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

[MovingToPlan]

The previous thread is almost full! We've had lots of completions, exchanges, offers accepted, maddening conveyancing teams, strange requests, and worries to last a lifetime. Welcome welcome.

Catch up here: The all new buyers/sellers waiting room (continued) thread

My update is that everything seems to be lining up and we're looking at exchange next week. 🤞 Hoping to complete a few weeks after that.

Good luck to you, whatever stage you're at in the process.

If yours was over-valued, then you can't expect people to pay over the true value to assist your onward purchase. You can maybe negotiate some / all of any discount given to your buyers up the chain though.

@Udford It's frustrating isn't it the way it works in the U.K. Valuations and surveys should be done upfront so that offers can then be made accordingly. Otherwise it happens so far down the line which causes a lot of faff and stress.

As said the only other option is to negotiate what you've offered on the house to see if they will reduce it.

Yes definitely! It’s all backwards. It would be so much better to know upfront.

@Owlgirl14 this!

I really think that before selling everyone should pay for and get the EPC, a level 2 survey, all the searches and valuation so that when you sell it’s all there in a pack the buyer can see or pay to see. Then surely you’d be able to complete in 6 weeks!

packed another couple of boxes today because it makes me feel like I’m moving (likely another 8 weeks though 😩).

They tried this years ago and it fell flat on its arse and the reason why is to keep business profits up.

House falls through after survey and the surveyor gets another shot at surveying the house.

House falls through, solicitor can do the same work again for more money but recycle a lot of it.

Searches tend to only last for 3 months so if you didn't sell your house you would have to get more sorted at your cost.

The whole process is fucked.

Searches last 6 months. We are in the process of moving and the house we are buying has had 2 previous sales fall through. We were offered the previous buyers searches to buy but because they were done in January our solicitor advised that unless we completed by beginning of July they would expire and we'd have to purchase an indemnity policy.

I completed on Tuesday in a long distance move. Just wanting to report back as these posts gave me such hope when it felt it would never happen for me. Have moved back to seaside city I grew up in, and have so relished walks by the sea and early morning coffees there, in between unpacking boxes and trying to squeeze everything in.

Some tips, - do separate out stuff you will need over the first week or so, and put it in the car. We are still searching for the tv zappers and it would be so nice to watch a mindless film. I'd really recommend a logbook for the new home too, - had to get various workmen in for immediate stuff, and having somewhere to write down their details, what they said, timescales etc, has helped me keep track of jobs in a very confusing time. Good luck all.

You know things are bad when you’re relieved the weekend is over and the working week is starting as that means things can progress.

good luck to everyone exchanging/completing this week! May luck be on our side!

Literally our life right now! 😂😂😂 good luck!!

Sammmeee

Hello all - new to the thread. Just accepted an offer after almost a year on the market. Off to look at onward purchases over the next few weeks - our onward will be property #6 in the chain, so taking bets on how many times the whole thing is going to collapse. We'll be in for some drama I'm sure.

Good luck to all those exchanging imminently - I plan to go back and read at least the old thread plus this one

@redmapleleaves1 we are also moving long distance, 150 miles from our current home. How does it work with removals? Do they still unpack at the end of the day or is there a cut off point. Is it very much more expensive moving long distance.

Mine was within a couple of weeks - viewings booked in blocks and multiple offers in. That was the quick bit! Took absolutely ages from offer to completion 🙈

Good morning everyone. New week, hopefully new progress ahead for us all.

We've spent the weekend working on being zen about our Schrodinger's house move, and carried on packing up teen bedrooms etc, because either way we will be swapping some bedrooms around and redecorating. So the packing and decluttering isn't wasted.

We're intending to move 100 miles and have booked through AnyVan, they have some sort of system of bookings so you only ever pay one way. The quote was over 2k less than the other local firms we spoke to (we are downsizing from a giant end terrace) so it was a no brainer. Although my teens are wanting to pack up their own rooms, we've booked the whole pack and put beds together again service.

Let's get June started!

Worth getting quotes from destination movers and home town movers. I moved 180 miles, 4 hour drive.

We agreed it as a 3 day move, with 2 vans, (contents of a decluttered 3 bed house) and had asked the chain for at least a week and a half between exchange and completion, to make things easier.

Pack and load a lorry-full, all but the beds, the day before completion (which also gave time to clean the bits behind fridge etc the night before). (This bit only took half a day). Obviously a risk assuming everything will go ahead with completion, but thought it was worth it.

Day of completion, pack and load last bits up (only took an hour). Pick up load from Big Yellow which had been there to declutter. Final touch of cleaning (hour). Left in advance of completion. (Completion in our small chain with only one purchase below mine, wasn't till 4pm). Drive 4 hours. Completion en route. Pick up keys.

Removal company had got airbnb to stay overnight, but were keen to get on. So we moved in then 430pm - 730pm, including reassembling furniture. However I think it probably depends on their assessment of how well organised things are (eg had all the boxes from Big Yellow marked with which rooms), and how much stuff you have. They left me the choice and we could have done it in the following morning.

They then stayed overnight, drove back in morning. This cost £2850, with 2 to pack on day 1, and 4 to load and unpack on day 2. I got 4 quotes and this wasn't quite the cheapest, and there was a variation of £1000, with the ones from destination, who were relying on whatsapp video calls to assess load the more expensive.

Different companies suggested different ways of doing this move, with 2 day ones also suggested. Talk it though with the people doing the quotes, and I'd suggest go for the ones who seem most competent. It is really stressful.

My tips: mark all the boxes you pack with the room they are going into/contents. Put marked tape over the doorways so they are clear which room is which. Put asterisk on key boxes so you know to unpack them first.
Join facebook groups for new area in advance. Found this invaluable to get up to speed on live issues and as did searches on them for reliable tradespeople, and we needed several of them to sort out issues immediately after moving in (burglar alarm, etc).

Good luck.

We have got 22 days to go to completion, long period between exchange and completion at the request of the person at the end of the chain. We all wanted to exchange then we can plan. We're in rented so can move over the course of a week.
Went to visit the house we're buying to measure up (the vendor had sent an invite to our estate agents) we need to get new fridge freezer, washing machine and tumble drier plus a new bed and will have to get curtains. Have to work out delivery dates especially for the fridge, so many seem to be really quick but others are weeks.
I was initially disappointed as the rooms seemed smaller than I remmbered until I worked out it was because they are now piled up with stuff out of the loft and masses of boxes.
It was lovely to meet the seller, she said she was so pleased she was selling the house to people who would love it like she does. They have had numerous approaches from developers who want to turn it into flats.

Welcome to another week of waiting around for the majority of us and excitement for a few of you.

Our buyers surveyor is here today. Hopefully things will progress fairly quickly and they wont try and shirk us on a price. For some reason I'm super nervous.

@lingmerth - we are moving 250+ miles away. We are paying £2700 to move a four bed house over 2 days. They pack up on completion day and offload in your new house the following day.

There is a small transit vehicle they use for immediate items such as beds if you want, that we will need that night but we are going to camp it out on our blowups.

Searches came back Friday, survey being done today.... so after this we will pretty much just be waiting on the sellers to sort out their divorce paperwork. This whole process is absolutely infuriating.

Just had a phone-call from the surveyor. It seems as though our buyers are ordering every single survey possible. He recons he will be on site for at least 4 hours and wants me to unscrew every single drain on the premises so he can access them.

Madness. The house is only 9 years old.

Finally exchanged today! 10 days after I’d hope but that’s fine. Whoo hoo. Best wishes to all still waiting…

Congrats @Delphigirl

Congratulations @Delphigirl it's such a relief isn't it?

Yes particularly as I think I got it at a v good price (agreed end Feb) so I was worried he might pull out now the market has improved!!

Congratulations @Delphigirl it's a great feeling isn't it

Our completion is a distant memory.

We are a week in living with my parents, after breaking the chain of 3 and allowing my buyer to move in (who doesn't seem to have done so yet). He was living with his parents.

5 weeks in for our onward purchase. Searches are due back 18th June. Vendor is also keen to move, she has inherited a bungalow so neither of us need mortgages and just need all of the conveyancers to do their job asap.

Only weekend we can move in is the 12th July, the following weekend we go on holiday for 2 weeks. That will then take us to August 5th.

12th July will take it to 10 weeks since offer. It's a very simple purchase as far as I can see.Only issue is that it's a leasehold property which I've heard can take longer.

On a positive I have very healthy high interest bank accounts holding my money.