Sellers/Buyers roll call part 3. Who is still on this treadmill?

[MovingNextYearHopefully]

A slight name change for me, as I'm clearly not moving this year. Well, I am, but not into the house I'm buying.

Went to the development today, had a chat with the girls in the office & updated them. Hopefully we will be exchanging contracts next week should all go to plan. We found a nice house to rent, but its so bloody expensive I'm petrified! As long as we complete within our 6 month rental contract then all will be well, but if we don't then things will get ridiculously expensive!

Oh and @happychange maybe you'd like SW19? I know of a lovely house on the market there 😉

No news here; the FTB couple who saw our house twice will probably take another month to think about it, and no more viewings booked.

I understand i have only been in this game for 3 and a half months; which is nothing compared to most of you, but its be such a roller coaster of emotions i've kind of had enough.

I though 2nd time round it would be great as we wouldnt be trying to get out of living at parents house asap and could take our time; but it really is a fragile market, and i keep thinking nobody will like our house enough to buy it again :(

While it is worth a try to offer so low, it sends a certain message to the seller. We received a very low first offer and although they gradually inched it up, we really weren’t sure about them. If it had come to a matched price situation we would not have chosen them.
It all depends on the local market, I assume.

Sorry to hear there’s no news for lots of us.
Nothing for me either. No one seems to be able to track down my seller to know what’s happening.
There’s nothing else on the making at the mo so don’t want to pull out just yet but also immensely frustrating that we’re still at stalemate.
Strength and for everyone

*market not making

Everyone on the chain has now received mortgage offer, so fingers crossed!

Does anyone know how slow the local councils normally respond to search request during Xmas period? I guess no progress from 17th onward?

Maybe I should go hibernation for 3 weeks to avoid the stress of waiting!

I have say I agree with the risk of making extremely low offers .Having been messed around for several months by a buyer who clearly had no intention of paying what they offered - I would be very loathe to go with someone who started very low - for e.g. the offer we had of 12% below was rejected and I wouldn't be interested if they came back with a higher offer because I think we'd then have months of them messing us around. I'd need to have confidence in a buyer being serious and I don't consider a buyer offering that low to be serious unfortunately. Although it's most definitely a buyer's market, my faith in most of the buyers who seem to be around at the moment is extremely low!!

@tootyfruity - but that goes both ways! I’m a buyer and offered lower than asking because it was clear that asking price was ambitious, that was borne out by the valuation.
As the buyer I’m the one doing all the legwork but being messed around by the sellers.
Not all sellers are as sensible as folk on here sound, and not all buyers are timewasters even if they go low to begin with

hi all,
i agree with @fleebag123
ive been lurking for a while,studying the market well,both selling and buying.
moving from se15 to further south east no more than dartford.
fixed my mortgage for the next 5 years to sail through brexit(deal/no deal).

Definitely wouldn't have been a matched price situation as the property has been on the market since June and no offers! It's tenanted and an absolute tip inside so needed a lot of imagination! They were definitely overpriced.

@happychange

I offered £20k under for one property because it had been tenanted and hadnt been decorated for about 18 years; so i saw it as having to pull kitchen out, bathrooms, change all carpets and rip down half a stud wall sometime tried to errect in garage. Owner thought i was insulting her, but compared to other identical houses in her road up for sale all modernised my offer was generous.

@Ramsey1989 I guess there's no deal there to be made then! Always other options out there

Why do people take it so personally??

@happychange No that was back in the summer; I think she was just quite delusional, it had been on the market for 6 months and the agent said she had received similar low offers previously - so it isn't like I was the first!

The last house we went for (and are still trying to buy if we can ever find a new buyer) we offered £14k below; it is very lovely but it's 40 years old, its electrics and other stuff have never been updated so although it I think is in livable condition - its going to be a project to fix up to modern day standard.

The guy wasn't insulted at all, was really reasonable and we ended up at £8k below in the end.

Any news yet anyone waiting on offers?

This is my thought for the day, here from my short term let.

One thing to bear in mind before risking losing a buyer in today's market is that it is indeed a buyers market. Even if hand on heart, your house is on at a similar amount or lower than a comparable property (or even one not so nice) recently sold for, then you will still most likely need to reduce. It's all about weighing up what is important & not being too fixated on the asking price, because unless you're not buying on then you can make some of that reduction back with your onward purchase.

If you're not that bothered about moving & happy to stay put then by all means hold out for a better offer, but chances are it won't materialise. If you need to move then do your sums, work out if financially & emotionally holding out for that elusive higher offer is really worth it! and for all.

I've just moved and my new house is lovely but just wanted to give a warning. The whole process took over a year and was generally stressful but the actual move was a nightmare.
Barclays business bank was down on moving day so the money could not transfer. The solicitors tried to negotiate "moving under licence" whereby they give a "gentlemen's agreement" to let everyone move without the money being paid. We ran out of time (with a long chain). I spent three days sofa surfing with family and friends and all my worldly goods on a removal lorry.
Please check carefully when getting removal quotes how much they will charge for delays. Mine wanted extra per hour after 2pm on the day and the full removal cost again (paid before they would deliver my goods). The manager in the office was very rude and bullying and made a bad experience even worse.

@RossPoldarkFan oh dear that sounds really stressful  hope you are all settled in now

@MovingNextYearHopefully that's good advice I think. It's a transaction, and it is what it is

Happy change - thank you. I'm still unpacking but quite organised and now thinking of Christmas shopping instead.

Oh wow Ross what a nightmare. Was a it a Friday move? That's s very good example as to why it's not a great idea to plan to complete on a Friday, yet still the vast majority of people do it. Glad it all worked out in the end for you. Strange how quickly it all seems to be just like a bad dream & you simply move on with your life. Hope you have a great Christmas. You deserve it!

Believe me if i could reduce and get out of this situation with my ex I would!! I'd be quite happy with a few dozen k below... unfortunately the most recent offer we had was over £100k below, and as I am downsizing with my share, that leaves me completely unable to buy anything even in the cheaper area I've moved to. Over a barrel me thinks. I'm never offended, but would just be stuck with not enough money to buy anything - I'm already looking at the cheapest properties - and the agents are indicating that only 5% reductions are being considered in that area (it's not London). I'm well and truly shafted at present and really have no idea what to do - this is after a court divorce taking several years - and leaving me in more debt than I ever thought I'd be in . So I guess I'm in a particular set of unfortunate circumstances.

Trying to think of positive actions - one thing I might be able to do - if I can borrow yet more money - is put a driveway in. I''m just waiting for dropped kerb planning permission to come through as this has come up a lot in feedback - the road is a nightmare. Should get this through by Christmas. A driveway matters to me (because of this experience!) - I'm not sure whether just planning permission would swing it or not - I'm so desperate for an easy life I can't judge. The hit on this would have to be entirely taken by me and things are already tight - both with existing debt and with the chances of affording anything afterwards. It'd be expensive as there is a full front garden there at present. I'd be really interested in peoples views on whether this would improve saleability ? Or just leave out the planning permission and then a buyer gets to easily add value which might reassure if they feel that prices will keep dropping? If you were viewing - what would you think? (Bearing in mind of course as you come to view you've just parked half a mile down the road .....)

@tootyfruitypickle The driveway would be a must for me; currently we have an integral garage and parking space in front of this, its a pain because my car is the only one that fits in the garage so i have to get my boyfriend to drive out the space everytime i use my car. This is one of the reasons we want to move for a more conventional two car driveway, if there was no off-road parking at all i would not consider buying because we have leased cars so wouldnt want them damaged.

Perhaps see what you have to do to put driveway in and how much it will cost. Then decide if you want to do it or not, we were going to fence our front garden with side one to make one big garden but so far have only got costs - i think it would add value but will only do it if we lose house we are trying to buy - the EA had been instructed to say permission has been granted for this scenario so i guess you could just get to this stage with your drive.

I supose difference is people dont always need a garden but they do need a place to safely park their car.

I think getting the driveway done is a great idea tootyfruity. Parking really helps to sell houses. My ex used do do a lovely block paved drive on all of the houses he did up & it made a huge difference to the curb appeal. I wouldn't suggest you spend that sort of money though. The cheapest possible driveway where you flatten out the front lawn, put some sheeting down & some shingle on the top. Basic but does the job. Even having the planning permission will improve the saleability no end. Id be inclined to pull the house & remarket in the new year with the planning permission. In the next few weeks get some quotes in for the cheapest possible driveway & if it's affordable then get it done.

I take it your ex not prepared no chip into improving the joint asset which he will benefit from? My ex was the same. He left me with numerous unfinished DIY jobs that I had to pay to get finished or the house would never have sold. He also refused to move out & would pop in & out to abuse me whenever he saw fit. We ended up going from a large 4 bed house with a huge garden & study to a 3 bed chalet bungalow with a postage stamp garden which I had to drop the vendors 10% off their asking price to afford. Funnily enough that is still my favourite house ever, because its my freedom house! You will get there eventually.

We're creeping along, it looks like I'll need to pay my £3.5K to get a new lease including the garage and then there's a chance we'll be in a position to exchange before Christmas and complete just after. Our buyer has to move out of hers next week, but that at least cuts the chain then as there's no chance of her buyers pulling out. We just need to hope that our seller will wait a tiny bit longer.

Finally though, the solicitors do seem to be actually working together for a solution just when I'd given up!

So here we are, offer accepted on 13th August, and still here at Christmas... but at last there's hope!!

Great news Toyko. Is there any reason why you can't exchange & complete on the same day or within a day or so after? It's not something I would generally recommend as it's really scary & nervewracking but as long as everyone is aligned for the same date then it can & does work. Don't blame you & your vendors if you don't want to do it though!

I would do it @MovingNextYearHopefully but Christmas means that there's a cut off date for requesting funds from the mortgage company so we can't get the money as easily as we might otherwise be able to. It looks like the whole buying/selling world pretty much stops for 2 weeks!