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!

just changing everything over to the new house now..

car insurance want an extra £234 a year even though im now parked on a drive, and its a better area!

internet company want more a month because speed will be shit there, or I can pay £121 to cancel.

Christ I feel like I need a second mortgage just to cope with this!

also, my idiot solicitor paid Santander too much, they have paid the early repayment charges so I have had to ring Santander and ask them to refund it!

this has been a joke start to finish, I cant wait to just relax!

I'm still here. There are some terrible experiences on here - just shows how this system needs to be improved, it surely shouldn't be so hard to buy/sell a house?

We're in the same position as lots of you. On the market for five weeks, lots of great feedback but no second views and no offers. So we're debating three options: reducing the price, leaving it on the market, taking it off and waiting until spring. The house we want is now off the market for the winter and will go back on in spring, but they'll sell to us if/when we sell ours, so we're not worried about someone sneaking in and making an offer while we wait to sell ours.

I hate all this waiting...

Hi all - Moving and Tokyo sorry to hear of your house buying stresses and woes. Really hope it all works out ok in the end for both of you.

Thought - those buyers sound a nightmare - I'd honest say its complete by Dec and price as was agreed or whole thing is off and remarket next year as they sound like total chancers. Maybe - would go for cheaper carpet if primarily being done to sell.

Ramsay - we've had two sales fall through, both times due to the bottom of the chain pulling out. This is our third and final attempt to sell, to be completed by December (as our mortgage offer expires then and cant be extended) if its going to happen, to a chain free buyer (who is being ok so far but who knows how long for...). We didnt change estate agents (as the same firm is acting for the person we're buying from) and they have been good at explaining that the fact we keep popping back on the market is nothing to do with our house and keeping the person we are buying from sweet - absent that I think we would have changed estate agents for fresh marketing. Dont accept a price reduction if the figures dont all stack up for you though.

I think going for a cheap neutral carpet is the way to go personally Maybe, but only if you really need to change it. If you can avoid it then I wouldn't be spending any more money on a house you plan on leaving. At the end of the day, a carpet won't be a dealbreaker, its things like floor plans, bedroom sizes, lack of parking or needing a refurb that sway people more.

Still not heard anything about exchanging contracts on our transactions. Buyers buyer apparently paid their deposit by cheque over a week ago, so you'd think it would be cleared by now & ready to exchange. Only thing I can think of is that the solicitors are now waiting until my buyers come back from their holiday, next week before confirming a date. FFS! This will mean we won't complete until 2 weeks before Christmas!

@dinkystinky thanks and fingers cross this third sale all goes through.

I think the problem is the lack of viewings since the market has died, however i think it is a 'what will be, will be' scenario now tbh. If our forward purchase sells to someone else we will just take it down and reliat fresh in February, otherwise we will get a buyer and then there will be nothing worth having to buy.

If i could i would seperate sale from purchase but to do this i would have to pay £6k in early repayment charges, so rather than throw more money away the sale and purchase have to be in conjunction with each other.

Can I join in? I've been lurking for a while.

We weren't planning on moving but then whilst on holiday got a notification from Rightmove about a house that was back on the market. We went to see it the day after we got back and had a second viewing the day after that. Decided we loved it, got our house valued with the same agents as the one we wanted 3 days after our second viewing, and 2 days after that we had our house on the market and our offer on the house we wanted provisionally accepted subject to us selling.

3 weeks later we sold ours and had our offer on the house we wanted officially accepted!
That was the 21st of September, we applied for our mortgage the following week but unfortunately the mortgage valuation survey done on the 5th of Oct showed higher levels of damp than usual. Mortgage company only told us this on the 12th so we booked an independent damp surveyor to do a damp survey asap, this was done on the 29th.

We got the survey to the lender on the 30th (so almost a week ago) and still haven't heard anything about our mortgage offer. The survey report said the house is fine save for a couple of small areas that may need replastering, costing £2k max. I am going a little bit crazy at this point waiting for our mortgage offer!

Whilst we've been waiting for the mortgage offer all the searches and other legal work has been ticking away. Crossing everything for good news this week and completion before the end of November.

Thanks dinky, yups, think they are chancers alright. Just gutted that we’ll have to have to apply for schools mid-year so unlikely to get our first choice as it’s always oversubscribed.

maybe when we put our flat on I thought I had to do some work on it (bit of painting etc) but had a load of EAs in to give evaluations and every one of them said not to spend any money; that you’re much better off taking it off the asking price. But obvs don’t know if the same advice would apply to your situation.

@ThoughtAboutThisTooMuch - deffo see your point. I think the carpet-thing is partly for me, knowing that it's going to be quite a while till we sell (we have a marmite house - very limited parking so will take quite some buyer to see past it). I've wanted to change it for ages so if we jinx it and it sells fast then great, if not then I get to live with a nice carpet

Here for thread 3! I've passed the selling hurdle a good while back started looking properly December last year, and just cannot get over the buying hurdle.

Had a second viewing on a house I liked at the weekend and had sorted a third to measure up (plus husband had only see it once so wanted a second view) and they have taken it off the market today. I understand their reason for it and it will come back on in the future ... but that's no good for me now ...

Gutted is not the word, this is the third false start now for buying a house, I am grateful we hadn't spent any more before they decided not to sell but I'm so down about this whole process.... if I didn't need a house. I'd give up!

I guess that's me out til February now judging from people's comments about the market not picking up til then

@Lilmisskittykat - oh that's a shame!

How strange though for them to remove it from the market just has they have a potential buyer! In this market I would grab on to any (reasonable) buyer I could!

Did they give a reason?

Bloody hell Flamingo thats some hike! I found the same when I moved to a better area too. Quite bizarre. I concluded it must be due to the sheer number of crap drivers in the area lol.

Welcome imabusybee. Sounds like everything is going swimmingly. Long may it continue.

Have you responded to the buyers request to complete mid January yet Thought?

Hope something good turns up for you soon Lilmisskittycat. Have you tried leaflet dropping in areas you would consider buying yet? This really can work. We've done it 3 times now & twice almost bought houses we discovered this way.

FEELING NERVOUS! Despite being clear we need 4 weeks between exchange & complete due to having to find something to rent, we are being nagged to agree to 30th. Theoretically, if we can find something quickly it will work. I haven't agreed to it, told the solicitor I have to talk to DH. We decided if we can get the house we saw last week at a reduced rent for paying 4 months upfront & can get the keys by 23rd ish then we will agree to it, otherwise we won't! Waiting to hear back from letting agent now. Fingers crossed please?

🤞🤞🤞 @MovingNextYearHopefully

No news here 🙄

🤞🤞 for you @movingnextyearhopefully

I know moving council tax is more expensive here too (understandable) but gas and electric company want more money a month for a smaller house with a more efficient boiler! WTF.

fingers crossed for you too!!

@Maybenexttime08 his partner isn't very well, that's the reason for their move as they need a bungalow and has received an operation date so they have decided not to move at this time.

I totally understand, it's been their home for a long time and it will be a huge move job for them without the complications of an operation and it's recovery.

I have read about people doing a leaflet drop and it being successful... I could well be at that point. I just worry that as you can't see a house from the inside what if the person replies then I don't like their house - that would be awful -so I keep talking myself out of it.

No news is good news right? They haven't turned me down flat so must be considering it! I offered 4 months rent upfront at 1300 a month rather than 1500 a month. 🤞

Don't worry about that Lilmiss. Twice I have done this & negotiated, but they wanted more than I was able to pay. No hard feelings, they sold the house elsewhere. The third time I did it the people were way too optimistic about their price to start with, so we didn't even bother to view, just politely said that it was a little out of our price range, but good luck with the sale. That house was already on the market but without a sale board when we leaflet dropped but out of range so we hadn't shortlisted it with an agent. They never did sell that house in the end, because for the work it needed doing it was very overpriced! Pity, if they'd been more realistic they could of done a private sale with us & saved on agents fees etc.

@MovingNextYearHopefully 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼 it's always good to get the money up front so hopefully they will say yes!

We have just listed our flat on Rightmove & Zoopla today! Just went live this morning and hoping that we get viewings soon. I'm obsessively checking the viewing hub but nothing's moving yet! 😭 I'm too impatient

Hello everyone, just found the new thread. Our position is that we’ve been on the market for 5 weeks and need to sell asap so we can buy the house we’ve had an offer accepted on.

We reduced our price at the weekend and have had two viewings since and a third booked in. I just want someone to buy it!! The agent sounded confident about one of the viewers but mustn’t get my hopes up as we’ve had sixteen viewings and one second viewing so far.

Hmm, buyer's lawyer now asking questions about HS2, which is apparently going to pass by almost a mile away from my house (and I live in NW London - its definitely not going by the end of my garden) rather than commiting to a completion date this month...

@ALadyof Letters - I feel your frustration! At least you still have some viewings coming in - we've dried up completely! Fx'd one comes through for you.

It seems a few of you have had offers accepted prior to selling - I always wonder about that as I thought offers would only be taken seriously once you were in a position to move. Hence why we're not house hunting too much yet as think we may be here a while . Great news for all of you though!

@dinkystinky gosh 1mile away in London is so far! 😂 I wouldn't even think about that affecting the house value

Would you bring a builder along with you to for a viewing? I haven't offered yet but would want to know what I'm getting myself into costs wise..

@happychange - I know, utterly ridiculous!!

We took our designer friend to see 3 houses we were seriously considering with us as she's got a better idea of the type of cost of work. Estate agent didnt bat an eyelid at it...

Ooh I'm so excited! One of the houses we were potentially interested in buying (it's up North and we're down south - we're relocating!) has come up to rent!

This might change things - maybe we rent out our house and rent that one for a year or so until market recovers???

Solicitor has been hounding me all day. Firstly saying 30th is date everyone wants, so I try to make it possible by offering on the rental, but not heard a thing. Late PM he calls saying the date is now 22nd & apparently this is what everyone agreed to.. Not us, never heard that date mentioned even. He's trying to make me agree to then, which I have explained a million times isnt possible, or now to put forward 7th December. I keep telling him to hang fire until I hear from the rental, but he keeps nagging that he needs a date to give. Eventually he agrees to ring me tomorrow. Im left feeling very stressed & angry, not knowing what to do because I still haven't heard. Not sure if thats good or bad!

Hope you get some viewings soon happychange. When we were on with EA that did the online stats I was obsessive about it too. I used to screenshot it every few hours to monitor any change lol. 🤞

Sounds very positive ALadyOfLetters Hopefully you get an offer soon. 🤞

OMG dinky. How ridiculous. Solicitors do have to pick up on every silly little thing though. I'm sure the buyers won't be put off!

Oh wow Maybe. This sounds like fate almost. Have you seen the house yet? It could work, but do be aware of the tax implications. Depending on earnings you could pay 20-40% tax on earned income from a rental property while needing to pay full rent on the other house. Best check with an accountant on this. I'd imagine the house up north would rent for a significant amount less than one down south though.