Sellers/Buyers roll call Part 4 Keep strong everyone!

[alifelessordinary]

Thought I'd start a new thread as previous one had hit 1000 posts and wouldn't let me reply!

@LookingOptimistic why do solicitors have to be so difficult at times? Hope it gets resolved for you soon.

The indemnity policy came through this afternoon, so we're hoping we might be exchanging sometime next week...unless something else crops up!

@30under - I see.! Are you very keen on the house you've offered on or just interested? If you're keen you might consider trying to sell through the same EA.

Mulling over losing House A. I'm genuinely surprised by the vendor dropping us. You'd have thought with the time and investment we've made in the property (survey plus asbestos tests) they'd have stuck with us. When we found another buyer. DH and I are pretty decent and honourable people and I guess we just assume others are the same. I hope they feel at least some guilt in their actions, I know I would.

Finally exchanged! The document turned up today XD completing next week! Right, time to book stuff!!

Congratulations Kitten
I can't even imagine how that will feel

I've now had a quote to repair my neighbours chimney and my buyer is getting one, then I guess we meet in the middle, and I knock something off the asking price.
My buyers solicitors are just awful it's only this week they were still enquiring about boundaries, things that have been covered before, going into week 22 next week..
This should of been a straightforward sale, I'm not buying anywhere at the moment and it's a second home for my buyers..
It's all taking its toll on me now..
My buyers hope to be there for Easter... I'm thinking it's very unlikely, unless they start demanding their end...

sandybayley Quite keen, although their estate agents don't have as much of the market share as the agents we are thinking about using.

Thanks @smart123! I'm sorry yours is taking so long. Hope you get the chimney situation all sorted out. It's been quite a short time all in all but I and my vendors have very good solicitors who've been keeping the slow one in check, which I think has really helped. And they're both straight forward purchases thankfully.

@sandybayley sorry to hear you lost out on House A. Seems ridiculous they'd go with someone else when they could take just as long or longer than you with your new buyer!

Well I'm still waiting for our buyers solicitors to agree to exchange. After 5 months I have now come round to the fact that they are probably playing delay tactics because of Brexit uncertainty rather than the reasons they claim - the lease being defective, my solicitor being useless, tons of unnecessary and late-stage enquiries. My buyer is a BTL investor and I'm sure Brexit is relevant to them particularly as it is looking like No Deal is more likely.

Awful Tiddletaddletatt.
Just awful.
Late stage enquiries have made me lose my rag this week.
Fingers crossed we soon have positive news

@TiddleTaddleTat - that's rubbish. I suppose with a BTL it's purely a commercial decision and quite 'rational' so it's just about the money not the house.

With an FTB (which we now have) they're a bit naive but emotional. That has benefits and drawbacks. No such thing as the perfect buyer - except of course me and DH 😉.

EA says the Memorandum of Sale on our house should be done tomorrow as our buyers have appointed solicitors. I like our buyers at the moment! Still waiting to hear on House B offer...

@Smart123 it is awful. I'm moving from rage to a phase of acceptance now. I have been so stressed with it all because if we lose this buyer we lose our purchase and a whole stack of money. But if it happens it happens and we'll deal with it. It's looking reasonably likely for us at the moment because of disputes between the solicitors but my solicitor seems to think exchange will be agreed, so I'm clinging on to that hope while quietly planning what we'll do if we need to start from scratch again.

My exchange did not happen yesterday, seems the buyer of my house is dragging their feet. My conveyor said we are still aiming to complete by next Friday and get contract exchanged sometime early next week. Starting to packing now and hoping to complete on Friday. :(

Fingers crossed for you wangxiosara..
The waiting is awful, my house is empty and has been for 4 weeks now.. I rushed to empty it as I was having surgery.
We are now almost in April...
So hope this is done before May

Hi. Hope you don’t mind me jumping into this thread but going through a stressful stage of house buying at the moment. We are in rented and put offer in for purchase of property on 31st jan which was accepted. No chain, just us and vendor. We can only give notice to quit rental on 20th of month and as our solicitors couldn’t confirm completion by 20th April, we didn’t give notice on 20th March, so will be giving notice 20th April. Our Solicitors have said we can complete no earlier than 8th May which is fine with us as we have rental until 20th May but vendor and vendors EA are kicking off as they say the process has taken far too long and vendor is saying wants to complete before end of April and is adamant he will not complete in May. Our solicitors will not budge and vendors EA say we must pressure them to complete end of April. We are talking about a week here, and I’m in the middle of rock and hard place with neither side backing down. Is just over three months a long time from start to finish for a no chain purchase? So stressed with it all!

I'm going into month 6 and no chain livelovebehappy.
Stressed is the word.
I think at the end of the day it's the solicitors that hold things up, hope you can get sorted soon

@tootyfruitypickle I always think if you don't ask you don't get. A house is only worth what you are willing to pay.

@firefirefire so pleased for you. Well done on managing to up the offer.

@TiddleTaddleTat I hope things move along soon for you.

@MrsPatmore eek good luck

@30under I hope you sell fast. It's stressful when you find a house you love before selling.

Sorry to anyone I've forgotten. I'm dreading the process once we are actually sold, it's sooo stressful and something I hope to never have to go through again. We had two people view today so i am impatiently waiting for feedback.

@BeauticianNotMagician81 - what a beautiful day to have viewers. It's been glorious in London today and will have showed all houses off well - hope the sun is shining where ever you are.

Still waiting to hear back about House B offer and feeling sore about losing House A. On the positive side our Memorandum of Sale for our sale has been issued today and our buyers have instructed their solicitor. Our EA is very pleased as they've gone with a big well known local solicitor who the EA deal with on a daily basis.

We did calmly phone up the EA for House A and explain our disappointment at being dumped and the good position if our buyer. I suspect they won't pass on the update but we thought we should do it so we don't regret not doing so later on. I did suggest to DH we could up our offer but he is adamant we shouldn't as he doesn't trust the vendors now.

So annoying!

@sandybayley yes it was a beautiful day here. I took the children to the park while are viewings we're taking place. It was actually near a house we are really interested in but can't offer on yet. I just wanted to check the area.

I hope you hear back soon about house B. I agree with your DH, I wouldn't trust the vendors of house A either. They sound like the type that would pull out at an even better off once you've already started the process.

Urgh getting feedback is tough. So far we have had great reviews on presentation but today one of the viewers gave the presentation a 2 out of 5. The house is sparkling and I even mowed the lawn yesterday and picked all the weeds .
We are also getting a lot of unsuitable comments which would usually suggest we need to be clearer on our listing. I don't know how much clearer we can be. The room sizes, pictures from pretty much all angles and details about the area are all included. Gosh you have to have such a thick skin for this.

@BeauticianNotMagician81 - it's tough isn't it? You long for feedback and most of the time it's either stuff that's obvious before viewing or bravado. We've had a lot of 'don't like the road' (well you knew what road it was on before you booked the viewing) 'needs stuff doing - will cost £xK' (well that's why it's priced lower than the shiny house round the corner').

I'm keen that people are honest in feedback (don't want to be given false hope) but let's all read the particulars and be respectful!

@sandybayley the main thing I expected was that it's too overlooked. This is pretty clear from the photos and true but it's not something I can change. Not like I can pick the house up and move it. We are in two minds whether to invest in some willow screening for the top of the fences to give a little more privacy. Although in fact only one person has commented on the fact the garden is overlooked.

The presentation thing just really got to me. I get if our style/decor isn't to everyone's taste but the house is clean and tidy. Super tidy considering I have four children. When I bought this house it was beyond words, disgusting. I didn't say that to the vendor though. I wouldn't dare be so rude about someone's home. We viewed a house the other day that had steps everywhere in the garden, completely unsuitable considering I have a 2 and 5 year old as some had a super high drop. I said to the agent the garden has ruled it out for me as it's a safety thing. I told them to tell the vendor that but to also say that it's a beautiful house and I couldn't fault anything else.

Week 34 starts on Monday for us here! All of the enquiries are now back for our vendor who said they weren't in a chain and would move out immediately onward purchase, but their solicitor isn't happy with all of the answers. Still hoping to exchange early next week and complete on Friday, but not holding my breath FFS

Currently sat in the dark in our hotel room approaching week 4 of a 2 week hotel stay - just get out!!!!

Feeling very depressed tonight. My sellers pulled out last week just before we were due to exchange.

Their house had been on the market for over six months. There were quite a lot of legal issues: private road access but no right to use it, they had done work which did not match their planning consent or building regs and which was still within the enforcement period. They were massively unhelpful and just kept denying there were any issues even when confronted with marked up plans, but I really loved the house so I agreed to take the risk on the road and to pay for my own indemnity policies for the planning and the building regs. I can't see many people being willing to do this.

We were so near that I actually took DS1 (ASD) with me to show him the house as he will be living there with me and he loved it too (a mistake in retrospect). It is quite a unique old Victorian former shop so you can't just go out and buy another one like it.

Then the sellers pull out on the pretext that they are so busy with work they cannot be arsed with moving. I really can't face starting to look again and poor DS1 is quietly sad about it. This was supposed to be the start of our new life in a new city away from abusive ex and now it has all gone. I'm gutted.

Money is not the only or even the most important thing but I had also paid for the survey, legal fees and searches, about £3k in all. What a waste. Needless to say, they have not offered to reimburse me.

@JonestheMail - that's rubbish,why on earth string it out for 6 months.

I do think when sellers pull the rug on a buyer they should be liable for costs incurred. We're about £3K down on House A and I'd love to send them a note asking them to reimburse the money for messing us around. At least when we lost our first buyers they had the decency to apologise (reason was absolutely fair and unavoidable) and share the HB survey they had done with us. Vendors of House A have not even had the decency to show any remorse.

@TokyoSushi - big hug. I feel in my bones that all will come well for you very soon.

Sorry to hear so many of you have had hard time this week, the whole process is just soul destroying.

We had three first time viewings and two second viewings this week. One second viewing cancelled as they found something else, and the other wants to see more properties.
Also after 5 weeks on the market and more than 20 viewings we finally had one very low offer. The estate agent was a bit worried that after so many viewings we had not had even one rubbish offer so at least we have achieved that now, right?

Also, would it be silly to instruct a solicitor before we have a buyer? Our place is an ex-LA leasehold flat and we are going to go to a rental ourselves as we are relocating. Would it be a good idea to get a head start with the searches and paper work so at least we are prepared if/when a buyer comes along?