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!

Wow @Panda368 7 offers, that’s amazing.

My FTBs have been back round measuring up. They are so excited, it’s lovely to watch.

We viewed the one and only house in our small town that’s suitable and made an offer this afternoon. It’s on for £250k and we’ve offered £245k. In a normal market that’s a bloody good offer as a similar house with smaller garden went for £235k last summer but it’s so hard as there’s so much competition for so few houses. Annoyingly it’s a part exchange so all the offers have to go to the builders so it’ll take a while to see if it’s been accepted. We’re not totally in love with the house so I don’t want to go higher.

HI everyone , hope its ok to join. We've had 2 asking price offers on ours that have both fallen through as buyers moving and don't like plane noise (we are SW London) makes you wonder why they are looking in this area.
We are moving about an hour away, found a lovely do-er upper. First and only day of viewing 6 offers including ours 10k over. Went to best and final, and we lost out, went over 100k over market is insane! This a 1m property.

God that does sound mad @Filopasty! I suspect unless people are cash buyers many will experience what we have- asking price offers and above that end up being reduced along the way when valuations come in. We're in Wales and last year 63% of valuations came back lower than the agreed price. But then even with cash buyers there's always the chance of gazundering if they later decide they're overpaying.

@FiloPasty that’s insane £100k over asking!

@Panda368 that sounds like a great position to be in. Fingers crossed for a really good price and buyer.

The estate agent did say he thought they'd overpaid but still, gutting

It’s crazy here. A doer upper bungalow (won’t get planning for double storey) went for £100k over. We’ve had a £50k under offer accepted on a property off market. Seller wanted a quick sale as he’s moved out and we’re chain free and the EA knows how motivated and organised we are. Had 2 purchases fall through due to massive problems revealed during conveyancing so we’re renting after our sale and it’s so unsettling after owning property for decades.

Hi all,
I’ve read the thread in its entirety. It’s been said throughout how awful the sales process is in England. Just want to say a big thank you for everyone’s honesty in the process. It really helps put it all in perspective plus try to help your own process. I have learnt so much.

I would love to comment on individual’s moves but I’m finding it so hard to remember who’s was who’s. Just wish people luck.

I wanted to join in a moan tonight.

I moved to an area of SE London on a whim found a house that would suit my small family. Bought a 2 up 2 down that was overpriced in 2016 because of the rule changes. We have been very happy and love the area however, we grew by an extra two boys and it’s time to move to a bigger house. I’ve been looking for two years within a small radius, there has been very little on that suits us.

Our house is considered very in demand because of its location near a train-station perfect for starter homes and buy to let. We had no concerns about selling it. We were concerned about listing ours and feeling the pressure to find somewhere.

We found a doer upper on a road nearby and offered. They basically didn’t take us seriously as our house wasn’t on the market/under offer we said we’d list it and got things in order within a week. It seemed crazy. Anyway we went on the market with the same EA but the doer upper went to an alternative offer, I’m pretty sure we were the highest offer.
Never mind we moved on.

The EA booked out our ‘open day’ (covid restrictions apply) within the first 2 hours of our house being online. We found a house that was our top end of our budget that we were pursuing.
Offers came in under on our house saying it needed modernisation - it’s not that outdated. It’s the point where estate agents/google tells you not to do up a kitchen because people will probably rip it out etc. I’m not ‘proud’ of my house but seriously it’s not ancient.

We had 8 lower than expected offers and settled on the one a FTB which would allow us to get the mortgage required for the top budget house. Anyway, the property accepted our offer but wouldn’t take it off the market until we had our mortgage valuation done on it. (Alarm bells should have rung at this point).

We were recommended to use the broker and conveyancer by the EA. We are trying all we can to beat stamp duty. Both properties are listed by the same EA. Despite us finding a deal we were satisfied with ourselves we went with that. We sent our info over to the broker the next day, we instructed the conveyancer 15mins after receiving the quote. We thought all was fine.

The vendor says she gets a better offer 10k more. We begrudgingly offer and extra 2.5 k. And reinstate our quick chain position. She accepts and takes it off the market.
A whole week later. We check in on the conveyancer- no answer at first then someone answers the phone and says they have no knowledge of us instructing them!!!

Our broker who said they’d want to wait over the weekend incase rates change said he’d send us our offer by the end of today hasn’t.

I’m so upset and grumpy! We are doing all we can moving so quickly- we don’t want to mess about. We know we are so tight to the deadline. I feel like by trying to save time/be helpful we are being reckless and jeopardising our chances of buying our ‘perfect’ house and beating the stamp duty. We are Better off on our own in a lot of ways. We are going in hard tomorrow. If nothing looks positive in two weeks we will have to pull out as it’s not proceedable really.

That was really cathartic writing it down. Sorry for the mammoth essay. Hope it will help at least one person as so many prior posts have helped me.

The whole process is so stressful dandelion, I'm waiting today to see if our offer has been accepted on another doer upper. The owners wanted to think it over last night. I'm worried it might be a money pit.

Still waiting to hear back as to whether our revised offer has been accepted. Every minute feels like an hour and it's taking all my restraint not to call the agent as I know that will make us look desperate 🤦🏻‍♀️

Good luck @mummabubs and everyone else hoping for good news / any news / just SOMETHING today!!

We are still waiting to exchange and I think there is another hold-up/disagreement at the people at the bottom of the chain… It takes a lot of effort to find out what is even going on.

I'm hoping for an update from our estate agent today. I think we are on week 23 now? I'm not sure which point to start issuing ultimatums/threatening to pull out if they don't get on with it. Having said that, threatening to pull out probably won't achieve anything and it certainly won't help us move. Everything is done, they just keep refusing to exchange and having stand offs for stupid reasons!

Thanks @hassletassle, agent just called and much to my relief and shock the vendors have agreed to our reduced offer. So now touch wood all can progress smoothly... (says the voice of naive optimism in my head!!)

@mummabubs yayyy!! Congratulations 🥳

I could cry! Just got off the phone and my buyers solicitor has only sent the searches off two weeks ago, we accepted their offer at the start of Jan!!! We were looking to move next week, everyone is desperate to move and now it's been pushed back massively. I am so annoyed! Apparently they weren't going to have searches?! I thought it was a legal requirement??

@hassletassle and @ballsdeep That's so frustrating for both of you. It feels unfair to me that so much of the buying and selling process is down to luck and the motivation of everyone else. When we bought here we unintentionally used a really crap solicitor who took forever and was terrible both at keeping us updated and at being contactable. The agent for here wasn't particularly helpful either and it was all really stressful, especially as they made us exchange and complete on the same day which saw us driving our possessions in a rental van 200 miles down the M4 whilst still waiting for the phone call to say it was definitely going ahead and we could get the keys. (The call never came so I even had to chase that!)

This time (touch wood) we seem to have much better agents at both selling and buying level and we've gone with a solicitor who is 200 miles away but my sister had worked with her previously so recommended her. We haven't received any discount she's been worth every penny so far as she's been really dedicated to pushing everything along, keeping us informed and has been very easy to get ahold of. Makes all the difference this time around.

Fingers crossed you both get progress and soon! X

And yes @ballsdeep, I'm pretty sure searches are a legal requirement!?

Have just exchanged on a purchase, and I didn't bother to have searches.

Hello, our listing went live yesterday and we’ll do viewings this weekend. I’ve looked at houses online and they’re going like hot cakes at asking price. Finding it a bit demoralising. Will have a read through of the last few pages of this thread. It’s our first time selling and buying. Would like to avoid doing it again but don’t think we can afford our family home within imputing distance of central London yet.

We're in a short chain and our vendors vendor want to look to complete mid-June for 'reasons'.
This does give us some breathing space for other things to fall into place but it does mean having to arrange an extension of our lease [eyeroll] but honestly I'm fine about it.
I'm mentally putting our furniture in to the new place and we don't have room for everything but this is our fault for having so much stuff!

I’m not sure if searches are a legal requirement but I’m guessing the mortgage companies probably require them to protect themselves. I’m going to resist the searches or ask if I can pick and choose. I work at the Council so I can do most of those myself, I know it doesn’t flood and there are no mines around. Not sure what other searches there are, finance ones?

A second offer yesterday, withdraw today... two more viewings today, both “really keen” according to the estate agent.
We’ll be going with the asking price offer tomorrow unless either of the two today meet it - they are both in a better position being in rented chain free/sold to a BTL, whereas our asking price offer person is in a 3 people chain.

We offered 10% over asking price to secure our onwards purchase. Probably a bit more than we needed to spend, but it’s a lovely house and they never come up in this location.

We had another offer declined today, again offered over asking price by a decent amount and the buyers didn't go with us.

My flat's been on sale for two weeks and I've only had one viewing so far. Very disappointing.

Just accepted an offer of £2k over asking price. Not the highest, but they are in rented so no other sale to worry about, and they are keen to move quickly.

£7k higher than the previous offer we were working with, with a shorter chain. Fingers crossed this goes smoothly.

@ForThePurposesOfTheDIR maybe use the time to sell some stuff on if it’s not going to all fit? Send it to an auction perhaps if seeing it go piece by piece is upsetting sentimentally.

Good news @LaMariposa finger crossed for a smooth sale!

@Wrongsideofhistorymyarse I think Flats are being really tricky to sell in the current market, but you only need one buyer to sell it to so keep positive.

@FiloPasty sorry you are not having better luck! Stealing a friends saying “What is meant for you won’t go past you” fingers crossed something perfect pops up this week! Have you tried putting letter through houses you are interest in and try dealing direct if working with a small search area.

@Didicat - this is an option, most of it is not of sentimental value (most of it is IKEA) - but I'm very attached to my books. We will ultimately have the space as we're planning to convert the garage so it may be stored in the interim.

But news is that we have a formal mortgage offer!