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!

Our buyers have been in touch! They've exchanged on their sale and have a completion date for that in 6 weeks. Ideally (but not essentially) we will complete on the same day.

So now the stress really starts. I'm currently clutching a cup of tea and wondering how exactly we are going to get everything shifted.

Has anyone resorted to buying insurance for searches? The difference between 30th of June and July 1st is really stressing me out!

I didn't know you could do this @Didicat? What does the insurance cover? I still can't believe how much of a lottery searches are, we were very lucky with ours but I know the councils either side of us have 8-10 week backlogs 🤦🏻‍♀️

Ohhh, as in buying insurance instead of searches? (Sorry, my brain is very slow today!) I think I've seen people mention doing that recently on other threads within Property/DIY so might be worth a search?

Thanks for the sympathy and all. @BlueCherryBlossom so sorry to hear you’ve been messed about like that too. And so close to exchange? That’s awful.

@savemefromsearches I think their reasons are emotional not financial to be honest. They would not even talk to us about price. They have pulled out of their ongoing purchase. I just don’t think they were ready to move. Shame they didn’t figure that out before they accepted our offer.

Anyone have any tips for letting go/not getting too emotionally invested? I feel a bit stupid but I’d built it up so much in my head I’m finding it hard to move on. It’s not helped by the fact that there is literally nothing on the market here! Reading the board is helping a bit and I’m picking up some good advice going forward, so there’s that.

@umbel every house we have missed out on has turned out to be the absolute best thing for us. It's devastating at the time, especially as you get so invested, but it could have also turned into a nightmare just as easily.

I've been messing with my search criteria e.g dropped from 3 bed to 2 bed in the hope that sq ft wise it might be stacked in favour of living space and can easily be renovated to include the extra bedroom. Increasing the radius because it's done as the crow flies has yielded a few extra places to look at. The right one will come along.

We agreed ours in early Feb and here I am end of April without so much as a search back and barely enquiries raised. Argh!!

On this thread about time for searches, the links to search providers said 180 days for Hackney borough and advised insurance purchase instead @mummabubs @Didicat

Thank you @Panda368, yes will definitely be using same for sale and purchase, just wondering if people instruct each separately ? I thought would do it once you have offer and an offer accepted and instruct at same time.

Some good tips @savemefromsearches, I get over invested very easily and I’ve only been under offer 2 weeks! Not sure I’m cut out for months long search like some people have had to go through.

@umbel the next house will come, hopefully without the structural issues and you will be so happy

Sorry forgot the link @mummabubs @Didicat
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/4220707-local-searches

@BakeOffRewatch Until we exchange i'm pretending that it's not happening. It's the only way I can manage the stress of dealing with all the different parties.

I'm trying to juggle the need to exchange on our sale, with a 4 week gap between exchange and completion on our purchase. Currently making my head want to explode.

@mummabubs I read it the same way you did

Can I please join? Had our first valuations done today, have another tomorrow. This is the first time we have sold so it is all very new. We are moving from South Wales to North Wales.

@Themostwonderfultimeoftheyear fingers crossed your house sells quickly!

Thanks Bakeoff :) We have been told by a lot of people including the estate agents that it is very much a sellers market here at the moment and things are going fast so fingers crossed.

Welcome @Themostwonderfultimeoftheyear! And best of luck.
Have you found anything you like for the onward move? Might be an idea to start getting documents in order if things do happen to move swiftly.

Our Local searches have finally come through! Though now I feel like I'm totally lost on what we are waiting for next. Today is supposed to be exchange 😂 and there's some quite stern language around extending the date only by permission, so we'll see what happens with that given they only sent draft contracts a few weeks ago.

Argh can't find anything we like on the market to move to as there are about three houses. All seem overpriced for what they are. Anyone else struggling to find what they want? I'm looking for a 4 bed as we have three kids but now I'm even looking at 3 beds. And then I think I might as well stay where I am and extend 🤦🏻‍♀️

Just heard that we're hopefully exchanging today for completion next Friday... 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

@FelicityElectricity we felt the same when looking a few months ago. After viewing about 13 properties that we found overpriced or disappointing we felt pretty rubbish about it all. We decided to compromise and take on a project house as opposed to modern decor. A property came on a few days later in a great location and whilst it's going to take a long time to make it the house we want (we also want 4 bedrooms and this is 3 so will need extension as well as aesthetic updating throughout) we can see the potential and means we don't feel like we're overpaying. Best of luck with your search, for all the ones that aren't right for it only potentially takes one right one to come up x

Thanks @mummabubs I need to be patient and not get sucked into the pace of this crazy market 😄

@mummabubs

Ohhh, as in buying insurance instead of searches? (Sorry, my brain is very slow today!) I think I've seen people mention doing that recently on other threads within Property/DIY so might be worth a search?

Lack of search indemnity insurance:

www.lawsureinsurance.co.uk/our-products/title-protection/search-indemnity/

Thank you searches and congrats on your local searches coming through :)

I have a list of saved properties on Rightmove which we are interested in but can't view yet. The market is much slower in North Wales and we have been told we are definitely moving the right way from a crazy market to a slower one. Looks like plenty of choice up there for us.

Just had the third valuation done and think we will go with the first estate agent we saw. Has sold a lot of houses recently on our development and was clearly well tuned into the local market. Didnt overwhelm me with a sales pitch like the others did either which I appreciated. Really good reviews and people locally speak very highly.

Good luck on your exchange Mumma!

Exactly five months and two days after our offer was accepted we exchanged today and are completing tomorrow. Feels unreal.

Congrats @CryHavoc

@FelicityElectricity

Argh can't find anything we like on the market to move to as there are about three houses. All seem overpriced for what they are. Anyone else struggling to find what they want? I'm looking for a 4 bed as we have three kids but now I'm even looking at 3 beds. And then I think I might as well stay where I am and extend 🤦🏻‍♀️

That’s exactly where we’re at! We weighed up moving vs extending. Wasn’t much in it. But extending won’t solve all our wants. So moving it is. But there is nothing!

Congrats @CryHavoc!!

Congrats cryhavoc!

We have appointed our estate agent and photos are Sunday!

Congrats @CryHavoc!

Can I get a quick AIBU view on here? Our sale has been completely blocked for many weeks now (we’re selling to a FTB, we’ve moved in with family as the house we’re buying needs a lot of work so there’s no chain, offer accepted back on 1st Feb). Firstly, we were told that everything was ready apart from the final search result, due back on 1st April. When that date rolled around, we were told that the buyer’s solicitor wanted to raise ‘final enquiries’ - we’ve been waiting for these enquiries to reveal themselves since then (I.e. for three weeks). Our EA and our solicitor have been chasing the buyer’s solicitor multiple times every day for the last week, without success. We’re now getting to the stage where we have concerns on whether the buyer is really serious or not- as surely they could force their solicitor to send them through. Would we be unreasonable to set a deadline for the enquiries to be sent with a threat to re-market if we don’t receive them by that date? Feels like we’ll be stuck in this situation forever otherwise and risk missing the June SD deadline for our onward purchase!