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?

well I am not happy today!
purchasing solicitor said he would send off for the searches on 28th September... they have been sent off today.
I only found this out because I called and spoke to his secretary.

I am seething. Absolutely seething.

@flamingofridays that sounds infuriating !! Could they justify why they had been so slow? Hope they speed up for you.

We have still not heard back re. our offer made on Friday. Called the agent more than once today and it seems they are having trouble getting hold of the vendor... I find this a bit concerning. I don't want to lose our buyer if we end up part of a very slow moving chain. Buyer wants to be in by xmas (which is possibly far-fetched) but since we rent ourselves I guess it doesn't matter much if we buy now of after we've sold. We were just hoping to get this property since we have fallen in love with it.

Jgm sorry to hear that. But pleased that you have made peace with your decision and can stop living in limbo.

Moving what's the estimated move in date for your new home? I agree at no need to hurry the chain if no one has specified a need for it early on.

Twinky pleased your mortgage application is all going well so far.

Flamingo that's rubbish. Hopefully they will come back quickly now. Our searches did when we bought here.

Tiddle I hope you hear early tomorrow. That's silly.

I haven't been on as nothings happening. We had no viewings and properties just aren't moving around my area. We have decided to just stay put and extend this house. Although we may try again next spring if something amazing comes up. We did have a viewing on Saturday but they haven't sold and weren't even sure if they wanted to.

No tiddle the Secretary just said all i know is ive sent off for them today. He was supposed to call me back today but obviously didnt.

Will ring every day until i get to speak to him if i have to.

beautician i hope so! Good luck with extending too!

Can I join you?

We weren't looking seriously to move, thinking it may happen in a couple of years' time, but then a house we'd always loved suddenly came on the market. We couldn't stop thinking about it so went to have a look to just rule it out, and fell in love. Cue a frantic few days organising finances, valuations and putting ours on the market. It's been on for a week and we've had seven viewings so far, but no offers. Two couples apparently love it, but neither have sold theirs so can't do anything about it and some who have sold or are already in rented simply haven't given any feedback as yet so we're no further forward.

The house we want is still on the market, and they can't accept our offer until we've sold, so we wait. It's only been a week but this whole process is teaching me how damned impatient I am...!

@UninspiringUserName welcome! It sounds like your house is generating a lot of interest so it shouldn't be too long before you get an offer. Do you need to achieve the asking price in order to buy the property you have fallen in love with? Or could you be flexible on price?

Good luck with extending Beautician. To be honest, if we had any sense we'd of done that too. The amount of time this is taking we could have extended & sold the far more saleable 4-bed house we would of had far quicker than the 2.5 bedroom house it is now. Hindsight is a wonderful thing lol.

Our buyers wanted to be in during October. This Friday is the date they suggested. If the entire chain was ready, (barring our newbuild which is due to complete Dec/Jan) then we'd of complied with it, but as their buyer is nowhere near ready, (& neither are they) yet they persist in asking us about potential dates to complete & wanting confirmation that we will vacate when it isn't an issue yet. If things drag out so much that its end of November before they're ready to exchange & we find out that our house will be ready say second week in January then we would be silly to not say we'll do a 6 week period between exchange & complete to tie it in, given that we don't have family or friends to put us up so would need to request a 4 week period between exchange & complete anyway it doesn't make much difference. Until we know that the chain is ready though its not a call we can make & not our fault their buyers are being slow!

Aw I was wondering how you were getting on BeauticianNotMagician81. Sorry to hear things are really slow where you are, but good that you can make the most of where you are by extending.

flamingo how frustrating!

Tiddle hope they get back to you soon with a yes!

@flamingo that is really rubbish! our solicitor sent off for searches as soon as she got some money from us. A good solicitor really is worth their weight in gold. She's very no nonsense and her firm has an online tracker so you can see exactly what has and hasn't been done. This is the 3rd time we have used her and I wouldn't use anyone else. I just wish she could be in charge of everyone else in the chain too!

@beautician sorry you've had to come to that decision but it's great you have the opportunity to do work to your own house.

@moving when do you actually find out when your house will be ready? It seems like it makes it slightly more complicated. We have never looked at new build as my partner is a tradey so we only ever move into houses that are practically falling apart! It sounds like a dream to me moving into somewhere that's all done!

Fingers crossed you hear back today @tiddle. We had quote a lot of back and forth before our offer was accepted and I did make our buyers wait a day as I needed to speak to my partner but he was working until after office hours. So don't worry they could genuinely be uncontactable at the moment!
I've just been on the waiting to exchange thread and am now terrified by that! So many things can and do go wrong, it looks like this part is going to be even more stressful than getting a complete chain!

twinky I sent an email on the 19th September instructing searches (already paid for over a week previous to that!) and they were sent off yesterday. That's crap isn't it.

I think I am going to complain, because that and the solicitor leaving and not being told about it, to me are pretty unacceptable.

if the EA hadn't told me I am not even sure I would know!

Does anyone know what happens if you are both selling and buying but not completing at the same time? We rent a separate property and are selling to a FTB and hopefully buying a chain free property. Can these processes go through at the same time essentially separate from each other ?

tiddle i think they can yes, unless you're relying on the sale of the house for the funds to buy the chain free one, and then obviously that would have to complete before the purchase so you had the funds. But i cant see why not?

(this is in no way a professional opinion!)

Hope your searches go through quickly Flamingo. I think you get the prize for having the crappest solicitor this week!

Any news on your offer yet Tiddle? That is basically what we'll be doing, we will be selling our house & moving into rented, then funds will be waiting in our account to complete the other transaction. No hassle.

No idea when we will find out when our house will be ready tbh Twinky. All we have is estimated Dec/Jan, although the lady at the office said "unlikely to be pre-Christmas", which was gutting to hear & confusing, as they seem to be on track. We were hoping it would be early. I'm guessing we'll get something like 10 days notice, which isn't ideal. As long as things are still on track we'll probably have to go into one of the super expensive short term lets & keep everything crossed it doesn't take long. The other option would be to sign a 6-month agreement, which would end up costing more, unless there is a major delay with the build. Its a gamble!

thanks moving what do I win?! is it wine and cake?! id really love wine and cake right now at 2 minutes past midday

all sounds very stressful your end! I hope you get in sooner rather than later. from memory when my mum and dad moved into a new build about 6 years ago, they didn't get much notice at all (they were renting at that point though so it didn't matter as much to them!)

Wine & cake sounds good Flamingo. Trouble is its virtual wine & cake lol.

Its so hard to know what to do tbh. If we could find something fairly cheap I wouldn't mind doing 6 months, but cheap & Surrey don't go together lol.

@flamingo complete crap! I could understand if you hadn't paid but if they had the money there is no excuse!

@moving that does sound like a stressful decision. I always thought buying a new build was more straight forward but it sounds like it's just as much hard work! when they say they are ready do you just have to go or can you say to them hold on we are now in a rental contract so you need to wait for us?

@moving and @flamingofridays ours is slightly different in that we won't likely complete on the sale before the purchase process starts. I suspect that if the sales process is already underway when the purchase begins, then the sale is chain free but the purchase is in a chain. Does that make sense?

No - we have still not even heard back that the vendor has received our offer! Infuriating but I'm starting to lose interest as a result

Hi all - long time no speak. So have had another offer on the house - but at £45k less than the last buyers - which has left us with a £45k hole to fill to be able to buy the place we're hoping to buy. I rather despair...

flamingo that is so frustrating. I'd be tempted to eat my body weight in chocolate digestives to make myself feel better...

dinky what a nightmare. Can you still afford the house you have your heart set on or is it too big a jump? Reckon your potential buyers will increase their offer?

Tiddle that's just insane. The endless waiting around is the hardest part of the whole process - have their EA given any reason for the long delay? Is it close to the asking price?

As for us Tiddle we do have some flexibility. The house we want needs us to up our offer a little (by about £5k) providing no-one gets in first, of course, and so we can afford to drop up to around £10k, but of course would rather not. We've had seven viewings now in a week, which is brilliant, but come on people... we want to sell!

HaHa! Brilliant Twinky. I'm not sure the developers would wait for us though. They seem to hold all the cards. Technically you're supposed to exchange within 28 days on a new build so if they feel like being difficult they could pull the plug & remarket any time they like. Given the crap market its unlikely though.

It's just the same as anyone starting out as a FTB or buying chain free really Tiddle. You just ensure you have your deposit, or full funds ready for when required. Everything else is the same, you just don't have 2 coinciding transactions, which is pretty likely to be our situation too unless we get very lucky. Our solicitors know it is likely to be an independent transaction but we would prefer to tie it in if possible. Just be guided by your solicitor. As for your offer, I'd ring the EA again & say you need an answer by close of business tomorrow, because you have other options.

Hi Dinky. So frustrating when you get such low offers. Unfortunately, the market has dropped significantly. (We accepted 40k less than initial asking price. ) Could you negotiate hard ongoing & try to meet in the middle ideally between what you sell for & what you pay out?

Sounds like you're getting a lot of interest there Uninspiring. Hopefully this turns into offers soon. What sort of feedback are you getting from the buyers?

Thanks Moving - yes, the market has definitely dropped but I get the feel that this buyer will price chip once we've accepted him so am loathe to accept the offer without getting a corresponding reduction on our purchase - which the sellers simply arent willing to entertain (they've said they'll entertain a £20k price reduction but that still leaves us with £25k to magic up from somewhere). I'm increasingly minded just to bin it off as a bad job and stay put.

@dinkystinky how frustrating . It seems that a lot of people are getting to this stage and then deciding that selling right now just isn't possible. Several colleagues have been in the same position - i guess it depends on the area, but it sounds like quite often sellers are not able to drop (in line with the current market). The area we are buying in has been quite buoyant in recent years but is now slowing - though EAs would never admit that.
Still no news from the vendor. EA says they keep missing each other on the phone, but if I upped my offer she might be keener to respond. I won't negotiate against myself - if I'm provided a figure I could increase slightly, but not a great deal. Unfortunately the property is quite overpriced which is why it's had so few viewings in several months (and why this rough diamond hasn't been snapped up yet!!)

@moving thanks for clarifying re our purchase/sales process. I think I've got my head around it now - essentially our sale is chain free.

@flamingo definitely complain. That's appalling. Solicitors are supposed to act on your instructions, when you give them. I once got my buying costs for free because my solicitors didn't release the mortgage monies in time... I went straight to the head partner, and he waived them within 48 hours.

@uninspiring you're my property twin!! Exactly the situation I am in. Coming up to 2.5 weeks on the market. Have had new photos of the front done today and EA is putting us on some right move promotion where we're featured when people search in our area. Fingers crossed... Will be devastated if I lose the place I've fallen for.