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?

We are supposed to exchange tomorrow to meet our completion deadline of next Friday, and this evening our buyers decided that they want a specialist engineers report before we exchange. By some miracle I have managed to line up someone for tomorrow morning - but I doubt they’ll be able to issue a report same day or be willing to speak to our buyer over the phone. I couldn’t sleep at all last night and am totally at my wits end. 😓

@LionessesRules congratulations!!!

@bakeoffbakeon oh no why do people leave things so last minute? Let’s hope the repot can be accessed quickly to allow your exchange to go ahead as planned

I’ve posted on another thread but in short we still don’t have the transfer form that our solicitors need to move forwards. They have asked today whether we could complete on 21st which is their last day for completions before Christmas as long as the forms arrive in time. We could, our buyers would but think our vendor will say no

Congratulations @LionessesRules on completion!! Can I ask how long it took overall? Also looking forward to tge stamp duty return update.

@thunderouslug perhaps you should check with your buyer regarding the survey as you don't want to be held up further down the line.

@Allfurcoatandnoknickers wow that sounds fab. Fingers crossed for your viewings.

@LionessesRules yay congratulations.

@bakeoffbakeon hopefully it can all be done fast for you.

So we viewed a rental today but it needs so much work done on it. Our buyers are hoping to be in before Christmas but I just don't see how this is possible now and I'm so scared of the chain collapsing

@FigandHoney
Purchase took 4 months.
Sale took 8months - one buyer pulled out for stupid reasons after a month, next couldn't borrow enough. Took ages to get a third offer, but they completed in 4.5months. Would have been quicker if they had actually been competent! Didn't book a survey til 3 months in.....

We'd have lost the purchase if we hadn't had both houses for a bit. This (as in current home) is the only place that gives us the space and location we're were after, at a price we were prepared to pay, that has gone on the market in the past year..... worth it. But, boy, the stress and arguments and alcohol consumption!

@bakeoffbakeon aargh that’s stressful! My surveyor surprised me by sending me the report on the house I’m buying the same day he viewed it, so if you’ve booked an understanding one maybe could be possible?

Congratulations @LionessesRules !
@bakeoffbakeon i would be seething, well done for getting a surveyor so quickly. Our exchange was due to happen on a Friday and ended up being on the next Tuesday.

We are off to look at house number 11 since we started looking summer of last year.

Congratulations @LionessesRules !

I want to exchange 😭 <stamps foot>

I'd be happy with someone to just offer on my place atm! 😭

DH and I viewed another house on Tuesday, it's on a street which I've liked for a while. It's got an extension which has a family room (which would potentially be our bedroom) plus a second loo which is a real plus. It has a fantastic view over the city from the family room, is level access and has driveway space for two cars at the front. Bonus is it's about 50k cheaper than the house we withdrew from last week and is more modern inside.

Things i'm not so sure about - the garden slopes downwards at the back, which means the family room's french doors open out onto a raised decking about 8 feet high. There's loads of cellar space for storage underneath which DH is quite keen on but I'm a bit freaked out by as I'm not keen on cellars! The garden appears to be north facing so unsure where we stand with sunlight. It was getting dark when we viewed so impossible to tell and the EA did the viewing so she couldn't really answer that one.

We're going back on Monday morning for a second viewing and hoping to get a better swatch at the garden.

@bakeoffbakeon
Genuinely how are you coping mental health wise? We are in a very similar situation with an issue. We are due to exchange, but our buyers solicitor keeps kicking up a stink with a missing completion certificate for an extension which was done on our house 20 years ago, long before we moved here. It didn't even come up when we bought the house. The extension had all building regs done, but previous owners didn't get the very final sign off. Our solicitor has sorted out an indemnity policy, they've had a survey and even a letter from the council to say all is ok, but on Friday, rather than exchanging, their solicitor had asked for something else, another policy of some sort.
I literally feel like I'm slowly losing it - I've felt shaky ever since Friday. We are waiting to exchange before we can find somewhere to move to (moving to rented), so I literally feel like I'm in limbo and can't plan for anything. It's just awful. I just want Monday to be here and for them to have sorted it and agree a new exchange date

Gosh that sounds awful! Such a nightmare. Similarly our buyers’ solicitor kicked up a stink about the indemnity policy last week. Fingers crossed you have good news on Monday.

Friday was a max dash and we didn’t exchange, but fingers crossed for Monday morning. Mentally I am in tatters to be honest - no sleep and horrible anxiety plus not being able to focus on work because I have spent all week on the phone to multiple agents in the chain. This is the most stressful thing we have ever dealt with - very much first world problems, I know, but we are unlikely to be able to move at all for a few years unless we complete this week.

@InTheCludgie you have been through the wringer alright! The new house sounds,amazing to me, especially the cellar! How long is the garden, mine is long-ish and still gets lots of sun during the summer months.

@sellinghomeswithmn @FigandHoney

We've submitted the form to get stamp duty back.
You need an online stamp duty calculator (because HMRC want you to calculate the amount you should have paid, and hence the refund....), the name of your buyers, all the purchase dates and the reference number from your solicitor for the stamp duty payment for the additional home you bought.

It's a bit awkward, but not complicated. 35 days for a response. I'm assuming that's 7 working weeks. So nearly 2 months once Xmas bank holidays are factored in.

DH was the name on the stamp duty receipt, so we did it through his existing government gateway account. Not sure what happens if you don't already have one?

Thank you for the portal info, selling.

Thanks @LionessesRules . I have a gateway account ✅, we've received the code from our solicitor who did the conveyancing for the new house with purchase dates etc ✅

Not sure if it's the same for you but even though we completed in August the payment was processed by HMRC in October so I think we have to use the October date somewhere.

7 weeks isn't too bad. Not quite the 15 days I'd seen online 🤣. But at least we get it back!

Packing up the house with a baby is far from fun but the movers are coming on Tuesday, the charities the following day then I'll clean up for my buyer. Closing all the utilities st . So much admin. After being so stressed about getting past the exchange milestone I'm realising how sad I'm going to be to leave. So many amazing memories in these walls.

@JesusInTheCabbageVan it's hard to tell from the pics and because it was getting quite dark on the viewing, again hard to tell. Our own garden, which is also N facing but quite long, gets almost full sun for a good part of the day in summer but the garden in the house we like def isn't as long so it's tricky to gauge.

@bakeoffbakeon
It's so good to talk to someone who gets it. Same here, hardly sleeping etc. I so hope it works out for you this week. I'll let you know what tomorrow brings

@nellyelloe and @bakeoffbakeon Fingers crossed for imminent exchange and some relief from the horrible stress of it all. It's a truly awful process.

@InTheCludgie I hope the second viewing helps and you like the garden.

Thanks @manateeandcake it's a nice bright sunny day here (but -2 and very frosty) so great for a proper look outside. I don't mind if the garden only gets partial sun during the day but no sunlight at all seems a bit depressing tbh.

Apologies if I'm stating the obvious @InTheCludgie but have you looked at a satellite view on Google earth? It shows you the date it was taken (only on Google earth, not on Google maps last time I checked) so you get an idea of how sunny the garden is.

Hi no not obvious at all @superdupernova , I had a look on Google Earth and it appears the garden has sun in the summer after all. Not fully, but the top half does which is great.

We're now seriously considering offering. It's been on the market for a month, o/o 245k and HR of 255k. Debating going in at 265k. Bearing in mind we have the offers over system in Scotland I'm not sure if this is a bit cheeky or not. Anyone have any thoughts? I'd say 265k is what it's worth to us.

@InTheCludgie in England here so not fully sure on how the offers over works. Do you know if they’ve had many viewings or any other offers? Are you allowed to put a higher offer in if they refuse first offer?
I guess depends how much you love the house and what you think it’s worth to you.
good luck

@InTheCludgie I wouldn't say it's cheeky at all, they're probably realistically looking at 270k at that o/o so 265k is a totally reasonable starting point. I don't think people are expecting 20% over HR any more, we certainly didn't and accepted slightly under HR. I guess it depends on the area and house though, can your solicitor guide you a bit? Some of them are better than others.

@RM2013 you can put an offer in and seller can accept or reject. It can also be a starting point for negotiation, they might say if you offered 10k more you'd get it, or something like that. This is unless it's at a closing date. If it goes to closing date the agent accepts multiple offers by a deadline and then best offer wins (not necessarily most money), but you can't change your offer after that point. It's kind of like secret bids. All very stressful which is why we went for the new build, but closing dates aren't as common when the market's like this. There aren't enough prospective buyers to whip up competition.

But on the other hand, if your first offer is too cheeky you risk pissing the seller off and they can just refuse to consider any further offers from you. We sort of had one like this, we didn't say we'd refuse to consider another offer but she didn't seem realistic or sensible so we wouldn't have wanted her as a buyer. Too risky.