Buying house process - does this sound OK?

[PatrickMerricksGoshawk]

I’m losing my mind but it’s the weekend and there’s nothing at all I can do about it so looking for someone with more experience to advise please!

First time buyers (me and DP). Weren’t totally intending to move right now but talked to mortgage advisor to get an idea of what we could afford.
All sounded positive and started idly looking at houses. (Possibly stupidly) viewed two houses on Tuesday and one of them was perfect, so put offer in on Wednesday and was accepted. Sellers haven’t found a house yet, and we offered asking price (was that naive? I don’t know).
All a bit quicker than we expected, but had AIP sorted by Wednesday afternoon.
Mortgage application now in progress but advisor said will take a few days. Solicitor found but need to fill in their forms and do ID checks, which won’t be able to do until next Friday as DP working away until then. Have updated EA on progress.

I’m worried we aren’t doing things quickly enough, although there’s nothing I can do really to speed them along. My questions are:

• would it be really annoying to you as sellers if things were happening in this kind of time frame, or is it standard/ not an issue?
• if it is an issue, is there anything I can do to speed things up, or to reassure the EA and sellers we are serious and doing everything we can?

Thank you

That sounds fine. Keeping the EA updated that you are making moves forward is enough. They can't expect much until they find somewhere as you won't want to really get rolling before that.

We didn’t start our conveyancing until our sellers had a house and the onward chain was tied up. Previous bad experience of house being taken off the market as the vendor couldn’t find anything so we lost money!
You are doing more than enough! Good luck!

Who is putting pressure on you? It sounds like you are the only one worried about hurrying it along. You said yourself, sellers haven't found a house yet.

If the sellers have not found a house yet the chain is not complete and there is no hurry. My advice would be not to part with any money until they have an onward purchase and everything above them is in place in terms of the chain. If they don't find anywhere, they could decide to stay put and you'd be out of pocket.

Sorting out your mortgage is sensible, as is deciding which solicitor to use. That way you are ready to go when the chain is ready. But you can stop there. Don't arrange a survey. Don't pay the solicitor anything up front yet. The sellers cannot be annoyed with you - they are currently the ones holding you up by not having an onward purchase.

Phew! Thanks all. You’re right, FunnyBird, no one is putting pressure on me except me
It’s just such a lovely house and I feel like there are so many things that could go wrong! Don’t want something I do or don’t do to be the thing.
Fully intended not to get emotional about any houses, but that intention has gone directly to shit!

"Sellers haven’t found a house yet".
So there's no rush until they do; don't be incurring costs until you have to. They might not find anywhere they like, and decide not to move at all.

Just sold to first time buyers. For us, as soon as the affordability check / mortgage in principle was secured and confirmed by EA we were 100% happy and didn't expect things to move any quicker as it took us another month to find our property (generally if you are selling a house to buy next your offer won't be accepted til you have a buyer). I think the fact you've offered asking price, as ours did, also puts seller at ease. So from a sellers point of view I would say you are fine, just as other people said, keep EA in the loop and also do keep on top of your solicitor/conveyancer, they will need chasing even if they are good. If they are bad, like ours with our first purchase, they will need threatening with formal complaints 😬

And as others have said don't part with money for surveys, etc til seller has found a house.

Thank you! Have already paid for a survey but it wasn’t that much so will just chalk it up to experience if it doesn’t work out.

To be fair you can be nearly at end of sale and the seller pulls out, not wishing to make you paranoid, but my point is there's always a risk of losing money on surveys, etc in a house transaction. Good luck with your purchase! 😊