New build support chat thread?

[notheragain4]

There seems to be a few of us buying new builds at the moment. I thought it would be good to get a thread going where we can chat about the specific issues we deal with when buying a new build, like incentive negotiation, help to buy if using, exchange deadlines, long stop completion dates and snagging.

We are selling our house to a FTB and reserved a Barratt new build. Stressed out atm as we are 4 weeks passed our exchange deadline as buyer didn't instruct solicitors until his mortgage offer came through which took 7 weeks, we are waiting for his searches this week and praying it won't be long after that. We are getting keys to a rental today and house is built in November.

I will leave it there in case no one responds and I am talking to myself!

@Poppiesandnettles haha the similarities are just getting weird now!

I'm glad you've had so much progress this week. I updated Barratt today and were pleased they said it's "good news" despite me saying searches aren't back yet, so I guess they're happy we are still moving forward despite the fact the deadline has since long passed!

@notheragain4 - you might be right!!! Rumor has it, a couple of plots for our house type might be up for grabs again!!!

But I need a little help, can anyone help me with pros and cons of the plots 30 & 31, on the attached image?

@myducksarentinarow - do you know what the white building behind is?

From that picture I'd go for 30 because it looks less surrounded in the garden than 31. 31 also has the parking for 32 directly behind the garden and while I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem, it could be loud a couple of times a day, so I'd prefer 30 if I had achoice

@MyDucksArentInARow - I agree, I think 30 is slightly nicer - garden looks a tiny bit bigger and less crowded in

The white buildings are social rent.

Wasn't sure if the garage walls would give a more walled garden/private feel than the open back of 30. Though there's the risk the neighbours won't give us permission to do anything to their wall if there's no party wall agreement.

I think with both plots we'll have car noise as you have the white plot's drive at the back of 30, 31 has a garage between us and the drive.

Not sure about actual size, but I think 30's garden is bigger, but we might lose the extra length to putting in screening plants that we'd need less of for 31.

31 has visitor spaces out front which might affect reversing out of the driveway. Depending on the orientation would 31 only get sunlight at the height of summer due to the surrounding garages?

30 has someone’s driveway at the bottom of the garden. Where is the master bedroom situated? If it’s front of house then plot 30 is better IMO

I'm lured in by 31's less competition and bigger incentives. But obviously that's because they see it as a less desirable plot!!! When we didn't have an indication of incentives and competition, we were going for 30.

Master bedroom is at front of house (floor plan is in a previous post)

There's a play park set for the open space out front so my concern is random people using the visitor bays to go to the park! (Though going by the play park on our current estate, that won't be a concern as it so badly thought out, it's not an attraction to anyone!!)

@MyDucksArentInARow or number 32 using a visitor parking space out the front instead of parking round the back of the house. Is the BCP bin collection thingy going to have skips or just wheelie bins?

suncalc.net/ will give an idea on sunshine in the garden. Plot 30 has the SH house that may cast a shadow whereas 31 could be dark from the garages.

It's really hard choosing! What are the incentives on 31?

31 has £10k deposit contributions + carpets + turf without any negotiation. House spec is already quite high so not much more to ask for that they'd do.
30 has very few they'll consider because it is in high demand/lots of enquires and leads.

I'm always right

Hmm I think 30 is slightly more desirable, that said if the other plot came with much better incentives I don't think there's enough of a difference between the two that would cause me to turn those down.

10K is a lot of money though...

Yeah 10k would mean we can buy with that and our equity in current house, without having to use the cash we've saved. So it would mean we can make it a bit more homely quickly.

Offer is in. Plot 30 went whilst our memorandum of sale was delayed by our buyers. Super annoying as the buyers are desperate for our place an knew we'd only sell if we got a plot, yet chose to delay instructing solicitors by 2 days.

Anyway, our offer is in on the other plot. Really hopeful that it'll go through. There are 2 others getting offers together so it's still a bit of a race. The stress is killing me.

@MyDucksArentInARow that's great! Does that mean you got the plot with all the incentives?

It's good they are instructed though, our buyer didn't instruct for 7 weeks (we weren't aware) so we got SO delayed, our offer was accepted in May and we still haven't exchanged! Nearly there now though. Have you got an exchange deadline?

Yeah though our offer was a bit more than that too, can't share in case our competitors are watching this thread!!!

A bit more as in additional discounts/throw in a few more things etc so the net price was lower.

(Sales guy said we'd be a fool to accept what was on the table)

Good luck, I can't lie it's an intense process trying to exchange within a limited time, but hopefully we'll all be out the other side soon.

Yes, I can't imagine the stress you've gone through trying to keep everything active! We do have very keen buyers and we all have the same solicitor up to the developer so hopefully our sale will be straight forward.

@notheragain4 7 weeks that is awful. How close are you to exchange?

@MyDucksArentInARow fingers crossed for you!

Our signed paperwork is back with the solicitor, booked the new home show round in the new place for a few days before moving day, removals booked (stressful as our original firm had no availability til mid-sept), arranged van hire, need to call BT and Sky and treated myself to some wheelie bin stickers.

@Poppiesandnettles we are nearly there now. All done from our point of view, buyer has mortgage offer, searches back and his contracts are going out to him this week.....so that's got to be it right? I'm emailing tomorrow to say I want dates, no one will talk dates but now searches are back I don't see how it's not within our control to set them. We are in our MQ now so I am hoping it'll be ASAP as we are paying for two houses.

Very exciting about wheelie bin stickers haha.

We won't complete on purchase until November so still a long way to go on that front, but at least we'll have sold and exchanged so the worst is over. DH is deploying for 4 months end of November so I'm just praying the house isn't delayed!

@notheragain4 That has to be it if all queries answered as well. It is in your control to set the date. I kept asking about dates only to be told "we will contact you with dates when ready" Charming I thought! Then all of a sudden the buyer says he wants to complete asap, developer wants asap and I pushed back advising happy to complete but we are doing it on a flipping Tuesday. Friday's scare me, who wants to have the contents of their house sat in a huge lorry all weekend if things go boobs up? We both had already moved annual leave once and didn't want to do it again, plus the removals were not available. I guess I'm trying to say tell them the date you want to move and go from there

I know, such a treat, got them off eBay for £2 something.

Gosh lots of folks are being deployed between next week and November, what's going on? I am really lucky DH hasn't been deployed for quite a while (RAF). Now I've said it will prolly happen lol. At least one person has said it will be like a six month holiday for her

DH said has a note at work for FHTB, they ask for updates. When he goes back he will change the address and they should then ask for payment.

Got a quote for shutters this afternoon - 4 windows - cheapest was £2500 and 14 week wait ... going to look at Blinds2go.

We are probably going to be 2 weeks late on the original 28 day exchange date. I presume some of you have had to ask for extensions? Has this generally been ok?