Buyers Sellers Roll Call 15

[MotherofHeathens]

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

So glad to have found this post. I've been busy reading everyone's posts.

We are just waiting for mortgage approval and I am beyond stressed out. We answered all there questions that they raised after application. Nothing major - just employment references and residence evidence.

Survey has also been done and the report is with the lender.
This was all done last week.

So now I'm just sitting and waiting ! I feel so anxious even thinking about it

How does everyone cope ?

@Paddingtonthebear I would also look at a different company if possible? Our buyer got 2 surveys done for his mortgage (just valuation ones) so it's not that unusual (he tried one bank and then found a better rate with another!)

Are you meaning use a different mortgage lender? We are going through a broker so we could look in to that. We can’t put more in as a deposit so that’s not an option

Yes speak to the broker to see what else is on offer. As mentioned, our buyer had to get 2 different mortgage valuation surveys done as he was shopping around banks at the time!

Have you managed to speak to them (the people who did the valuation)?

Broker has sent a copy of the bank valuation to me but I haven’t spoken to person that carried it out. They are local though. Would it be considered normal to contact them?

I came on to say we had our mortgage offer.
She (broker) said good news. I’m assuming if it wasn't all fine, she would have included that in the email!

Fingers crossed you can work something out @Paddingtonthebear and I echo what a PP mentioned about surely everyone who needs a mortgage for the property will face this issue?

Our buyer rang us today hassling us to exchange today, we had to tell them we cant exchange today as THEIR solicitor keeps coming to ours with nonsense queries 🙄

Fingers crossed for exchange tomorrow.

Sorry to hear that @Paddingtonthebear x

Hi all, I know it is probably impossible to say, but if everyone in the chain has now issued contracts, would you think it is realistic to hope to move by around mid-July? We have a baby coming in August so really hoping to be in a few weeks before. Our buyers are first time buyers, and our sellers are moving into an empty house so there is not a particularly long chain.

A mini update from me. Our buyers were desperate to move in by the end of June. I've moved heaven and earth to get everything sorted on our end, but it transpired last week that their solicitor hadn't even submitted their searches yet, and we only just received the first round of queries (most of which were nonsense). Our solicitor admitted today he had been "worried" about lack of contact from the buyer's solicitor as our onward purchase is progressing so quickly. Their solicitor is now saying they can't guarantee completion by end of June as if it were us suggesting it in the first place Our solicitor said he expects us to be in for a long ride if this is how slow they're being... :(

@lazyakita wow your buyers must be furious with their solicitors! Searches not even submitted! It’s the thing I immediately asked my solicitor to do once I had Memorandum of Sale on our purchase. And I’m now down £££ on a purchase I’ve pulled out of so I don’t know how smart that was. Well I now have a nice environmental report on my area to muse over.

Btw now that I’ve pulled out of my purchase, my solicitor asked if I wanted them to slow down on sale to give me breathing room, view from the other side! I was surprised, it’s not something I’d considered asking as an option, thought it was all about speeding things up. I’m not too worried about that, but only because I have the bigger worry of whether my buyers will get a mortgage (on second attempt to apply...). And no one else has been interested in my property, a perfect FTB (small house with garden, great commute). I talked to the EA about this and they said the FTB at the moment are all cash rich and going higher up the ladder to 3 bed family homes, they’re not the FTB of 5 years ago. I speculated if this was to do with influx of inheritances given the past year? Bit morbid, sorry. So these are also the people I’m competing with when buying, and they have the edge on me as no chain.

Love this thread, has really helped me see bigger picture and keep things in perspective.

@notinthestarsigns I would think so? Our buyer wants to complete by 30 June and has a completion date but contracts not sorted yet so I think it can be done a lot quicker if necessary (we've done it all our side, we're just waiting for their solicitors to pull their finger out).

@Paddingtonthebear I hope you've managed to sort something out!

Doing ‘gap analysis’ on our mortgage next, broker can fit us in 22nd June 😱😱 that’s miles away!!!

We have had the slightly ominous update from our buyers solicitor saying they cannot yet agree completion date as "there are still outstanding matters being investigated at this time” on their sale.

I’m not sure from this if we are talking a week or 6 weeks delay. I was so sure that they were basically bloody done on their sale and now this...

Thanks @TheFunBus, fingers crossed! All mortgage offers and surveys are done and there are no issues there, so in that sense everything is going smoothly but just still feels like everything is very slow!

I speculated if this was to do with influx of inheritances given the past year? Bit morbid, sorry. So these are also the people I’m competing with when buying, and they have the edge on me as no chain.

We started speaking to agents on the weekend (we are going into rented as relocating) and two mentioned to us that despite the lack of current stock, they do expect a number of family homes to come onto the market over summer due to probate

Oh no, @Paddingtonthebear really sorry to hear that. That must be so disappointing. I would also recommend re applying via a different lender. I have read that houses can receive quite varying valuations, depending on the surveyor that's used and their local market knowledge. I've read posts on mumsnet previously where sellers have gone back to the market and a second person has offered an even higher amount, and the second mortgage valuation conducted agreed. Unless you think it is genuinely over priced I would reapply via a different lender.

Just a little update from my side as I've been a little quiet on here over the past couple of weeks, but following updates super closely. So exciting to see all of the progress and some exchanging / completing / moving now.

After fretting about our survey results on our Victorian terrace, our buyer received their survey back. Much to my relief, all seemed fine and they advised their EA that there was nothing in there that they wouldn't have not expected to see in a Victorian house.

In effort to keep enquiries progressing, our solicitor prompted the buyer's solicitor, and advised them that the survey report had been shared with buyers. Today we've had several enquiries, one referring to signs of wood worm and the other referring to evidence of rising damp.

Selfishly I'm gutted because we are so close to exchange and so close to hitting the stamp duty deadline. They haven't asked for us to resolve yet but I know they will, and of course we will. But I'm just trying to weigh up whether we are better off just offering a price reduction. The stamp duty saving for us is £13k. My heart sank this morning- buying and selling houses feels like a never ending rollercoaster ride that I really just want to get off!

@wisteria90 absolutely go for small price reduction to cover a share of the work as it will work out much cheaper than losing 13k on stamp duty. They can also ensure they use someone they trust and that the work is done to a standard they are happy with. Say you can get quotes for work or offer something off. Definitely the much quicker option

@wisteria90 the surveyor was local and did go into the property. I am wondering whether switching lender will make any difference. The valuation would need to come in at the agreed purchase price for us to proceed and I’m not sure there’s any chance another valuer will come back with £25k more than the first one did. Even if it came back at £10k under we still couldn’t make up the difference. I feel like we might just be wasting our time, paying more money and adding another hard search to our credit file.

Thanks @Panda368 - it's a relief to know that it doesn't need to be hugely complicated- I was wondering the same but didn't know if it was the more complex route with needing to amend their mortgage and resend / resign contract packs.

@wisteria90 it should be fairly simple - we agreed a small price reduction on our sale and didn't need to do anything other than agree it.

I asked our solicitor about having to re-sign new contracts with the new price and she said she could amend the price on the contract by hand so it was pretty painless bar the 3K hit we had to take 😂

Ahh @Panda368 this is such a relief! Thank you for your advice. I've managed to find a damp + timber specialist to come today and quote. I'll tee up a couple of quotes just in case. Our buyers are in HK and want to let out the house ASAP (BTL) so have a feeling they'll push for us to do the work. If they do, the guy quoting today said he can do it this week. 🙏

Fingers crossed! Can't believe they can amend the price on the contract pack by hand 😂😂 I was expecting it to be this full on change. I'm hoping they opt for this- the idea of moving furniture from the upstairs to access under floor boards is 😬😬

[quote Paddingtonthebear]@wisteria90 the surveyor was local and did go into the property. I am wondering whether switching lender will make any difference. The valuation would need to come in at the agreed purchase price for us to proceed and I’m not sure there’s any chance another valuer will come back with £25k more than the first one did. Even if it came back at £10k under we still couldn’t make up the difference. I feel like we might just be wasting our time, paying more money and adding another hard search to our credit file.[/quote]
Have you had your own survey/buyer report done?

We finally managed to complete on our sale yesterday! And looks like we’ll be able to complete on our purchase on Monday (we decided not to push for a price reduction due to the survey- everything else was in place and we are desperate to move).

Feels unbelievable that we’re finally at this stage- we put our property on the market in November!