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

[sweetpickle2]

New thread!

@GoldieLookingBoots we completed on a Friday - I think it’s fine as long as you’re in a short chain. We were completed and in by 1pm, and then yes had the rest of the weekend to unpack. I had packers in on the Thursday for a few hours and partial loading, then arriving 8am on Friday morning to start the final loading. Cleaners arrived at 9am and followed in the wake of the packers. It was tight!

Packing up to move … depends how big the house and how much you’re taking.
We started decluttering and giving away big furniture (beds, wardrobes, sofa etc as kids had moved out and we were downsizing) about a month before.
then we packed up a bit over the next 2 weeks.
packers came and did the rest 3 days before the actual move (awkward as our exchange hadn’t happened as expected! Some strange dinners and living out of a hold-all 😂)
we took 2 days off work for our move and wish it could’ve been more. One for the actual moving day and cleaning the old house. Then the next day unpacking enough things to live at the new house.
we moved on a Wednesday, so by Friday we were back at work, but then had the weekend to properly settle in.
hth

When will you start asking up the chain about breaking it to keep it intact? Surely somebody involved may be willing to rent to keep it together?

So maybe our wait is over.
We agreed to exchange today and completion on Tuesday. The vendor flatly refused to allow a retention to ensure the house was cleared - full to the brim with junk still just a few weeks ago. So they offered to allow a visit to approve progress which happens this morning. Lord knows what we'll do if it's still a tip. Though to be fair there has been activity that suggests they have done something - it's only round the corner from DPs. No doubt the feckless adult child has been no help at all.
Can't get myself excited just yet but hopefully later. It's been so long - offer accepted in September I don't feel like a brass band and bunting type celebration.

@NoWordForFluffy
Apparantky, the EA was going to ask the question about breaking the chain but sometimes feel like they tell you what you want to hear…. As no news back. I mean top of chain offered last Friday surely a yes or no as to whether it was accepted shouldn’t take a week to communicate?! I feel like asking for the top chain EAs number to ring myself!!!!

For those selling a property as well as buying how often do you get updates regarding your buyer. Do I need to ask the estate agents for that? Its been over 2 weeks since we sent their solicitor the property forms and draft contract and not heard anything. We don't know if she's started the searches or applied for her mortgage or anything and no queries so far. Or should I not expect to be kept informed of that unless there is a problem? Never sold before so I am not wanting to be a hassle but also wasn't sure what's normal! We are about to fork out for our survey next week so kind of want to know she is invested too!

Our EA has a dedicated progression person who has the job of chasing all purchases. I would speak to them if your EA has one as I'm sure they will be after their money and be all over it. They will also be able to contact your buyer re mortgage application updates etc.

As a seller if you have returned your property form and signed the draft contract then thats all you can do for now. If the buyer is getting a survey then they will organise through the EA.

Thank you! Yes there is someone who emailed me saying that was their job at the start however she hasn't been in touch either. I will ask for an update from her then!

Urgh we are no further to exchanging. There has been a date agreed on, but now there are more enquiries coming out the wood work so who knows if it will actually happen!

Honestly England needs a better house buying system, it is a never ending cycle of frustration!

We have 3 booked in to view tomorrow, q excited to be viewing again! Have already heard from surveyor of our buyer so they are getting things moving pretty quickly.

I’m in complete agreement with those who said there needs to be a better system!
My solicitor has asked my permission to start searches on my purchase as draft contract through. I’ve said if they advise to do do then yes but that chain is not complete. My buyer has started searches and we’ve had enquiries. Only thing we both need to arrange is survey but not sure I’ll order til my buyer does so snd chdin is complete.
My hope is that if everyone else is ready then that last link is all we are all waiting on!
please tell me a positive long chain anecdote!

I'm going in to sign the contract for my purchase on Tuesday. Still waiting for a mining report that is needed for my sale; then, my solicitor said we should be able to talk dates for exchange and completion.

She also said this in her email:

I am aware that the date your mortgage offer is due to expire for your purchase, but I remain hopeful that as soon as we can get the mining issue sorted, we can proceed.

I read this as she thinks we will be able to proceed before my offer expires? My mortgage offer expires on 23rd April; surely they won't be able to turn it around that quickly?!

@toni1602 , yes it sounds like your solicitor thinks things can get sorted quickly - fingers crossed!

I am supposed to be exchanging contracts on Monday, but my solicitor's request for an update yesterday went unanswered. I have a property alert on my house so I know that searches were carried out yesterday on behalf of a mortgage company, which seems incredibly late in the day, although I know that the deposit funds are already in place (the mortgage is funding a small portion of the purchase only). We are due to complete the week after next.

Meanwhile I have finally moved into my new home, a long renovation project which very nearly broke me, but it's lovely here so even though things are still fraught with the sale of the house, I feel a lot calmer.

@toni1602 its amazing how quickly solicitors can move when they want to. It probably doesn't help that to them it's a job but to us it's a huge emotional time with huge stakes involved.

For me theres a bit of an update and we are almost ready to exchange! Just one outstanding query on the purchase and we can then talk dates. We have been boxing stuff up over the last couple of weeks so now it's just the kitchen, bedroom and the nitty bitty stuff to box.

I have been to view the property I'm buying again today. The vendor is living with her DP so has moved a lot of furniture out now.

We spotted 2 areas of damp which look quite bad. The survey did pick up low level damp issues but it's an old 1950's semi so we expected that to an extent. But one area is wet to the touch and is above the front bay window sill.

Plus the front door lock is very dodgy, it took 3 of us to get it open. Even the EA struggled.

I need to raise this don't I with my solicitor?

Be careful raising issues with the solicitor if buying with a mortgage. They have to act in the interests of the lender too and raising issues may result in retention of funds or not getting a mortgage on the property.

If you want to negotiate on price go through the estate agent. All the solicitors will need to know is a price reduction.

I'm a cash buyer on sale on my property so don't need a mortgage.

So would you suggest I raise the issues with the EA still?

its a good idea to raise it with the EA, they can try to negotiate a price reduction if you have quotes to rectify the issues. An alternative would be to let your solicitor know that yje vendor is going to sort it out and the contact should reflect this, there would need to be proof of them doing it too.

Thank you all.

I will email the EA with some photos I took and ask the vendor to investigate further.

@UtterlyQuackers Do we ever need a better system.
I was supposed to exchange on Friday following a quick visit to my purchase to see how they were getting on with clearing it. The mother was in a total panic and look about to melt into a puddle of goo. She'd had a call from her solicitor saying my solicitor wasn't in the office today so we couldn't exchange. As my solicitor is a friend I cast doubt on this - he'd have said when I spoke to him the day before. 'I'm not lying!!' she almost screamed. I suggested crossed wires and called him. Sure enough it was the solicitors handling the sale of the house she's buying and they're on annual leave. Which doesn't explain why they'd agreed to exchange knowing they'd be off.... So Monday exchange, Tuesday completion. I'll believe it when it happens.

I'm not holding my breath on exchanging next week.

Fingers crossed for you @Laughingravy it's all so cloak and dagger isn't it? We've just had another indemnity policy being asked for. It's not been mentioned before now.

Hopefully next week is the week!

Good luck to everyone this week! Hopefully we will all be a step closer to exchanging^^ or completing.

How are people handling moving money to their solicitor? I don't remember how this worked last time I bought as it was a long time ago. My bank has a limit of 25k a day so it looks like I'm going to have to do multiple transfers over several days before exchange. Does that sound normal?!

For some reason this dropped off my watched list but I offered on a property in Woolwich on Friday. Can't work out if the estate agent is lying as they seem to do this a lot in London so they say that they've had multiple offers on the table and they haven't. But the estate agent come back today and said they're's mine and another one and would I be willing to go any higher I said no, I did offer to buy a search pack so that the transaction was quick and easier the estate come back rather rude and was like it's a divorce. The money is more important. But at the end of the day, would you rather have a sale then just the property on the market?

Sometimes I don't think estate agents help sellers at being realistic with their advice.

Is that only online or generally? You might get a bigger transfer in branch (if such a thing exists near you!).