The all new buyers/sellers waiting room (continued x3) thread!

[fromtheshires]

As @movingtoplan has finally flown the nest, I have taken the torch and started a new thread as there are less than 80 replies remaining on the current thread before its 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: Previous Thread

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

My update is our onward purchase was completed months ago but due to buyers pulling out we had to start again with a buyer and they are just in the final stages of conveyancing and we are talking dates! I really hope I am not on the next thread.

I had a haunted house dream too, and in my dream we were in the local paper and then we couldn't sell the house on. Woke up feeling proper stressed 🤣

update
we’ve had an offer which we’ve accepted but the prospective buyer’s first language isn’t English so the agent is struggling to communicate a bit. The agent has said they will be requesting ID checks, bank statements, proof of deposit etc and will keep us updated. They will keep the house on the market and do viewings until they get these documents back and are satisfied they’re serious. Fingers crossed!

Couple who offered on our house then said they were going to view another house came back to EA on Monday and said they hated that house and could they come round again ( 3rd viewing) as they needed to check 2 things. Of course we agreed and they were booked for Tuesday late afternoon cue the usual extra tidying and cleaning. An hour before they were due they phoned EA and cancelled and said they'd changed their mind! I burst into tears. It's all so stressful. We've reduced our price by another £10k and have a viewing Saturday. Keeping everything crossed 🤞🤞

Commiserations to all with flaky viewers and buyers. Have to say our buyers have been super patient and only made one request which wasn’t costly. Our vendor’s solicitor is slow as though and he never chases him either! As you know 4 of 6 in the chain are ready to exchange 😩 but still no movement from the top 2.
Im going to have to ask my solicitor to change it again today though she won’t even read my email til Monday probably 🙄

Hi all, hope it’s okay to join the thread. We put our 3 bed semi on the market at the start of June and we just need more space with a toddler, two dogs and a both of us working from home. It went up at 220k, we had a trickle of about 6 viewings over a few weeks but no offer until we got a random phone call one Saturday asking if someone could view an hour later, blitzed the house manically (@ForSale2024 very much relate to how much of a pain this is) and they made an offer of 210 there and then which we negotiated up to 215 and then accepted.

Frustratingly that sale fell through on Monday, just as we started booking house viewings, with one I really love booked in on Friday. I was gutted as was sure the houses we like would go and we were back to square one, but have to say the agent were amazing, suggested we put it back up at 210 and it sold for 210 within 36 hours of the first sale falling through to a FTB with everything in place. So a whirlwind week but at least I’m back in the position I started at (just 5k poorer lol). My only worry is whether they will try and negotiate a lot off at the survey as it’s already a very good price and to be honest we can’t go much lower, but I did try to express that to the agent and she understood. It’s an old house so the survey will bring some stuff up, although we’ve looked after it.

@lingmerth sorry for all the messing about, it really is a rollercoaster isn’t it, as you’re in limbo until you know what’s going on and then get your hopes up. Hope your viewing goes well on Saturday and a few more roll in.

Update from me - I have another buyer for my house following the 2 viewings that I had last Friday. Solicitor has sent over a contract to the purchasing solicitors and I've sent all documents over to them, and they're just waiting for a sales pack from the management company for the garage that's leasehold.

I also got my mortgage offer through for my purchase today, so that's another step marked off!

@lingmerth so sorry to hear that, it does so often feel like your fate is in other people's hands throughout this process!! Hopefully your buyer is just around the corner.

I need to put all thoughts of actually moving house out of my mind for now - sketchy vendor has removed any chance of me feeling excited throughout the process - I'm not convinced we will ever complete. Or maybe he is just a weird guy, who knows!

A friend of mine told me she was so convinced that their house move wouldn't happen that she entered a state of shock when they finally got the keys... this will be me if we get there 😂. My focus for now is just decluttering and cleaning current home without trying to think of anything beyond....

Thanks @AliceinSlumberland and @Cheeseandcrackers40 for your messages. It's just consuming my life.
I was so blasé when we accepted an offer at the beginning of March and despite losing a house we wanted soon after never thought they would pull out in early June.
The market seems to have changed so much since the Spring. Less viewings and prices have dropped significantly where I live.
Our added pressure of relocating along with our daughter and her family and being childcare for our granddaughter means we're now looking at me moving with them for dgd nursery start and dd new job, and my husband staying in the house until it's sold.
At the very least I wish viewers were honest, didn't drag the process on, just yes or no then we all move on.
It's the hope that kills.
Anyway viewers on Saturday, bought some flowers to cheer up the garden and house. Just keep going!

Hi everyone . What a rollercoaster. No wonder moving is top five of stressful things!

My neighbour seems less than impressed her cars are in the photo for my house.

Viewing today went well. My marketing price is the lower end of their budget so I'm hoping for a decent offer. It has to be better than the one I got last week. They are coming for a second viewing tomorrow. I still don't think they'll buy it. I don't think they are being realistic or realise the fortune position they are in.

Congratulations to all those with new offers

We are now waiting for an amended contract from my vendors solicitors. I text her and she was straight on the phone to try and push it on. She is such a lovely accommodating person.

I've asked my solicitor for a completion statement so that I can start getting my money together as it will take 24 hours plus a visit to the bank to do a CHAPS transfer, then I can transfer it over to my solicitors.

If we want to complete by the 19th time is of the essence.

We're hoping to exchange end of this month, if not sooner, and complete end of August. But our buyer seems completely confused - it's as if he doesn't know what those phrases mean and his solicitor isn't advising him. I genuinely think he has no clue how the process works and is embarrassed to ask. We accepted his offer first week of May and by first week of June he was asking why we couldn't just let him move in. Because of this, I suspect he thinks this works like renting.

Estate agent trying to intervene but how would you actually go about explaining it all to someone? Apparently when they've tried, buyer gets hostile. So to me, this might be dead in the water but I am going to see what happens next week.

That sounds a bit mad? I mean yes it's a complicated process but a quick Google would tell him the steps required... all sounds a bit sus?

Our buyers are FTBs but totally on the ball, our vendor however is a total pain in the arse. In an ideal world we are also hoping to complete by end of August (offers in in nearly May...). I've concluded that the worst bit of buying/selling is dealing with mad buyers/vendors!! Good luck!x

Solicitor emailed tonight saying no news and they don’t speak to top solicitors, only the one above who said he’d chase the one above etc etc.
4/6 ready so it’s infuriating that the top can’t sort their issues quickly or at least communicate!!

Pre exchange walk around completed by me today as the seller has done lots to the property since we offered (the work was being done anyway so we let them continue). Very impressed with some of it and some other bits are a bit shoddy but we will work around it.

Phoned the solicitor late morning to see if an exchange date had been sorted yet only to be told the buyers solicitor had sent yet another enquiry this morning even though the whole process is done and everyone is ready to exchange according to my solicitor and estate agent 😡.

Aaaannddd we are back in business - did the right thing in waiting for our buyers to get a new buyer. Our onward is still available so just sorting out getting that back on track and then maybe this time we get more than 2 days into a complete chain before it all dies. Working to a deadline with starting new nursery so really hoping this chain works out (but its 3 instead of 6 so that already 50% better in my book).

Sorry to those still waiting and facing the tidying with kids in the house - part of our giving buyers time was so we wouldn't have to do more viewings ourselves as the clutter is well and truly back.

@fromtheshires it does make me wonder what these 'random' enquiries are....how many questions can you ask that are REALLY important?

Wish I understood it a bit more from a legal point of view,

Indeed. Having already had one buyer pull out on exchange day and the pettiness of demands / requests for money off from this buyer (I mean money off because they didn't like the paint in the ensuite or demanding we give them loads of furniture - fuck off!) I'm VERY wary of their actions and intentions as this enquiry must have come from the buyer if their solicitor is ready to exchange.

They seem to think it's a dick waving contest at every step. Little things like refusing to do any completion date but the one they wanted even though we explained that would mean us not having our stuff over the weekend until the following Monday due to the distance of the move taking 2 days and the removal company being booked that weekend so they would have to store all our stuff in their compound. Fine, we'll slum it then if they are that dead set. We booked the removals and then once confirmed we had booked it with the solicitors and the completion date proposed was good, the following day they decided that they could do a day earlier forcing us to have to re-book and mess about.

Husband says I'm massively overthinking it but I'm not so sure...

So today H broke the integrated dishwasher, so i've got to buy a new one. It really grates me buying anything for this place as I just want to leave. We had a pretty top spec one, but I suppose I can just replace it with a cheapy? or will i regret this as I could be here for ages?

What will annoy you more? An expensive one you leave behind or a cheaper one you manage with for a while?

@fromtheshires the bathroom paint argument is truly insane, what is wrong with people.

@startingoveragainagain I’d absolutely get a cheapy, to be honest I’d be tempted to just wash up for a few weeks. I sympathise, we had a patch of the roof repaired a couple of years ago and the wall has been perfectly dry since then, last week it’s started with a damp patch again. Could probably get away with drying it out with the dehumidifier but my conscience won’t let me so the roofer is back next week to fix it up. Hoping it won’t be too expensive.

Finding the pressure of choosing our next home quite a lot to manage. Can I ask, those with onward properties, did you know as soon as you went in? Have you compromised on anything?

We viewed a house today that was much better than I expected from the listing and could be perfect for us, it’s got lovely character features and a good layout, all done to a high standard, but the garden is quite overlooked and feels claustrophobic. If it wasn’t, we couldn’t afford that house, but I don’t know how much it’s going to bother me. We’re seeing a house tomorrow that’s newer, maybe 40 years old, and has absolutely no character or charm but a gorgeous garden and better layout inside. Potentially a better location too although both are great. Can see it being a choice between the practical choice and the pretty choice.

Hey @AliceinSlumberland I'm trying to sell my house at the moment and a couple of the people.viewing have turned it down because the garden is overlooked. What I would say is have you actually spent time in the garden? My house has another one behind which is the one that's "overlooking" us. When you look out of the upstairs window it does massively give that impression BUT when you're actually IN the garden it doesn't really feel like that at all. You realise that the house behind is actually further back than it seems and as we're on a hill and they're lower down it's actually reasonably private.
I've spoken to the agent and asked them to start showing people out to the garden BEFORE they go upstairs so they don't have the "overlooked" thing in their head (because it isn't really)
Could it be similar for you maybe?

@AliceinSlumberland because we're downsizing we have compromised a lot on size of rooms. But our non negotiables were downstairs toilet, 2 bedrooms that could fit a king size (at least) bed in and South facing garden.

We have lost a garage which is going to be hard, but do have a shed.

We are only overlooked by our semi-detached neighbour but in our old house we lived in a row of townhouses so we're quite overlooked. It never bothered us.

Everybody has different things that are important to the I suppose but I loved that house the minute I walked in.

I woke up at 3am panicking about transferring the money I have in 2 high interest accounts so that I can go to the bank and transfer it to my solicitor.

Then lay thinking of timescales and how to actually get to the bank next after work in order for them to do the transfer, as I have some appointments after school every night.

Hoping we get exchange and completion dates today 🤞

@AliceinSlumberland Being overlooked is a big thing for me personally but I know doesn't bother other people. I think you have to go by your own gut feeling, we discounted one which looked perfect on paper as could see other people's houses out of every single window... probably sounds daft to people but made me feel like I was in a goldfish bowl... our current house has lots of screening from trees.

There isnt a perfect house of course - the one we are trying to buy also has compromises - it has a north east facing garden (but is very long so will get sun at the back) and the kitchen is small and we will want to extend it.

I do think if this house falls through we probably won't proceed with the sale of our on house and will opt to stay put and do a loft conversion - there's nothing else coming on the market that we like more than our current house.