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 :)

Any luck with viewings Iizzie?
It is difficult deciding isn't banana . A garden is a must for us, but do and I disagree on location. I think we should stay very local so kids can walk to school on their own as they get older, DP thins we can drive them but it will be me not him doing most of the driving.
Our house has been on the market for 2 weeks without a single viewing. Is this normal?

Lara I wouldn't start packing until a few weeks before exchange, 6-8 weeks sounds optimistic to me.

Thanks chem! Mortgage is all approved waiting valuation, everything seems to be ticking along both sides of the chain for the moment, but no doubt there will be a tits up somewhere.

Our estate agents advised us before that if you had no viewings in that amount of time, it's likely the price isn't right. Probably quieter over half term however

Have NCd, it's Lizzie. :)
Viewings were good, we short listed 3 and all were good in different ways. Agonised over which one to plump for, but we have decided, just need to wait for tues before we can make an offer. And keep everything crossed we actually buy it this time!
Lara, we used a packing service this time, absolutely amazing! Would recommend it if you can, they packed up our whole house in less than a day. I think it was about £4-500 on top of the removals cost. The house we just sold went through to completion in 6 weeks, so definitely do-able.
Chem, I'd hold your nerve for a few more weeks, it's probably a bit early to worry about the price. With Easter hols in the way, I'm not sure how many people are actively looking. I bet there'll be some activity next week.

We also realised we first started househunting in the Easter holidays last year. Still no bloody house. Ridiculous!

Hi Empress/Lizzie

I am seriously considering a packing service. It feels like a bit of a luxury given we have a new house to kit out..but...the less hassle and saving of sanity is surely worth it!

Definitely worth it for me, three small children and DH was away a lot in the run up to the move, no way could I do it all myself! Our removals were £1100 for a 4 bed house, worth getting a few quotes cos the most expensive one was £2k so quite a difference.

Thanks Empress . Don't want to drop the price quite yet. DP said yesterday maybe its too cheap and people are thinking there must be something wrong with it! Its amazing what some people are asking for.

I'm not sure Chem, we had 3 viewings in the first week as the EAs did a lot of pre-work contacting people but then nothing for 4-5 weeks. I think things are picking up though as we had 3 viewings this weekend and my rightmove email alert's been pinging away like anything! Although nothing I really like.

One viewer's coming back for a second viewing on Tuesday and we've had an offer 20k below our initial asking price so we've finally got some interest. The new house I liked has now gone, only the show home left and won't be on sale for a few months and then at a premium, kind of makes it easier now it's out of the equation.

Well, here we go, long weekend is over so get back on the phones everyone who's waiting for progress!

We're going to offer on our third house today, fingers crossed!

Hi, can I join in?.... We are currently renting after selling our house last year and relocating.
We put an offer in on a bungalow last month, which was accepted . Mortgage nearly sorted; just waiting for valuation and survey to be done.
We are being kicked out of our rental at end of April so hoping to complete by then but it doesn't look likely .

Phone call from the valued today! Valuation instructed!! Whoop

*valuer

Urgh now we're being pushed in all directions!

We have put an offer in on a house a week ago and the EA has called to say they'll be putting forward another offer that is lower than ours but a cash buyer alongside our offer but only if we have a buyer secured. Deadline is the end of the day to confirm

We had an offer on ours at the weekend but it's 10K less than we want (20K less than the original asking price). We've turned it down, potential buyer has said it still stands (i.e. he's not offering higher - he thinks we're desperate) but he wants to know if the person having a second viewing puts in an offer.

So I think we've got to be prepared to walkaway from the house we like, I don't want to be pushed into accepting a low offer on ours to try and secure it when there's no guarantee we'd be accepted and I don't think we'll manage to get anywhere with further negotiations today. Ho hum.

Well we agreed on the 1K with our buyers eventually so hopefully everyone is happy. Unfortunatley borrowing extra on our mortgage would mean a whole new application so having to to get it together ourselves. We are in the inbetweeny bit now where we are simply waiting for our solicitors to do their thing. When I ring for an update, I am just told that I will have to wait for them to recieve everything and then they will report. I hate waiting . I really hope we exchange soon!

Empress so pleased you have found something you like . Hope everything goes ok today re putting an offer forward.

banana sorry to hear that things aren't going as you would like them to. Keeping everything crossed that your second viewer loves it and puts a offer in.

We need to instruct solicitors. I'm way out of my depth, last time we both worked for solicitors so it was easy! No quotes seem to exhaustive, it's always 'prices between' so it's difficult to work out how much it's going to cost us.

Hello all

Banana that sounds stressful.

I know what you mean about the waiting around in limbo...I hate it. Have to stop myself calling solicitors/estate agents/bank daily

Valuation been instructed from our end..does that mean our mortgage is ok?x

We had our offer accepted! Don't dare get too excited this time though!
It always seems to be weeks of not-much, followed by a mad scramble at the end. I think if the valuation is instructed, the mortgage company is basically happy as long as the valuation is ok, so hope should hear some good news soon Lara and Seattle.
I think the solicitors fees are largely based on the sale/purchase price, but I did get pretty firm quotes when I asked. Hard to remember it was so long ago!

Great news empress. Fingers crossed it goes smoothly.

We got fixed prices from the solicitors based on selling and purchase prices, but in the smaller print there are extra fees for disbursements and so on.

Valuer for our purchaser came round today and said he would happily value for 20k more than we sold it for ??????

It's all been going so well. House on market, house under offer (4.5% under asking price), found dream house following day (OK a lot of research had been done and we were on for three months last year and it all fizzed like a damp squib).

We are a chain of four and we are buying the property at the top. We have bent over backwards to shift everything along quickly and our purchasers have pushed us to. And then we get the "we're so sorry but our mortgage people held up the valuation and I know you agreed to it on Saturday but now we've realised the Home Buyers report was not worth much for £850 so we want a proper structural survey". They have the mortgage offer, but the survey thing is just worrying me. How can intelligent professionals not know about the survey stuff when they have bought a house before?

I just get the feeling that they have hooked us in and are now going reduce their offer and we will be back to square one. We feel they have a very good price on our house and have agreed that our answer will be "no, the price you have offered reflects the value of the house and your mortgage people must have thought so too".

Just feeling they are going to nickel and dime us and we might lose our purchase here. Is this the way these things work (haven't had this before and this is my 5th purchase but never in a chain this long). Do others think we are being "had" or am I just being paranoid.

It has just all gone so well up to now but I asked the solicitor to hold off further paperwork yesterday until we get the green light re the survey to avoid incurring legal fees if it's going to fall flat on its face. We are six weeks in and we had our survey done within a week of offering and confirmed immediately there were no surprises.

We have never bought a house so much with our hearts before so this is probably why we are more concerned than ever before.

Oh Beau that sounds stressful. Who knows what their agenda is but I agree your answer should be no to a price drop irregardless (unless of course you can afford to take less)

Sending positive thoughts

Thank you. The estate agent is closed now. No call back since our conversation this morning.

Official mortgage offer issued! Whoop

Whoooooooop! That was really quick work with the valuation!

OK so still no viewings after 2 1/2 weeks. Talked to EA earlier in the week, who said don't panic yet, Right Move stats look OK. Still no board either. I had originally not wanted one, but requested one a week ago and we're still waiting.
Not found anything ourselves, so not sure if it makes senses to drop the price quite yet?