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!

Thanks everybody for your support, I'm so grateful. As predicted, the new house today was absolutely beautiful!

So we're coming to terms with the sell - rent - buy process, and will get our new mortgage straight tomorrow (new house of course is a bit more than the old one) and then will make an offer and cross everything that it works out!

@tokyosushi keeping fingers crossed for you. The new house sounds great, always good idea to go with your gut instinct!

@TokyoSushi good luck! So glad you liked the new house.
Selling before moving into rented is the lowest stress option! We tried to sell and buy at the same time last Autumn and it was a nightmare ! Resolved to sell first (are already in rented) and be in a great position to buy afterwards. Fingers crossed it works out for you.

Congratulations Ramsey. I think that is a more than fair, even generous offer personally. I hope the vendors agree.

So sorry Fleabag. Slightly upping your offer is probably a good tactic. Nothing else is working. You should still of course keep looking in the meantime. With a divorcing couple there is a set amount that is needed to make things work, so if your new offer meets the criteria then no doubt they'll want to push things through ASAP.

So glad the new house was what you hoped it would be Toyko. You well & truly deserve this & it is worth pulling out all the stops for what you want. The old vendors remarketed, so can't expect you to of not looked. Their gamble, their loss. I will be keeping everything crossed that you get this. Sometimes these things do work out for the best. They certainly have for us. I'm not sorry at all that we are not living in the house we should of completed on in November 2017 lol.

We went to the development earlier on & they have now put our road sign up, street lights & planted a tree & shrubs outside our house. Also popped into the office & got some answers to questions we had last week. Apparently someone has had a drive down our road & been asking about our house. It is on a nice corner plot, so not surprising there has been further interest. Still pinching myself that we are lucky enough to buy this stunning new build. In the meantime our short let flat is also very nice!

Hello all, I recognise a few names from the waiting to exchange thread I can't find any more, guessing the action is here now
So for those that haven't "met" me before here in brief is our sorry tale
1st June- accept offer on our house after 6 days on the market
Mid July- have offer accepted on house 1.
Mid Sept- house 1 dump us as they lost out on the place they wanted and want 25k more off us
Mid Oct- have offer accepted on slightly shabby cottage
Early Nov- finally get specialist historic building surveyor in. He says it needs 60k of work incl new roof
End nov - our friendly roofer says 21k. Plus find out not on mains drainage as advertised and the land registry plans show the our building is the neighbours!!
Early Dec- neighbours agree to contact land registry to transfer at no cost . Could take weeks.
Day before Xmas hols - our patient so far buyer who had gone a little loopy shouting at our agent and then refusing to speak to him, threatens to pull out unless we pay half her rent (we had previously offered this but she demanded all her rent and we said no). We also agreed a very small reduction to cottage due to roof. Vendor a millionaire and a bit tight
2bd Jan - we agree some money to her and she is happy
Now - as soon as the amended contract for cottage gets here we can exchange!!!
Want this to be this week so I can apply for reception for dd1 in new county.....

Hey while we're doing updates, heres a brief reminder of our tale of joy!

• 12th June, on market
• 5th July, accept full asking price offer
• 6th July, have offer accepted on house 1
• end July, our buyer pulls out due to receiving job offer abroad
• owner of new house won't wait, falls through
• house straight back on, 4 offers in 4 days, offer accepted 12th August
• offer accepted on new 'dream house' 13th August
• process goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on... house is leasehold, turns out we own our house, but the drive is still in the name of previous owners, am asked to 'track down' previous owner. I do, via LinkedIn and fortunately they cooperate
• hope to exchange in October, find out we don't own our own garage, it's still owned by the leaseholder
• garage takes literally months to sort out, we're finally informed on 14th December it will cost £3.5K upfront to rectify
• begrudgingly we offer to pay the £3.5K as everybody up & down the chain is furious
• solicitor dealing with garage shuts for Christmas on 14th December and to this date has not been heard from
• 14th December, our buyer has to move in with family as her buyer won't wait any longer, we can't move, garage still not resolved
• 3rd January, seller of our new house pulls out and increases price by £10K
• yesterday, find 3rd 'dream house' and hope to offer today
• expect garage to be sorted in about 2 weeks now
• will be homeless with DH & 2 primary aged DC
• have sent over 200 emails to solicitor, found previous owner, done all my own land registry research and basically sweated blood & tears for 5 months, looks like we'll be homeless in a fortnight!

So it's been, erm, fabulous!

That's terrible! Far worse than what we've gone through. We thought we might have to complete out sale and move in with family 3 hrs away from home (but still a lovely 2hr drive to DH work like he has here ) but luckily our buyer decided not to do that to us before Christmas. It's amazing how often the land registry seems to be wrong! We're going ahead with our purchase before the out building issue is sorted as we just can't wait any longer. There's a "statement of intent" about it's transfer but it is a risk.

I hope you get your dream house and that the people grabbing for more money see theirs sitting on rightmove for months!!

And now the solicitor has called to say the neighbours have changed their mind and Won't agree to transfer the out building. He says we won't be exchanging before school deadline. But what concerns me most is that we might have arseholes for neighbours.

Oh Gosh @RangerLady, that does sound rubbish.

DH has done really well here this morning, he offered first thing on Dream House number 3 this morning and not only was our offer accepted but they've agreed to move out at the very earliest opportunity once the paperwork is done!

From despair yesterday to tentatively excited again today!

Ranger Lady I don't want to put my story on here until it's all resolved but I wouldn't touch that house with a barge pole.

oh my lord Tokyo just catching up.

I am honestly hoping and praying you get to move soon!

(maybe you should become a conveyancer and raise the standards!! you certainly have the experience now!)

are you formally complaining to the solicitor you used to buy the house who fucked up on the garage and drive?!

@TokyoSushi Thats good re your offer, hope it all completes soon :)

@RangerLady Seems to be horror stories all over, don't think there are any easy/simple property transactions anymore.

Well after accepting offer (all details of chain received and memorandums confirming solicitor details etc.) Our buyer has already processed his mortgage application; has booked the mortgage survey (as he isnt getting separate survey), and has requested his solicitor contact our previous buyers solicitor to purchase local searches. So he was quick off the mark!

The seller of our onward purchase is however playing hardball; he wont accept our offer of £326k and wanted £330k but said he could split between our previous offer and this one and go for £329k, however he has someone viewing on wednesday morning and wants to see how that plays out.

Ive said we could possibly squeeze to £328k but he would have to accept it before Wednesday so we could all get on with it - since mortgage offer expires on 31st March.

We will see what happens but his place hasnt had much interest and his neighbour put his up end of october and sold in november, so i doubt anyone is going to offer over what i have - given that this one sold for £325k and was bigger with extra bathroom.

So our offer on House A has been accepted! They want to exchange ASAP (four weeks!) and then complete in 3/4 months. We just need to check with our buyers that that works for them. I suspect they may want to complete sooner but we can all negotiate.

DH is pleased as he was willing to pay more and I am v pleased as it is my preferred house! Would be lovely to exchange quickly and then plan for completion at leisure. This is definitely a forever/grown-up house that I can see us growing old in.

@sandybayley Thats great news _ and the wabting to exchange quickly, takes pressure off once thats out the way.

Just found this thread! Sold our house last year and have been renting until dream house came up.

Viewed a house Sunday, offered this morning and been told it’s with the solicitors due to being executors of the will (owner deceased) therefore may take longer.

EA have told a few lies so far that I’ve picked up on (said we were the first to view and the occupier wouldn’t let us in til Sunday, yet been told by another staff member there is no occupier and someone else viewed Saturday). Few other issues too.

Apparently another offer has now gone in and both are being considered.

We offered asking price, have the money and all solicitors in place etc but I’ve got a feeling they are holding out for more money.

The house is overpriced and needs renovating but it’s close to our parents (same street) so we were willing to take a hit on overpayment etc.

EA asked for our bank statements etc this morning to confirm we had the money etc.

Now the EA is saying her colleague has to deal with it as the solicitors want a representative from the estate agents? Is she just a junior and they are wanting to deal with a senior staff member? Why would this be and what are they delaying about?!

Anyone any experience of this:...i want the house now and haven’t been able to eat all day for worrying!!

@tentative3 you've made me nervous! We are thinking we are going to go ahead for the following reasons:

• there is evidence of 21 years use of this out building so we could claim under adverse possession if we wanted
• if we end up without it we'll just build another shed next to it. It's very small it doesn't make much odds.

I'm tired of the whole thing. We weren't ever going to buy a house that didn't need work and I'm actually excited about renovating it, underneath all the stress. It has fab local schools and well placed for work. That's not always easy to get in the area. Let's hope we don't live to regret it.

They will contest the adverse possession no doubt and I believe claiming under the new adverse possession rules is much harder than the old. If you're ok with just building a new one and the land the outbuilding in question sits on is not an issue either then things might work out ok I guess. Sorry to be such a vague negative voice but I would tread carefully.

ranger the house I was buying last year when my sale fell through and everything collapsed had a similar issue and I have to say in retrospect I'm very glad I didn't end up buying it - having seen how difficult it is to sell a standard house, near excellent schools, no issues on survey etc - there is no way I'm ending up with a house with anything any future buyers could possibly have a problem with! My solicitor was constantly sounding the warning bell over it , particularly with how difficult it may be a to get a mortgage on for someone in the future if rules get even tighter, so perhaps it depends how nervous yours is about this.

RangerLady Have you seen Neighbours from Hell at all? If this is what they're like before you move in then they could make your life hell in many ways. On the other hand, could it simply be a misunderstanding? Solicitors do seem to phrase simple requests in the most blunt, rude way. Your best bet is to knock on the door & talk to these people yourself. It is vital to find out who you are dealing with before you commit. As for the school place, you may not be aware, but you can apply for a place in the area you are moving to using your current address, then when you have completed (or some areas may allow it upon exchange) you change the address. There is an official published deadline, but there is also a later date in order for changes to be made & applications updated which is the real deadline. Not sure if I'm making sense, but when we moved to our old house I applied for a place for my DD at the local comp in time for the published deadline of 30th October (secondary school, so different dates, but im sure primary would have same rules) We completed on 16th December, which was the deadline to make any changes. I was on the phone to our solicitor nagging her to fax over proof that we had completed before the LEA closed for the day. Thankfully she did, with an hour to spare. The LEA updated our application & DD got into the local oversubscribed school. Look into this. All hope may not be lost.

Sounds like you are almost there Toyko. So glad your offer on house 3 was accepted. Start putting the feelers out now for potential lets & if you are breaking chain & vacating then insist on 3 or 4 weeks between exchange & complete in order to find somewhere to move into. We had just over 3 weeks with ours & didn't need to worry about references etc because we are staying in whats classed as a holiday let. In your situation you'd probably be better off getting a 6 month let. Seems like its all coming good finally.

Sorry to hear the vendor is being difficult Ramsey. Hopefully he comes to his senses & agrees. You can usually extend a mortgage offer, or get a new one issued if necessary. We are on our third now & our valuation expires at the end of this month too so we will probably need to get another one done.

Congratulations on getting your offer accepted Sandy. Hopefully it is all plain sailing from now on.

I hope you get some answers soon MrsDaz. EA are known not to be particularly trustworthy, so its easy to assume all sorts. There may or may not be another interested party. Maybe make your offer time limited to push them to decide one way or another? It all comes down to how much you want this house though & how much you can afford to pay.

Thanks for your advice all. The vendor has never had an issue with next door (though may be lying of course) and thinks their solicitor has just told them not to do it, and that they don't want the hassle of telling their mortgage provider and paying associated fees with the transfer. I think I am going to drive an hour over there with the children (no one to have them) and just hope they're in. Not really sure what to say to them though!!

We spoke to our neighbours before purchasing the house; they were lovely and said they had no issues with the situation and were happy to do what was needed to rectify it. That's certainly not their tune now.

Yours might genuinely be lovely and just be abiding by their solicitor's advice, as you say and I sincerely hope that turns out to be the case but please don't be swayed by the whole sunk costs thing.

I am starting to get nervous. Offer accepted on a property early October. Vendor said he wanted to wait until after Christmas to move. Fine as our rental agreement runs until March. In sols paperwork he then put, won't move until February. This it means we will have to live in it while we refurbish but we sucked it up.

Have contacted the EA to get an idea of the vendors intentions but he is giving wishy washy answers - when he bothers to reply! Three times I have asked for an exchange date and three times he has evaded the question!

My fear is the vendor has now found somewhere to buy and will expect us to carry on renting.

First time posting in the thread, have caught up with the last 100 posts and it's making me so worried about what is to come!

We are FTB and had an offer accepted on House A in early December. Seller found a flat to buy end of Dec however the flat vendors seem a bit risky imo.

Paid first monies to solicitor, paid for survey... paying out but really have no idea what is next to come or what to expect. Waiting for everything to kick off and to be honest I can't even find out what needs to be done by everyone before we move!

Good luck RangerLady. 🤞

You are so right tentative. Our old neighbours were lovely as long as things were going their way, when it wasn't they turned. Couldn't believe it.

Time to get tough with them makingithappen You need a straight answer & if they have now found somewhere to buy then consider reducing your offer to cover your extra rent costs.

Hi Erick. It is a nerve wracking time when you're in the dark. When I was a FTB I didn't realise I could chase the estate agent for updates & my mother had wrongly told me I would be charged for each letter & phone call from the solicitors, so I was too scared to contact them either lol. This is what you need to do though. Firstly contact the EA to ask what stage you are at. Ask how long your chain is. Then contact the solicitor to ask what stage you are at, what needs to be done & if they are aware of any problems etc. It could be they are awaiting local search results to come through, or enquiries. Or could be waiting to hear from a management company. That can delay things. Also any errors in land registry documents can cause major hold ups. You need to know though for your peace of mind. Do keep us posted.

Well vendor for house we want to buy is being difficult; after next to no viewings last year he has had 4 requests this week, so rather than accept or decline our offer he wants to see how those play out. 1st viewing this morning guy was just nitpicking at all work required :p much how i expect the rest to go.

We are therefore viewing it again tomorrow (as its been vacant a couple of months and we want to see state he left it in); then we will give vendor the following ultimatum for messing us about:

£328k if offer accepted friday
£326k if offer accepted saturday
Nil Monday and offer withdrawn - with look at other houses