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.

My mortgage has been referred to a senior underwriter and time frame is by eod Friday which seems long when the market is so slow right now

Good luck @MotherOfRatios , fingers crossed it’s straight forward.

In my head I'm like it would have been easier to refer to the senior in the first place. I'm using the helping hand so I'm lending 5.5x my salary with a 5% deposit so I understand why a senior needs to sign it off but it would have been easier to give to them straight away.

Helping my mum sell her house. How the hell do people cope with this process.

We've already had to pull out-of one sale as the we spent 6 months of the agent saying they're nearly ready to talk dates to then find out they hadn't even instructed solicitor. My elderly mother is struggling with the process.

Went back on market 2nd viewer offered over asking price, eager to move quickly yet 6 weeks down the line our agent are asking stupid questions (have you submitted your documents to the solicitor, already done on previous offer) then not responding. I can't use a phone so everything is being done by email, now they aren't responding. How the heck do you get things moving? It's a local agent with multiple branches.

This time last week I was saying here that its radio silence from our buyer so we were wondering whether to start getting tough. Now we hear both solicitors are ready to exchange but the buyer wants to change solicitors first! He's not appointed a new one yet. We were hoping for exchange on 31st this month and complete end of August, but if we say we will wait, I don't know how many weeks this change will add to the process?

This info had to be dragged out of them by the sales progressor over the last week or, it wasn't volunteered - buyer seems indignant that they're being asked what is going on.

We are nearly 3 months post offer being accepted, survey done, draft contract prepared. WWYD? Give them more time? I'm saying we need a confirmation that either buyers solicitor is still in place and ready to exchange, OR a new solicitor appointed and confirmed, by Friday.

Friend saying that's unreasonable, making me doubt myself. Apparently I am "frightening" the buyer (friend's words) and buyer told the estate agent that he was being "pressured". What do you think it's reasonable? It's a pretty crap time of year to go back on the market as well :(

Shall we try to cling on to this buyer at all costs or actually have we lost them already?

@runningmom yeah similar thing to me, yet again. Its madness. This morning my estate agent said would should have the Scottish system ....!!!

Hello everyone :-)

I suspect this is a "how long is a piece of string" question, but we sent all replies to buyers enquiries last week - no response on those yet. Is that normal? Does it take days or weeks to hear if they are happy with everything?

Would searches start before, during or after the enquiries?

We were hoping to complete by end of august/start of September - are we living in la-la land?

Of course (useless) solicitor is on holiday at the moment - classic..

TIA for any answers! x

@mummumumumumum - we sent in our replies etc about 6 weeks ago, then the buyer's solicitor said they were "looking into it". They've now asked the buyer if they have any further enquiries and buyer has not replied, but as you will see from my last post it's looking like not great news. However, in general, it should really only take a couple of weeks once you've sent your replies for the solicitors to decide if there are any more enquiries (thats what tends to hold things up). If someone is on holiday then it does cause issues, I don't understand why because when I'm on leave from work someone has to cover me, it's not rocket science. But "solicitor on holiday" is a dread announcement that I am sure many on here have seen!

@GoingDownLikeBHS in all honesty 3 months is actually really quick.for a sale to.go through, especially over thr summer period when a lot of people are going away.

Was there a reason given for changing solicitors at this late stage? Should be a case of just handing over docs but I wouldn't give a deadline yet- a week seems like a long time in your world but in reality making those phone calls etc if worling full time is really hard to fit in! You wouldn't want to lose your buyer in this market. I'd hang on for them to make their changes forna couple of weeks at least.

@mummumumumumum if everyone is happy with your enquiry answers I suspect you probably won't hear at all. But could be a couple of weeks if they have more enquires- this is totally normal.

Searches can be ordered at thr same time but these are dependent on whichever local authority you are in and time frames vary from 2 to 6 weeks.

An end of August exchange is unlikely ofnthisnisnthe stage you're at but not impossible!

August will be slow as it always is for conveyancing.

We started our sale process at the end of May and are working towards end of September exchange.

Good luck!

@CharlieBalf buyer said he's not happy with solicitors so he wants to change and not complete with them, but all the work is done - we are at the point of exchange, he just won't set any dates. I assume his solicitor will try to charge him but anyway, that's up to the buyer to deal with.

We accepted his offer at the very end of April/beg May, and wanted to complete last day of August; we accepted this buyer turning down another offer, on the basis that he could proceed quickly and we now have both solicitors ready to exchange.

If the buyer said he was still committed and was finding another solicitor (which should take a couple of days maybe?) then we would wait. When he is making no effort to get another solicitor then I'd say we have a problem. But I appreciate your vote for team hang on a bit longer :)

@GoingDownLikeBHS and @CharlieBalf thank you very much for these replies, really appreciate it :-)

We accepted offer in May so maybe end of September is more realistic. Tricky with new area nursery place that needs confirmation by end of august and 8 week notice period for current nursery as well as extortionate variable rate starting in two weeks - it all just feels so typical!

Good luck to you both - fingers crossed!!

I'm so sorry you're on this predicament! You never know what's happening on the other side and I would hate to have to go back on the market and go through the whole process again at this point!

I expect if he tries to dispute payment with his current solicitor, it will add weeks to the deal.

In the grand scheme of things May to August isn't that bad!

@mummumumumumum oh tell me.about it! We've jumped the gun on nursery place, we also have #3 arriving at the end of September and no idea if we'll be in or not :/

So received an email today from my estate agent that my solicitor is not working there any longer......
No one from the firm thought it useful to inform me......
Enquiries have been answered by sellers sollicitor and we do not have any additional queries. Hoping to complete in next 3 weeks but I feel thatI am being too hopeful. I am not even sure the sollicitor has checked the source of funds yet. What a mess!

Frustrated on behalf of everyone having a lousy time - the whole process is just so convoluted.
I’ve had confirmation that lender has released funds to solicitor so we’re hopefully all good to complete tomorrow. Everything crossed.
Lovely vendors are leaving me appliances and some furniture which is saving me a lot of immediate expenditure.

That's infuriating. It's as though they think buyers and sellers have all the time I the world.

Twice we've had the automated email response from the estate agent that the person you were emailing no longer works for us. It's annoying.

I'm going to have to go into the estate agents again tomorrow, the office is laid out in a way were as you open the door you get 9 sets of eyes on you and there's no privacy.

I certainly think you have to keep bothering them. I emailed my solicitors at least once a week.

I also think it's helped meeting the vendor and swapping numbers as she has helped to push this through from her end too.

Finally EA spoke to other EA and apparently final enquiries from top of chain sent for solicitor below to review which he hope he does NOW 😜 so we can talk dates as the other 4/5 of us are ready to go!!
But I suspect it will be a case of another few days of no news. Infuriating that 4 of us had agreed on this Friday to move and now we are all possibly weeks away 😩
@mummumumumumum depends on your chain and a million factors. I sold in February and hoping to complete before end of July but that’s looking dodgy now.

Sold in February?! 😱😱😱

Omg @GoingDownLikeBHS why would anyone be bothered to change solicitors at this late stage?? Surely you’d just get the job done and not use them again if they were rubbish??

I sent a load of info over to the estate agent of our vendor yesterday and also asked if we could have another viewing as we were only able to see it once before offer was accepted due to the level of interest, I only want to show my mum the house but the estate agent has replied to my email and ignored that question, so awkward. I’ll be asking again as I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have two viewings.

We’re only just at the start of the process and I just really want to be in by Christmas but seeing as we have to wait for our vendor to find somewhere and god knows how long the chain will end up,‘I’m not feeling optimistic. Everything crossed that they choose an empty house!!

@GoingDownLikeBHS no idea why they would change sollicitor now. We are at the end of the process and although my solicitor is hopeless I have resolved myself to have to chase twice a week to ensure progress. Although it does worry me in case they oversee an important detail amd put the sale at risk. Wish I chose a local sollicitor now...

I'm really stressed about our garden. It's so over grown, I'm sure it's going to put the people off on Saturday, or at least they are unlikely to offer full asking price :/

I wouldn't worry too much about the garden, in my inexperienced opinion, anyone looking now knows it's going to be end of garden season by the time they actually move in and so can think of the garden as next year's project.

@runningmom oh I really hope it all gets sorted. You are SO close now!

K@BG2015 thanks. We are close to finishing line but it could be a week if everyone worked hard with urgency or weeks and weeks. That’s the hard thing to cope with: the not knowing. I break up for holidays tomorrow (teacher) and given this house needs months of decorating and DIY (eg new flooring), I’d hoped to use the summer but every week that goes by, the less time I have to make it liveable for me and my children 😩

Good luck today everyone x