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!

Still no news. Estate agent has left another email with our buyers asking for an update.

Will we ever move?

Oh how frustrating @LaMariposa. I’m a lot further behind, I know I will be in that situation at some point, but really am not looking forward to it.

We had our first batch of solicitor queries from buyers solicitor today and confirmation they have booked their surveyor who will apparently contact me to arrange it.
It it normal for a solicitor to query whether a house has decking and how high up it comes?

Still nothing from our seller though according to agent it will all be sent tomorrow morning.

Mortgage application has stalled because some numbers have been torn off partners payslips by his works printing machine. We now have to wait for his useless hr to reprint everything which could take all week... 😒

Well, in a bewildering series of events, our vendors have withdrawn from the sale. Our survey unearthed significant structural issues that need fixing fairly quickly. After much deliberation we decided we would still be prepared to go ahead with the sale, but they’ve now decided they don’t want to sell at all. We didn’t even get to the renegotiation stage! We are totally gutted and rather confused. We are also out of pocket for a level 3 survey, a structural engineer, a mortgage arrangement and solicitors fees. Oh, and there are no longer any houses for sale in our area. Who knows whether our buyers will hold on, or whether we will now lose our sale too. Beer and chocolate tonight.

We would still be prepared to go ahead with the PURCHASE.

Oh, for an edit button.

Oh @Umbel I'm really sorry to hear that. Would they consider having a few days to think about it? Seems so bizarre that they've withdrawn, have they been able to explain exactly why they no longer wish to sell?

No updates at our end. But it's getting more unnerving/frustrating that apparently all sides have been ready to exchange for week but there's no date or sign of this happening, all while we're meant to be completing next Friday and my c sec is the week after. Nerves are starting to wear thin at my end and I can't even drink! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Completed today! Totally exhausting but very worthwhile and super happy with new house.

Commiserations to those still waiting (that sounds particularly sucky @umbel ) and hope exchange comes quickly for everyone!

I'm slowly but surely losing my mind.
My solicitor keeps putting the date back as enquiries have come up from our purchasers now. I've had enough we were supposed to complete at the end of march. I feel sick with worry constantly and those at the top of the chain are getting antsy. This is horrendous isn't it?
I can't ring or deal with solicitors anymore, my husband is doing it tomorrow and ringing for an update and saying we need a date to work towards not just a random week or two

Sorry to those that are going through a crap time of it 😩. The stress must be immense.

We have had a busy few days. Our potential buyer had lied (?omitted) to tell us the full length of their chain when they submitted their offer. Our estate agent checked their chain details yesterday.
We were lucky enough to have six offers on our house and would have chosen someone else offering slightly less but in a shorter chain. Lying at this stage didn't bode well for us so we have gone to the next interested party and they are still keen.
I feel a bit mixed about it. I don't like upsetting people but I'm not sure the purchase would have gone through with the untrustworthy people 😒

@FelicityElectricity I completely get your discomfort in telling them no but equally they made the decision to mislead you, and as you say you would not have gone with them had you known the full length of their chain in the first place! Fingers crossed your next lot are more transparent and easier to navigate it all with 😊

Can I join the thread? We have had an offer accepted on our dream house and already have buyers for ours. There is no onward chain on our purchase house and our buyers are FTB so our chain is complete! The FTB are keen to move out of their rented house ASAP and our seller wants out of their house quickly too, so I’m hoping everybody acts as efficiently as they can, although I’m sure in practice this won’t be the case my main concern is that our house is a Victorian terrace so I hope my buyers are ready for a colourful survey!

I am pregnant with DC2 and due at the end of Sept so I am really hoping we are moved in July/August so I have time to settle in before baby comes!

Enjoy your new home @InescapableDeath!

Sorry to hear there are more house buying woes, it never seems to end. I'm blaming my current weight gain entirely on house move induced stress eating!

I had a little sulk last night because two friends who started their moves months after us are going to be in before us at this rate...but then I look at the mountains of stuff we'll need to pack and think maybe it's ok that we're still waiting on things!

Hi everyone! I’ve been reading the thread since I first posted but sometimes the stories scare me!

As we all need to be under offer first, when did you instruct the solicitor to handle your sale? My estate agent is saying now (have been under offer a few weeks) even though I haven’t found somewhere to buy. They said use a “no sale no fee” firm? Never heard of that before. They’re double the price of the quote I got from firm I used last time!

Interested in anyone’s wisdom on this.

Congratulations to everyone who’s exchanged or completed recently!!

@Panda368 We just had our mortgage offer through from NatWest and we applied on the 8th March, so it’s been around 6 weeks in total- our application was slightly complicated though!

@BakeOffRewatch for the solicitor - you can use the same one you want to use for your purchase and it is better to instruct sooner rather than later.

We are using the solicitor we used when we first bought our house for both our sale and our purchase.
She has been handling queries from our buyers already and has now started reviewing docs for our purchase. No fees until completion is fairly normal I think.

Well just been informed by the solicitors that the searches are not due back till the 14th of June!!!

How how how do people buy at auction with such slow turnaround by the council!!! We were hoping to move end of may! I don’t think we are going to make the June deadline

@umbel

Well, in a bewildering series of events, our vendors have withdrawn from the sale. Our survey unearthed significant structural issues that need fixing fairly quickly. After much deliberation we decided we would still be prepared to go ahead with the sale, but they’ve now decided they don’t want to sell at all. We didn’t even get to the renegotiation stage! We are totally gutted and rather confused. We are also out of pocket for a level 3 survey, a structural engineer, a mortgage arrangement and solicitors fees. Oh, and there are no longer any houses for sale in our area. Who knows whether our buyers will hold on, or whether we will now lose our sale too. Beer and chocolate tonight.

Sympathies @umbel, we are in a very similar situation. Vendor has pulled out out of the blue just before exchange. It's utterly utterly shit

Onwards and upwards; here's hoping we both find something better!

@umbel I'm so sorry to hear that. Maybe they just can't afford to budge on price and they know the defects are going to result in £££ being shaved from your offer. Would you be willing to continue with no reduction?

I'd be fearful that it would end up a money pit going on knowing there is so much to be rectified. Argh it's all so bloody difficult.

Sorry to hear your vendor has been a shit too @BlueCherryBlossom

We are the vendor in this case, and I'm doing everything I can to not put the brakes on, despite my buyer being an absolute . Hopefully it's a case that they have had no choice but to pull the plug and aren't just trying to squeeze a few extra £

Seems no one wants to buy my house the moment. Slightly annoyed with the most recent batch of viewers. One no show, one who came for a second viewing but won't answer the EAs calls (so not even a thanks but no thanks) and another first viewing who won't answer either. All other feedback has been generally positive, but the house is a bit odd so not everyone's taste.

7 viewings in the first 10 days, but nothing booked in now... No more bookings by the time it's been on for 4 weeks and we're going to have to start thinking about price reductions.

Maybe the new deposit scheme will help? Definitely being aimed at ftbs.

Oh @umbel how shit! There must be more to it from their side to just halt the process completely.. 🤔

We’ve got another 2 viewings today, had one yesterday. The house down the road has just gone under offer, was on weeks before mine, and I was worried if that didn’t go that ours wouldn’t. So hoping it’s a positive sign!

Few more possibles added to rightmove yesterday, have booked viewings. But they are at the top end of our budget with a compromise on my behalf of the distance for the school run. if one turns out to be the one, I’ll cope 🤣 but I’d rather not!!

My flat has been on sale 5 weeks and I've had 4 viewings in total.

I have stopped plumping cushions and cleaning obsessively in the hope I'll get a call from the EA.

So having had no contact from our buyers solicitor since January, and having originally marketed the house in August - we’ve finally exchanged and will complete today.
This has been the worst experience of my life and I vow to never do this again, I take my cap off to anyone who does this multiple times.
Good luck to everyone going through the mill with this all 🤞🏻

Small update from the buyers... they are buying the previous buyers searches, and their mortgage application went in on the 12th. They are very keen to move quickly.
So hopefully their mortgage approval will come through this week and we can deal with any enquiries they might have.

I buckled and called our solicitors this morning. We cannot what's holding up exchange as we were told 2 weeks ago everyone was ready to go. Apparently they're still waiting to hear this back from either our buyers or sellers, I'm not sure which. I've said that in order for us to complete next Friday as planned we need to have exchanged by Friday as our removals firm need payment 7 days before the moving date and won't even book us in before we've exchanged. My c sec date is only the week after so I've also said if we don't complete on the 30th as planned we will need to delay by several weeks as I'm unlikely to be able to move house straight after a c sec. Solicitor's assistant has said they'll chase and email me today... Which is exactly what they said last week and on Monday so I'm just crossing fingers and toes that we get an update, even if just to say there are no updates! 🤦🏻‍♀️