Sellers/Buyers Roll Call 7

[MrBobLobLaw]

Stressed vendors and buyers alike: assemble here to moan about bloody solicitors!

Feel free to join at any point

Congratulations @AGreatUsername!

We had confirmation this afternoon that the sale is probably still going ahead.

T
We have 4 viewings tomorrow whjch I'm surprised about! The house is empty which probably helps

Our buyer has asked us to give them time to think about the current situation...
I don’t need to think I need to move so I don’t have to drive an hr and half each time my elderly parents need some food!
So annoyed!

Congrats @AGreatUsername

I contacted our EA again today to ask them if they had any cold feet in the chain and they said no, that everyone was keen to proceed quickly, but I guess that doesn't mean we'll definitely be able to or that people won't change their minds.

We don't have any first time buyers in the chain, which are the buyers who are apparently more likely to pull out with everything going on.

We've been told we have to exchange and complete on the same day which is causing me no end of stress. I think to avoid a situation whereby we exchange and then can't move due to illness or lockdown. At the moment it's meant to be on Wednesday so just keeping everything crossed.

I think we're going to pull out of our purchase. It seems mad right now, and also I'm on 50% salary cut, with company possibly going bust in near future.

The mortgage payment would have been ~20% of our combined salaries, which was a little more than I'd like but acceptable. If I lost my job, it would be 40% of my husband's salary, 50% with service charge and council tax and bills. That's way too much debt for comfort - I don't know how quickly I'd find another job in my specialism in a recession. I'd be back to spreadsheeting every purchase.

Also, 2 flats we were interested in that Sold STC in the past couple of weeks/months have suddenly gone back on the market 2 days apart. Looks like people are pulling out everywhere.

I've just had an offer accepted to buy a house. Its uneasy times right now. I'm hoping the vendors don't change their mind. I've been looking for year.

Exchange is imminent for us now. Just waiting for two replies from our freeholder.

They've had those letters for weeks now. It's so frustrating!!

our buyer has asked us to put everything on hold for 30 days, so thats it for us for now...

How's everyone getting on? We exchanged and completed yesterday and we moved in (new build). Our buyers are in rented and will wait three days before moving in.

The move was much tougher than usual of course, packed up ourselves in just over a week, tonne of stuff only we could touch, masks and gloves on everyone and reduced crew so two long days. Will now stay in new house and not emerge until all this madness of over.

Good luck to you all. I know this is so unbelievably stressful.

Congratulations @Terryscombover! 🥳

Our survey came back a few days before lockdown. We've renegotiated price and bank re-approved paperwork a few days ago. Searches came back on Thursday and our sols going over everything, so hopefully it won't be long now, as the house we're buying is empty. 🤞🤞🤞

@MissLemon18 thanks and fingers all crossed for you too. Make sure you identify a removal company still working, although with altered service.

@Terryscombover I know 😕, if worst comes to worst, my husband has a Transit so it'll be multiple trips with a toddler in tow! 🙈🤯

@MissLemon18 do you mind me how much the reduction was? I tried this with my sellers and they weren’t keen to move by much.

@aniafri we only renegotiated over some work that needs doing that cropped up on survey. We had builders go over a day before lock down was announced, so we had 2 quotes to submit. We asked for 5k reduction and met in middle at 2.5k.

How's everyone getting on? If anyone's move is still going ahead I'd like to hear it - it gives me hope!

@OutComeTheWolves Fingers crossed our move might be end of the month. We're a chain of three, with us in middle. The house we're buying is vacant so we're hoping to agree that our buyers complete but delay moving in for a couple of days to minimise risk from COVID-19. Will be disinfecting surfaces, switches and handles before vacating to be cautious.

Our mortgage offer docs have arrived just waiting for solicitor to get her copy. Searches are back and all paperwork for sale of our house is done and dusted, just waiting for some queries to be resolved on house we're buying so solicitor can do her report.

Looking likely that we'll be moving with toddler helping 😜 using husband's Transit or a hired LWB van as our local removals company is on pause.

@OutComeTheWolves we've no idea, yesterday was the day we'd planned to move, so that was a bit sad.
it's so annoying being in a house where we can't do any decorating or anything in the garden, im so bored. I keep thinking of all the things i could be doing in our new place.

We are hopefully coming up to exchange and completion. We are at the top of our chain of 3, but in rented at the moment so offering vacant possession. Had to break the (thankfully old) sofa up yesterday as no way we could move it.

Have had the survey done on the empty house we are buying. It ticks a lot of boxes for us, so will still proceed, plus the house was reduced by 7% just before we bought it, so hopefully that gives us some leeway.

Our mortgage offer is ending soon. We're hoping we can use this to try and push things along but we're not massively hopeful tbh.

Keeping everything crossed for you @Rhapsodyinpurple and @OutComeTheWolves! 🤞🤞

We've nudged a little closer towards exchange/completion. Our sol got in touch today to say searches are back and conveyancing copy of mortgage offer is back. We received searches paperwork today and the paperwork is done and dusted on our sale.

Just waiting for some queries to come back on house we're buying and for the central heating boiler to be serviced. This could be the snag that delays everything as we're insisting on this being done as a result of issues with boiler on day the survey was carried out.

House is empty so technically possible for it to be serviced but it's obviously not a priority for gas engineer so may have to wait for restriction to be lifted before this can be done.

How's everyone else?

Thanks @MissLemon18. We're trying to push things along with solicitors but getting nowhere at the minute.

Thanks @MissLemon18. Our sale is hopefully slowly ongoing and for our purchase (not tied) we have raised queries.

Good luck to you all.

Surely people should be pulling out of buying a house at the moment, houses will go down massively in value over the next few months. Pull out of any purchase now and look again in a few months when houses will be cheaper. It would be sheer madness to buy now

Oh it's you again @Coffeeandgin24! 😂 I don't know what your agenda is with trying to get people to pull out of sales and purchases??

Any how, our house purchase is a long term buy, so happy to ride out any dips in value and have enough in savings to ride out any issues for the next 12 months.

I bought our current house in 2005 when prices were at peak and then the credit crunch hit in 2007/8. I was glad I had bought before the crash as if I had waited I probably would have struggled to get on the ladder for years.

Feel the same way now about this situation. We've found a house we love, is significantly bigger than our current house and is in catchment for good schools for when we need to apply later this year. If we pull out of the purchase, we'll lose a house we love and could potentially be stuck in a house that's now too small for us and would impact on choice of primary schools.

For us, taking the risk is worth it.