About to put our house up for sale...anyone else? Part Two!

[InTheCludgie]

Hi everyone here is the new thread for those of us who are about to, or are currently trying to, sell our homes!

So we are now back on the market and have a viewing tomorrow morning, plus one for early next week. This week is a bit tricky as it's DS's birthday so have had to say no to a couple of suggested times for viewings.

How is everyone else getting on?

@RidingMyBike @superdupernova Thanks for the tips! Checked the EPC. D, so not too bad. It has cavity walls and double glazing but assumed no roof insulation, so that'd be a priority. Unfortunately can't visit the area that frequently as it's over 200 miles away. But I've tasked some relatives with going by. I'm not really concerned about actually living there. More about selling in the future. But maybe we'll love it so much, we'll never have to sell. Who knows.

If it's a longterm home to be enjoyed I wouldn't worry about what happens when you sell it on, if that makes sense. Only if there's a dealbreaker like it's un-mortgageable or something which would really limit it.

If it's a house you can enjoy for years then someone else will like it too when the time comes.

WE HAVE EXCHANGED.

Turns out our buyers were trying to get another 10k off because they'd had a bloke on the roof who told them it all needed replacing at giant cost (not remotely true). The agent (who frankly caused this situation by letting them view without asking us and finding a small leak in progress by surprise in an empty house) refused to even suggest it to us.

Just the six months from offer to exchange, and another fortnight till completion, but we are over the line.

Eeek congratulations @Doubleraspberry The last 6 months must have felt like a real slog.

Our house went on Rightmove this morning so we're just at the very beginning. First viewing has been booked for the weekend. Here's hoping there are more to follow!

Hi all, I know I'm a bit late but hoping to jump on! Just put my house up for sale last week to move in with DP. It is a two bed terrace so hopefully that will lend itself to the right audience in this market but I can't help be worried. Had one viewing request so far but they later cancelled.

Congrats @Doubleraspberry

good luck @superdupernova and @AverageJoan

Congrats, @Doubleraspberry ! That's a really long haul.

Hey All,
Congrats to those progressing, and even more so to those who have completed!
I had to walk away for a bit. I'm not sleeping, loosing weight, and generally struggling.
Hopefully a bit of progress today, and we are back talking potential completion dates 🤞
I'm never moving again!

Congrats @Doubleraspberry what a relief!

@Doubleraspberry Yay, great news!

@LionessesRules I can relate. The stress and anxiety can be so distructive.

We put our offer in for our (potential) onward purchase Monday morning. They had previously sold in May but their buyer pulled out a week ago. They listed the house with the same asking price that it sold for in May. We offered 5% under. They have yet to come back to us as they want to work out their finances first. I assume they're stalling because they are hoping for a better offer. I'll be driving back up there this weekend to view more houses. But I would prefer this one. I am quite an impatient person, so I'd prefer they'd just say they want more money and we'd potentially offer more. I will wait to the 48 hour mark, then set them a deadline.

At @thunderouslug they might be waiting on a mortgage broker for their figures. We met with one last week and the difference in interest rates between less than 70% LTV and more than 70% LTV was significant. We're looking at a mortgage of around 270k and it was hundreds per month.

@superdupernova very fair point, I hadn't considered that! Thanks for the perspective. Will try and be a little less impatient now.

Exchange and completion tomorrow is a no go due to some issue my buyers solicitors have come up with at the last moment, going to have to spend tomorrow chasing and hoping for Thursday cause Friday we have no help to move so won't be able to actually get out of the house! 😭😭

A bit late in the day to join, but we are in the late stages of buying and selling. We were told today (for the first time!) that our sellers’ mortgage offer expires in early Jan and they can’t get an extension at the same rate. Because of the Christmas holiday period we need to exchange by the end of next week, or the whole chain collapses.😣

We are still discussing a price reduction with our buyers following their survey… waiting to hear back from them at the moment. I guess once (hopefully) agreed they will need to get updated mortgage paperwork in place before we can exchange.

The property we are trying to buy is our “forever” home so I am really struggling with the stress of thinking we’ll lose it!

Good luck to everyone waiting to exchange 🤞🏻

Oh @123deepbreath that sounds stressful. I'm very naive and have no idea what we'd do with the movers if completion was delayed. Last time it was bad enough trying to find someone available when we went from 4 months of plodding along to "ok so we're all ready to exchange and complete next week".

I almost can't believe it but we've exchanged! 🥳🥳 We'll be completing in 2 weeks.

Bye bye paying two mortgages
Bye bye stress of worrying the sale would collapse

Yay congratulations @sellinghomeswithmn it must be such a relief!

Oh good luck @bakeoffbakeon 😬 and everyone else currently on tenterhooks (including us...)

Congratulations @sellinghomeswithmn! Great timing as well, you must be relieved to get rid of that extra mortgage in time for Christmas.

@sellinghomeswithmn amazing! What a relief. We are in the same boat with completion 16 days away.

Thanks @Doubleraspberry @JesusInTheCabbageVan @Karmatime - such a weight off my mind. In time for Xmas , before my builder on the new house needs paying and before nursery fees kick in. I suddenly feel excited for Xmas 🤶

@sellinghomeswithmn Congratulations on exchange!! That is brilliant news. And just in time for Christmas too. How exciting.

@bakeoffbakeon How stressful! What do you plan to do? Do you think it is a tactic feom the sellers to get the house reduced and put the pressure on you to just accept it?

@123deepbreath Oh no. Do you think you can stretch the time between exchange and completion, so that you have someone to help you move?

@thunderouslug I hope you get the house at the price you offered. I think @superdupernova makes a good point.

@LionessesRules I am completely with you on the never moving again.

Congratulations @Doubleraspberry on finally crossing the exchange line. Must be a huge relief.

@superdupernova I hope your viewings go well. Fingers crossed

@AverageJoan It completely depends on the local market how fast properties are selling. But I wish you all the best

So we begrudgingly ended up accepting the new revised / lower offer. They did increase it a smidgen, but still under their original offer and way below what we had negotiated.
Our estate agents told us that what they were seeing across the boatd in the local market was offers under 4%-5% under asking price being accepted. Their offer was 6% under, so not far off. And since the viewings have been far and in between they highly recommended we accept the offer
However we will not be lowering our price any more throughout the sale process, we would rather go back to market in that case.

We accepted their revised offer on Thursday and didn't get the Memorandum of Sale through until yesterday. I am not entirely sure what took so long, since providing ID, proof of funds and mortgage in principle didn't take us very long when we bought our house. And really the offer has been on the table for almost two weeks now. I do hope it is not a sign of things to come and our buyers will be a bit faster with the rest.
I got the solicitors involved yesterday. Same ones we used to buy the house and our new house. So hope that will speed things up.
Spent this evening filling out the forms including the very long property information form and the fixtures and fittings form.

@FigandHoney Thanks! We ended up having to raise our offer a tiny bit to 4% under asking. Not happy about it and not sure if they were bluffing saying they had lots of viewings scheduled but we liked the house enough to just accept it.

Regarding the memorandum of sale. I am very much on top of it and immediate provided all the documents when our offer was accepted. But the EA's online ID verification system keeps rejecting my passport, so that's been holding things up. Maybe your buyers are having similar troubles? Wish I could just go to the branch and show them old-school in person.

Our buyers have really outdone themselves. We were waiting to hear from them post their damp survey, which the surveyor had told DH threw up only a couple of minor issues. We have now seen that report and the quote to do the work is £3300. We would not quibble over that, even though I don't think half of it's necessary. But anyway. Today, buyers reduced their offer by £15000 based on supposedly "unforeseen expenses". The only thing cited apart from the small areas of damp is an eletrical unit that apparently doesn't meet current regs. EA reckons it could be replaced for a few hundred quid. So it's hard to know where they got this figure of £15k from, except that, oh, it gets them to the exact figure that they insisted was their best and final offer (and which we rejected). I think there's an attempt to save face going on here. It's worth saying that their next offer, which we accepted, was still more than 5% under the asking price. In their email to the EA, they referred to their "still very generous offer" which was "only slightly revised" 😂

It's frustrating as without this, or with a more reasonable request, we could be exchanging very soon. As it is, we are going to commission our own damp survey and come back with a counter offer allowing for the cost of works that need doing. Who knows where we will end up. I think they really still want to buy the house, but they are FTB's in rented and probably don't need to move as urgently as we do.

Oh @manateeandcake I'd let them go. But I'm spiteful and would happily forgo a grand or two in expenses to teach some self entitled FTBs not to screw other sellers around.