Sellers roll call part 2. Who is still on this treadmill?

[MovingThisYearHopefully]

I thought it was about time to start a new thread as this one is close to 1000 messages.

Who is still here & what is your story?

Heres me: I have been trying to move since April last year. Had a buyer, buyers lost their buyer in October & still haven't got a new one. We remarketed at a low price in November in order to continue buying the house we were at point of exchange with, but were unable to get enough to move on & lost the house in February.

Prices are definitely falling here in Surrey. Realistically we're looking to get 10% less than our original asking price, if we're lucky. Getting viewers has never been an issue, regardless of price. This process has been stressful beyond belief & almost split me & DH up. Surely our luck must change soon?

One thing that seems to be helping us get more interest than other properties is that we have now agreed to go chain free. Is this a possibility for any of you struggling? If offered significantly less than asking price then as far as I see it you are within your rights to say chain free was based on near to asking price & not affordable at a significant amount under! Worth considering perhaps?

Their EA are utter fucking twats! Why bloody say 350- x ! Offer 350,001 and then tell them what tits they are. < for you

Our nervy buyer is freaking out about some work raised by the surveyor. Well, I saw nervy but we can't decide if she's nervy or canny as fuck, she reckons she was quoted 3-5k for the work but is proposing a reduction of 10k. She's sent through excerpts from the report but won't send through the bit with the estimate of the cost of the work. We don't think it would cost anything remotely like that much and we've already had some work done at her request that the roofer himself said was unnecessary. Plus, the FTB at the bottom of the chain has pulled out, so the next person in the chain has asked for a few days to see if they can reconfigure their finances and still proceed with the purchase. So our 'buyer' wants a 10k reduction, but is still considering whether or not she actually wants to go ahead with buying ours, and in any case the chain is no longer complete. We're discussing if and when to go back on the market but really don't want to lose this buyer.

Hi All,

totally agree "guide prices" are bollocks and should be banned. My estate agent did "offers around" and I didn't even like that much.

Wouldn't it be so much simpler, if a price was set like you buy something in a shop. Either buy it at that price, or don't. Maybe opportunity to review at survey if its knackered.

tentative 10 bloody grand!! she's got a cheek if the work is going to cost max 5 grand. i'd get a quote yourselves, send her that and offer to reduce that (if you can and want to!)

the survey on the house we are buying went through yesterday, all fine, mortgage offer in place. Woo!

however, results from survey on our house came back and they want to do a timber and damp report. No idea why, absolutely no damp and no timer issues I am aware of but whatevs. FTB guy has said he will pay for it (obvs doesn't want to lose his tidy profit) so fingers crossed they don't find anything!!

Thank you yikes, that helps to know you think that as their agent made me feel like I was the most insulting cheeky person ever! Sucked her teeth in and said 'are you sure you want me to put that forward to them?' - I know it's their job to get the best price, but still, all it's done is make me think stuff them and their house!

Hi guys. I agree the price bracket things are so ridiculous & rarely does anybody actually offer at the higher end. In your case jgm, I'd be inclined to now go back with your best & final offer & say you'll leave it on the table, possibly for 2 weeks or a month, but will continue looking at other properties. Have you thought of doing a leaflet drop in roads you like? It really can generate good results & private sales are cheaper to do so the vendor can be more flexible on price. This is something perhaps you could try too twinky?

So sorry to hear your news tentative. Unfortunately I think you may need to look into the possibility of remarketing your house soon. If the people now at the bottom can't raise the money to complete the chain again then your buyer is basically unproceedable & certainly not in the position to be making demands. Without having access to the full survey, or at least pages detailing the problems & costs involved then they can't seriously expect reductions anyway without full facts to back it up.

Woo Flamingo. Glad the survey on the house you're buying came through ok. Shame about your own house though. I hope the additional reports don't bring anything up.

We had a day of surprises yesterday. After previously saying our mortgage offer would be out next week, it was issued yesterday, so that is good. However, our buyer has instructed another surveyor for Saturday to do a full structural survey. (Valuation is today) Of course now we're shitting ourselves because its a 1930's house, not a new build so they're bound to find something, but we went right down to our limit on what we could accept financially. There is no wiggle room whatsoever. The only thing we could do if they want to renegotiate is to say we can reduce by the amount we would of spent on renting for a few months, but this will mean they will need to move to our timescale. I doubt that would go down well, but their side of the chain is hardly motoring on anyway so it may not have come to that the rate things are going.

Fingers crossed & good luck vibes for us all continuing to go through tough times.

thanks moving glad you also got your mortgage offer. Hope it all works out with your survey!

I hope mine works out too lol. I cant see what they will find but it was built in 1899 so!

I have instructed solicitor to do searches on new house, but have had no reply from her for 3 days so far... spoke to soon when I said she was shit hot!

Other solicitor (We are using one to buy and one to sell!) seems a bit crap too. Sent me a form to fill in with the wrong address on it yesterday. I feel like I am going to have to do a lot of the work myself here!!!

3 days isn't long Flamingo. It can take weeks for searches to come through, so to be fair to your solicitor there probably isn't anything to report yet. We got our search results through yesterday, its taken a couple of weeks I think. Luckily we didn't have to pay for them because we'd already paid on our previous sale which was aborted.

As for the other solicitor, well it beggars belief how some of these firms continue with so little attention to detail. My name was spelt incorrectly on the contract from our vendors solicitors & our solicitor seemed to think it was fine for me to sign them & rely on him to amend them afterwards. No way was I going to do that! We have also noticed that DH's name is spelt wrong on the mortgage offer, so that needs amending too.

I know moving I mean, I sent her some docs and asked her to do the searches 3 days ago, I just asked her to email confirming she had got them, and that she would proceed with the searches. I don't expect any results, just that she's on with it that's all but radio silence.

I feel like being a solicitor could be quite easy, just sit in your office ignoring everyone and typing things out wrong and earning ££££ (disclaimer - I know its not really like that!)

Seems like it is though lol.

Thing is though flamingo most solicitors do buying and selling for a set fee. So if she emails every time you email her she’ll have to either add to your bill or work for nothing. Usually solicitors bill for every letter email and phone call but not with House buying and selling. So maybe she’s saving you money or more likely not working for nothing !

If you’re desperate to know she’s got stuff put a read receipts on your email.

i know aunt she is working for a set fee, but how hard is it to just confirm you're actually doing something?

she could be sat there doing shite all for all i know, causing weeks of delays.... I would just like to know she's on with it and to be honest its the least i expect!

We have a proposed date for completion in mid October! These buyers are so much easier to deal to date than our previous crazy painful buyer was (she sounds very like your nervy buyer Tentative - requiring a £10k reduction for something that would cost £2k max...)

that's great dinky i am hoping we are not too far behind you, i would looove to move before November if poss but... its looking more like bloody Christmas i think! boo

Sorry flamingo but having worked in legal property it’s very unusual for them to be sat doing shite. She will have dictated her letters re the searches and put that in place , her sec will type or action the requests as appropriate and then she will wait for the searches to come in. But she’ll be doing this for at least 12 properties at any one time. Some of which will be at exchange some at completion and some like yours in the very early days. If you don’t trust her this early on in the process you’re going to get very stressed.

My solicitor was appointed last Tuesday I picked up questionnaires Friday and returned them Monday. I’ve hear nothing else from her but that’s fine as I know she’s brilliant and will be getting on with everything she needs and will contact me if she needs to do.

Hopefully as no survey etc then she won’t have to contact me unless she wants my signature or money ! In the meantime I’m surrounded by boxes and starting to panic that it won’t all fit in the flat!

Fingers crossed for everyone else

but how do i know that? i have no idea if she has even received my money or documents let alone started any searches. considering i am paying her to do this i think she could at least let me know. Its no wonder why people tear their hair out if the attitude of conveyancing solicitors is "im not getting paid enough to get in contact with my client"

i don't know her, she was recommended, but how/why would i trust someone entirely when i know next to nothing about her? I don't know she's brilliant, she could be entirely shit and doing nothing. I don't think i am unreasonable in wanting a 1 sentence reply to my email, an email from her secretary would suffice if she is too important to respond.

I don't want to start packing until i know she's on with it!

Nothing to stop you giving your solicitors secretary a call to check on progress every so often Flamingo. You can also get updates via your EA, ask them to badger the solicitor lol.

Perhaps try an online firm next time. They have an undeserved bad rep in my opinion. We can upload documents instantly & know that they have them. If we need to send out a paper copy of anything it is instantly logged on the system & they text us. Everything is there for us to see. We know exactly what stage sale & purchase are at. We can also contact our named solicitor, or someone else if they are not in the office, during extended hours. Outside office hours there is a live chat manned by real conveyancers working there. I know this because DH got the lady who acted for us in the previous aborted sale the time he used it. Easy peasy!

I have just tried, nobody answering the phone at all :(

I thought about an online firm but got warned off them...! at least I know for next time hope there is not a next time but you never know

I always say there won't be a next time Flamingo, but this time I mean it!

Had the valuation on the house we're buying today and received the mortgage offer 3 hours later from the Nationwide

I don't want to start packing until i know she's on with it!

Don't pack until you've exchanged... if it falls through you'll be back on the market and it's a shit putting it al back.

moving if this all goes ahead I really will never move again!

yikes good advice which I will be taking!

turns out entire firm of solicitors were at an awards ceremony yesterday. should get a response today.

damp and timber report should be getting arranged today It's really fucked up all my plans. We need to buy a new car (I will have to drive to work instead of walk when we move) and was going to do that this weekend but without the results of this report there is no bloody point. Think we will still go have a look though.

So annoyed. Cant imagine that anything majorly bad will come back but just my luck it will.

aghhhhhh

Ugh I feel your pain flamingo. We are pretty much in the same position where we dropped as low as we can go already & can't afford to reduce further if anything comes up in the structural survey. As far as im concerned it was priced entirely to sell & we still substantially reduced. Our buyer is an estate agent though apparently so perhaps more likely to try it on do you think or less?

yes we cant reduce either. I am just baffled because I genuinely don't believe we have damp! if we do and they ask to reduce I just don't know what we can do other then say no and wait for them to pull out which would mean wasted time, money and heart break for us.

I think maybe they will have a realistic idea of what you'll say yes to. I guess they would deal with this kind of thing a lot?

I hope your survey is entirely fine!

I hope ours is too. I will be devastated if we fall at the last hurdle.

Fingers crossed for you both. It's the damp survey that's caused our issues, I could curse the whole bloody damp industry!

what happened with yours tentative? sorry if you have already explained!