Would anyone like an 'in a chain' support group?

[thenewaveragebear1983]

Would anyone like an 'in a chain' support thread? We're selling and buying and it's so stressful!! We've found our 'dream house' and had an offer accepted, had an offer on ours within a week which was subsequently retracted. Wondered if anyone else was finding this whole process ridiculously stressful?

Yes, Bear that's about it....but they misled everyone, including my EA's & my buyers...I don't understand how my buyer's solicitors have completed all paperwork for the sale of their property without seeing a mortgage offer.

I am going to propose Monday..do people complete on a Monday?
I am now eating cake. My jaw is clenched & sore, my shoulders are like rocks.

Northumberland Bloody hell! nightmare for you. I've lost all confidence in EA - they seem to just hope some things happen - then do FA when they don't! p.s. we have asked for a Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday to complete as DH works away a lot.

bear did you get the paperwork sorted?
I'm still waiting for these bloody questions from the solicitor....... getting a bit annoyed now to say the least

Can I join? In a chain of 5 houses, so 6 sets of buyers/sellers. We've been waiting to exchange since late August. Bottom of the chain is taking ages. Trying to be all zen about out but we've moved DCs to a new school, the commute is awful and I'm now having to unpack the winter clothes I foolishly packed away in July, assuming we'd have moved by now. Grr.
There seems to be no specific reason fire the delay, beyond very slow paperwork for houses 1 and 2 in the chain.

runner welcome - you must have the patience of a saint I think i would have thrown my teddies out of the pram by now.

I've been taking comfort from the stories on this thread that end in completion. Last time we moved I was so stressed and it didn't help, trying really hard this time to remain patient but I just want to put all the solicitors and vendors in a room together and not let them out until all the queries are resolved!

Runner, we are house 2 of a chain of 4 or 5 in the midlands, we have done everything but our solicitors are just really slow! we keep ringing daily to chase them up as we are frustrated so can only imagine how the other people are feeling!

We are expecting a call today, hopefully the queries for house 3 will all come back this week and we can Exchange!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now imagine if we could do that - so much more sensible. I got to the point yesterday where I was so stressed I just wasn't functioning properly - so today I am still f**king stressed remaining serene

Momma got everything crossed for you - I feel your pain with the slowness of it all, I really want to ring the solicitor again today, but know she was off yesterday and know I must let her catch up on everything.

Me too. The stress of yesterday has just beaten me - I need a break from the all-consuming low level anxiety of it all. It's literally one thing after another, and ours has been relatively straightforward. And we haven't even begun to think about all the work we need to do when we are actually in this new house. Dh is stressed and cranky today, plus the whole family is suffering with coughs and colds. It's not easy.
I keep telling myself we could be in within two weeks, but I have a bad ominous feeling today which is dampening my excitement somewhat and just putting me off starting to pack up . I'm taking a 'day off' from it today. The new contracts should arrive today, we can sign them tonight and send them tomorrow and then in theory we are back on track but I'm not going to contact the EA about the chain until we've done that.
There's no reason for my feeling off about it, so I just need to get on with it really but I just can't shake that ominous doubting feeling.
for everyone

bear sending I know how you feel - I'm so down (not me at all), I too have a load of packing boxes and was going to start on Saturday and didn't, I've had a bad feeling about our buyer from Day 1 (no reason just have). I'm going to leave it all until tomorrow and have a ring round then - I took your advice and have asked for a full chain update, still no sign of these additional questions our buyers have.
All the exchanges have cheered me up over the past few days - I think we need to take a bit of hope from them.

Yes Anna positive mental attitude and all that..... Keep the faith!

Goodness there has been a lot of not so good stuff going on since I had a good read. My only advice is to hang on in there, we have had major dramas and set backs, nearly lost our buyer and purchase over some big issues, but it's all finally sorted, everyone is committed and in 8 days we will be in our new home . It will have been nearly 23 weeks since we went on the market, and 10 since we went under offer, we've both had many sleepless nights and minor breakdowns, but we are almost there!
to you all

Thank you Ginger,
Your story has made me keep plodding on hopefully i won't have had a breakdown by the time its our turn best of luck with the move, I hope it all goes really well for you. Remember to let us know how you get on!

Evening all

Bear you sumned it all up so perfectly by talking about the "all consuming low level anxiety". I haven't heard the process described so accurately before.

Unfortunately our purchase has fallen through due to the vendor not accepting the down valuation, so we're homeless as of the end of November. I'm really hoping we can find somewhere to rent that accepts pets!

Apples that's rubbish, but then taking on a property needing that lever of work would be a mammoth task. Also, reduction of 70k doesn't mean you would have that spare to do the work, just the difference in deposit IYSWIM. Are you going ahead with your sale then even though you have no onward move? Would your buyer wait for you?
Tbh there are big benefits to not buying and selling simultaneously and it will give you the upper hand when you do come to buy as you'll be chain free. Good luck with your rental search

Apples I'm in a similar position to you and we have just found a rental which accepted our dog with an increased deposit. It's worth doing this with landlords as they can be more flexible even if initial ad says no pets!

Morning All,

Apples not good news - I hope you get a rental sorted, I second arsenic we were going to go in to rental before we offered on the house we hope to buy, the landlord did the same, bigger deposit as we have a dog and a cat.

You will be in a great position buying chain free - I hope you find somewhere soon.

apples Hope you find a rental soon! We have a pet too and it is generally around £200 extra deposit for a pet. Whenever we mention it to letting agents they say pets arent a problem anymore despite always saying "No Pets" in the adverts on Rightmove.

arsenic I think we may have to overlap too. I'm very anxious about it though. Our buyers have been flakey so far so it's a risk.

We had quite a lot of progress yesterday! Just waiting for responses on enquiries. Both sets of solicitors are aiming to exchange on the 1st November but I don't feel confident at all.

All I want is to exchange contracts, sign tenancy agreement and move. I don't care if completion happens after we move into the rental.

Collie that sounds like positive news! I know what you mean - I don't care when we move, I just want to know that we are going to move (if that makes sense).

Morning all! Feeling a bit brighter today, although I have a rotten cold! Sending out contracts today which puts us back where we were on Monday, but as we are still waiting for answers from our seller for a few bits we haven't held things up too badly.
The guy who asked about buying our flat has come back with an offer, which we have theoretically accepted- they are an older couple who are selling a bungalow and wouldn't be in a buying position until March which sort of suits us, and they have asked if they can rent the flat from us after they sell while we complete the sale of the flat with them . This is amazing if it all goes through because our one concern was our tennants moving out and leaving us with two mortgages to pay - we just need to find out how it works if we need him to leave, he's been a model tennant so obviously we want to treat him fairly. So pretty positive really.
I still feel a bit meh about the whole move and can't quite summon up the excitement but maybe that's a good thing until we exchange. Calm and serene, me.
Have a great day everyone

Morning Bear thats all positive then (apart from the cold) sounds like it might just all fall into place at a perfect time.
My sereneness continued until about 2 o'cock yesterday and then I went into all out warfare mode. It seems to have worked though as my solicitor is on a mission today and has emailed me about 4 times.

The new update is:-
Slight confusion as we have been told our vendor is going into rented and our solicitor thinks not (I think thats just crossed wires i f**king hope so

The planning consent for our house has mysteriously vanished from our file and we need another copy (I'm hoping thats not too dramatic to obtain)
We are waiting on an update on our buyers buyer.

If anyone else comes back to me today with more questions from our buyer I might spontaneously combust - apart from that I am endeavouring to remain serene for the rest of the day

Have a good day everyone - sending positive vibes

I've been peeking at this thread for weeks with one hand over my eyes in horror at how stressful it all is. Now I'm living it. We sold in June, have a moving date agreed of this Monday 31st and no missives have been signed (Scotland). I am not remotely serene. Our buyer's lawyer is being obstructive and ignoring our lawyer's questions about the hold up. Chain is five long so we don't know who is causing the delay. Have just had to cancel my broadband/line rental for our new address as I have no idea if I will be moving there.

The last time we bought a house, almost ten years ago, missives were signed weeks and weeks before moving date. This is mental torture.

Pleased to see some positive vibes!

We are still waiting for confirmation that the lady at the bottom of the chain has received her mortgage offer. We are definitely not moving on Friday - Thurs 3 Nov has been agreed between myself and the couple buying mine, but nothing is certain until she gets her blooming mortgage offer.

I am still reeling about this, we were at the point of exchange FFS, how were the solicitors sorting paperwork and preparing documentation without a copy of her mortgage offer?!

AND - because I have packed EVERYTHING and I'm not buying loads of food just to fill cupboards etc, there was no wine last night. I was reduced to drinking the left over sweet sherry from last Christmas

Welcome Perfumed - I have been looking at the Scottish system enviously ....I assumed missives were signed early on, which removed to fragility of the process!

Thanks Northumberlandlass, I can so why you are stressed out too!

Scottish system used to work beautifully with missives signed early on but our lawyer said the trend is now going the English way with everyone waiting until the last possible minute. I've stressed myself so much I've gone off the idea of moving now.