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

If we were to pull out of our purchase as @coffeeandgin24 suggests we would then lose our buyer who we have been dealing with for 5 months. We may not find a house we like if we lose purchase so we are plodding along until safe to physically move house.

We're ready to exchange and complete but waiting until we're out of lockdown to do this. Keeping fingers tightly crossed that it goes ahead in due course.

It seems very odd if people would buy now. House prices will fall considerably much more than the financial crisis. The economic cost of Covid19 will be many many times the cost of the recession in 2008. When it is clear prices will drop why buy, why not wait?

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.

*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.*

@Coffeeandgin24 This is why. Totally understandable if you wouldn't do it or your circumstances prevent you from doing it, but it doesn't mean others are wrong for taking a risk that has been calculated as worthwhile and viable for them.

If you know house prices will fall significantly it is not a risk or a gamble. It is just throwing money away as we know what will happen.
A risk is when we don’t know what will happen

@Coffeeandgin24 house prices always go back up eventually though. They may not rise back to pre-crisis levels for a few years but we are planning to stay in new house for at least 10 years, possibly longer.

We have lived in our current house 14 years, so have seen how value fell in 2008 and recovered again in that period.

House prices and values only really matter if you're planning to sell again quickly or if you're investing.

The market will eventually recover because demand outstrips supply.

Hi all, hope you don't mind me joining. We are in a chain of 3 with FTBs at the bottom. Everyone has stated they are still eager to proceed but our buyers - the FTBs - say they cannot sign their contracts at the minute as they need an independent witness which is proving difficult with the current situation. Anyone else having this issue? I'm pregnant and getting so twitchy in our small house and am desperate to move!

@MissLemon18 well, it makes big difference for FTB, for example, if originally you will borrow 700k to buy 1.2 m flat, with a 10% price drop, your borrowing will be 100k less!!! Which means the monthly mortgage payment will be few hundreds pound less, equals to a free nice holiday each year!

@KatyRyan what makes a big difference? The potential house crisis? Yes house price decreases would make it easier on paper for FTBs but I would expect that lenders will increase the amount of deposit they would expect and tighten other lending criteria too, which could negate the bonus of prices dropping.

I wish anyone well in the circumstances they find themselves in, I just take exception to PP judging others for proceeding to purchase.

I understand that if you are already in the process of buying, you would try to convince yourself that your offer is worth it - it is the house you love, it is a forever home that will not impact you, it will be difficult to get a mortgage again, people will not sell of price drop, etc... HOWEVER.
House price is going to plummet inevitably. It is totally reasonable to renegotiate price or pull out, otherwise you will be paying a more expensive mortgage, taking the risk of high LTV ratio if not negative equity. It is your money going into the waste. It is the most expensive things many people would purchase in the life, so it is unwise to be emotional and attach to unnecessary morality.

@tomchow please stop trying to derail the thread. If you are not buying or selling there's no need to be on here.

I couldn't give a toss about the value of the house I'm buying as I won't be selling it for a long time. Our LTV is fairly low and the mortgage payments are only £60 a month more than current mortgage.

The unpredictability of the housing market obviously has you totally rattled.

@MissLemon18
I am selling and buying so I am also very concerned here.
Of course the situation is different for everyone. If you are well aware of the risk all the best with your purchase.

@MissLemon18 our situation is, we have fairly good amount of deposit, stable job, nothing to sell. So if the market go worth and bank lower their max LTV ratio again, we can still get a mortgage we need.
So 1) if we got a 10% off on the flat we are buying, it will be 100k free cash for us. 2) If the seller rejects us and market goes down later, we can still buy another one. And also save more or less100k, depends on how much the market decrease 3)The only situation we don't want to be in is, if we missed this flat and market went up, then we won't be able to find something similar with current price.
But I guess situation 3) is super unlikely, so we are happy to take the risk and ask for the deduction when all the paper work ready. The only thing we are not sure is, how much deduction should we ask, 10% is what we have in our mind for now, maybe too much, maybe not enough?

@katyryan Better to go high and negotiate down. I made the mistake of asking for around 5%, then was beaten down and agreed to around 3% which in the grand scale of things is insignificant.

Now I feel like a tool as I need to go back and as for a bigger reduction. I don’t think they will agree so will have to pull out.

How's everyone getting on?

Starting to get a bit frustrated with waiting now. Our sale paperwork is done and dusted, searches back, mortgage offer in place and queries have been sent to sellers' solicitors.

Sellers solicitors forwarded on some queries to sellers a week ago and they've still not sent replies back.

Delays seem to be centered on guarantee for roof that we were told was done 5 hrs ago and getting boiler serviced as it wasn't working properly at time of survey and boiler hasn't been serviced in a couple of years.

Starting to feel like sellers are dragging things out a bit and worried as our buyers offered on our house 6 months ago.

Anyone had experience of buying a house where guarantees and certificates apparently exist then at last minute it turns out they don't?

Ha, 5 yrs not hrs! 🤣

@MissLemon18
We were until yesterday in the same position as you with a few lose ends to tie up but our buyers announced yesterday they are pulling out due to the fact they offered a few months ago and are uncertain about the market. They only way they would continue is if we took 20% off which is not reasonable so I think it is game over for us

Gahhh @Monkeymum45 so sorry to hear that! My DHs mum is selling at moment to a cash buyer who's done the same thing. She couldn't afford to drop the amount requested as buyer's original offer was 20k off asking price but she countered with a small good will reduction and buyer agreed.

If you wanted to, would you be able to offer a small reduction? Sometimes the other party just wants to feel like they've got something out of the situation.

@ posterMonkeymum45

How much is your house on for if you don't mind me asking? 20% sounds like a bit of a piss take.

Lot's of "experts" in this thread seemingly with Crystal balls who can see into the future. The fact is no one knows what's happening with prices at the moment as price discovery has all but stopped due to low volume.

House prices tend to be tied to interest rates, which are at an all time low. Demand before lockdown was near an all time high. I suspect things will pick up again very quickly once the restrictions lift, but we shall have to wait and see.

House prices are also tied to employment rates and lending availability which have changed dramatically recently. Maybe counter with a different offer and see if you can spread the reduction up the chain?

It was on for £500k got an offer at £500k all went ahead etc they then said on Friday they would only proceed if we reduced to £400k as prices are going to go ‘into free fall’ their words. We said we would go to £450k but the answer back was £400k or walk away

Anyone holding out hope for loosening of lockdown rules with regards to moving house?

None of us in our small chain are moving into unoccupied properties so waiting for the guidance to change, we're due to exchange and then complete ASAP.

@magnarocks, I reckon the British Association of Removals will update its website on Mon/Tues next week to say that removals can go ahead if people pack their own belongings so workers can move pre packed boxes using social distancing measures. I'd expect that there will be limits to number of removers on a job and customers expected to stay in garden maybe or to go out for walk whilst in progress.

Last week Jersey was used as a test run as it's a small island. You'll know first if you keep looking at BAR website. 👍

Yep. We are.

EA wants to push an exchange of contracts asap, with a completion date a couple of months down the line, with the idea of bringing it forward if possible. We're not comfortable with that and want the exchange and completion dates very close together.

Tbh, I think as long as you're sticking to social distancing and you anti bac your old and new house, from top to bottom, wear gloves, masks etc, I don't see how this won't be allowed.

Put it this way, once the loose ends are tied up, if everyone in our chain is comfortable to go ahead, then we will.

We moved this week. It was a right nightmare to be honest and I'll secretly be a bit jealous of everyone if removals start running as normal tomorrow!

I'm most just glad it happened. We needed to move and I was very worried it would all fall through.