Home Buyers' Support Thread, Part 4

[BeaufortBelle]

Here we go.

Good luck everybody x

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/2139089-Home-Buyers-Support-Thread-Part-3?pg=40

Isthereever- thanks for the open house idea. DH unfortunately isn't keen but I think it maybe a good idea if we still don't get a buyer. We had so many viewings last weekend and now zero which seems really odd. Is that normal?

Are houses taking a long time to sell? Our EA said that things were really busy since the General Election result, particularly in our price bracket. I wonder if they said that just to get us to use them? My friend who is knows a local EA said things are really slow and that normally they would be really busy.

Where we are the houses are flying off which has been so stressful for us as we just haven't had a look in and then they go for way over the asking price!! Open days around here are the done thing pretty much, every house that comes on has an open day and sells from it so I would definitely consider that if I was you! If you sell from it at least you can then return to normal and not have to clean and tidy every day, if you see what I mean! Why isn't your DH keen?
It can create a lot of competition with viewings back to back which is why they sell so quickly, I can't speak for your area as I don't know where you live but you have nothing to lose at this point I guess!
EA will tell you anything to get you on board sadly I'm sure there are some good agents somewhere but they have an interest to sell your home so they still need to work hard to get you off their books.
Do you have many photos of your house in rightmove, do they show your house to its best potential? Is the price right?

Thanks Isthereever- we're in the South East. DH seems to think half the furniture would disappear if we did an Open House (not that we have lots of expensive fancy things!). He won't have a For Sale sign up either.

House is on Rightmove and a couple of websites, also in local paper.
It is so awful having a race to buy our dream house knowing it could be snapped up by someone else at any moment. It's the only reason our house is on the market.

We are in the south east too so I am surprised your friend feels the market is slow but I have noticed that certain price brackets are selling a lot quicker than others and also I see estate agents putting high prices on properties in areas which people don't really want to live, they stay on the market quite some time until the price is reduced, however, every house we looked at/offered on went so quickly! I really hope it doesn't fall through as not sure I want to go through the whole process again!
All of our furniture is still in place we cleared a lot out to make it feel more spacious lol but the agent will be present for the whole open day anyway so I can't imagine anyone walking out with something easily
It's a horrible process isn't it, have you spoken to your EA about why they feel there have been no offers or anymore viewings?
Are you able to offer on the house you want??

Why won't he have a for sale board? My Dp didn't want one either but relented in the end because it's more advertising especially if someone walks past and sees it, who wouldn't necessarily see it online?

Our chain has collapsed and I am devastated, I have spent two yrs on and off looking for our forever family home in our price range. It would involve moving to the next town over but its a seaside town so not a huge compromise. The house is everything we want in the right price range with all the space we need. A similar house in our city would cost £125 000 more!!

The house we loved had several offers but it took them a YEAR a to find a property they wanted to move to - we were only on the scene for a few months. There was another offer at the same level but we were eventualy deemed the best option as we had a seemingly very strong chain. We did have to go 5K over asking price.

Its the bottom of the chain that has collapsed. Our buyers knew there was an issue several weeks ago and had paused the survey on our place. Our EA knew this but assured me they were just about to do the survey so go ahead and pay deposits for survey and solicitor - 2 days later I get the news that the survey wasn't going ahead as the buyers have paused it. Then its all go again and we breathe a huge sigh of relief.

For 2 weeks were are assured the hold up with the survey on our place is with the mortgage company who are using their own surveyors and they are just busy. It turns out the bottom of the chain had had a huge issue with the damp discovered and therefore pulled out.

Our buyers are apparently devastated that they might lose our house. We are devastated that we will lose our onwards purchase and all our deposits £650 plus. I have given them a week to try and buy another buyer but I am not hopeful.

I am loathe to put our house back on the market (2 kids, 4 students staying endless housework etc), I am also not happy that I am delaying the onwards purchase finding another buyer - as we are doing to them what we have had done to us.

The only hope I have is that they are buying a deceased property and they are notorious for taking ages to work through.

If by thurs they haven't had an offer (properties are moving fast but they have damp and don't have wiggle room re price), then our house is going back on the market. I can only hope that our onward purchase can give us some time to find another buyer. We have paid for the survey so its going ahead this week and I am hopeful we might find a buyer quickly as we sold to 3rd person after 2 weeks on market.

None of the estate agents have acted very well in this whole matter and I feel like I am being forced into terrible behaviour as well - I feel like I should tell the onwards chain about our buyer but have been talked into giving it a week.

Just needed to get it all out really, I really don't want to lose this house as its perfect, huge sigh. Has anyone been in this situation and it all worked ok (hopeful face)

It is a nightmare. So stressfu and I feel for you.

I had 5 months of stress with both my sale & purchase. It was awful.

I've been here in my new house for 2 weeks now and it is FANTASTIC. I feel so at home here, my boys love it. It's lovely.

Stay strong, it will happen.

This whole process is interminable! We are now on 5 weeks waiting for the local search to come back - our solicitor uses a cheap company who take forever evidently!

We still haven't exchanged despite being in a chain of 3 and no plans can be made really until we see if the local search throws anything up. Aaaaaagh!

Isthereever-I don't know why DH won't have a For Sale sign! He just thinks it isn't the done thing. I am confused! We haven't been offered one by the EA either.
The EA of the house we are trying to buy won't let us put an offer on until we have an offer on ours. DH says we shouldn't make an offer until we know how much we can get for ours. We know the seller really well. I can just see this house slipping through our hands at any time. It's so frustrating. We have now had 10 viewings in under 2 weeks but no second visits. Is 10 a lot? How many will it take?!

Sorry to hear people are having such a nightmare time.

Golden we sold our house to the 3rd person after two weeks of viewings but then our sale has just fallen through. There isn't much new stock coming on the market and good stuff is going quickly. We have been chased by every agent in town trying to get us to sign with them.

Even our neighbours house sold at £40,000 more than ours and apart from a different layout and better view I cant see why it is worth £40 000 more - hubby says we should put our price up.

On the house we wanted we knew it had several offers but their ea wouldn't accept our offer as we weren't proceedable until we had an offer on ours. When we were proceedable there was a matching offer (had to go offers over) but in the long run we were supposedly the best bet as we had a strong chain. It was a nerve wracking time. Now we are back at stage 1 and hoping that we can find another buyer quickly.

I cant understand not having a for sale board - in the past I have identified areas I want to live and have gone looking for houses in that area. Also if I am in the area and I see another house I can ring the agent and see if its in our price range. It also makes your house easy to find to viewers.

The speed of the sale will all depend on the demand in your area, the pricing and how good the ea are at matching potential buyers to your house. Apparently our buyers were looking for a place with a larger kitchen but when they saw the rest of the space in the house they decided it was a compromise they would happily make.

Good luck its such a nightmare process, I hope it all works out for you

Golden - I would ask your EA to get a sign up and chat about an open day! What feedback have you been given from the viewers so far?
Have you decluttered? We did this and it made a huge difference!
Tell you estate agent you need some action and make sure they are only sending people round who are suited to your house for example our estate agents sent a large family to our small two bed, they said "it's too small" Of course it's too bloody small, our second room is barely a single!! If you don't have any luck, maybe consider changing agents depending on your contract length of course.
Could you speak with the sellers and agree a price, if they want to accept your offer surely this would override what their estate agent says??

We started the ball rolling on our mortgage application today so will see how that goes, it's nerve wracking waiting!!
Our seller hadn't found anywhere yet as far as we know but she is keen to move ASAP so I'm hoping she gets a wiggle on. Thankfully outer buyer is cash so only a chain going forward but even so I wish we were out of a chain!
We originally put an offer in on a private case but the offer had to be posted abroad and was taking months so we pulled out and thankfully found this house which we love so much. - would be gutted if it falls through it sounds like a lot of stress!
I'm sorry to hear your chain fell through Blessed!

We're in exactly the same position PistolAnnie! This is the 6th week of waiting for the local search results, the council have said they should be back this week but our EA says it's taking up to 8-10 weeks at times. Everything else is done, we're just waiting and waiting...

My soliciter has told me not to try and get an earlier electrician as she's still waiting on the searches. This way she can blame the vendor for any delays and hope the swatches are completed in the extra ten days oh and these are quick searches that normally take days.

*searches not swatches

Congratulations to everyone who has exchanged. Commiserations to everyone else as no one seems to have much good news

I've been lurking on this thread for a while thinking I had nothing to post as everything was going so smoothly. I honestly didn't think id be posting again.

We have a very small chain.

Btl investor buying our house. We are buying from a guy who's parents died.

Anyway, we got gazumped and then the gazumpers pulled out so we were second best to the people we are buying off. We promised to have everything sorted in 3-4 weeks or else the house would be put back on the market. I called the agent to serif this was possible for our buyer. His exact words almost were 'he's as good as a cash buyer. His mortgage is all in place and the paperwork is all done (at this point his offer had been in approx 2/3weeks) he's just waiting for the survey. 3-4 weeks is easily doable.'

This was three weeks ago, maybe four. We are all good to go. Searches back today etc etc so we call agent. Purchaser forgot some paperwork so still only has mortgage in principle. His broker is on holiday for a week. He refuses to use another broker.

DP spoke to the agent and then called me. We got cut off so I called the agent to confirm everything. I feel bad for her because both DP and I were pissed off and ranted. Especially me when I told her the other agent was a lying shit bag.

I just can't believe it. Agent refuses to give timeline on mortgage timeframe but i think it's at least two weeks plus the time the broker is away. She says it'll be faster because he's btl and because he's bought in the past with no problems but I can't see that helping. It's a process that takes time.

Unless someone has the cash to buy that property your still in the strongest position to buy it.

I'd be hugely pissed off too.

Well are we? As long as it takes to get the mortgage is potentially how long it'll take the next bidder to get the searches and mortgage.

DP is not sure whether to press on with the survey and potentially lose searches + survey or slow down the survey meaning we will only lose money for searches if the worst happens but he will be more likely to drop out if a. Survey has not been done and is slowed down by the survey (if that makes sense?)

I see the dilemma now. Do you know why the other buyers pulled out?

I wouldn't want to risk paying out having being gazumped once either. I hate this process as you risk so much once you believe you've found the right house

Could you convince ea for an extra couple of weeks?

(I'd be tempted to slow the survey too)

Sadly am delurking to rant. Sold our house to a developer who wanted us out in 2 months, said OK. Found a perfect house, offer accepted, they found somewhere else too. Mortgage in place, searches started and contract signed. Oops they say, don't want to move, we can afford to stay. I want to stamp my foot and say no! You said you'd move! And why wait till we'd paid for the searches?

Honey, yesive mentioned it up thread. It's a funny story. The house is up for 185 but needs renovation and has been priced too high. They placed a higher bid (just after we had paid for searches too knavkerelli so I feel your pain, can you ask for money back?) and the same day another house came up on the street behind for 190. It was the exact same house but updated and had a much bigger/steadier conservatory. Two couples viewed it and two couples bid. (Us and them) they had a higher offer and were first time buyers. We lost and less than an hour later we got a call from the agent of the house saying they had pulled out. They beat us to two houses.

I just don't understand how you can forget paperwork for a mortgage. He put his offer in 6th may. Either something fishy is going on or he has the least pro active mortgage broker ever/worst memory ever.

I know our buyers name. I know he is some kind of tradesman. I'm tempted too google him and call to check this is the case and the ea aren't lying...

Oh sorry, I remember now. You poor things. So you know already the vendor is a arse.

With the mortgage it depends. We were asked for all sorts of odd bits after we'd provided everything and more at the start. The difference is we were buying a home we wanted and pushed them to hurry.

Tbh in your case I don't think it could hurt your sale at this point.

Just say the EA haven't given a helpful time frame and have made him out to be flakey so you thought best to ask directly

I've gone right off estate agents. I have a right doozy to share (I'm waiting till we exchanged before I spill though).

I've just called the agent as I don't understand how it can be 5 weeks along before they realise the forms are in. I asked if he could just pass the forms direct to the lender and she said no, it's forms for the actual broker. Then she starts with her veiled threats of 'I don't want to push it, he has no emotional attachment asan investor. He will just pull out.' Etc etc. Then she makes it sound as tho he was thinking of it anyway.

That's fucking ridiculous, if the agent thinks he's a flakey buyer than they should be pushing their arses to find other potential buyers!

I bet if the house you were buying was theirs too they'd be loads more proactive