Sellers/Buyers Roll Call 8 and still going

[Fern204]

Hope it's ok to start a new thread.
Bottom of our chain should exchange on Monday and then the top will hopefully exchange a week later. I dont quite understand, something to do with a charge on our buyers house which needs to be released first.
Aiming to complete on 15th July, so hopefully not much longer.
I will never move again, and definitely not in a chain of 10!

I’m finding looking at house details very frustrating. EA measurements and floor plans seem very inconsistent and some photographs are hilarious. Some are just terrible and make it very hard to visualise how the house actually looks. 😣

I am getting very anxious looking at houses - i have to either go for a tiny house in a road i like or a beautiful house in a road i don't. There's big jumps in house prices in my area.

Worried I am gonna buy a house and then a house i like more comes along....ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

@Bells3032 the classic debate. We chose location last time, we are choosing house this time. Lockdown has brought a lot of clarity for me. That said it's only a compromise in location in that it's not "naice" and further from work, has excellent schools and good amenities so isnt a bad location. We are buying in a better part of the area (still much cheaper than the area we are in now).

We are not from around here though we have no set loyalty to an area and are quite open minded.

Worried I am gonna buy a house and then a house i like more comes along

Yeah I’m not looking at any of the emails/sites at all now we’re going ahead with a purchase. Think of it like staying off Tinder once you’ve agreed to date someone exclusively

It’s exactly like that!
But I’m addicted to Rightmove

I’ve been on hold to packingboxes for over an hour, twice I’ve got to the front of the queue and they’ve put the phone down on me... I’m queuing on option 1 now (new order) rather than 3 ( track my order) in the hope that I can talk to someone :(
I’ve now been waiting a week for next day delivery...

@karcheer you raise merry hell! I hope they've bloody given you a refund.

We went to view a house, a few doors up from the one we are buying and it needed A LOT of work, think woodchip wall paper, badly maintained period features etc. A good 15k to put right not including our time. But we still umned and ahhed over it. Fed back to the EA it was over priced and our reasons why. She told me I was wrong.

DH sent me a link this morning - it's been reduced in price 🙈 still not by enough though.

So we need to go into rented accommodation as we will (hopefully) sell August time and buy in November. Thankfully we can rent a house cheaply through my husband's work, we are just in an awkward situation of needing to choose a move in date! It's so frustrating not knowing how long these things take, how can you possibly plan?!

It's so hard to know dates/timescales isn't it.

I'm starting to doubt the estate agent I've gone with for selling my house. Feel like I'm having to chase them up on things already e.g said they would arrange a viewing for a house I liked and would phone me back but never did. And viewed a house yesterday but no one has phoned me today for feedback whereas I viewed 3 houses a different estate agent was selling yesterday and was phoned this morning for feedback and they were able to arrange viewings really quickly. Wish I'd gone with them as they seem so much more on the ball but I've already signed the contract 😔

It is so frustrating that during this process it feels like you have to deal with so many people that are just seemingly unreliable.

And timescales. What’s one of them? I have no idea vendor just says “ASAP”. I don’t mind too much, would just like to know! We’re quite lucky we don’t have to get out of our current accommodation in any particular hurry though so we can overlap and be relaxed about moving stuff. Would still like to know so I can book some cover to take leave from work though.

Hope it's OK to jump in and join you all!

We're buying our first place. It's 5 and a half hours away and we have no family local, the survey just came back with tons of damp. We don't mind a fixer upper, but the damp survey was a load of crap. Just told us there's damp and to replaster. No mention of how and why. I hate not being able to pop round and fondle the walls and look under carpets.

So now we're waiting on the vendors answer to renegotiating the price down a little to cover some of the work. But it's just constant chasing and chasing and chasing. I didn't think people would be so hesitant when it comes to taking my money! We're cash buyers so I figured this would go smoothly. I was so wrong! I hope once we sort the price the solicitor can do searches and exchange pretty quickly.

@NotQuiteUsual that’s very strange, why on earth would they recommend replastering over damp walls?! Is there a damp proof course? Where is the damp (eg is it rising damp)? Is the house rendered?? Because if so you’ll probably/possibly have to get that off to let the house dry out...I’d have a lot of questions! Sounds like a pretty crap survey.
We’re not bothering with any survey over and above the bare minimum one required/done by the mortgage people - they cost sooooo much and for so little! Even the full structural survey is mostly based on educated guesswork. That said, DH is a v experienced chippy/builder and can spot signs of any issues a mile off, so we’re not going in blind!

Also, 5 and a half hours, eek. We moved 2.5/3 hours away and that was stressful enough, don’t envy you at all!

@Kelsoooo I’ve raised a paypal complaint, I read some reviews whilst I was on hold and loads and loads of people have experienced exactly what I have and never got their boxes!
So I’m going to get some from yellow storage tomorrow.
In other news our mortgage was approved.
No news from the solicitor regarding his views on the searches etc...
Poo cam was fine, apparently some scaling but don’t need to clean for 10-15years!

FourForYouGlenCoco he wants to strip off the plaster, inject a chemical DPC and then replaster. But it's a Victorian house(so no DPC) and I'm not convinced it's the right move. He can't tell us what he thinks is causing the damp, just wants to rip the walls apart. I'm sure nearly 4 grand for a weeks work sounds great to him though. I'd rather sort the bits of repointing that need doing and look into the rear drainage as there's a concrete yard that was added in the 70s(I think). Plus properly ventilate the place and maybe add some airbricks. Then see where we are! I am full of questions and no one wants to give me answers I feel like I'm going mad with it all.

Sorry answering your questions, no render. it's rising damp throughout the ground floor, worst near the chimney breast(which needs repointing and we've already got someone onboard for that).

Was the damp survey a separate report from your building survey?

Could you get another damp specialist contractor (or two) to give their recommendations/quotes?

Karcheer, when is the completion date, is it a norm packing so soon (assuming you are at the beginning of the process with mortgage offer etc). I wish you have your full refund soon.
I moved some of the furnitures around today and told myself that if we couldnt get through the sale this time, this is still a great home for another 5 years and the fact that we have very small mortgage left while the other will be another 25 years. We went for the location this time(the same area but more popular location plus bigger garden), in our area, just 1 street away makes a big difference to the price.

@Newhome321 we are hoping to complete on the 17th. We are chucking/ebaying a lot of stuff so needed to start early. I guess I’ve only really got 10 days ish to get it all done now...

So it looks like our chain will collapse today. Top of the chain have pulled out. Rumours that next one down will go into rented are not true.
No communication from the bottom 3, and general dicking about by the others. I think we are the only organised link in the chain, along with our sellers.
But, a previous cash buyer who offered at the start of lockdown is perhaps still available.
So all might not be lost. Its so frustrating as we are ready to exchange. Just nobody else is.

Oh gosh Fern how frustrating for you! Fingers crossed for the cash buyer

@Fern204 oh so sorry to hear that. Hopefully the cash buyer will come through and you've already done a lot of the legal work so at least not all time wasted.

Chains are bloody pains

@Fern204 that's a shame but fingers crossed that the cash buyer is still interested. I'm getting photos taken of my house today ready for it going on the market and going to view another house later this morning. Also have organised a solicitor so I'm desperate to get mine on the market now 🙂

@Fern204 fingers crossed it works out, will be thinking of you, let us know how you get on.

@Fern204 - hang on in there. Hopefully the rest of the chain will come together.

Our potential buyer wants to sent a whole hoard of different surveyors and contractors in to look at every brick and pipe. It feels massively intrusive and really stressful.

Oh no @Fern204, it’s like an uphill struggle!
So stressful.

I’m waiting on my accountant sending me all of my proof of income details, as I can’t really progress with my mortgage application until then.
Seems like such a waste of time, as I’m staying with the same lender, and applying for exactly the same mortgage I have with them already. It makes no sense. I’m not asking to increase the mortgage, no other details will change apart from the fact that the mortgage will be for a different address.

@tigerbear we had nothing change apart from the address too, surely if they are happy with that they should be happy with us and you... craziness...