Anyone fancy starting a Sellers support thread?

[Sooperswooper]

Just that really!

That would be a great Christmas pressie Pipnposy . Hope it all happens.

Hope it happens pipnposy.

Our amendments to the draft detail were sorted and we're now on rightmove and the details have been emailed out. We already have someone booked into view on Saturday. :)

Thanks JT05 and Sparkle! I daren't hope it'll actually happen but it would make for a much less stressed Christmas!

Great news about your viewing Sparkle-such an early viewing bodes very well! Let us know how you get on.

Possibly bad news on our sale just one day after I thought it was going OK, our buyers have started fretting about some things, asking for more inspections and quotes and getting remedial work done before they commit to buy. Although the agent assures me this isn't so, I think they're getting cold feet and are looking for an excuse to pull out. DH is seriously annoyed and saying that we should just tell them to get lost and we'll find another buyer, we'd accepted a lower offer than we wanted only because they were chain-free.

TheElementsSong. Agh on your behalf! Hopefully your agent can speak to the buyers and reassure you that they definitely do want the house, they just want to be forearmed with info (even if they are going OTT). I've said it a million times but England's system of buying houses absolutely sucks. I've often felt like shouting 'look, do you want the bloody house or not?!' Good luck!

Elements - that's rubbish I'm so sorry. Hopefully it's a blip and not a deal breaker. It's always hard as we hear all the info second hand too. I hope it straightens out for you. Sounds like they are having a wobble but still want the house. The main thing is always that they still want the house, everything else you can find a way round hopefully. Have you seen something you want to buy?

I'm having a bad day too. Things are ticking along but as we are buying a new build the building company's sales office is seriously pulling out all the stops to speed things up and make thing complete before Christmas.

Our solicitor has already said this is nearly impossible but builder is not giving up. So they are harassing our Estate Agent for updates on our sale, harassing our solicitors...and now they don't want to speak with our solicitors as they are "off hand with them" so they get me to do it.

I can tell the solicitor is getting fed up and she just e-mailed and said that she finds the builder's approach to this matter highly unprofessional.

It's all making me feel a bit emotional to be honest. I need to pull myself together I think!! DH isn't as contactable as me during the working day, so I've been dealing with it all, but I think I may have to hand it over.

Latest thing has been the sales person calling the council to speed up the searches and the council say there is no request from our solicitor but solicitor saying it has been applied for. Feel stuck in the middle.

Like I say, I need to get a grip. I think it's the whole process just wearing me down.

Sorry for the rant!! Maybe we should just stay in our current house....!!

LaFlottes, no wonder you're feeling worn down with your builder acting like that! I think the idea of a Christmas deadline puts even more pressure on an already stressful process. I'm so much more laid back since I realised we wouldn't be going anywhere until the new year (if at all...!).

Your builders are being idiots but realistically they won't want to lose your sale for the sake of a couple of extra weeks. Try and step back and let them argue it out with the solicitors and EAs ; it's what they're all paid for after all. On the plus side it sounds like you'll be in your new home very soon!

I totally know how you feel, I have made/taken literally every call about this process and wish I could hand it over and just get DH to sort it out now (unfortunately he's uncontactable at work!).

Thanks Pipnposy. It's nice to be able to moan to someone who knows how horrid it all is!!

The builder keeps forgetting that they can hurry us along as fast as they like, but we also have to wait for our buyers and as they are buying (hopefully) our house to rent out, they are not in any rush!

As you very rightly say, I should just let them all get cross with each other and they can fight it out without me! We'd love to move asap but it's not essential and we never thought it would be possible, so it would be a bonus rather than being upset if it didn't happen if that makes sense.

I honestly think we will have a few hurdles with our buyers anyway before this is all done...so the big rush is probably all for nothing.

I think the builder just want to have the sale on the books for 2015! It's probably part of a bonus or something.

On another note - did you have any luck getting your plan B in place so you can buy without selling if it comes to that? I'd love to have that security but finances definitely won't allow that for us!!

Yep, this thread means I don't need to rant all evening to DH! Broker says we would probably have to look at a bridging loan so we wouldn't do that unless we were absolutely desperate as they're very expensive and I'm so risk-averse I think it'd send my blood pressure through the roof ;)

Your builders sound awful LaFlottes, and they're just adding to the stress for no reason at all!

I have arranged for a builder to quote for the remedial work that the buyers want, but have emailed the agent to say that we are not willing to do anything but the most minimal work while the house is still ours. If the buyers want a more thorough job doing, it is their problem when (or rather IF) it becomes their house.

Pipnposy - At least you got an answer from your broker so you know where you stand. I would be the same as you re a bridging loan. I don't know much about them other than they are expensive, so you'd just be changing from one stress to another. Hopefully everything will be okay anyway and you can stick to plan A.

Elements - yes they are being a bit of a pain and it's so transparent that the only reason is that they would like this in 2015 figures. It sounds like you are doing exactly the right thing re your buyers. If they want to do things to the house then they need to pay for it when it becomes theirs surely?

I think I will have a glass of wine tonight - I keep thinking it's Friday though, wishful thinking!!

This does stop me going on about it to DH too. Also I don't like talking about it in front of DD (12) as I get all stressy!

Just got back to the thread! Oh my! Sorry that you're having such a bad time Elements and LaFlottes. Fingers still crossed for you Pipnposy.

This system is really bad! We bought in Scotland, signed a contract with our solicitor (who are also the Estate Agents but not for the purchased property), then he did all the worrying/ work. We just paid up on the required day!

Of course once the purchaser is satisfied with the survey, deeds searches there is no backing out.

Still hoping that the end of the week will bring good news for everyone.

TheElementsSong: exactly the same thing happened to us last week when our buyers commissioned additional surveys at weeks 5 and 6 post offer and then tried to negotiate 10k off the sale price. We held our ground because we know we could get more if we put it back on the market and we had only accepted them as they are chain free. The person we are buying from is not in a rush anyway. It is so easy to be pressured into something when you have your emotions involved.
Anyway my husband basically told them that if they wanted to do the work they were concerned about they could pay for it and they either exchanged or it was going back on the market.
Everything is back on track... For now.
Hope your buyers don't try to mess you about with their additional extra surveys. Are they paying specialists or just getting free quotes?

Moving - they paid for this extra survey (this was after full survey, then valuation), then it went quiet for about a week, then some days later we heard via agent that they were happy with those additional results and were just waiting for searches. Then they came back and said that actually, they weren't happy with the result of this extra survey after all, they'd spoken or emailed or whatever with the person and there is work that needs doing with such urgency that it can't wait for the New Year.

So yesterday agent called me and said we needed to get builders in to quote for this work, and/or another person at the supposed problem which is apparently critical, and it needs to be done immediately and perhaps "we" could reach a compromise on the cost . Never mind that it is almost Christmas and there's pretty much no way anybody is going to be available until the New Year anyway!

Urgh. Annoying. Have you seen a copy of the survey? Are they genuine issues or is it just sensitivity to surveyor speak?

Oh Elements! Presumably you are living happily in your house, so what is so 'critical

They are trying it on!

Yes, the buyers sent the report to the agent, who sent it to me. It's completely innocuous - says that yes the work (trying to keep it vague, sorry!) needs to be done (never mind that when we moved in, our builder friend had a quick look at it and reckoned it wasn't of significance) and simply goes on to describe their recommended procedure. Nothing alarming.

Somehow, in the week+ afterwards, a series of behind-the-scenes discussions seems to have transmogrified this simple conclusion into a rampaging monster

I can understand where you are coming from. Some people cannot see that if a house has stood for xxx amount of years it probably will stand for a few more.

I have wondered if someone tried to buy Shakespeare's birthplace house, what sort of mortgage offer they'd get! There's not a straight floor or wall in the place!

Is it for something structural or is it for an upgrade. I am just being nosey because our experience was similar.

Our survey issue related to the roof. They actually paid £600 for a roof survey. The surveyor said that while the roof was stable and had been reinforced and there were no leaks they may wish to consider in the future replacing it with a lighter weight slate roof.
They mistakenly thought we would be willing to cover the cost of the stable reinforced non leaking roof.

I do find it really annoying because I have never attempted these kinds of manoeuvres on a vendor even when I have had good reason to attempt to renegotiate.

People should be better informed before they make their initial offer instead of thinking they can play games later on.

It is something potentially structural. With hindsight I wish we had just fixed it when we moved in if only we'd known that it would strike terror in the hearts of future FTBs . But we had had a full survey, plus full inspection and certification by a major structural engineering firm before we bought the house, then had our builder friend cast his eye over it (as a general overview) after we completed - and none of them had flagged it as vitally important.

Can you share your previous structural report with them? Would that help reassure them that it won't fall down on their head?

Several conversations with estate agent today as he attempts to firm up an exchange and completion date. He always manages to leave me in a state of terrible anxiety. I need wine.

I will share a couple of bottles with you Moving. The required mortgage document is still not with our buyers' buyers' solicitor. This has been ongoing for a month (!) and I am sure someone is lying about something. First thing Monday our EA is getting a call to say we exchange this week or we're going back on the market straight after Christmas 😫

Oh no that is awful. The uncertainty is so frustrating. Sounds like mortgage offer problems doesn't it? Fingers crossed your estate agent can work some magic next week for you.

The thing is, the solicitor has actually received the offer by fax but they want a posted copy. Which hasn't materialised in over a week. Nothing is ringing true at the moment which is why I think someone somewhere is lying.