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 all. Place marking mainly , on week 18 of our house sale, attempting to move into rented in Scotland to be closer to family. Just had to push the movers back AGAIN. Hoping for progress next week. Maybe even exchange - but I'm sure another hiccup will unearth at the last minute. Good luck all.

@CricketLover2021 it could be a range of things, but seems strange that they haven't told you. Can you ask for a heads up in case you need to prepare anything beforehand?

@HouseyHouse21 Ah yes, we will also be finding out about secondary schools this time next year. I am absolutely wracked with nerves about the thought of DC not getting in (which is one of the main reasons for our move). House has always been in historic catchment, so unless something goes terribly wrong with the stats somewhere, we should be OK. I’m a homebody at the best of times, but think I’d feel less wobbly about moving to a project house if it weren’t for this past year and the fact that having a home with a nice feel has been so important for us during lockdown seeing as we’ve spent every waking moment at home this year! The thought of more lockdowns with 4 kids in a smaller, rundown house is daunting.

Thanks for starting the new thread!

I’m still here, waiting for a new buyer. After weeks of spending the weekends packing/sorting/tip runs I’m not sure what we’ll do with ourselves tomorrow!

Thanks @PowerslidePanda. We have removal quotes from 5 firms and have ranked them in order of preference.

Just waiting/chasing now then in the hope the last couple of bits are sorted early in the week. Although that’s where we’ve been for 11 days now! So frustrating.

@PowerslidePanda Thanks so much for the prompt, I booked my movers this afternoon after reading your post! We exchanged today and I felt relieved for about 7 minutes before the panic set in, but luckily we have 3 weeks between exchange and completion rather than 2.

I opted for the packing service, and paid for the furniture to be put back together at the other end, so that's one less thing to worry about on the day.

Now there's just lots of changes of address & utilities to sort, and I need to get my head around how the logistics of getting both houses cleaned will work.

Was on thread 11

Still not moved

3 weeks between exchange and completion sounds fantastic..,apparently we will exchange and complete on the same day, next week

So we have to pack and pay for removals when it could still all collapse

You are all keeping me sane...at least it's not just me!

We had a lot of excitement and exchange date suggested - until one of the solicitors realised they'd made a mistake and one in the chain wasn't ready! I don't know if everyone in the chain knows this yet. So stressful . I feel like it's one step forwards, two steps back!
Annoyingly the ones we're waiting for said they were going into rented, but turns out they are buying after all...

Congratulations on exchanging, @HouseyHouse21!

So that's I think 5 of us expecting/hoping to exchange next week? One of the only times in my life when I've wished it wasn't the weekend...!

Don't know what the phone call is about, @CricketLover2021 - but it definitely could be nothing more than a 30 second, "Do you still want to exchange today?", "Yes please!"

Thanks for the new thread.
We have sold but can't find a property. The market has completely dried up. We have an offer on one but despite us being cash buyers and going in top end, the vendors are still showing people round. So we reduced our offer back down to the 'from' price if that makes sense. Got to wait until next Tuesday to find out.
Now we have to move into rented so our buyers can complete for the stamp duty deadline and our ship has probably sailed.
The system is ridiculous
I am so stressed

I wish I found these threads earlier. Week 15 here, chain of three but being massively delayed by one for personal reasons. The stamp duty holiday extension will determine whether we complete sooner or later so it's not actually working in our favour if they do extend it.

Sold in Nov, found a place in Dec, they found a place and closed the chain by Jan.

Sale/purchase nearly done.

Vendor had promised to move into rented/family if their purchase wasn't ready by end of March. Have now changed their mind and want to wait until theirs is ready too - they won't discuss further until the budget is announced on March 3. So either way I can't see us moving in March at all, which means we probably need to find another 15k as well. Really sad and frustrated now.

I was on the last thread , hoping for some closure before the last page of this one !

We accepted an offer in early December ( selling a house and a small business attached ) cash buyer , business man who is treating the purchase as if he’s buying the Hilton hotel chain
He wants so much information and everything to go his way , I’m tearing my hair out and did say to DH let’s just throw the towel in and give up
As if by magic , our estate agent phoned , he’s got someone else interested and wondered how we were getting on
So we’re showing the new people round tomorrow, they might hate it and walk away shaking their heads or we might have some action
Nowhere to move too , there’s just nothing we like on the market
Prices have gone through the roof , anything decent and move in ready goes immediately

Have any of you had a covid clause put in? Very nervous about someone needing to self isolate...

Glad to have found this thread. We accepted an offer on our house within 7 days of going to market, about 2 weeks ago. We have yet to find anywhere we want to buy and I’m starting to feel stressed, as there are so few houses available in the area we want to live. Our buyers know we are still looking, but realistically, how much time do we have before we need to contemplate renting?

Will depend on your purchaser , how eager/laid back they are

and their position. If they are in a chain the longer it takes to complete the greater the chance of it falling apart

Talk to your estate agent , if they are any good they will know your buyers situation and expectations

If it was me, after 4 to 6 weeks I would be feeling grumpy

@MarthaWashingtonsFeralTomcat

Have any of you had a covid clause put in? Very nervous about someone needing to self isolate...

We haven’t quite got to this bit yet, but I am very interested in what this means/ how it works. I am still leaving the house to work and we have two school age children who may or may not be back at school on 8th March (!) so we would be quite at danger of catching Covid in the ‘gap’ (and knowing our luck...) the rest of the chain I don’t know about, but in theory could catch it. Does a Covid clause allow for completion to be delayed without penalty in case of isolation? How does that work with chain and removals etc? And what happens if completion is organised for end of March and isolation pushes it over the stamp duty cliff edge?!

@Hmmph yes I am concerned about one of the kids being in self isolation on moving day. I know it means you can delay without penalty but no idea about the SDLT tax, we would stand to lose £10000 if that was the case. I'll have to chat to my conveyancer I think.

I'm just joining in though nowhere near where you all seem to be as we are on the market and have been since last September - what a great time to be selling this is! We've had a load of viewings recently which is good and we seem to come close to being chosen but just miss out to cheaper areas with bigger houses for the money. We've reduced the price by £30.000 bit by bit since first coming on the market, so really can't afford to do that again. Just hoping now for a Spring surge in the market!

I was on thread 13 but disappeared when our sale fell through. All of a sudden everything is back on and the chain wants to move as fast as possible.
So far

1. Went on the market in September
2. Had an offer in October- then they dropped out
3. Same people offered again in November
4. We found our dream house shortly afterwards and had an offer accepted.
5. 2 days after Christmas our buyers dropped out again
6. Beginning of this year we lost the house we wanted, they couldn't wait anymore.
7. Mid January we found a new buyer for ours
8. Couldn't find anything we liked, one okay place went to a bidding war, extended our search area and still nothing, was just considering putting an offer on an okay place when....
9. The house we loved became available again, just a week ago!

10. Now we are back in a chain, everything moving along, but half the chain seem to think we can complete by the 31st March deadline and I think that is wildly optimistic. Happy for it to happen if it can, but seems unlikely.

So in the space of a week, have gone from accepting we probably wouldn't be moving until the summer to frantically trying to find removal companies. I've never had to move in a single day before and the logistics are really stressing me out.
Also the biggest hold up is our buyers survey and we aren't sure why the are going for such a detailed one when our house is fairly new.
I also have no idea when I am meant to sort things like the internet and the like when potentially the move could be in 5/6 ish weeks time but no dates yet.
I also know I need to start packing but I'm scared to start incase it all falls through again.

Hi @EnglishRose1320 what a rollercoaster! I hope you manage to complete in time, the searches were the longest lead item in our sale.
I just wanted to ask if you had asked your removal company to quote for the packing service too? I was surprised how reasonable it was, and it has really taken the stress away knowing I can concentrate on clearing out and organising without having to actually pack into boxes (and having them lying around for ages).

Good luck to everyone hoping for progress this week. My "sales progress or" is back in today after a couple days leave so I'll be glued to email - hoping to exchange ASAP. I'll be amazed if it happens this week! We were meant to be leaving on Thursday and I made a call last week to call the movers and postpone - glad I did that.

We are having a 5 bed house packed an put into storage . And unpacked / furniture reassembled at the other end (100 miles away) when we have bought a new house . I think it was £1200 or so (not including the storage)

New week - fingers crossed for news/progress! Expecting to exchange on our sale today - have spent the weekend packing, so a bit jittery waiting for it to go through.

@hassletassle - That's a great price! We're also doing our move in two legs and are paying double the rate you are for a 3 bed, without packing! And one of the quotes that we got was double that again!

I know there are several of us on this thread going into storage... Are you just using the insurance provided by the moving company for that, or taking out separate cover? I don't totally trust the moving company's storage, but not sure how to go about getting my own policy.