Listing, Viewing, and Offers Thread 4!

[Nessalina]

The thread in which all our houses sell, and we find the place of our dreams!
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Why can we not just buy a house?

Just lost out on the house next to friends, went for 290 000 (asking price was 250 to 260, which seemed fair for 3 bed semi that looked nice but wanted some work doing). All I want is to live somewhere nice with our new baby and it's not going to happen and I'm already an emotional mess and this really hasn't helped.

Hugs pretty...

Oh pretty that's really crap This is such a stressful process... it doesn't feel like 'somewhere nice to live' should be that hard a requirement, but I know just how you feel!!

Thanks for hugs and sympathy. Just needed to get upset and now feeling ready to try and do practical things. Back on Rightmove I go...

Sorry to hear that pretty sounds like you're buying in a very aggressive market. Are you due soon, or is the baby here already? Trying to move is very stressful at any time really. Is there much else on the market that you like the look of?

We were rung this afternoon by the EA for the place we liked, but that went under offer a week or so ago....to say that the offer had 'crumbled' and to ask if we were still interested. So, perhaps it might be our house after all! Slightly concerned that it might mean something nasty has come up on the survey, but we'll just have to wait and find out I think.

Yay frescoed! Fab news. It could be that the other offer couldn't get the finance ( happened to our property)

Cheers Giz I am hoping it might be something like that! Trying not to get too excited though...

It's hard isn't it. We are ( I think) so close but it could still all fall apart but I am looking at curtains and decorations for the kids rooms which is dangerous.

Hurrah Frescoed! Great news. There's a million reasons these things fall through, I'm sure it's nothing sinister. How exciting!

Hurrah Frescoed! Great news. There's a million reasons these things fall through, I'm sure it's nothing sinister. How exciting!

This early in the game, they probably tripped over on finances. Fingers crossed for youfrescoed

Just checking into a lovely shiny new thread

Congrats to all who have accepted offers and fingers crossed for those with surveys in the offering

How are things going KitKat?

Nasreen - I have friends in Towcester and Milton Keynes - I think Towcester is Northants and MK is Bucks but both similar in my opinion. Decent schools and nice family atmosphere. Not too expensive. Neither commute to London though so I don't know what this is like.

drspouse - we had some mad feedback to viewings. I suspect people often just say the first thing that comes into their head. We had feedback from one viewer that clearly wasn't about our house at all!

My update - our purchasers came for a second viewing while we were on holiday. Still want to buy it (phew!) We got back from holiday yesterday to a meeting with the mortgage broker. So, our mortgage is approved in principle. Mortgage valuation survey is booked for next Friday and our purchasers have their surveyor coming to us next Thursday for their homebuyers survey. Providing the mortgage valuation is okay (fingers crossed) we'll book in our full buildings survey (property is old so needs the full monty). Our conveyancers have had all of our paperwork and have sent draft contract to vendor's solcs. And our purchasers have done the same to our solcs.

Seems to be moving very fast at the moment. Next thing to pay for are the searches.

Good luck to those with viewings this week, positive wishes for FAP offers

Sounds like it's all progressing well YogaDrone. Pleased to hear it.

I'm sorry you're having a rough time of it Prettygirlincrimsonrose.

Fingers crossed Frescoed. Sounds like a sign to me.

We had a viewing today but obviously no feedback yet. Have given up hope now that the couple last week who picked up the application form are going to return it, so having to keep fingers crossed for todays' viewing and the one we have on Saturday. In other news the house we really liked just price dropped on Rightmove, coincidentally to the price we were planning on offering anyway. Me and DH have spoken about it and are going to ring the EA tomorrow (who also happens to be our EA) to ask to do a second viewing (as it's been a few weeks since we saw it and we may have our rose tinted specs on) and if it's still the house for us make the vendor a full-asking price offer if they're prepared to wait for us to get a buyer. The vendor may well say no, but I figure we've got nothing to lose by making the offer.

Ooh that's great KitKat! Sounds like a solid strategy too, hope it comes off for you! Shame about the no show application form people, but at least you have more viewings lined up - sending good karma!

Sounds like you've got it all going on Yoga! Do you have a date in mind for when it's all going to complete?

I've got my first toddler-free day of mat leave on Monday (DS is at nursery) so I'm going to try and blitz my RM wish list and see some 'unlikely to be right but worth seeing just in case' houses! If there's anything worth seeing again i can take DH at the weekend.

Sounds like things are ticking along well yoga it's always a relief to know a buyers still wants to buy! Are you hoping to complete fairly soon?

Fingers crossed for you kitkat sounds like it might be working out for you - at least making an offer suggests you're serious about it, even if you're not yet ready to go much further.

Well, we found out why the previous buyer (and perhaps others we think) haven't bought the house we like - there was an issue last year to do with external cracks which was rectified, but which prompted a listing by the insurers as subsidence. Consequently the vendors tried to get some clarity from the insurers, and a specialist company came out and suggested it wasn't subsidence but wouldn't recommend to the insurers that ongoing monitoring was put in place to clear it. Thankfully (for me) my husband is a structural engineer so understands rather more about this than I do, and thinks this means there wasn't subsidence, just the kind of local movement you get with older houses - but what it means is that we need to check the house: 1) isn't going to fall down!; 2) is insurable and without costing the earth; 3) is mortgageable; 4) is likely to be sellable further down the line.

Thanks

KitKat that sounds like a plan to me. The EA of one of the places we viewed said the vendor there was happy to accept an offer in your circumstances so I guess it just depends on the vendor. I hope yesterday's viewing results in an offer for you. The application people may still apply though. Fingers crossed for you.

Nessalina I jumped onto the "in a chain" thread yesterday and people are talking about trying for October half term. I think that might be out of reach for us but it would be ideal. If not, perhaps end of November. It would be nice to be in a have boxes unpacked by Christmas!

Good idea about going to see some other houses which you perhaps haven't hit on before. One of my friends told me the other day that she booked a viewing for a house she thought was the one she wanted to see but when she arrived she realised it wasn't - ooops. But she viewed it anyway and discovered that she loved it. She's been there over ten years now so there is definitely something to be said for viewing properties you perhaps didn't have on your initial radar

That's interesting Frescoed. Assuming your 4 points check out could you ask the vendor to have it independently surveyed to clarify the exact position? Presumably then they could indemnify in some way? It may make it easier to get insurance at least. Having a husband "in the trade" is a bonus . The vendor is going to have to do something because otherwise all sales are going to fall at this first hurdle.

I'm struggling. It turns out the first time buyer does want our house but the aip he produced was from a lender he's decided not to go with. My estate agent told him she wasn't happy to take it off the market on that basis. His broker has rung up and proven that he will qualify for his new mortgage choice so we've accepted his offer.

Now we need to find something and there's nothing! I'm gutted, I feel really stressed that there's just nothing meeting our criteria (when before there seemed to be plenty).

There's one that is 10k over budget that we both really like. It's been on a few weeks. I'm wondering how likely it is that they would negotiate. Or is that me being really naive and cheeky?

Funny. Give it a shot. Worst they can say is no! If they say no you are no worse off than now.

Certainly worth a go funny! The fact that you're sold and on a short chain with a FTB should stand you in good stead. It also depends what budget you're talking - offering £290k on a house on for £300k is much more likely to be a goer than offering £140k on a £150k house if you see what I mean!
We're looking at places £15k over budget max.

That's a great story Yoga! Maybe I should just stick a pin in Rightmove... got to be worth a try at this point!!
I sent DH on a mission today to check out the outside of the house that we couldn't get the early viewing on! It's such a good layout that we had half a mind to offer without even seeing it inside... he actually ended up knocking on the door because they had a sign up (but no 'by appointment only' notice) and it turns out the people living there are Polish tenants, not the owners! Which is explains the strictness over open house only viewings. I feel much better now that we had no chance of seeing it early! He didn't go in, but said it looked a bit tired, probably due to being rented out, so we'll wait till l the open view and have a proper snoop. It's right at the top of our budget so we can't afford to do much to it if it's seriously in need of work...

It's somewhere in between those two figures. We are seeing it tomorrow afternoon all being well, so if we like it i think we'll go for it. I've done some calculations and we could go another 5k if we think it's worth it, so that might do it. We'll see.

Ooh hope it's what you're hoping for.

I agree too Funny - definitely worth a go. Our offer was £15k under asking originally and we've settled on £12k under. Depends on the % too of course. We accepted our purchaser at £15k under FAP because they are cash buyers who have already sold their house.

That's good Nessalina. At least you know that others aren't going to get in before you.

I would love to just stick a pin in rightmove and go and view what turns up

We went to see one place which we thought we'd love. The photos were great, the floorplan was perfect. Location was good. On paper it was perfect but both DP and I viewed and thought "meh". There's a lot to be said for going to view as many houses as you can, even if it only rules out those you don't like.

Thanks for the positive vibes. It's a long shot that the vendor will accept when we don't yet have a buyer, but I figure we've got nothing to lose by trying.

Frescoed I hope you manage to confirm there's no subsidence at that house and that it's mortgageable / re-sellable / insurable. Fingers crossed.

Funnyface good news that your buyer is still about. I think you have a good negotiating position and (like me) have nothing to lose by putting in an offer in, so definitely give it a go.

Nessalina that's good that no-one else can get in before the open house viewing. I hope it turns out not to need too much work.

Yeah Yoga I know what you mean. Some houses just really don't give you that 'feeling' do they regardless of how many boxes they tick?