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?

@superdupernova I would dearly love to, but theirs was the only offer we had and the market in our area has fallen considerably in the two months and a bit since. If we went back on we would struggle to get the same and they know it.

Dcat often brings in mice from outside … wouldn’t it be a shame if one of them was left under the floorboards?

What idiots bid 15k above their supposed best and final? Removes any credibility they have.

@manateeandcake that is awful. How can they justify that offer? Sounds like you are doing the right thing getting your own survey done. What horrible people they are

@superdupernova glad the photos were all ok. Good luck.

@Doubleraspberry huge congratulations. Our longest was 10 months from offer to completion but that was during the pandemic.

@AverageJoan good luck.

@123deepbreath oh no I hope it gets sorted fast for you.

@sellinghomeswithmn wow congratulations. What a lovely early Christmas present.

@FigandHoney congratulations on agreeing a sale. We sold ours at 2% under asking offer and 9% under our June asking price.

@manateeandcake I would so want to let them go. It's frustrating but they are taking the absolute piss.

So over the pandemic we had to run two properties and two lots of household bills together. Long story but safe to say we used up most of the savings .

Cut to selling our house now and 4 weeks after the offer the chain is ready to exchange and they want to complete on Friday. Only problem is we can't finding a sodding rental

We went to view the first of our three shortlisted properties today. It's the most expensive but it has a huge garden that'a clearly been designed by a talented gardener with no expense spared (there are at least 5 mature acers). DH is less convinced than me. It's a bungalow and we're in our 30s so he'd rather a "proper" house. I've lived in New Zealand so a bungalow is a normal house to me. The owners have moved overseas so there's no chain.

We were supposed to view a second property tomorrow but they cancelled this morning. Apparently the sellers only want viewers who are proceedable. It's chain free so I wonder if they're renting elsewhere and trying to pay two sets of bills. Bit of a pain as was confirmed last Saturday and I said at the time that our house was going on the market that Monday. Still, it's more than we've heard from the third property- the agents are just stringing us along and keep saying they're waiting to hear back about a viewing.

We had 3 viewings on our house lined up for this weekend. Two cancelled at the last minute but are hoping to rearrange for next weekend. One came but we haven't had any feedback yet. Our cat decided to throw up in the hallway just before we left to view the bungalow so we had to quickly clean up and call the estate agent to warn him there might be a surprise when he got here 🤦🏼‍♀️ I really really hope there wasn't.

Fingers crossed you get an offer from your viewing, @superdupernova When we were having viewings I was really worried about the cats vomiting or bringing a mouse in. We also warned the estate agents to do a pre-check.

I really wish we could tell our buyers to do one, but we are moving for secondary schools, DD is in year 5 and our onward purchase is a good house in the right place at a price we can (just) afford, so I think we need to try and reach some agreement with them unfortunately. Without their shitty gazundering we could have exchanged before Christmas; I now think that's extremely unlikely. At least we will be enjoying Christmas in our nice house while they are stuck in their flat knowing they've held up the whole thing.

@superdupernova fingers crossed for a quick
offer. Our cat is a house cat until we move but for all the viewings I had to make sure she hadn't left a poop in the litter tray and spray the room it's in as she's stinky 

@manateeandcake I think people try it all the time. Hopefully you can come to a reasonable agreement. Like you said at least you get Christmas in your lovely new home and they won't have that luxury.

@superdupernova hope you get some feedback from your viewing soon. Fingers crossed you can get some more viewers and and get to view the properties you’ve short listed

@FigandHoney I'm so glad you got an offer you're happy with!

@BeauticianNotMagician81 oh we've had a right mate, the buyers solicitors are being a nightmare! Luckily our auction property we're happy to extend til Wednesday but the buyers want to exchange of complete on the same day but we want to exchange today to complete Wednesday as I have no trust in them!

@123deepbreath Fingers crossed you get to exchange today. I completely get wanting that peace of mind. Especially if your buyers have already shown they can't be trusted.

I am feeling really out of the loop where our end of the chain is up to. Our buyer sent some questions via the EA recently, which I promptly replied to but I haven't heard anything since. One of the questions was about boundaries because she seemed to think some of the neighbour's land is actually ours. Although I distinctly remember pointing this out to her during her second viewing and explaining that there is a right of way. I suffer from anxiety and this has been eating me up. I am ruminating and googling stories of chains collapsing. I will never ever move again after this sale/purchase.

@thunderouslug I completely agree! We're never moving again, the system in England is absolutely rubbish!

Our buyers solicitors have just stopped responding now so it doesn't look like we're exchanging today, I honestly just can not wait for this all to be over, Im in a complete state of anxiety!

I know what you mean about googling horror stories and just being so convinced it will be you that's chain collapses!

@thunderouslug i suffer from anxiety too and overthinking and seriously I have created every (bad) scenario in my head. This has been such a stressful situation I just want to be at the end of it all now

@123deepbreath did you get any response about exchange today? Hope you’ve had some good news

I sympathise with you all and imagine I'll be in the same position next summer. We're upsizing and planning on it being a long term home so hopefully we won't need to do this again for a long time! Our current house was the next step up from a flat but we always knew it wasn't forever (6 years so far).

We haven't had any feedback from our one viewing and haven't had confirmation of the two that needed to be rescheduled. The only saving grace is that the estate agent confirmed there was no surprise cat vomit or poo when they arrived

It's been over 3 weeks since we requested a viewing on our favourite property so I took matters into my own hands. The land registry had the name of the family business that owns it (it's a property on a farm they bought) so I found their details and contacted them by email last Thursday. Had a reply today to say my message had gone to their spam but if I still hadn't heard from the agents they'd be happy to arrange a viewing. I've gone back to say yes please! We've lost any bargaining power but their house was the one that made us finally put our own on the market and we can afford it. If it's as good as we hope, we'll go for it at the marketing price. The other house we saw was £35k more and the only real plus was the landscaping in the garden. I like the idea of starting a garden from scratch anyway.

Hi hope everyone is well and not stressing too much about selling, moving or whatever is going on with you at the moment!

We have pulled out of our purchase as our lender has finally come back with our mortgage offer and it's only 80% of what they had said they would lend us in the MIP. We had an idea it would be a bit lower due to all the interest rises and they upped the interest rate on our application a few weeks ago so not surprising really. Tbh we were having some creeping doubts about the property so I guess the decision has been made for us.

We still want to move so will keep the house on the market and hope for good news in the new year, and will keep looking at houses which are a bit cheaper.

I'm so sorry to hear that Cludgie I hope it all works out for you in the end.

We are going for day 4 attempting to exchange..... proposed completion 8 Dec. Thank fcuk we've already moved out! Will be a lovely Christmas pressent if we are down to one house!

On that note @sellinghomeswithmn have you got some stamp duty to reclaim from having 2 houses? Or was your journey different. If you are reclaiming stamp duty, and have got and hints or tips, they would be most appreciated. Think that's a job for next year tho!

8 months, 3 buyers and one purchase later, and we are, hopefully, reaching the end of our journey. It is possible!

Sorry to hear that @InTheCludgie I hope you find something you like soon. You've probably dodged a bullet if you started having doubts before you completed. I was wondering how the interest rates were affecting DiP. We think we've been conservative in our budget but there's a niggling worry the banks will pull the rug out from under us.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you @LionessesRules It all sounds so tedious.

@LionessesRules you are correct we do have SDLT to recover 🥳. We were planning on reclaiming via the government online portal on the day we complete. We don't have prior experience of this but hopefully it's refunded asap.

How are you planning on getting yours?

OMG. We've exchanged!! 4.55 today I got the call. We complete Thursday!

@sellinghomeswithmn ohh, a portal. I like the sound of this! Frankly we haven't investigated it further than it should be refundable! Step one when the proceeds clear for us is to pay off the last 5 months of credit cards and loans.

Congratulations @LionessesRules -it's such a weight off the mind right? Most of our completion proceeds will be going to our build/2nd fixes. The stamp duty refund to savings. I'll let you know how we get on with the portal. We complete on the 19th - right now I'm focused on organising movers and disposal companies.

Late to this thread. We’ve been trying to sell since the summer. On our 3rd buyer but I think now this is going to happen!! 🤞
My question to MN collective mind is how much below asking are you being offered?
There is a house we want but I understand that house prices are going to drop 10% next year. We really don’t want to overpay so trying to work out how much below asking to offer!

Well, that’s a prediction rather than a fact. I think you need to work out what you can afford and offer that. There’s no rule, and plenty of sellers won’t engage with a low offer. Have your buyers dropped their offer because of the possible fall in prices?

Some areas are less likely to fall than others. No one knows for sure what will happen. You can only buy in the current market so make sure you’re comfortable with what you’re offering to pay.

@LionessesRules Congratulations on exchanging. Must be such a relief! Good luck with completion day.

@InTheCludgie Sorry about having to drop out on your purchase. I guess if you weren't sure anymore then it was a good thing. Although it must be frustrating the bank changing the goal post on you.

@sellinghomeswithmn We will also need to reclaim stamp duty when / if we get our house sold. So intrigued about information on the process.

@Occasionallysunny On one hand a house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. On the other no one is obliged to accept an underasking price offer.
I agree with @Doubleraspberry that you need to offer according to the current market and not according to possible predictions in 6 months time. Unless you are willing to wait until then.
What is your local market currently like. Have a stalk on rightmove. Are properties staying for ages for sale / being reduced. How long has the place you are considering been on the market.
We ended up accepting an offer that was 6% under asking. 9% under what our neighbours sold their's for in July. However we did so begrudgingly.almost didn't accept. And only did so because we want this over and done with and don't need the proceeds to move.

@superdupernova It is so frustrating when people don't provide feedback. We had that a lot. Made me wonder if people were just having a nosy.
Good on you for taking things into your own hands though about viewing the house you like.

@LionessesRules Congratulations!! Every time someone on here exchanges, it feels like the arrival of a new baby on a pregnancy thread. Except I think I'd rather go through natural labour again than this drawn out torture 😫

@Occasionallysunny I agree with others, you have to pay the value of the house now, not what it might be in 6 months (just like you also don't have to pay what it would have been 6 months ago). We accepted an offer of nearly 6% under asking in September. Our buyers are currently trying to gazunder us just before exchange. Needless to say, I do NOT recommend doing this.

We have countered our buyers' gazunder attempt. They dropped their offer by 15k and we have agreed to reduce by 5k which more than covers their (ridiculous) damp proofing quote. Plus we have changed the electrical distribution board they were worried about at our own expense, and we have agreed to throw in all the white goods, which they insisted were included in their original offer but we had never agreed to. We asked our estate agent to pass this on yesterday afternoon, to communicate to them that this was our absolute final offer below which we would not be able to afford to move, and to try and talk some sense into them if necessary. Fingers crossed they accept in and we can just move on. If they don't, I am leaning towards saying no. I think they really want the house, and they won't want to lose their mortgage offer which they secured in September just in the nick of time before the shit hit the fan.

Some progress here but not all good news… We agreed a price reduction last Friday to meet our exchange deadline of this Friday. Our buyers have now raised a host of other enquiries about things we disclosed to them in the original paperwork three months ago! 😫I feel like our chances of getting there for Friday are reducing by the hour. Can’t sleep with the stress of it all either so I am cranky to boot!

Congratulations @LionessesRules . Apologies, I am a bit out of date as to what is happening on thread.

My cousin has had her probate application acknowledged and they don’t require more info at the moment. Won’t be likely to be through before near end of February. Personally I think the house should come off the market but don’t dare say that so keeping quiet. There are so many involved it is a bit tricky.

We are trying to go ahead without our share from that house as goodness knows when it will come and I would like to find something. Originally would have got a mortgage to tie us over but with costs as they are don’t want to go down that route.

What would people offer on a 360k house, been on since mid Oct. We have cash and can wait till they find something. I have 340k currently. I think it is fairly sensibly priced already.