Listing, Viewing, and Offers Thread 4!

[Nessalina]

The thread in which all our houses sell, and we find the place of our dreams!
Come and join us for moral support through the delights of buying and selling

Sorry to hear that KitKat ** Are there other offers in? Hopefully it'll still be there when you are proceedable? Fx

Well we had better news, our offer was accepted! With no negotiation which probably means we paid too much, but I don't really care, I'm just glad to have a house!! Got the mortgage application rolling today, so fx for smooth going...

Hi can i join in? I can't believe how hard it is to buy a house. Ours is sold already so we moved a rental (its already cold and damp in here, so desperate to get out before winter sets in).

We found a house we really liked, needs tons of work but we thought why not it'll be an adventure. Its a 1950's bay windowed detached house with lovely garden and garage, the kind of place you would never move again. We put in 1st offer which was rejected after 2 days, estate agent said they would accept an offer 5k more, so we decided to go for it as would still have enough to complete the renovation and mortgage. That was 10 days ago now...we were misled by the ea who had said it was a probate sale, but turns out its power of attorney, and the owner is in a care home and the poa is contacting everyone in the family before getting back to us. Im losing hope now and actually worried this may take a vast amount of time to sort out if every query has to go through the entire family.

(We already lost 2 houses we've tried to buy so im really not wanting to fork out another grand for a survey to have it wasted).

Ive just been to see another house today which has been done up top to bottom in a style i like, we'd really only have to put up curtain poles and choose soft furnishings. It wouldn't be my forever house, but its chain free and seller is a builder so the vendor isn't going to change their mind like last time.

Were just wondering how long to give the first house to get back to us...we don't want to miss out on another nice place waiting to get told No. There's very little on the market we like in our area for schools and its been 3 months since we sold ours for these 2 to come up.

Hey feejee - welcome! Wow, lots to think about for you. It sounds like you need to be really honest with the EA of the POA property and tell them you're really concerned about how long it will take for things to proceed. Let them know they have 24-48hrs to respond to your offer, whatever you think is reasonable, and that if it hasn't been accepted by that point to consider it withdrawn?

Congrats Nessalina! That's really good news. I'm so pleased for you.

Slightly more upbeat news for us this evening. There was a couple nearly a fortnight ago who picked up an application form to apply to buy our house, but then no-one heard anything from them despite the EA trying to chase them a couple of times, so I gave up on them and assumed they had changed their mind. Apparently though our EA phoned this evening to say they had phoned him this afternoon for some advice on what to put on the form and were currently filling it in, so that's hopeful (not counting any chickens yet though). No idea why it's taken them so long though. Got a viewing tomorrow as well so hopefully that goes well.

Welcome FeeJee. Which house do you prefer? 10 days is a long time to get back to you about an offer. Even if they want to check with some other family members surely that only takes a couple of phone calls? If you want it I'd be really clear about what timescales you want the vendor to stick to.

The elusive applicants return! That's exciting KitKat! They need a rocket up their bums mind you, that's a long time to bugger about with forms

We really want the first house who we are waiting to hear from. Although the amount of work scares me, it would be the forever house. I took a builder round with me on 2nd viewing, so we know that a full rewire, about half the ceilings need replacing, and some kitchen work needs doing asap probably some of the plumbing too going by the electrics standard. But we are in a rental so could stay there while it gets done.

Yes, ill have to phone the estate agent again, and speak to them about timescales as you say.

Yeah it does make it a little twitchy as to how slow conveyancing would be if it's going to take them two weeks to fill in an application form. But we'll see if they actually complete and return the form, and get accepted first (fingers crossed)!

Good luck speaking to the EA tomorrow Feejee. You've been more than patient. I probably would have caved and phoned a week ago!

Congrats Ness very exciting! Tell us sbout the house a bit? Fingers crossed it's a smooth and boring process from here to completion!

That's good kit fingers crossed they get a move on with the application and you might be able to reoffer as a proceedable buyer.

Good luck fee house sounds lovely, fingers crossed for good news tomorrow!

That's promising KitKat the delay could be something really boring, like they've been on holiday, or been really busy at work. Fingers crossed they will get the application form back quickly now that they've started to complete it.

Goodness Feejee you have far more patience than I would have in your situation! Hopefully good news will follow tomorrow.

That's a point Yoga, they may have a valid excuse for being useless

Well frescoed, after me & DH properly considering our property wish list the other week I'm pleased to say the place we're buying ticks almost all of our boxes!

It has all the following:
Near good schools
In a nice area
Three decent bedrooms PLUS space for guests
Parking for two cars
Two loos in house
Less than 40mins commute for DH
Less than 40mins trip to town on bus
Downstairs loo
Kitchen diner
Boarded loft
Quiet street
Doesn't need any work
Enclosed 'easy' garden
On a cul-de-sac
Detached

The only items it's missing are:
Utility room
Separate shower cubicle
En-suite
Garage / good shed
Office space

The bathroom situation is a bit rubbish, upstairs it's a three piece suite but I think it has space to extend the bathroom into the landing in the future and add a separate shower cubicle if we wanted. It's the same as we have now, so not an adjustment at least! We'll buy a shed for the garden I think, but there is a really useful room on the ground floor that they currently use as storage that I think we will probably use as a utility/storage zone.
Office space will have to be a moveable feast I think, but overall really pleased to have found it. So excited to show DH round it!!

That sounds great Nessalina.
In the process of mortgage application, but we still haven't received the memo of sales from EA yet.
Has sent them our solicitor details, still waiting for the solicitor details of the seller.
I'm a bit not sure if we should do the building survey now (it's an very old built but in very good condition flat), or do the mortgage application first?

Zoe if you are doing a building survey you will need the valuation anyway I believe. I waited for our mortgage valuation to come back ( was pretty quick) before paying for further surveys and searches as I have heard of valuations being under the price paid and wanted to make sure we could proceed.

Sounds like a better idea Gizlotsmum, we will call the bank, and ask them for upgrade to full building survey at the same time. Also do we need to have the memo of sales before apply for the mortgage? The EA has a day off today, and the seller is getting married in the next couple days (great timing for them). Our listing has been pulled down SSTC (as agreed, and no further viewings, so I'm not so worried, just want to get the process complete quickly so hopefully we can move in when I have time of in December).

Sounds lovely Ness it's amazing when you see somewhere you really like, all sorts of things you think you wanted are maybe not quite so crucial! Are you visiting again soon?

It's survey day today for us on the place that we like, but that may or may not be falling down/a complete insurance nightmare.... My husband has sent a very picky colleague up to do a full structural survey, so at least we'll know a bit more about whether it's a goer or not soon.

I hope the survey goes well Frescoed. If it comes back as having a lot of issues do you think you will still continue with the purchase (but at a reduced price) or would you pull out?

Another blow here. The EA has let us know that the house we put an offer in on (and got rejected) has just accepted another offer from someone who is a cash buyer, so it's gone. I'm not too bad about it. I had steeled myself that this was likely to happen.

New listing is up! I don't like it as much as the old one

TBF we are just surprised the house hasn't sold itself (due to location location location plus lots of period features) BUT we do think the EA were just messing around so hopefully the new EA will be what's needed.

25 views on Zoopla since yesterday...

Oh that's a shame drspouse though it sounds like you're getting views, so that's good! Fx for fresh start with new agents being good.

Commiserations KitKat, glad you were prepared for the worst! I hope I t'll be for the best - in retrospect I'm so glad we didn't get the place that I was gutted about missing out on only two weeks ago!

Frescoed Really hope the survey is more positive than you expect!! Good that you know you're going to get the full truth, warts and all...

Zoemelb We're paying for an upgraded survey (Homebuyers) with our mortgage provider, we're not anticipating any big issues, so that made the most sense economically!

I'm fed up of waiting for our viewing tomorrow. My estate agent keeps ringing me up trying to sell me everything on their books because I've sold but haven't found anything yet. We are definitely wanting detached but they just keep disregarding this and calling me about 3 bed semis.

Our viewing tomorrow is with purple bricks. Does anybody have experience of dealing with them? It's all been online so far and I don't know how I'd go about making an offer if I wanted to.

Can I join? We have accepted offer on our 2 bed terrace, just waiting for exchange date now, we are moving in with PIL as soon as that is through (hopefully in a couple of weeks)
Have had an offer accepted on a 3/4 bed semi that needs a bit doing, 15k under asking.
Delighted but v nervous as our sellers are not moving as quickly as we would like...took them a whole week to accept the offer. We know they are in difficult situation as elderly man and single daughter and have to find a bungalow to downsize to, good news yesterday is that they have found a vacant one so we have a short chain, just hope all goes well now - mortgage appt for us tomorrow.

Trying to stay positive!

Oh FFS. 2 hours I've spent cleaning the house in preparation for a viewing at 5.30pm and just been told they've cancelled it (but do plan to re-book). Agggahhhh!

Drspouse what is you don't like about the new listing? Can you ask them to do some better pictures or something?

Sorry Funnyface1 no personal experience of purple bricks but I have seen some posters on Mumsnet before say they can be a pain in the arse, so I hope that's not the case for you.

Welcome Annie! Good luck at your mortgage appointment tomorrow.

Ahhh commiserations all round kit that's all very annoying. It's truly the case that my house has never been cleaner or tidier than when we're waiting for a viewing, but I feel like Iost hours of my life to it! At least they're planning to rebook. Who knows, the cash buyer might drop out too!

C'mon drspouse's new EA - though it's a shame you don't like the listing, can it be tweaked?

Still waiting here with baited breath, if it comes back with massive issues I think we probably won't be buying (though where that leaves us given that we have to relocate I dunno really).

Funny We had one encounter with Purple Bricks and after that actively avoided viewing properties listed with them! Everything is done online, you put in an offer on the same portal where you book the viewing. Once you've offered you get a call from one of their 'agents'. The guy we dealt with was useless and seemed to have no idea of what was going on. They would have been a nightmare to deal with IMO if you'd needed support moving a sale and chain along, as they have no office, it's all my email and you deal with the one agent in your area and just have a personal mobile for them, so no other staff to help with issues/queries. I'd say avoid unless it's a very simple purchase.

Annie Welcome! Sounds like you're in a great position. Lovely to have your folks as a stop gap to avoid a chain situation, fx your vendors get sorted asap!

KitKat Cancelled viewings should be punishable by death I reckon - surely they know you'll have been working like a dog to get it shipshape!! Actually I've found FTBs to be the worst offenders - they literally have no idea of how stressful it is to sell...

So we've had our mortgage accepted - woo! Way easier than I expected, I'm sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop... In other news it turns out our separating vendors are BOTH purchasing a property, which is a bit of a 'mare. On the plus side I've never found out that this sale fell through once a couple of weeks back when their buyers pulled out quite far along, but luckily both the properties they were buying and had gone back on the market are actually still available, so they've been able to pick right up where they left off. Not found out their onward chain situation yet though!

I've *now found out

After chasing the EA agent for 2 days, it seems that we will have a memo of sales tomorrow. Question pls, so far the seller has not provided us their solicitor as yet (I kind of don't trust them), should I wait until they give us their solicitor details, before making mortgage application (already had AIP last month), since I don't want to loose the booking fees (£750) to the bank if the seller changes his mind in the meantime, or am I just too paranoid? They did pull down all the listings.