Buyers Sellers Roll Call 15

[MotherofHeathens]

Because we're nearly at the end of the other thread and still inflicting this torture on ourselves...!

On no balls, that is the stuff of nightmares!

Working on paperwork for our sale and just had an offer accepted on the house we want at 15k below asking :)

Congratulations @Themostwonderfultimeoftheyear! We are waiting to hear back on an offer where we offered same as you. I am heartened reading your post and hoping for the same. Can’t wait to uninstall rightmove and Zoopla!

We missed out on the “dream” “forever” (is it really a thing? It just ticked all the boxes and had room to grow, no compromises, and we could afford it as it needed rewiring and serious updating) we over offered on, but I’m really glad now that all the news about building supply issues and costs soaring are coming out.

www.bdonline.co.uk/news/uk-could-run-out-of-construction-materials-as-brexit-invalidates-certificates/5111794.article

This Guardian article is the subject of another thread on DIY/Property:
www.theguardian.com/business/2021/may/15/building-crisis-looms-as-dwindling-supplies-bring-sites-grinding-to-a-halt

Does anyone know people who’ve been impacted by this? I’m friends with a few builders and was surprised, I haven’t heard anything through offline network.

Keeping everything crossed for you bakeoff!

I hadn't heard anything about building materials but am not in that area. We will want to do work on our house but it isn't essential and can wait. Want to convert the separate kitchen and dining room into a kitchen diner.

Oh crikey @ballsdeep that is just a nightmare!

Was it @Panda368 asking about fixtures and fittings? We didn't get to see the one from our sellers until the week of exchange, our solicitor sent everything through then. Our sellers had already let us know that they were leaving the cooker/fridge freezer/washer so we agreed with our buyer to leave the washer and dishwasher (taking our fridge freezer though, I'm quite looking forward to having an extra one!).

@BakeOffRewatch interesting articles. There's two new housing estates being built in our village and 1000's more houses planned nearby so it doesn't surprise me. All the trades people we know are booked solid for months too. (Just hoping we can get a builder with availability for the not massive but not tiny jobs we want doing on the new place...)

I am wondering what the knock on effect to the housing market will be if this news makes headlines, and the evening news is sob stories of people by their half finished extensions/conversions. Will people pull out of the doer upper they over offered on? Or will it make the market more fluid, as it will be easier to move than improve?

@MotherofHeathens I have actually finally got hold of the fixtures form today from our solicitor and luckily they have included the fridge/freezer/washing machine in the sale. So I can now go and stress about something else at 2am....

everything is looking very close to being ready to exchange from my perspective - we are waiting on our seller answering the last enquiries.

but on our sale we have been told all paper work is done and all enquiries are answered so that sounds like we are good to go on that side.

I've chased our agent about what stage the FTB at the bottom of the chain is at hopefully they are ready to go! Its looking like once these last enquiries come back from our seller we will be ready to exchange at any time. 😬

I’ve just seen this thread after posting my own.

We are almost 6 months in. Vendors are a nightmare. Told their solicitor to tell ours that if we pushed on dates that they would put the house back on the market and that they wouldn’t discuss them. They “can’t remember” what year abs when pressed what fucking decade they converted their garage. Wouldn’t let the surveyor in for ages.

Everything on our side is done.

@Newhousehope we started the whole process a the beginning of April & are still nervous that we wont make the SDLT deadline & the vast majority of stuff is done. Queries need to be responded to by both us & our sellers then its just exchange & completion.

Fingers crossed for you @SpnBaby1967 - I knew we’d miss it, but our vendor still wants to hit it. I hope someone has let them know that it’s a very very long shot!!

Balls - that’s just awful.

Well survey on second house came back today. There are no building regs certificates for the garage conversion and removal of two internal walls. Why do I pick lemons! We were planning on doing a lot of work to the house including putting some walls back in so I’m not sure how worried to be. I’ve sent an email to my mate in building control we’ll see what he says

Don't contact Building Control yourself - that will stop your solicitor being able to go down the title defect insurance route. Don't contact anyone without your solicitor's say so.

Thanks @MinecraftMother, they don’t work in the area I’m buying in but point taken

We did a pre-exchange viewing on the house we are buying. Exchange this week, and we’ve access to the new place (well garden and garage) from exchange which will make things a little easier.

So much packing.

How regularly are you all getting updates from your estate agent / buyer, especially if you’re in the final stages of run-up to exchange and completion? Our estate agent just made us feel like idiots for asking for an update today after getting an update on Friday afternoon, but we are targeting both exchange and completion this week so feel like asking for daily updates (at least until we’ve exchanged) is reasonable! AIBU?

@Caroline147

How regularly are you all getting updates from your estate agent / buyer, especially if you’re in the final stages of run-up to exchange and completion? Our estate agent just made us feel like idiots for asking for an update today after getting an update on Friday afternoon, but we are targeting both exchange and completion this week so feel like asking for daily updates (at least until we’ve exchanged) is reasonable! AIBU?

It's like you have plucked the thought from my head @Caroline147

We are in the same boat, maybe slightly behind, but it's our buyer that's holding everything up. Lots of huffing and eye rolling and "don't worry, I'm on it" from our estate agent, and yet nothing.

And no, yadnbu!

@Caroline147 our estate agent is on annual leave...
Best thing we did was track our buyers down on Facebook, realise they were a friend of a friend, and get in touch directly. We both copy each other in on the emails we send to solicitors etc if relevant and keep each other updated.

Our buyer has pulled out.

Due to radon gas of all things. It was mentioned in the previous building survey we stupidly shared with them, but in the local searches it says we are not in an affected area. If only I'd not shared our building survey, they would've done their own local searches and it wouldn't have been a concern... I've shared the local searched with the EA, but it seems pretty cut and dry. Oh well you live and learn.

I'm really not looking forward to having to make the house look nice again, but there we go.

Thanks Caroline147, re MoS.

Apparently, having emailed the agent, the buyer wants to have the full mortgage offer ahead of confirming solicitors - isn't that extremely unusual?

Caroline147, it's completely legit to ask for an update at this stage of your transaction. I've tried to stop myself contacting the agent too often but there have been a number of occasions when I've cracked - and everyone I know says: that's what they're paid for!

Oh no @Andthenanothercupoftea! Sorry to hear that, what a nightmare

Oh no @Andthenanothercupoftea - that’s crap.

Thanks both. Just really pissed off.

They seemingly pulled out without even a chance to address/negotiate/conduct their own survey/tests.

Annoying as although the whole town is a relatively high risk area our specific local searches show us as in a low risk part of it, so if they'd done things properly and commissioned searches there wouldn't be a problem. I'm guessing it's first time buy nerves to the extreme.

Oh well. Trying to put a positive spin on it - maybe they'll see sense - I sent some additional info through to the EA and I think we'll offer a radon retention via the solicitors. Or maybe we'll go back to market and get a better offer. EA seemed to think they had two people they could thing of who might be interested...and we can be ready to preempt the radon issue (which will hopefully be a non-issue for everyone else...)

Annoyingly the daffodils and tulips are all dead now though, so the garden isn't at its best.

Very rambling post, think I needed a brain dump before bed...

I found the original deeds and papers for our house yesterday, and it mentions we are in a radon affected area the whole of the south seem to be in it though!

Can I join please? I'm hoping it will be a fairly short hop onto the thread! We accepted an offer on our current house at asking price on Saturday and have today had an offer accepted (7500 above asking ) on our dream home that we viewed yesterday! I'm so happy but so aware its early days. Need to instruct solicitors and sign some bits then hope all goes smoothly! Our buyers are first time and there's no chain above us so fingers crossed.

FTB here... Just put my first offer in... a little under the asking price. Seller is considering our offer but has a viewing today that he will honour.

I am so nervous.