First time seller, offer just accepted and need to move fast, what next?

[CoffeeTwo]

We've been on the market a long time as houses are not shifting round here so we've taken an offer quite a bit lower than we'd hoped for. There's no chain either end and the buyer is in a position to crack on with things straight away.

I'm due baby number 2 in 2 months and really REALLY want to have moved before baby arrives. I'm having an elcs so will be useless for a good few weeks afterwards. Plus it's an extra human to move!

So I'm wondering what happens now? I've already got a solicitor lined up and have filled out some paperwork regarding boundaries etc. It's a hundred year old house so I'm twitchy about the survey, although nothing major got flagged up 5 years ago when we bought it. Is there anything I can do to speed the process up?

not really, I'm afraid. Your buyer needs to do searches, and they take as long as the council takes; some can be REALLY slow. Survey should be done well within a fortnight.

get decluttering, get removal and packing quotes sorted, give provisional dates. Keep chasing things up, make sure your solicitor turns stuff round quickly.

you say no chain - where are you moving to?

Thank you, that's a good about getting removal quotes sorted I hadn't thought of that.

We're moving in with my parents, just what you want as a family of four but really I'm very grateful to them and they do have the space. All our stuff will be going into storage and we'll be on the hunt for our next house asap. We just really didn't want to get stuck in a chain and rush the purchase of our family home.

You could incentivise them to exchange by x date? Even a few hundred pounds. Imghttp swing it. Ask your solicitor.

I moved once when 37 weeks pregnant, you will find the energy!

Keep hassling and chasing all the time. We moved in 3 weeks. I was the annoying one!

this is really helpful everyone, thank you. I plan to be the annoying vendor on the end of the phone regularly in the hopes that they speed things up to get rid of me

To be honest, I'd hope for the best but expect not to have moved before you give birth (congratulations, btw). Pack up everything except absolute essentials before the baby arrives so you can go at short notice but, otherwise, just focus on the birth. If you want to incentivise the buyer, tell him that if you give birth before he completes, you will not be going anywhere for six weeks after that - if he's keen to get the house, it might make him get things moving at this end.

You can't do much except get solicitor on board ASAP and fill in forms as soon as you can. Find out if you can fill in forms now all ready. Any issues? Eg neighbours, dodgy roof try to sort. And I would plan to move in with parents a week before ELC even if you've not moved. Just be ready! Good luck

If you're moving in with your parents there's no reason not to move at a time that suits you, is there? You could move before exchange, certainly between exchange and completion. The problem with selling is that you're at the mercy of the buyer's mortgage lender approving the mortgage (ours recently took a good eight weeks) and the local authority completing the searches. I don't think you should bank on completing pre-birth but that doesn't mean you can't move

Thank you lala

We can move in with parents any time but I daren't do it before exchange in case it falls through and we have to move back. It could be months and months before we have another buyer interested.

thanks for all the tips! starting on the decluttering today :)

Yes, make sure you have all the relevant paperwork to hand.

Have you had a new boiler installed/electrics carried out? If so, you will need the relevant Gas Safe/ BS7671 certificates to provide to your Buyers Solicitors, together with any Guarantees. Have you had any windows installed, again, you wil need FENSA certificates/building regs and Guarantees. Have you had any building work carried out, if so, make sure you have any planning permissions/building regs available. If you have lost any of the above documentation, contact the relevant authority and arrange for duplicates to be issued.

The rest is up to the buyer and their solicitors to sort out and you will not have any control over this.

Good luck.