Buyers Sellers Roll Call 14

[PowerslidePanda]

New thread for anyone buying or selling houses at the moment - come join us!

The previous thread ran for about 10 weeks and in ordinary (non-stamp duty holiday) times, that's long enough to get a transaction through, so let's hope this thread sees lots of people finish!

Hi everyone, just been reading your highs and lows and thought I’d join. This is the most stressful process imaginable and I’m hating every minute of it.

House went up for sale in July, sold in August, sale fell through a week later after the buyer didn’t actually have the funds they said they had so back on the market.

Sold again in November, offer accepted on our dream house. Chain of 4 properties, were no3.

We provided everything the second it was asked for. Been pushing for a date for exchange and last Wednesday got an email from our solicitor saying our buyers buyer is waiting for some enquiries to come through and are not willing to discuss a date as yet.

They have had the longest out of everyone to get sorted and they are now holding the chain up and i am so frustrated and worried it’s all going to fall through. This move is life changing for us and I hate feeling so out of control and reliant on other people.

@TheGriffle it is difficult waiting for other people knowing there's not a darn thing you can do! You are doing everything right though keeping it moving as much as possible. I've got fingers crossed for you!

I'm hoping to exchange tomorrow or Tuesday and hope that the universe is smiling! Had a good clear out this weekend and stored my camping equipment in my friend's garage. I've got boxes ready and waiting for when we exchange and will be raising a glass in celebration

We're hoping to exchange this week - sending positive thoughts to everyone, whatever stage of this long ass process you're at!

Thank you! Can I ask what is so bad about completing and exchanging on the same day? I’ve got a feeling that’s what my solicitor was pushing for but if exchanging first then completing a few days/a week later is better I might push for that.

Good luck to everyone exchanging this week

We put in our very first ever offer on Saturday. Just waiting to hear back now. It's a nerve-wracking process. The market is moving so fast in the area we're looking, houses are going under offer before they even reach Rightmove, and we're some distance away so unable to just pop in for a viewing during the week.

Also feeling a little frustrated because another agent has sent us details of a different house this morning, which is in an even better location and slightly better price. I phoned up to give feedback on one of the viewings we did on Saturday with them, and enquired about this new one. Was told that they'd already had 4 viewings and 2 offers over the weekend, before it even went live on RM. Asked why we'd not been contacted about it and was told 'well it's only just gone live' - yes but you let 4 other people see it on Saturday and we were viewing with you then as well!

So now it's everything crossed that the offer we put in is accepted because we clearly can't rely on the EAs to actually give us the heads-up on any other properties that would suit us...

Sorry, not been on here for a few days. Nice to see some good news for some of you though!!

I'm in the "why is this taking so long?!?!" club at the moment! Exchanged on our sale 2 weeks ago and completed on it today. There had previously been talk about chaining it together with our purchase. But there are still outstanding enquiries on our purchase (further along the chain - we've been ready to exchange for a fortnight!) and no dates yet. Time is passing much more slowly now that we're living with in-laws and all our stuff is in storage. Just want our house!

@TheGriffle - Exchanging and completing on the same day can be very stressful, because you've got to invest time and effort into it and yet there's nothing to stop one of the other people involved from stalling or pulling out entirely (whereas if you've exchanged first, there are penalties if anyone messes around). You might want to read the experience of Badgerbadger22 earlier in this thread...!

@powerslidepanda congratulations on the completion!! Hopefully your purchase doesn't take too long.

We are on week 5 million over here, or so it feels. For the past 7 weeks now there has been talk of exchange each week, and each week there is another bump in the road. There are only 3 of us in the chain with us at the top, but the first time buyers are clueless and incredibly slow and both solicitors are terrible at communication it seems. We have been ready on our sale and purchase since the start of Jan (moved in with family to break the chain) Once again everyone is aiming to exchange this week but who knows if it will happen. I'm feeling less anxious these days and more annoyed, which is better than the bag of nerves I was for 4 months!

Winterwaves - I feel your pain! We were hoping to exchange at some point this week. Sometimes I am mentally re-decorating the new house and imagining sitting out having a few drinks in the garden in glorious sunshine, at other times I just feel like pulling out of the whole thing and staying put...
(Obviously I am not going to do that!!)

I’m also hoping to exchange this week. Was also hoping last week too. And we also have clueless ftb buying our buyers house and holding everything up. Everyone else is ready and waiting, despite the ftb making and having their offer accepted first!

Another week of chasing and waiting.

We have now had word that our seller is ready, so that’s something.

More paperwork today, and multiple calls to the solicitors to make them send the right forms out.
We’ve now got our mortgage application in, survey booked, searches paid for, and all the paperwork the solicitors asked for sent back.
Looking forward to a second viewing on Wednesday to take lots of photos and measure up - the house is empty, our buyers are all ready to go, and searches round here are only taking 2/3 apparently, so maybe it will all tie up so we can move over the Easter break. Fingers crossed.

Hi all,

We are hoping to exchange this week too and complete on 22/3. I keep getting ... no updates though. Despite leaving loads of messages for our solicitor and emailing too. Im might have to complain, I only want him to confirm that we are ready!

I wonder if I could get your opinions on something please? We are attempting to buy in Scotland and sell in England… We have a rental to move into to break the chain which i believe is a much better way to do if you're buying in Scotland.....

we have seen a house would like to offer on though, and should have exchanged by the it goes to closing date so hoped that would help our position.

I instructed a small local firm (close to the house that's for sale) to put in a note of interest for us. I also discussed with them how much we could/will offer (at length because I'm not too familiar with the local market).

I got a call from that solicitor today to say that they will have to pass us on to another local solicitor, because one of their long-standing clients now also wants to offer on the same house we do! So she has given me contact details for another firm… But surely there is a conflict of interest here?

I've basically shown our hand to somebody else's solicitor! It doesn't seem fair that we gave all this information only to be moved on to another solicitor. I thought the long-standing client might also be selling through them and not be willing to go through somebody else/have threatened to take away that business , I don't know, but it doesn't seem very professional.

I've sent an email to the first firm saying that I'm not particularly happy that they are fully aware of what we are going to offer ... and now advising somebody else, but there's not much else I can do about it is there?.

I will go with the other solicitor and also advise them of the conflict-of-interest. The closing date for the house is on Friday. All feels like a bit of a kick in the teeth on top
of everything else.

Urgh, @hassletassle that all sounds a bit messy. I hope you can get your purchase tied up quickly and find something else to move to if this property doesn’t come off.

Daily email to solicitor asking if anything else is needed, what can we do next, and can he keep us updated just sent.

Not anticipating a quick reply.

Off for a second viewing to measure up and survey is happening next Tuesday.

Just had second attempt at a purchase fall apart just before exchange due to things revealed through sellers forms and then dragged out of them via enquiries. Quite astonishing how many people out there who are dishonest. In rented post a sale, having to start the whole process again makes me want to crawl into a hole. Can’t stay in rented throwing money away while prices continue to rise though. Really hoping the market cools off soon.

I’ll join you, though that will probably tempt fate as I’m sure we’re about to lose our buyers!

We agreed the sale of our house almost 5 weeks ago but there is absolutely nothing coming on the market! It’s so frustrating, even before Christmas there were a few houses that were ideal - right location, well within budget, exactly the sort of house we’re after, but since we’ve been proceedable there has been nothing. We’ve viewed 4 houses, but nothing has been right so far. I feel like I’m constantly ringing agents asking if there’s anything coming on we can look at. I feel awful for our buyers but at the same time we aren’t going to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on something we don’t like.

So we put in an offer late Saturday afternoon and got an email confirming receipt. It is now Weds morning and no actual response to our offer yet. That's pretty crap isn't it?

I already hate the house-buying process.

@hassletassle you'll have to hope professionalism prevails there and they wouldn't share the information. Good luck with your offer

@PowerSlidePanda are you in rented then or selling a second property as I thought selling and buying were usually chained?

@AsbestosWitch it's the waiting that's the nightmare!

I am waiting to exchange and sellers solicitor apparently requested their deposit last Thursday and it is yet to arrive with their solicitor. I am worried they are going to pull out. It's so distracting!

Wow - it's amazing to see how many people in this thread are in limbo at the moment; yet for a whole variety of different reasons - waiting to hear about offers, about the rest of the chain, about exchange going through, etc. This process sucks!

@dotdotdotdash - No, selling and buying our sole residence, but it took us a while to find somewhere, so rather than risk losing our buyer we agreed to move in with family to break the chain.

The chain is/was down to just the house we're buying and the one our vendors were buying. But the estate agent phoned today to say they've decided to pull out of their purchase! They've said they'll go ahead with the sale and go into a rental - so we're now working towards a completion date of 8 April. But I'm terrified they'll change their minds or struggle to find somewhere and call the whole thing off!

Disappeared for a while as it was all falling apart... But we have finally exchanged today!!

Move in a couple of weeks :)

We are supposed to be completing on Friday but haven’t exchanged yet! Looks like that won’t happen til tomorrow now. Is this a thing? My nerves are shredded!!

Oh it's just so nervewracking. So much is out of our control! Anyway, I'm giving up on today as the solicitors have said nothing so I'll just try to keep my mind off it and tomorrow is another day. Stay cool everyone.

Our exchange has been pushed back again into next week or the week after. Things keep coming to light in the chain. This is so painful and it’s taking forever and the constant stress it is all going to fall apart is almost unbearable!

Another one in limbo here. So many lies, misunderstandings, lack of communication, rubbish solicitors and it's a mess.

And now we're all struggling to find removals especially when we haven't exchanged yet. They're all booked up throughout March and the beginning of April.

I've started packing so living amongst boxes. It's all so frustrating and out of our control. But nice to see people are getting there.

Still no news here other than the FTB solicitor has gone awol and has been out of office since Thursday. They are holding the whole thing up!! They were already 7 weeks into their purchase of our buyers house when we accepted their offer in October! It is so excruciatingly slow. Our purchase wasn't ready til mid/end of March so we moved in with family thinking we'd have completed in Feb at the latest and here we are, soon to be holding up our vendors purchase.