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

Oh I know Tremolo, essentially he won't commit to accepting offers from anyone but still wants to have a buyer waiting in the wings if and when he should find somewhere else, he can't have it both ways But we are going to be homeless soon as we don't want to lose our sale so need to get cracking with something!

House viewing 1 was a bust as it had no garden unless you want to sit out on the street House viewing 2 is tonight, we've actually seen it before but had a couple of reservations then it went off the market so will be good to see it again. It's a stunning house but close to our max budget so I am nervous about spending that much.

November seems a long way off for 2 chain-free buyers Tremolo, hope this is the one that works out for you! I also lost £500 on solicitors for our aborted purchase, it sucks.

I'm pretty inexperienced Batbear but I take it the vendor is not willing to negotiate? If you are having this problem then it's likely another buyer would too. Have you spoken to your broker about it to see if there are other options? Are there any recent Zoopla prices you can evidence? Sounds like a nightmare, my sympathies.

Batbear i agree with PP that if your survey/valuation is lower than your initial offer then its highly likely others would be in same position and wouldn't offer more.

if I were you I would just say to the EA that you've already got your mortgage offer and can't borrow any more so if the vendor isn't prepared to negotiate with you and accept the lower valuation then sadly you will have to walk away. If i was a vendor i would rather accept a slightly lower price and get the sale completed than start over with looking for a new buyer. whatever you do, please don't put the extra money on a credit card. That is an incredibly expensive way to borrow and not a long term solution

Thanks all. The vendor has agreed to meet us halfway which we are mighty relieved about. Also they are still looking so I think with a couple more months we will have saved at least a couple of thousand towards that top up.

It's clearly becoming more of a problem - my colleague said there was £20k difference for her and again she met halfway.

We are battening down the hatches to save wherever we can now!

Good news Batbear!

So the vendor of the house we liked has finally confirmed that he won't accept our offer (1 months later) as we have a big chain (even thought he hasn't actually found anywhere to buy yet and we would be happy to go into rental if needed). Oh well.

House viewing 2 on Monday was a success, I manged to resolve my reservations from the previous viewing. We've offered the amount they want for it but our chain might be an issue. They've found somewhere to buy via private sale that has no chain but there's been some other viewings so someone else might be in a better position than us :(

THat's good Batbear! Banana - I hope you get an offer accepted soon, chains are such a pain! How big is the one you're in?

So things are going reasonably well on our purchase. Vendors have booked in their survey for the 17th... slightly worried that they are going to freak out - they haven't moved in 43 years and getting a full structural on a period cottage, so will probably read like a horror show. My dad is doing our survey at the weekend.

Their property was never registered with the land registry and there is some slight irregularity with a ROW over public land, which means it is easiest all round if they register the title now before passing it to us. However, their solicitor has advised them to refuse, since he doesn't think they should bear the £300 cost. Because they're not seasoned buyers, they just listen to the solicitor. I am going to give it a few more days for back and forth between the solicitors, then just ring the EA and lay it on the line - they stand to lose £5k if they don't complete by November 7th (we've offered a financial incentive) so £300 is nothing. The solicitor works for them, there are no legal implications here, he should surely explain to them the pros and cons rather than just refusing on their behalf to do something that will allow exchange in a timely manner!

Chain of 10! Estate agent has said it's the biggest he's ever seen and basically implied that our EA should never had let us accept an offer like that, we didn't realise it was quite so long at the time and were short on offers. Although he's said he's known long chains that haven't collapsed and is researching it to see if it can be broken anywhere so I don't think we're going to get an answer anytime soon - although vendors don't seem to have said an outright no.

£300 is not much in the grand scheme of house buying process, especially if it will save stress and complete the process quicker and it seems like it's their error from when they bought it!

10!! Wowsers. But with that many people, hopefully someone somewhere will be able to move out if they have to.

Well back when they bought it, land registry registration was not compulsory or even standard, everyone just went off their title deeds. So I don't think this is a very unusual problem - I just think they can pull their finger out and pay for it - they are selling a house they bought for about 6k for 440...

Wow Banana! 10 seems huge!

Tremolo I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you

taps screen is this still going? How are people getting along?

Our vendors are almost ready to discuss completion dates, the chain's been cut down to 5 now and our solicitor is calling with weekly updates so it seems to be going ok fingers crossed

However we still have nowhere to move to! The last house we offered on in August we were bumped by someone with no chain. DH saw a house last week that he says is amazing, pictures look fab but I can't see it as I've been working abroad and am not back till Sunday. As the houses in that area move so quickly I told him to just make an offer, vendor is happy with the amount but won't formally accept until I see it so have arranged to go Monday - trying not to get too excited in case it all goes wrong again but seems promising!

banana just wanted to say that my neighbour is a solicitor and a few months ago saw a chain of 14 get to completion. It wasn't easy but they got there, so yes there's no doubt you're in a big chain but wanted to say it can be done.

I haven't been on here for a while but we are now looking to move into rented as we pulled out of the house we were buying. Just waiting to exchange. As far as I'm aware everything's been ready for a few days now but our buyers' solicitors are a nightmare to get hold of.

Ooh, we're still going... just! Still hating the whole process and ready to throttle both solicitors.

Banana, I'm glad to hear that your chain has calmed down a bit. Sending you lots of positive vibes.

Our vendors' property has now been registered with the Land Registry, but we will probably still need an indemnity policy to fully cover the right of way as it is only 'purported'. We're just waiting to hear whether our bank will accept this now - I think in most cases they do, but of course, this whole process has been so fraught that I'm not taking it for granted.

Baby due in 5 weeks... it would be wonderful if we were out of our awful rental by then, but I will settle for having exchanged so at least I know I'm getting out! Foolishly bought a birth pool that I can only use if we're in the new house as it's too heavy for the floor of this flat, will blame pregnancy hormones.

Hi Tremolo, wow what a nightmare with a baby imminent - I don't know how you are coping!

Well we've found an amazing house and had our offer accepted. Vendor wants to exchange as quick as possible, we're waiting for a completion date form our own sale but that should very soon.

However, we've found out the house has been underpinned. There is a copy of a structural engineers report that the previous vendors had done. As far as I can see this means it will be difficult to find insurance (the best option may be to take over the existing insurance), potentially scare off certain lenders and may put off potential buyers when it comes to resale. I think these are risks we're willing to take (provided survey doesn't throw up anything frightening) but our mortgage broker is on holiday till tomorrow so we can't start anything till then.

Hope you don't mind me joining, am feeling very anxious today about our purchase.
A bit of background, we part ex'ing our house for a new build. We have moved back from overseas and are currently living in a rented house while we wait for the house to be built. Put deposit down on house in July and the process has dragged on as the developer's solicitors have been incredibly slow at answering our solicitors questions so still not exchanged yet.
Basically, last Friday at 4pm I get a call from the developer saying that we had to exchange by weds or the house will go back on the market. I pointed out that we have been waiting for their solicitor to answer queries but apparently that's beside the point it has to be done. I managed to get hold of our solicitor that day and he said we were now ready to exchange so not to worry.
Get to this week and our solicitor ant get hold of the developers solicitor!! Find out yesterday that the solicitor has been on holiday and has just got back, see an email from her saying that she'll review it later on in the day but long story short, we didn't exchange yesterday because of the slowness of the developers solicitor and now our solicitor has a day off today . DH spoke to developer yesterday and they weren't completely sympathetic even though the delay is their end but they told him we have til tomorrow to exchange but I'm now terrified they'll put the house back on the market regardless. I just want to exchange !!!!!

Wow sorry that was long

Bananamonkey Glad you've found a house you love. In theory, a house that has been underpinned is actually more stable than the neighbouring houses but like you said, you might have slightly more of a headache arranging insurance. If it was a long-term house for me, it wouldn't necessarily put me off if I loved everything else. Have you appointed a surveyor yet? I would recommend not using the bank's one but getting an independent guy who you feel you can trust... surveyors reports are always full of caveats, but a good one will be willing to give you a bit more information about what is really a problem and what isn't over the phone.

Missy THat all sounds incredibly stressful. Developers have a bad reputation for behaving badly during transactions. If you're really ready to exchange, I can't see them putting the house back on the market. Good luck.

Thanks Tremolo it sounds like you're having a nightmare too.
Hopefully they won't put it back on, it would be daft of them to really but we are in a tricky position because the house we're part ex'ing hasn't sold yet and at the time of negotiating we accepted 15k less than the valuation for our house but because it's not selling the developer has now dropped the price to less than that so they're really not gaining anything now. This also puts us in a difficult position if the sale does fall through as we'll have a lot less money to play with and an unsold house

We still haven't exchanged. 2 hours left of the day

Ouch, fingers crossed Missymoo - that's so unfair when the delay is their fault!

We're definitely getting an independent full survey, our mortgage broker has recommended someone to us. Mortgage appointment on Tuesday so we'll see how that goes and book the survey.

hello! please can i join!

after 8 weeks on the market we finally secured an offer on our house, BTL investors, no chain, all well and good!

Had my weirdest ever house viewing at the weekend.

A bungalow with 3 new bedrooms upstairs, a smaller room downstairs they said could be a bedroom, lounge, sitting room, kitchen, conservatory, dining room. Huge garden. Almost too good to be true, but slightly over budget. We had previously arranged a viewing on it but it had then sold before we could view. The sale had fallen though though so we were invited to view.

Went expecting the usual 10 mins look round, and got actually shown around by the vendor. For an hour. our toddler was getting bored and i was getting a bit weirded out by it. every time we went to leave she would start showing us something else.

We decided we liked it but it was slightly over budget. However she kept going on about how she wanted to move quick, so thought she might accept a lower offer. It had been poorly maintained and a few things made us think we would need a full structural survey.

We came home and checked zoopla to see what she had paid for it, and noticed it had been market with every agent in the village, over the course of 5 years, but no sale. thought it was a bit strange. We started to think it might had been a structural problem that when it comes up on a survey she then moves to a different agent.

The agent it had been last marketed with was expecting a call from me, so i dropped it into conversation that they had previously marketed this property and we had viewed it, and asked what the circumstances were that it didn't sell. I got put on to the manager who told me she is an utter time waster, and not to waste our time as she has had countless accepted offers over the years, and then let them get surveys, and pulled out a day or two before exchange. He said "there have been so many structural surveys done by people she has strung along you could almost buy one on ebay now"

I decided to calk the agents handling our sale as they had also marketed it, and as soon as I said the name of the vendor, the agent burst out laughing, and said yes everything youve heard is true.

What on earth is wrong with people?!

Hi Orchidnap,

What a weirdo she sounds! I have realised that the most stressful thing about housebuying is having to deal with people

Well things are moving quickly for me now. Broker is applying for mortgage today, I'm booking the survey and solicitors have started the searches. However, our buyer now wants to complete next week (!) so that's potentially a few weeks we'll be homeless. We'll try and put them off a couple of weeks but we may have to suck it up. Now I need to work out where are we going to live?!

Hello, can I join? Sorry if this is long!

We're selling our flat and accepted an offer on it straight after the viewings, so that's all good. We eventually managed to find a house we liked and got our offer accepted on it - the sellers had been doing the viewing and had liked us apparently, so that's a bonus. We're selling to FTB and the sellers of the house have no chain.

We've just had the survey done which brought up some issues but nothing overly major. I'm in the process of getting people in to check the electrics/gas/roof etc as the survey flagged them up but I'm hoping they're all going to be ok!

I think the sellers are getting annoyed at all of this intrusion into their lives at the moment, but they couldn't provide any certificates for the gas/electrics which have both been redone in the last 10 years so I wanted to know what we were getting in to.

Our mortgage was approved but the valuation came in £10,000 under the price we're paying, although we've now got that down to £5000 so not such a massive deal.

The main issue is that we brought the flat as part of the FirstBuy scheme, and although we've submitted everything to them, it's taken them over 3 weeks to get the process started and the whole process can take about 12 weeks - although another couple on our development have been having issues with them for over 5 months! So no idea how that's going to go. I was hoping we'd be in by Christmas but I reckon there's no chance of that now, even if the Firstbuy goes smoothly.

My husband is also in the army and is now away for 7 weeks, back for 3 then away again for another 3 before Christmas, so I just hope we've got everything done that he needs to do at this point in time! I'm the kind of person that panics about everything so this isn't doing my stress levels any good.

Orchidnap That is nuts, but you are right to steer well clear. We have experience of similar time-wasters.. Come across two actually, both had a habit of putting their house on the market about once a year. I just don't get why?! One was in London but where we are now, a much smaller town, our resident timewaster must surely run out of EAs to alienate at some point! Although they do seem desperate to get customers around here...

This woman had her house on the market for 425k a year ago, the year before it had also been on. SHe had no viewings and dropped to 400k. We put in an offer and were accepted for 381k (house needed major refurb). She changed her mind about moving, after letting us pay out for searches etc. She also had to get a structural engineer's report which we contributed 25% to. Her is house is now back on AGAIN for 425k. She's done up the bathroom - by ripping out the bath and replacing it with a tiny square shower cubicle and moving the loo to where the bath was before - she's basically spent a fortune making a bathroom that no-one will want in a family home . Good luck to her [sarcasm emoticon]

We SHOULD have exchanged yesterday... but vendors' solicitor (who has been a total PITA throughout) was not answering phone/email, so we're waiting to see if it happens today. Agreed completion date: 3rd Nov. DC2 due date: 6th Nov. Let the fun begin!!!

I'm starting again after my last purchase fell through due to an awful survey. Found somewhere (a probate sale), offer accepted and am now beginning the whole sorry process again. I'm hoping it'll be fairly quick as there is no chain involved (am FTB) but I am terrified that the surveyor will find something awful again. That said, I had a chat with the next-door neighbour who moved in last year, and she said her survey only brought up a few minor issues, so mine shouldn't be any different. Famous last words!!

can I join in please? My house has been on the market for about a week. there's an open day planned for next Saturday with four viewers booked so far. I'm finding it all very emotional as I've lived here for many years and have so many memories. I have de cluttered but reading here wondered if I'm not taking it seriously enough about having the house spic and span? I'm down sizing and hopefully will find my little cottage in the country soon.

We decluttered, removed most of the personal stuff and put things away so surfaces were clear. Clean and tidy is good. Clean your windows, it makes a huge difference. I cleaned doorframes and doors as they stood out for me. I had to tidy cupboards as dh has a habit of opening doors to show people how much space there was inside and I had rammed them full of stuff.
Remember people are buying a home not a show house!
Good luck with the viewings.