Buyers sellers roll call 12

[Bells3032]

New thread. Hopefully the last one for us!!

*our offer

Goddamnit, I wish I could edit posts!

And we're not the first time buyer, we're in a chain with one. Right that's it. I'm not posting any more today.

We want/need to exchange this week (by Wednesday so that we don't have to pay an extra fee to solicitor for completing in less than two weeks after exchange) but solicitor has gone on leave, no one can do anything in her place and for some reason they've not sent us a contract to sign on our purchase despite everything having been cleared up weeks ago. Really annoyed today. If they hold up the issuing of contracts thereby delaying exchange, I'm going to be really mad if we have to pay to complete within the two week period as it's not our fault. I'm mentally so done with this process now.

Conveyancer has just suggest yet another indemnity she thinks we should consider We are meant to be exchanging today! We were meant to exchange in Thursday last week! It's like she hasn't actually read the file until exchange day, that or she's had it reviewed by a colleague and suddenly all this stuff has come up. This last one is for Lord of the Manor rights so they can't requisition our garden to have sporting events and have the right to mine it for minerals. She's not sure we even need it but we are covered by an old copyhold title so it's potentially "a risk".
I just want my house

@Lurchermom oh that’s stressful. Have you complained?

Has anyone else instructed searches before getting valuation / mortgage offer?

I’ve just been reading another forum and the advice is to not instruct searches until AFTER receiving mortgage offer!!

@Badgerbadger22 No, it's annoying but don't think it's complaint worthy. At least they're identifying the issues. If it drags past Wednesday I might think differently.

I think re;/: mortgage and searches it depends on how risky you are for approval. We went through our broker who we trust and he was very confident based on our figures and we got a MIP immediately so it seemed pointless to hold off on searches. Yes if house had been valued low by mortgage company we risk losing money but searches aren't crazy expensive so it seemed worth the risk. But we also knew we had a long search wait time. If your county is producing searches quickly there might be less harm in waiting. But similarly if the searches being up something major - you want to know that earlier rather than later!

@Lurchermom I think we’re low risk too. Basically we’re porting our mortgage and borrowing only £5k extra. And we’ve already had the AIP sorted pretty quickly - the bank are very happy to lend to us.

I think we’ll continue getting the searches as it all seems fairly low risk for us!

although it doesn’t calm my anxiety! I think I might need some anti anxiety meds (I’m being serious).

@Badgerbadger22 if you read the thread back I was similar about a month ago!! Slowly feeling calmer but suffering terrible insomnia currently which I'd imagine is connected. I was up at 2.30 this morning with a mug of hot chocolate and The Crown on Netflix because I'd given up trying to sleep!

@Lurchermom I can’t wait to watch The Crown later - we started it last night. Our local searches are taking 20 days and we have to wait a while for the banks valuation so I can imagine I’ll be on tenterhooks for a long time

@Badgerbadger22 it's so good isn't it! I promise you the time will pass even if it doesn't feel like it! Our searches were 9weeks start to finish . Just worked out we are just entering week 13 since chain (small) completed.

@Badgerbadger22 we commenced searches as soon as our chain was complete. We didn’t realise you’re meant to wait but if we we’d only be starting them now so doubt we’d have been able to exchange by Christmas let alone move in by then.

We were fairly confident on the mortgage front though as we have a large deposit and low LTV.

@Lurchermom and @PointyMcguire thank you that makes me feel so much better. Last month searches were taking 10+ weeks so I’m glad they’ve caught up and now it’s 4+ weeks.

Our LTV is very good too (not a stealth boast).

Had a heart to heart with our vendor and she’s so amazing. We’re both up to date with all our paperwork so searches should be instructed tomorrow (assuming that her solicitor will send the Property Information File asap!!)

I’m just so excited! I think my goal is exchange by Christmas and move in the New Year. Is that too optimistic?

(My buyer is done and very almost ready to exchange!) so it’s just onwards to catch up on.

4 weeks searches
4 weeks for mortgage offer inc valuation (Santander)
And a few weeks for enquiries (shouldn’t be much as our vendor is a solicitor who has provided more information than usual)

My vendor has started moving out already!!

@Badgerbadger22 we instructed our searches straight away (we actually paid a few pounds to submit them before we’d even had the draft contracts) as we’d heard they were so delayed. We’re porting our mortgage and borrowing a little extra so we felt fairly comfortable we’d be ok.
The mortgage was sorted in three days anyway so it worked out for us!

@Badgerbadger22 Our solicitor ordered our searches straight away too, we had heard about other people having lengthy delays so decided it was best to get it started. They came back fairly fast in the end, I'm not certain but I think it was 3-4wks! If you're not too worried about being able to get a mortgage (We weren't, well within affordability, wiggle room with deposit) I wouldn't worry about it.

We also applied for searches first, thinking that we'd be waiting months for them. Now we're anxiously waiting on our mortgage but glad that we know there's nothing wrong with the house.

Bad day here.

Our would-be vendor decided it was too late for us, because we got an offer 12 hours later than she wanted.

Our buyer came around with her uncle to measure up then our EA rang us saying they wanted to pay 2k less now.

We said no, and only good that came out of it is that they agreed to go back to the original position.

Bad, there are now 7 houses available in our town in our price range (there were about 27 the first time we went on the market), and none are appropriate except our old old vendor who has put her house up for auction (she listed it with Yopa so handling stuff herself) and hasn't replied to our messages asking if we can buy it the normal way.

Thanks everyone for the reassurance. Hopefully they’ll get ordered tomorrow.

I just want something to happen. anything

@InescapableDeath wow that’s a bit cheeky of your buyers. Sounds like us - we had zero properties to buy. And then randomly the house of our dreams popped up!! Positive thinking.

Although I need to start positive thinking myself

Haven't been on here in a little while, its exciting to hear about people exchanging and completing. We're just entering week 7. Heard nothing last week. Had our mortgage offer the week before so that was good. @Badgerbadger22 we also instructed our searches before we got the mortgage offer. We know our solicitor sent some enquiries the week before last, haven't heard anything since, whether thats because there are no issues or they haven't come back to him yet. Our buyer finally requested searches a week last Friday after the whole reducing their price saga. Just hoping that searches come back quickly.

When did everyone start talking about exchange and completion dates, mentioned it to the solicitor a few weeks ago and was just told its too early yet. I want to be organised and start packing but don't want to jinx things either.

Also feeling a bit down in the dumps. Supposedly 12 days till completion, but we haven't exchanged, haven't got our authority to exchange from help to buy, haven't seen contracts, and our solicitor says she'll deal with us when she gets to us in chronological order. Not feeling hopeful!

@Rubyredroo thank you for the reassurance

@Maybenexttime08 oh my goodness she sounds very unhelpful I guess she’s busy but that’s not a fair thing to say when you’re expecting exchange.

House prices in the region of £230-240k here are coming down in £10k chunks. Houses we couldn’t afford last week are now well within our range. In fact some of the asking prices are lower than our offers that were declined

I’m quite worried about our FTB reducing their offer last minute now.

I hate this soooo much

I'm still here, offer accepted in July, completion due in February 21. Still waiting for some searches to come back, I can't believe how slow it is.

Last posted when house went on the market. We found a cash buyer for our house 4 weeks ago. Can't find anything to buy so going into rented. Thought this would speed up the process. Advised by solicitor that the sale should take 14 weeks! This seems a really long time. Has anyone else been in the same position? How long has yours taken?

Incredibly we've already had our mortgage offer. Made an offer on a Thursday, and it was accepted that night. Broker put the application in the Tuesday, Wednesday the lender auto approved the valuation, and Friday the lender approved the application!

The only reason we found out today rather than Friday is because the lender didn't notify our Broker until today.

I also heard that the vendor is expecting the paperwork from his solicitor today, and will return it back ASAP to solicitor can put together the contract pack. Then we can order searches. I don't think the searches will get back to us until about January, but that's okay.

We just want to complete before 31/03!

@wirldsgonemad how long is your chain? It’s taking you a long while!

@Beringer 14 weeks sounds about right I think those who have experienced quicker have quicker searches & mortgage offers. And possibly shorter chains. Despite this I still want to exchange by Xmas I’ll try my best

@IWBAGE I am insanely green with envy! Who’s your lender?

We’ve finally had our formal mortgage offer through 🥳 Application went in 22/10, went to underwriters on 28/10, valuation was Saturday and formal confirmation today so 3 and a bit weeks in total from start to finish.