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?

@Stayingstrongish exactly. It just doesn't make sense

@InTheCludgie Apart from the time and money wasted that is exactly the most frustrating bit. If at least they told us what the real reason was (if it's to do with our house) than we could look into a solution. Or at least deal with it before we get another buyer

@FigandHoney That's so disappointing, what a nightmare. It definitely sounds as though they have another reason but they don't want to tell you the truth, instead they're just picking on a non-issue. I'm sure they'll live to regret it and they'll look back and kick themselves. I think a lot of buyers are spooked by the headlines and are assuming everything will suddenly drop 20%.

@thunderouslug as a buyer, I wouldn't be at all put off by that. I would continue and leave the boundary where it is, and just have it in mind that one day I may be asked to change it, but it certainly wouldn't put me off. I hope your buyers are reasonable!

@superdupernova have you heard back from the agent yet? I can't believe she's being so unresponsive and unhelpful - why on earth isn't she taking your offers seriously? Seems so odd for an agent. Maybe she's just rather useless!

No real update here, the viewers last night were a couple that have been looking for almost 18 months (!) and they've viewed dozens of properties. It felt like viewing houses was a hobby for them and they weren't actually serious buyers.

There was a guy who viewed that I really thought would offer, he spent ages looking around and asked so many questions. Clearly I'm VERY bad at reading people!

No offers, and no more viewings booked in. I'm keeping hopeful that interest will pick up as the weeks roll on, but really, the market feels incredibly cautious at the moment.

My purchase is going full steam ahead - just trying to hash out exchange and completion dates now. The vendor's asked for 6 weeks between exchange and completion but my solicitor (hugely trusted family friend) says the risk is too high and suggests a 2 week gap as maximum, which I know they won't like. I really want to keep them happy so I'm hoping there's a solution.

@FigandHoney That's awful -- totally agree they should just be upfront. Their reason for pulling out may be personal to them and nothing to do with your house. I hope you hear back from them quickly one way or another.

We have some good news, have actually exchanged and completing on Friday 😱

Congratulations @Peoniesandcats ! Best of luck with everything that needs doing between now and Friday.

Congratulations @Peoniesandcats

The useless agent came back today to say the seller would accept 5k more than we offered if we agreed today. Spoke to DH for ages while he dithered and eventually said he wanted to accept. I'm pretty happy or at least I will be. In my head I had drawn a line under it and started thinking of all the positives of the other one from the weekend. I don't think the agent is always so useless but they normally sell houses worth £1m+ and we're in an area where that money gets you something very impressive.

@superdupernova is good that you know where you’re going now! Hope it goes quickly and smoothly for you. Try not to think of the other one, I expect it would have had its downsides x

Yay @Peoniesandcats 😀 so good to hear another completion story!
My sale drags on. My buyers are ready to exchange but as well as waiting for a search, their buyer has raised more enquiries. I’m trying to stay positive that it will all go ahead eventually and telling myself that if their buyer is getting cold feet he wouldn’t be incurring more costs with his solicitor.
We moved out yesterday so the place is empty and I’m going back at the weekend to clean like crazy. We are now 250 miles away so I really don’t want to have to keep going back!

Thanks @Stayingstrongish ! I'll get over the other one easily. Both houses were very different but equally better than our current one. Now let's hope the agent deems our "little" purchase worthy of her time in amongst the mansions.

@Karmatime sorry yours is still dragging on. We had three rounds of enquiries when DH sold his flat before. It was a 6 year old flat on a new build estate. It really shouldn't have been complicated. It completed so quickly after the final enquiries that it took us by surprise. We were gearing ourselves up for a couple of more months.

Oh for goodness sake... we've failed before we've even started. The buyer has "realised" he has an early redemption charge and can't sell until next year... unless we want to pay his early redemption fees for him. My DH took the call and said it was the most pleasant conversation he's had with the agent. She seemed genuinely sorry and apologised for everyone's time being wasted. Had they known, it wouldn't have been marketed (it's been up for sale since August). DH obviously said that the seller can get stuffed, he's an experienced property owner and will have been well away of the early redemption fee. Onwards and upwards I suppose.

Oh no, @superdupernova - that’s so frustrating! Better to find out now than have it drag on even longer, I suppose. But certainly seems odd.

We are still waiting for our revised mortgage offer and I’m feeling very impatient. This is the only thing holding up exchange. It’s been a week now and it’s a small reduction in price.

So frustrating but DH bought beer and ordered us a takeaway to make himself feel better. I'm wondering how long I leave it before reminding DH of the other house. We have a buyer so I don't want to string them along. It might be worth a chat via our agents as I know he wants to buy now but plans to rent it out for a year or two before moving in himself. Maybe he'd welcome an extra few week to save while we see if more unique houses come up.

We have exchanged!!! Our revised mortgage offer came through yesterday at about 5.15pm and exchange happened this morning. It was quite surreal to come out of a work meeting, check my phone and realise that we are moving in just under two weeks 😬

Great news @manateeandcake
Happy moving!

Congratulations @manateeandcake ! That’s fantastic news.
Sadly another week has passed and we are further away from exchange. My buyer’s sale is delayed due to the need for a variation of the lease which I’m advised will probably take 2 or 3 weeks. Completion by the end of January is not looking likely and is a bit of a logistical nightmare as we have moved into rented already.
Does anyone have any experience of lease variations? I don’t know much detail as it’s further down the chain.

How's everything progressing with everyone?

No further progress for my house sale, still waiting for a buyer. Had a 10am viewing booked this morning but they didn't show up. So frustrating. Especially as I had to arrange things around it, grrr.

Good news though with our house purchase, have now set exchange and completion dates! Will move in 5 weeks. Feeling real now.

Congrats on successes and so sorry to hear about missed viewings and sellers backing out😔

This thread is helping me mentally prepare.

I have 2 weeks to go. Tradesmen in and then valuation is booked for 3rd Feb with a view of putting it on market asap after.
Looking at my January garden, I am very much tempted to put summer pictures in the house advert😂

Given away quite some stuff already. Few plants and wardrobe. But it's just dawning at me that while it's a happy occasion, it's really sad and I am getting into weird moods. We consider this our lucky house!

Has anyone experienced exchange and completion if seller is abroad? If this drags on, it won't really hinder anything if things can be signed virtually, but it might be a pain.

Congrats @manateeandcake !

@FTStheFirstTimeSeller I'd love it if a seller had a photo of the garden in bloom.

DH is slowly getting over our almost purchase. I'm trying to persuade him that the other house we saw would be perfect. It's more traditional than the one we wanted and in a town instead of the countryside. It has a long south facing garden so I can make the countryside come to him.

@superdupernova Sounds like the other house would be a great option. Can you maybe book in a second viewing to convince hubby?

@FTStheFirstTimeSeller It's luck of the drawer. Nothing to say your sale won't go super smoothly. Got to hope for the best

@RubyPip So frustrating and rude when people don't turn up to their viewings. Sorry about that

@Karmatime Fingers crossed it won't take too long. I have no clue about that stuff

@manateeandcake Congratulations!! Hope the move goes smooth.

So our house went back on to the market on Friday at lunch. Because it has been 7 weeks since the last sale was agreed, rightmove listed it as a new property. Although our sold sign is still up. Apparently it will take a few days for the signage contractor to change it.
We had a viewing on Saturday. And one today. With another booked in for Thursday.
No feedback from the Saturday viewing. Today's viewing apparently went well. He said he like the finishes. But his wife was sick and couldn't come. So they might book a second viewing. Well we will see. Trying to keep the house like a show home in the meantime. Not easy with DS.

@FigandHoney trying to keep on top of our house was the worst and we don't even have a toddler as an excuse! I hope you get an offer soon.

I persuaded the husband. He really did like this house but had mentally moved in to the other one. Honestly it would have been his dream house until we found his really dream house 🤣 We called to offer this morning. provided all of the documents and contact details for them to verify that we are genuine by lunchtime. Now we wait....

@superdupernova Yes. I hope it doesn't take too many viewings to get an offer this time. And I really hope we get a better buyer. 🤞🤞🤞🤞

Ah glad the husband is now happy. It can be difficult when you became obsessed with a property. Part of me still thinks about a house we lost out on. Eventhough everyone tells me the one we bought is better. And I know they are right. Something to do with mentally moving in somewhere

Looks like we're starting to get pressure from our vendor as their solicitor contacted to ours, wanting to know if we'd sold yet and if not, are we going to reduce etc etc.
I felt pretty down about it yesterday as we will just need to withdraw from the whole process if this falls through. However, we now have three viewers lined up for Saturday and they're all chain free so hoping something positive happens 🙏

@InTheCludgie Keeping my fingers crossed that one of the 3 viewers on Saturday snaps it up.

No feedback yet from the Saturday viewing. We have a viewing coming up on Thursday. And the man who viewed the house without his wife just booked another viewing I am guessing with his wife this time on Friday.
Certainly more activity in the first week then the first time we went to market. Hoping this is a good sign.

I'm mightily fed up and would appreciate advice. If you've been following my story, we're in a chain of 4. We are top of the chain. Everyone has been ready to exchange since December, with the exception of our buyer's mortgage offer. They had the valuation survey done 4th November, and if we believe what we've been told, the bank (Natwest) still hadn't given him his offer. Finally last week on Thursday , we were told Natwest had asked for one more bit of evidence from them (which they'd sent) and then the offer was imminent, as in, a few days.
I got a call from the estate agent this afternoon, thinking 'wow, his offer is finally in'. But what I was actually told was, 'your buyer has now applied for a different mortgage and they need another valuation survey'. The reasoning being that apparently a different mortgage provider would be quicker than Natwest (who was apparently imminently giving them the mortgage offer🤔). The estate agent has spoken to his mortgage broker who has said the new mortgage provider should get the offer out very quickly....but we've heard that before...

We are being taken for a ride aren't we? How can a different mortgage be quicker than the one they applied for and had a valuation survey done in November? It's almost February.

We've said that if he isn't in a position to exchange by 3rd Feb (next Friday) then we are putting our house back on the market.

I hate being lied to and being told half truths. What would you all do in this situation?

@nellyelloe Hmm. Difficult one.
Our mortgage did take aaaaaggggges to come through when we bought our new home. Or at least it felt like it. We were told that the banks were logged with so many remortgage requests, due to the imminent rate changes. But I don't think that really applies anymore.
I am kind of getting the feeling that your buyer is struggling to get a mortgage. Maybe. I have heard that banks have become much more strict with whom they give a mortgage too. Feels to me more like Natwest refused the mortgage application. And so they are looking for a different bank. But I could be completely wrong and reading into things. Maybe they have just had enough of nastiest. Or maybe they have seen a better deal, now that mortgage rates are coming down a bit.
Really difficult to tell.
But at the very least they should be honest with you. I hate it when people lie. You could put pressure on them to tell you the truth or you will need to drop the deal due to loss of faith.
Would such for the rest of the chain. But not your problem.
Except that you might lose your Solicitors fees and need to go through the whole process again. Which is really painful.