The all new buyers/sellers waiting room (continued) thread

[sweetpickle2]

New thread!

Good luck everyone!

we had the survey done yesterday, waiting for the full report but that could be up to 5 working days. Generally quite positive but he described the conservatory as “dilapidated” 😬and said it will cost us to dispose it, never mind replace. Going to wait for the full report but I’m hoping the seller will be open to a slight renegotiation. There were plenty of things we’d budgeted for, removing and replacing a conservatory wasn’t one of them, but I love the house.

Today was sadly not my day- apparently everyone's confirmed funds and that it will be tomorrow, but not sure I even care anymore! (I'm being flippant but my goodness you lose all excitement by the end don't you?!)

Sorry your ex is being difficult @ibelieveinmirrorballs- hope today went okay!

Yes @sweetpickle2 - whilst “transactionally” exchange is the crucial point we all work towards, it’s definitely not the point where one feels elation or excitement… it’s very weird.

Packers were here and gone within 4 hours. Feels very weird! They’ll be back at 8am 🤪

Fingers crossed for a pre-weekend exchange for those threadies close to the line!

@needahouseindurham this is us too, I came on and asked a similar question just over a week ago. I did ask my solicitor whether now was the time to start thinking about dates but they basically said to hold fire until the whole chain had completed enquiries etc.

Fast forward to yesterday and I get an email asking if we’re happy with an exchange date of next Monday and a completion date the following Monday. Sent us all into a spin as we haven’t really started packing yet. Apparently some pressure from the bottom of the chain who must complete by the end of March (it’s a local authority buying a property). So I’ve just been to the solicitors to pick up all the paperwork so we can get it signed overnight and back to them tomorrow just in case it does happen on Monday.

This is the part I’ve been dreading most, we don’t get any notice, we need to get organised but also it might not happen! 🤪

It seems like you’re a sitting duck for weeks then it’s all go?

I’m currently a sitting duck :( my mortgage seems to be taken an age to sort out via broker and answers to queries are with conveyancer (selling side). I just want to move !!!!

Does anyone know cheap box companies please? Can’t find anything on FB Marketplace

@IronNeonClasp I've been inundated with adverts for cardboard boxes/ removal packages on Facebook and Instagram.

Ah that's rubbish @sweetpickle2 I think you absolutely have to be dead inside before you get anywhere near exchanging. I've lost enthusiasm, but hopefully it will come back near completion day.

@newbeliever that's positive! Although stressful. I feel like it's worth packing even if it gets delayed. You can always take things back out and it's less stressful knowing you're organising yourself.

@IronNeonClasp we got boxes from amazon, worked out about £1ish a box. Removal company has provided additional boxes for free but would also sell us more at a reasonable rate. Have you tried gumtree also?

Evening all, bit of progress my side, our buyers solicitor have amended their enquiry regarding the searches to just one point which our solicitor is now looking into. Annoyed they sent us on a wild goose chase with the developer for nearly a week though! Hoping we get this resolved quickly and we can start discussing exchanging.

How responsive are your solicitors? Do you tend to get a response back within a day or two, or is it more like a week, or do you find you have to prompt to get a response at all? Our buyer sent their first lot of 11 enquiries on Monday, we sent back responses that day and asked our solicitor for advice on a few...and nothing. I nudged today, but nothing. Friday tomorrow so almost another week passes with little progress. Is this just normal because they're so busy? It's painfully slow. Sigh.

@Sc8880
I have emailed my solicitors (last week) to let them know my chain was back on after losing my buyer at the start of Feb. I have emailed again today with some info and questions. As yet, I have had nothing back! I don't think they tend to contact until they feel like they need to which is a little frustrating at times to say the least!

Our solicitors are great, always same day .. if not the solicitor her assistant will respond/acknowledge.

@noodles44 Glad to hear your chain is complete again! I hope you hear back soon, you must be eager for them to get cracking. I guess the solicitors are working through their caseloads based on urgency and priority, which means the cases pre-exchange take a back seat and move at a glacial pace. My seller's solicitor hasn't responded to my solicitor's initial enquiries at all yet, and she says she sent them weeks ago. Not sure how much I believe her though as I feel she often only moves things on after I request a catch up call...that's a surefire way of receiving an email update haha! I received the mortgage deed in the post this week, so that's something 😮‍💨

@Sc8880 , my solicitor is very responsive. She generally replies the same day, even if she doesn't yet have a full answer. I think solicitors vary enormously.

Gosh you're so lucky!!

Hope you don't mind me all jumping on to the thread - am following with interest as our house went on the market yesterday. 1 viewing so far and 3 more booked in. Is that about average? Not sure if I should expect more in the first few days...

Hello! I put mine on at a terrible time just before Christmas and had no viewings for the first week, and then one in early January. They returned for a second viewing a week later, and made an offer 3% under and we negitoiated 1% under asking in the end. Two and three beds are shifting quickly around me now, with larger 4+ beds struggling. Not sure how that translates to viewings. If it's priced correctly and it's presented nicely it should go quickly. I'd be more worried if I had more than a few viewings and no offers, as it would suggest the house isn't matching up in real life to what a prospective buyer is expecting from Rightmove.

Our solicitors can be slow. I'm an avid chaser though but it literally takes a week for an update and then another week for an update on the update. I'm climbing the walls!

@Sc8880 interesting that you mention 4 beds in your area are struggling, I've noticed that too. The smaller properties are moving but some of the 4 bed detached on our estate were up for sale before ours and still haven't sold. I regretted at one point only going for a 3 bed but now I'm thanking my lucky stars as went under offer after 2 weeks and one viewing.

@Sc8880 - funny you say that - we're a 4 bed on an estate - we might be here a while 😂. Our neighbours is a 5 bed and sold in 2 days, but we haven't seen the same frenzied excitement unfortunately.

She is lovely too. Feel very grateful to have found her. I got quotes from all the local firms, I wanted to use a firm I could visit should I need too. She was the fastest person to respond to my initial enquiry for pricing and I could just tell she was organised and ‘on it’. Some of the other firms I asked for quotes actually told me they were too busy to take the work on! Others were slow to respond or very impersonal, or asked me to fill out frustrating forms!

Thanks @ShittyGlitter I’ve just pinched your note about boxes from Amazon and ordered some ready for the weekend!

Oh for crying out loud.... I called my Sol this morning to get an update on whether both the sellers had signed contracts and we could get on with it. The message came from seller's Sol that the mother had signed but child hadn't as 'some outstanding enquiries, I will hopefully be able to come back to you shortly, but we are not quite in a position to discuss dates'.

WTAF! Bearing in mind I was getting regular requests for updates on my sale from their EA last November. So in over 12 weeks an enquiry hasn't been dealt with, despite having my head pecked about my sale and them knowing over a month ago we needed to talk dates. And we know the house they are buying is vacant and where it is and can think of no reason for any 'outstanding enquiries'.

There was always an under current that the mother would have happily stayed in the house but for her adult child (each owns third of it thanks to an unhelpful will). But not moving would have suited the child just fine.

And just to make things difficult I'm living temporarily at my DPs, my entire life is in a container and DPs house is sold STC and buyers just had the survey done on it. We could be out of here is a couple of months.

At least our sellers EA finally came back with a date and time to go to see our purchase and we should hopefully get some idea of what is going on. From there it'll be case of applying pressure to set a date, even if the child has to do something temporary.

Good luck today @ibelieveinmirrorballs
I hope it goes smoothly and you are excited to be there once (eventually) in..

@sweetpickle2 keeping everything crossed that you exchange asap today too...

Good luck to all hoping to exchange today, me being of them. All confirmed 15th for completion date just need to exchange but before that happens I won’t be getting my hopes up.

Not at all responsive. Initially my solicitor had an assistant who was really on the ball and responsive - but she's left and my sol is rubbish. Never contacts me until I message her and honestly I'm not sure how much progress has been made. She says she received the vendor's draft contracts on Monday and yet wasn't even sure if all our paperwork on instruction was ready. Despite us going over in person and handing it all to her assistant 3 weeks ago! When I do speak to her she doesn't inspire me with any confidence.

I feel stuck with her - we chose them because they were walking distance from us and also recommended by the agents of our purchase that fell through (and on lender's panel). But now that we are using a different agent on the new property, I'm a little worried she might be purposely slow. Can't imagine they'd be that petty though as the old agents agreed with our reason to pull out as did she.

When did people get visibility of their contracts and fittings/fixtures btw - how soon after the solicitor received them?

Waiting to complete here… arghh..!