Buyer's support thread #5

[scribblegirl]

Sorry for breaking the last one

and for all....

Yeah Palomb!!

Kirin I'm not sure...I think they can because I'm sure I've read about people not having their formal mortgage offer sorted in time for exchange.

Offer accepted! Fingers crossed. The house looks straightforward, but you don't have any assurance at all really until you see the survey (and that's assuming it's a good survey).
On the survey thing. I was so struck by the difference between structural surveys I've had in the past and the one I had last time. It was a very very long document which went into a great deal of detail. And it came with another big document which consisted of over 100 photos, an electricians' report which it turned out the surveyor had contacted the vendor to demand they obtain before he would even show up to do the survey, photos of plans of the extensions on the house, the info from Rightmove, and other useful guidance documents. The surveyor also sent me a couple of long emails answering my queries, and talked to me on the phone for half an hour, and had some chats with the vendor and my solicitor. The survey included recommendations to the solicitor about checks she should do and documents she should ask for.
I suspect that his advice was overly downbeat - strongly encouraging me to withdraw. But in terms of the effort he put in it was gobsmacking, and I hope I can use him this time.

Congratulations palomb !!

And well done on the offer leman - that does sound like an incredibly detailed survey - did you have doubts about it in the first place? I'm wavering on just getting the valuation, the house we're buying has been significantly extended. [hmmm]

kirin - I think it's normal to wait for valuation survey before sol does searches, as they cost money and there's no point if the mortgage lender won't lend on the property.

Broker is supposed to call me tomorrow with survey date. checks watch taps fingers

Time to hit refresh unimagmative

Thanks Tits. That's what I thought.

Gutted as we've just had a call saying a place we offered on two weeks ago but lost out on as an offer was accepted about 15 minutes b

Pressed post too early!

We lost out on a place by about 15 mins about two weeks ago. EA just called to say the buyers changed their mind about location and it's back on the market. It is only a couple of footsteps away from the one we are buying but with very little work to do whereas ours is a total do-we upper. We actually didn't like it the first time but when when we saw the done up one (and lost out) we realised we could make our one look great hence offering on it. If he'd have been in touch 2 days ago we would have snapped it up.

Thanks all. I wish I could say I'll have a glass of
Fizz to celebrate but I've been trying for too much wine recently to deal with the stress. I think I'll celebrate by giving my liver a rest!

So glad to hear you've secured another house, Leman.

Our lovely mortgage broker has been really helpful today and laid out exactly who needs to do what to ensure our mortgage offer isn't affected by the change in solicitors. We've got to get them to fax something over tomorrow and he wants to be copied in on everything. I wish everyone we are dealing with could be like him!

Kirinm, they asked for proof of address for 2016 (so we provided council tax bill), also a letter from our accountant to explain profits in 2014, prediction of earnings for 2016 and explication for childcare arrangements. All stuff quite straightforward.

Also yes we've had all searches done. So just mortgage to go.

I suppose if we get declined from this morning (I bloody hope not) that we can go with some other ropey shit lender.

Congratulations Palomb. I'm sorry the last two weeks have been horrible.

Hello all - I've got a quick question. The house we're looking at has a few issues on the Home Report (we're in Scotland) that might cause some expense in the future. We'd like to get estimates on how much repairs will cost before we make an offer as this will affect how much we can offer. The thing is - how do you get quotes for work on a house you don't live in? Do you ask the buyers to co-ordinate with tradesmen for the quotes?

Be aware that the home report valuation takes into account any issues identified, so the sellers may not be interested in a lower offer than the valuation in the report.

What are the issues?

Cast iron guttering that has been patched and that the surveyor warns will need some more permanent repair / replacement, and slipped slates on roof. We will probably be offering over the valuation but the quotes will affect how much over, as we'll obviously be paying anything over valuation out of own pockets (rather than mortgage) and want to be sure we are saving enough back for semi-urgent repairs.

So quotes are almost entirely for our own peace of mind (wanting to know if we can afford to maintain house) rather than negotiating.

Sounds reasonable.

If it's the roof and gutters, you might be able get a roofer to take a look from the outside and quote. We needed roofing quotes when we bought this house, and the roofer did them without getting access to the house.

Have you heard yet unimagmative ?

Our broker called and said that all the paperwork and valuation was done and we should have our offer by Monday at the latest!

Getting somewhere!

We should know by tomorrow

Waaaaaah underwriters have approved the mortgage subject to the valuation! We only applied 2 days ago. We just have to give them by DP most recent SA302 ( self employed) and once the valuation is done we'll get the offer.

Exciting!

8 more days until completion here. Every morning ds wakes up with a cheer and informs everyone how many days we have left before we get the keys. I think he's more excited than I am!

Sounds like the mortgage offers are coming along on this thread.

Reading: very exciting about completion in sight!

We are totally bored of this whole process now. Our buyers are ready to exchange (and keen to). We have the mortgage and the searches and are just waiting for responses to some final queries from our vendors' solicitor (which involve an indemnity for roads that are not yet adopted by the LA)/the management company responsible for the estate the house is on (about stuff so tedious I can't bring myself to remember what it was). Then we should be good to go. Our vendors are buying a new build but aren't tying the sale in to this one as far as I know (the paperwork still says they aren't).

I just want to get on and move and stop worrying about boring legal crap I don't care about (my solicitors can care about it for me, because I really am not interested).

I had a wobble yesterday. I went to see the new house with a mate of mine to measure for carpets.

Whilst wandering around the house I noticed that the ground floor doesn't have any electrical sockets. How can this be?! Kitchen has two, but neither of them are close enough for the fridge or washing machine.

The estate agent was so rude when I was hunting through the kitchen trying to work out how to power appliances. The gap for the fridge is really narrow and she kept going on about how the plumbing for the washing machine is there so it must be ok. I wasn't bothered about the plumbing, it was the powering the bloody thing I was bothered about!

Anyway, she told me she wasn't forcing me to buy the house. My mate was a bit shocked and walked away with his measuring tape while I silently fumed.

Anyway, I had a complete wobble last night about the enormity of the task ahead of me and making it a home.

I messaged an electrician friend of mine and he has very kindly offered to fit sockets for me downstairs. There's only a loo and a big cupboard down there (the rest is an garage) but I'd planned to put my fridge freezer in there and make do with a small fridge upstairs until I can get the kitchen done.

wobble over I think, but I was so overwhelmed last night!

Aww temp, I feel like that even though I'm lucky that my family is full of tradesmen. We lost out on a flat a few weeks ago that wouldn't have been habitable straightaway and I know that although it could've been lovely in time, I would really struggle to go back to it after work when tired every night. Luckily the one we've bought is at least liveable even though all the walls need knocking down and starting again.

At what stage in the process is it okay to start being rude back to the EA?

((((Temp)))) I have wobbles even though I - worryingly - absolutely love the home we are buying. I fret about possible neighbour noise and parking disputes and boundary queries etc etc I think it's normal to have a wobble, and I certainly would if I'd found no electrical sockets and the agent was rude to me!

I'm at the stage where I'm worrying about bad neighbours, barking dogs, hidden problems etc etc etc too. We move on Friday and I absolutely love the house but it's such a bloody neap of faith isn't it!

Temp in the vendors photos wasn't there any appliances plugged in? No tb or anything?

Wow Palomb so close for you now!

I thought everyone might like to hear about the saga of our Shit Solicitor.

We were originally going to go with a solicitor my BFF recommended, but when we got our AIP it was with Halifax. That solicitor wasn't on the Halifax panel: fine. We went with one our lovely mortgage broker recommended instead.

Except they got taken over three days later by Shit Solicitor...and didn't tell us. Our instruction was transferred to a different person in an office in the next county over...and they didn't tell us. They decided not to do any of our work until the takeover was all settled in...and didn't tell us...oh and they disappeared several hundred pounds of our money.

All of this we only found out through our mortgage broker, because they wouldn't talk to us on the phone or reply to emails. As they hadn't actually done anything for us we decided to jump ship. Our actual mortgage ended up with Nationwide, with whom BFF's solicitor does work, so we moved over to them. But even that has been made incredibly difficult by Shit Solicitor's refusal to have any contact with us.

I would almost think it was us overreacting had our mortgage broker not taken it over for us and told us he is no longer recommending them as a number of his clients have been treated similarly and it reflects badly on him. Yesterday afternoon we actually had to drive there and stand over them to get them to send a fax to Nationwide confirming their disinstruction, and to give us our money back.

At least this happened super early in the process. We asked the estate agent to please assure the vendor that we are not messing him about and we felt it necessary to move to get the purchase through at all. He's been great about it. And we are SO lucky to have super-broker on our side!

Anyway it's been a nightmare but over now. I hope!

Thank you for the kind thoughts. I am feeling much better today after an early night. I've made some progress too; three car loads of stuff to the recycling centre and two kitchen cupboards tidied and sorted ready for the move.

My father has started a plan for Getting Stuff Done and that has helped. DS (aged 9) has been so helpful today with the garage clearance and I am starting to feel less daunted, especially after getting prices for slimline appliances for the kitchen.

I'm sure it will all be fine...