It’s ye olde buyers/sellers waiting room continued thread…

[ibelieveinmirrorballs]

The nail-biting wait continues….

Congratulations to those exchanging/ progressing!! Gives me hope.

The house I’m trying to buy has finally been taken off the market and viewings cancelled. I’m feeling quite numb not wanting to get excited so early on in the process. We are a chain of 2 so as long as nothing crops up I’m hoping the progress should be good. But you never know do you. I can’t even bring myself to start the declutter process in case I jinx it all. But I really need to start!!!

Some advice needed- do you think at this point it’s fair to go back to the final outstanding queries and say “don’t know” or “we can’t get an answer for that” and say to our buyers like, take it or leave it?

It’s a leasehold flat and their solicitor has just asked so many questions that it’s going to be impossible to get answers for from the freeholder, and honestly they’re so over zealous. We thought we were about to exchange and this has just come out of nowhere, our sellers are pissed off and frankly so are we.

I’m so annoyed that our buyers said everything was fine and they were good to go as far as they were concerned, but now because their solicitor has piped up after six weeks of silence they’re suddenly desperate for answers to this stuff. We have had a lot of back and forth on the lease, taken off several thousand pounds off the asking price due to various things that they’ve asked for, we have been more than fair and they’re jeopardising the entire chain.

I’m tempted to say take it or leave it as is, but is that cutting my nose off to spite my face?? I’m just so tired with it all!

@sweetpickle2 we’re in a similar position. Finding it incredibly hard not to just tell them to bugger off but then it’s us that suffers. They’re ftb and haven’t even handed in notice at their rental so feels like they have the least to lose. I don’t know what the answer is but just to say I relate. For now I’m just trying to hold on.

You can tell them to like it or lump it, if you think you could handle them actually pulling out. Part of the reason we haven’t is because I think most people don’t respond well to ultimatums, esp perhaps a ftb who has little to lose and no experience of what they’re screwing up? Dunno! It’s so tough! Are they even ftbs?

What does your solicitor advise, as a strategy?

Gonna speak to the solicitor today.

Some of the stuff on the list we can get info for, but some of it is just dreamland stuff (and honestly not important) or stuff we have already supplied answers for. Hoping we can maybe meet them halfway??

They are FTB, of course! They’re in rented but have to be out this month so have been pushing for Feb since the start- I’ve moved heaven and earth to get us here in Feb and now all this stuff will just take weeks more.

@sweetpickle2 as frustrating as it is it sounds like their solicitor could advise them these queries must be resolved before proceeding with the sale - I had one of these recently where I was trying to persuade my sol to forget about it but she wouldn’t let me. Such a nightmare that someone has sat in this for weeks without responding.

Really hope the solicitors agree they’re being ridiculous with some of these queries and you can get going!

@ibelieveinmirrorballs we had same thing. Assumed difficult buyers (they are) but a lot of it was on the advice of their solicitor. Nightmare.

@sweetpickle2 we had similar with FTB, got our EA to tell them politely "shit or get off the pot". It becomes ridiculous after a certain point and if they're going to flake you would be better knowing that sooner than later.

Jumping in excited! We listed Boxing Day and got zero viewings.. estate agent was confident to wait..! Have been keeping an eye on what's coming on even though we're not sold. One we really want has come on and then it had a price drop last week so it all feels a bit intense now.

Asked for a price drop on ours, and got new photos, that should go live this week.

I've been sitting with my phone working out the minimum we can accept, given moving costs and the immediate work the potential house needs (needs full renovation in due course)... Argh!

If we can get this one it would be amazing, yes it needs work but it has the extra space we need (well not "need" of course, but want!!).

Everything crossed!

The agents can be so useful because they don’t feel the emotion we feel when selling our properties and are just motivated to get a house sale to completion.

Hi @startingoveragainagain I’d second what @Twiglets1 said. Taking your own property off the market while someone else tries to sell theirs ties you in to a non-existent chain. It cuts you off from other proceedable buyers. I’d tell EA you are interested, but will wait til their own house is under offer before considering going any further.
its an exciting if bumpy week ahead for you @ibelieveinmirrorballs !!! I really hope it works out for you. If the EA does their job you could be gritting your teeth and selling to the original buyers (who tbh sound like they do not want to miss out on your house!!) best of luck with negotiations x
and yes @noodles44 i will be about 15 min walk to the sea!!! The woodland and riverside walks here are nice but I long for big skies and the sound of the waves 🌊!

I meant to respond @startingoveragainagain i agree with other posters. It also makes you not very attractive to sellers because although you’re under offer you’re not actually proceedable until your buyer is under offer. It could take months and that will not be enticing to whoever you’re going to want to convince to accept your offer.

Hello - thank you for all your replies. I've said to the agent that we should stay on the market, it's not a no, but we will talk when their's is sold.

Anyway, back to my maths issue ;) A house is on for 425, but needs work (I think it was probably a probate or someone going into a home sale), was put on in Nov (don't know for how much), but was reduced to 425 in Jan - what would be the lowest offer you'd put on - without being cheeky?

Trying to gauge if I need to lower my expectations of my next property even more...

@startingoveragainagain have you checked nearby sold prices and also costed (roughly) any works you would want to do?

Also, right move doesn't show price reduction amounts but zoopla does! Have found this very handy

@Mover2024 It's at the bottom of the market and there isn't much comparable, it would be the smallest / cheapest on the road. It would be perfectly liveable (I think) so would do any work over years and years so not too worried about that side of things.

It's not on Zoopla :/

@startingoveragainagain oh that makes sense re liveable.

From advice I've received (on here and in real life), any works that need to be done to make it liveable would need to be taken into account when making an offer but that doesn't appear to be the case here. Also, if there is a comparable property you can see what that's sold/marketed for and make a comparison in terms of costs to get the one you want to that standard. Annoying you can't do either in this case!

Hopefully someone with much more experience will be along to advise shortly

The condition of the property should have been taken into account when the EA valued it. Nevertheless, it’s proving a little hard to sell.

If you like it and think it’s worth it I would probably offer 400k.

Spoke to solicitor and we've agreed on a half and half approach- have answered most the questions to the best of our ability, but for anything we don't have an answer for (only 2 out of 10) have said as much and said that's all we'll be saying on the matter.

Nothing like being utterly broken with the whole experience to help you hold your nerve because part of you no longer gives a shit 😂

It's such a hard question to answer because it genuinely just depends.

We offered £390 then £400 on a house up for £435. It's been up for 4 months with no offers. I genuinely don't think the house is worth more than £400 so won't offer more. They've declined.

In contrast we have offered £305 on a house up for £300. As have 2 other people. Again our offer is likely to be rejected. But I've offered what I believe it's worth.

Peoples situations are different. Some will take a low offer if they want to move quickly or have had it on the market a while etc. others will hold out for what they think it's worth even though no buyer agrees.

I totally know how that feels 😆

Solidarity @ibelieveinmirrorballs !!

Hope those that have had hiccups are able to resolve them and move quickly

Just wondering what people on here are most scared about. (I'm assuming here that others are like here and in a permanent state of terror about the potential house move!) Is it the sale or the purchase. I'm feeling weirdly confident about my sale - feel like the buyers need my house more than I need to sell and I'm confident there's no unexpected issues that will arise. But I'm in total utter terror about the house I'm buying falling through, me being gazumped etc. I think it's because it's a dream house and no other house will do, there's so much hanging on the purchase. Anyone else super stressed about the purchase, or is it the sale for everyone else?