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

I do feel rather manic! We've got so much to do before we can move in, new plumbing, fixing wiring, new flooring throughout, building works, new staircase etc etc etc!

Blimey ..... How's that work? Did you have folk lined up just in case?

Basically, yes. We've got quotes while the vendor's been there, everyone's just been waiting for exchange to confirm start dates. We complete next Friday, builder starts the following Monday! I'm ordering flooring now so by the time it's delivered the builder should be ready for it. There's a lot of juggling going on!

We are at the very stressful business end of the process. We are due to complete on 29th, and if lucky exchange the back end of next week. My solicitor is blasé about my need to appoint movers.

The movers have very kindly pencilled us in and will let us know if anyone else wants to book that date. The will pack next Saturday and move on Monday, which gives us Sunday to clean.

The solicitors do not talk to one another. Out buyer's solicitor phones the estate agent, who then phones me, who then phones the solicitor and back down again. What am I paying for exactly?

Oh I'm so late but please can I join? Had one lined up last year but fell through very late in the day. Desperate for our first home but it's just not happening

EToile, we have about a 70% deposit and are going with Santander, via a broker. The broker, recommended by our estate agent is excellent. He is charging is £100 for what is turning out to be very complicated, and also gets a cut from Santander.

The mortgage stuff is very exasperating as they take a very conservative view of affordability. We have been living in two houses this year because DH moved a year ahead of us to take up his new job. Trying to convince lenders that we will only need one house in the future is beyond belief - that's why we are moving!

Hi - bookmarking my place since we are in the process of buying and selling.

I'm so glad this thread exists......it's great to share the highs and lows.

It would of course be better if home purchasing in the UK was an improved process. But this thread is the next best thing

I have spent the weekend feeling like I should be preparing in some way but there is nothing I can do. We still haven't exchanged for some reason and I really feel like the proposed completion of 10 July is slipping away.

I'm fed of of feeling so in limbo

It's so horrible isn't it, Pistol? And then it's a mad scramble to get everything done once you do exchange!
So you don't know what it is that's holding it up? Can your solicitor shed any light? I kept myself busy annoying phoning everyone to see if I could push things along in any way. Even if you can't, at least it keeps the urgency in everyone's mind.

I think it's our buyers conveyancer - it's an online outfit and they are just so slow at everything. It's making me feel so stressed though and I'm usually quite a calm person.

Well done with your exchange though, I hope it's smooth sailing from here in out for you.

We emptied the loft today ..... We reckon 19 trips to the tip over the next two days

Now I know we should have decluttering earlier but this has all happened in 9 weeks.

Annie ..... The problem is from a soliciters point of view as long as the exchange happens with enough time before completion for money's to be transferred they're happy.

They forget about us mere mortals

Can I join the thread please? I've been lurking for a little while but this is my first post on this thread.

DP and I are FTB and we had an offer accepted at the beginning of April. Since then, we've paid for the searches and they have all come back, and we also have our mortgage offer. (It from Natwest through a broker, took about 4 weeks I think but was pretty painless actually, for those who wanted reassurance about Natwest mortgages).

The vendors solicitors have been very slow to respond to the enquiries raised by our solicitor generally, and on the fixtures and fittings form the vendor has written 'not sure' next to a number of things (like the washing machine, fridge, sky dish etc.)

We had our survey booked in for last Wednesday. On the Tuesday evening we had an email from the surveyor saying the EA had cancelled the survey because the vendor's property had fallen through and he wasn't sure if he wanted to sell any more. Since then, the EA has had much difficulty getting through to the vendor, but basically gist is he is looking for rental accommodation (I think shared) that will take both him and his dog, and that if he doesn't find anywhere within a week, he will take the house off the market. We hadn't paid for the survey, thankfully, although we are down £350 from the searches.

We have told the EA that we are in no hurry (even though our rental runs out in 6 weeks!) and that we would sooner the vendor take his time to find somewhere so that we can hopefully still buy the house. The EA has had difficulty in getting hold of the vendor to convey this, and as it stands we are in limbo.

Can anyone reassure me that this could still work out ok? And if it doesn't, and we have to find a different property, is it likely to be any quicker because we have already come part way through the process?

Congratulations to all those who have completed/come out the other side of this stressful process!

That's us got our mortgage offer through today!!! Gotta be some kind of record, valuation was yesterday! Now we see if my tactic of choosing the solicitor who responds fastest to questions pays off..

Eek we have finally taken the plunge and put and offer on our dream house. The offer was rejected...which we expected. It was a low offer but we are chain free and have fwiw a mortgage in principle in place.

We absolutely don't think the property is worth what it is on for. It was on with one ea and had an offer that fell through because of issues with the survey and the vendor being unwilling/unable to drop the price. They then opted to place the property with a new ea as the original ea had an obligation to pre-warn potential buyers of the problem that they were aware of. The new ea obviously told me the sale fell through for other issues.

Where do we go from here?

Idefix, what are the issues? At least you're aware before you embark on the process so you can make an informed decision. I think you have to weigh up what you can afford and decide what you feel the house is worth to you. Chain free is excellent so maybe hold out a bit longer it see if the agent will give you an idea of how much they'd be prepared to accept. Good luck!

The main issue is damp Cupcake, the problem is that is appears to be an enduring problem. Ea tried to imply it was not to unexpected given the property type and age etc bizarrely I would like to think we are not expected to put up with this.

Will be upping our offer, but now wondering if we should play it very cool afterwards. We really want to buy now but can wait, we initially plan to let any house we buy. But will then worry about prices going up and/or the market slowing down further - very slow in the area we are looking in.

Arghh!

I just want to say thank you for all the support on here. We completed last fri, after getting caught up in the RBS/natwest debacle last thurs during moving day and almost ended up homeless for a night. All ended well. Seeing as it's very fresh in my head, if I could rewind to this time last week what would I do differently?

• label not only which room things are going in, but roughly what is in them. I've had to root through several boxes just to locate one thing. I was being cautious not to divulge contents but frankly discerning which box your pans are in isn't being flippant!

• should have left a few frozen items in the freezer, specifically a few meals like spag Bol sauce, chilli, casserole etc, as the removals people said the freezer is fine for several hours with the door shut and would have meant I'd had a few meals on hand for the first few exhausting days.

• wear the comfiest, easiest shoes and have some nice bathsoak and hand cream where you can locate it, your feet and hands are worn to shreds. I've broken every single nail (weeps).

• as well as stuff in an overnight bag, I had a few days clean ironed clothes in the laundry basket and what I regarded as essential things - my alarm clock, Chargers, wash bags, kids school and club kits, laptop bags, paperwork all seperate and we put these in my car before the removers started work. This is very necessary when you almost end up at a hotel for the night as we did.

• if you are completing as part of a chain and need to move in on the day of completion, don't complete on a Friday. Way too risky if the transaction goes wrong you'll be homeless for 3 nights. If it's another weekday it's only one night.

Those are the main things I can think of. No doubt I will check back from from time to time, hoping everyone has a smoother journey than we did.

I saw your other thread Angel how are things now with oven and garage door etc? What did your soliciter say?

Thanks for the tips Alabaster, hope things are settling down for you now. When we moved down here, the movers told us to leave the freezer full so we didn't do anything to it at all.
Good tip about avoiding Friday too!

I'm feeling slightly ill after ordering a mammoth amount of flooring. I hate making (expensive) decisions like this based on a teeny weeny sample of wood.
So far have carpet measurer, builder, electrician and plumber lined up to start work as soon as we have the keys on Friday. So hope all goes smoothly!

Hope you dont mind me joining you.
We are meant to be exchanging toward the end of this week. but it has now come to light that the vendor at the top of the chain has failed to answer a couple of enquiries so exchange now cannot happen until this has been tied up.
Next down in the chain is now threatening to pull out if the answers are not given soon!
So much rides on this move , childrens school applications etc and would have not time or money to go through it all again.
Feeling really anxious now

Unless anything goes awry we complete tomorrow.

Norks, fx it's something simple to resolve like a quibble over fixtures and fittings. Being in a chain is incredibly frustrating when your subject to other parties issues but without any info.

Hello! New to all this!

Bought my first house sixteen years ago. Dad died last August so I'm buying out my brothers share of his house with the proceeds from the sale of my house. Were hopefully putting it on the market next week. The mortgage company said we can't even put an application in until the for sale board goes up.
Have read this thread and quite frankly I'm terrified. I have no idea how to sell a house and haven't bought for years.

Any advice would be really welcome!

Honey dragon I hope it all goes well for you today!

Our exchange is still delayed - how long do the banks usually need to release mortgage money? We're all working towards completion on the 10th July but I'm so worried it will get delayed.