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

We applied for a mortgage just before lockdown started, and are still waiting for the valuation/offer.

Feeling weird today. We went out for the day, as the estate agents did a viewing day. We got back around 7.30 so no feedback yet. It's just strange to think people went snooping round my house today and I have no clue if anyone liked it.

Re mortgages, I have a mortgage offer in principle but they said they have quite a backlog at the moment so it could take anything from 2-5 weeks to get a firm decision once offers had been accepted. Hmm.

But I have managed to get the agent for the house I want to buy to give me an indicator of what the seller wants - and it was lower than I thought. Yay. Still has no meaning if I don't get any offers.

Bloody bell @BeijingBikini is that going on 3 months!!! Is getting the valuation done the hold up? Is that hold up the lender being slow or the vendor allowing the survey? Sounds very frustrating

Yes, it's the valuation, mortgage broker said they aren't doing virtual ones and TBH I would prefer an in-person one as we only have 15% deposit. He said there's a big backlog...

Aaarghhhh...so the new build.plot i was going to reserve on friday has been snapped up. There are otgers available...but slightly smaller. Can anyone tell me...will there be a huge difference between 1300 sq ft and 1023 sq ft. As the second one now is the only option i have left.

Busy bee the other plot will be 20% smaller that will have a significant impact at resell.

Are both the plots facing the same way? the same shape etc @busybee434 ?
Do you know much about the people who've reserved it - could it fall through? could you be first reserve?

@Busybee434 is that house size or the plot area?

Rather than just size look at position, how over looked it is, what way the garden faces, parking, what parking the plots next to you have. We have gone for a smaller garden, but it's end of cul de sac, less over looked, additional two parking spaces and private road so no one will go past us. That's worth more to us than garden size.

Why don't you screen shot the two plots? I have spent the last 2 years comparing new build plots!

Offer accepted today - scary - I will be following this thread closely!

@notheragain4 im screenshotting the one i am now considering buying. 1023 sq ft is the house size. The garden is 10 metres by 11 metres. I will convert the integral garage into another reception.room.in the future. Let me know what u think.

Heres the screenshot lol

Ah this is Barrett isn't it (we're buying Barratt too) I would say 300sq ft does make quite a bit of difference in house size. I imagine it's the garage taking up a lot of space, but it entirely depends what you need and what stage of your life you are at, the upstairs space looks great, does the downstairs fit the amount of people you have? How long could you comfortably live there?

For us we have 2 kids, DH wants a man cave (issues from childhood never having his own room!) and I need a study. So we were looking at the Camberley/Cambridge and Alnmouth (going for the Alnmouth). We've had to resort to help to buy to get what we wanted sadly!

If we didn't require the extra bedroom for DH this style would suit us as if use a bedroom for a study.

Presumably this is cheaper than the bigger one? If it ticks everything you need then it looks like a lovely house.

@notheragain4 yes its a barratt home. I could buy something bigger but they don't have that option at the moment. There are 4 kids..and me..hopefully we will make it work x

@Busybee434 how near the end of the phase/development are they? They always want to sell what's available soonest, but usually just 2 weeks down the line different houses come up, at least two others I'd have considered have come up since we reserved, typically.

That said it's a lovely house and if you think it will work for you then great, maybe see if there's a show home for it or a similarly sized house. It's hard to picture on a floor plan.

BusyBee434 I'd say 1023 sq ft is pretty compact for 5 people. Have you got any idea what square footage you are occupying now? Will this be larger or smaller? I think the living space would be the issue but as you say you could convert the garage at some point in future.

Finally got a valuation survey booked in! Mortgage adviser emailed me 20 minutes after I asked him about it, saying he's spoke with the bank and it's booked in for this week. Now I'm really suspicious he just forgot about it and rang them up in 20 minutes to quickly book.......though I don't know how it works, do the bank arrange it or does the mortgage adviser arrange it?

God can I join?

Offer accepted last week, DIP done...

To read on Saturday that the bank has pulled that product.

Apparently as long as we get the application done by close of play Friday they'll honour it.

The appointment to do the application....is Friday. Fuuuuuck 😭😭😂

My flat went on the market after lunch today. Photographer did a fantastic job and already have viewers booked in for the next few days. Fingers crossed it all goes well. Can't wait to start looking for the forever home.

Mortgage products getting pulled all over the place it seems. Ours is too but have got the application in on time. Don’t know how normal it is for mortgage products to be being pulled off the market left right and centre!

I'm hearing this too, I think they are coming back on but it's just that when a lender reaches it's maximum lending criteria it pulls products for a short while. So it's changing everyday, it sounds like there are products out there though.

Evening all,

The valuation was done on our new house today, obvs we haven’t heard anything fingers crossed it’s fine... tomorrow is the structural one... but we won’t get that report the the 30th..

How are peoples investigations into removal firms going? I’ve had three quotes, 2 were £4K, one quoted £350 for a handy man to unplug the tumble, washing machine And to unscrew 4 shelving units in the garage (a total of 16 screws!) the third said he didn’t have enough van capacity for our move!
I don’t understand I’m clearly being thick!

I’m moving clothes for 2 people (ok my DH has a lot), one bed, six bedside cabinets, 3 side tables, coffee table, 2 console tables, one kitchen table, 6 chairs, 3 chest of drawers, and two drawer cabinets from my living room (small), plus kitchen rubbish plates, glasses etc... A very few things in the garage, one Xmas tree and 4 boxes of Xmas tree crap.

Is this a lot ? I’ve no sofa to move, no wardrobes... it’s annoying me! I want to hire a van and do it myself!!!

Ah booked cat into the cattery for the move...

Anyone got a good to do list? I had one from a website when we moved here 10years ago, included lots of stuff to do with change of address etc, but can’t find anything similar now...

Oh and lots of eBay stuff went today, house looks empty... hence why I’m fuming 😆

After 3 years - 1 wasted with poor agent and brexit issues causing lack of viewings and time wasting offers - we are finally looking to complete on Friday.
Never thought we would see the day and won't believe it till we are in new house.
We have been SSTC 3 times since going on with current agent in Oct 2018. Our first serious buyer heartbreakingly passed away and we waited 8 months for probate to be sorted and sadly the partner couldn't proceed. Next buyer got made redundant but fortunately current buyer came along soon after.
COVID hit when we finally thought we could exchange contracts Fingers crossed nothing else can possibly go wrong between now and Friday 😂

Hello, I'm going to tentatively join in if that's ok?

We are having our house valued this week. I've lost my job due to covid and the plan is to sell our house and use the proceeds (after paying off remaining mortgage) to buy one near family in a much cheaper area. We wouldn't get a mortgage now due to my employment status so we will only have whatever we make on this house. I'm very anxious as we need the figures to stack up.

We have some delays also from our seller on the probation property they are buying, we thought that the probation has completed bit apparently there are some queries pending( wasnt told of further details).
We checked removals and got £3k quote too, thinking of having the piano professionally moved however for the rest we pack ourself. Then we need 3 man and 2 vans and pay for the vans and the labour. We dont have any valuable thing, no wardrobe(all fitted to the house) so couldnt justify for £3k and moving only within 3 km.
For now, we wait, I realised this morning that we viewed the house August last year so it has been 10 months.

@newhome321 the £4K didn’t even include insurance. I don’t have a piano.

Do you think I have a lot of stuff? Am I just dillusional?