoping we can find a house that we would like to buy soon too. We have looked at nine so far and none of them seem to quite fit the bill.

There is a limit to how much we would like to borrow but we can't seem to find anything that we like massively without going that extra financial mile which i really did not want to do. We have another 4 to look at this weekend coming so i really hope something comes out of that.

We have a second viewing scheduled for tomorrow with the second couple to view our house so i am hopeful but the estate agent told me that they have looked at an awful lot of properties ( they are 1st time buyers) and are still perhaps deciding what kind of property they want so we shall see.

We have another viewing on Friday, so there is always hope - i do hate this whole house buying process though.

We have a promising viewing booked at the weekend, the guy wants our place as a buy to let, is coming from 100 miles away but only viewing ours, has booked a same-day appointment with the EA's mortgage broker - agent thinks it's a dead cert - seems to good to be true Nice to finally have some interest though!

We put in an offer on a house on Monday, there are several offers on the table so they're still considering but I'm not 100% sure now. It's a beautiful old Victorian house, needs some work (new kitchen, bathroom and decorating) but is livable and could be amazing. It's a compromise on the garden though (just a tiny courtyard) and while is in our preferred area it's on the edge and is almost overlooked by some slightly dodgy-looking tower blocks.

I'm also still torn by a new-build one, it's not in the same area (although area is fine) and is 25K more but you get an extra bedroom, parking, a garage, utility room and extra bathrooms. So it's heart vs. practical - I hadn't appreciated how difficult it would be to decide what I want!

We have finally exchanged contracts today on our purchase and we complete on the 16th. Can't get our removal from storage until the 20th but we are going to camp inside for a few days and get some stuff done before all the furniture arrives!

This has been the most stressful purchase ever.

I agree Trufflethewuffle this house moving stuff is sooo stressful! Went to do an unofficial survey on this week with an engineer friend and couldn't find anything to worry about. Yesterday I (finally) got the property details form through and it turns out there has been subsidence in the past which affects the insurance premiums. The structural work was carried out twenty years ago but they are paying massive insurance premiums, compared to what I currently pay, with large excesses too. Solicitor is asking more questions, but I am wondering what I should do. If I go ahead I am paying approx £500 per year more than would be normal and may have difficulty selling in the future.

The only other option to ensure I keep my buyers may be to rent, which could be ok but will probably eat into my capital.

Any advice?

It really is the most stressful thing ever. Still no word re the valuation. The Easter weekend stretched out ahead of me like an abyss!

Congrats on exchanging Truffle, the end is in sight!
Hope you get the valuation instructed today, Seattle, the Easter weekend in the middle is such a pain. We're desperately trying to see everything that's available as quick as possible but there are some houses we can't see until the end of the holidays, it's only a week and a half away but it feels like a lifetime.
Socy, we haven't had any experience with subsidence but we pulled out of one house which had had flooding (albeit years and years ago) and despite having flood defences, the insurance premium was sky high. And only one insurer was prepared to insure it, so we would have had no choice. The potential difficulty of reselling was a big issue for us. How long would you be planning to stay in the house? Is it a long term move? Is there any way you could reassure an insurer - have a structural survey specifically looked at subsidence or something to assess the risk?

Thanks LizzieMint. The flooding thing sounds similar, although I am waiting for the solicitor to find out a bit more before I ask my current insurers what their position would be. The reselling is the biggest point for me - I might stay there for the rest of my life, but I might not, I just don't know and would hate to have to stay put because of something like this.

The Easter break will hold things up, but on the other hand knowing that nothing will happen means we won't be on tenterhooks either SeattleGraceMercyDeath and can ignore emails etc

Socy that is very true, I might even get proper sleep between nightshifts instead of raising myself from unconsciousness to check my emails and feeling like arse by the time I get halfway through my shift!

Well done to those that exchanged!
We have been moving slowly..waiting on mortgage results,had to do a paper application with the nationwide so taking longer,and our broker left the mortgage company. Arggghhh.

Been given an estimate from solicitor for 6-8 weeks for exchange but still a bit nervous ESP as not had mortgage confirmed.

When do you start packing up? I don't want to leave it too late,but reluctant to start in case I jinx everything!!