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.

@Bootoagoose123 it’s nerve wracking isn’t it?! In a chain of six it’s been challenging as my solicitor would only communicate with the solicitor directly above or below so communication took forever to trickle down. We’ve been waiting since mid Feb (2nd from bottom in chain) and would have completed next week except a vendor ‘forgot’ they were on holiday 😡
Apparantly completion statements are being drafted and I’ve been told we aren’t ready to exchange just yet. 😬

@runningmom I don't think I've slept properly in months! After the absolute sickening feeling of it all falling through the first time round I don't think I've even allowed myself to believe it's actually going to happen this time. Like I don't think I'll actually believe it until we're holding the keys (if we get there, taking nothing for granted!) It was an absolute nightmare trying to find a summer completion date for 6!

@Bootoagoose123 i know how you feel. I’ve had terrible insomnia for months too. It’s such high stakes as I needed to complete start of holidays - though we are going to be three weeks in annoyingly. We’d hoped to be in weeks ago but lots of slow communication and weeks of no progress stalled it.
I’m selling with my soon to be ex husband and purchasing on my own with my children so it’s emotional (been in family home 18 years) and financially scary too.
We are nearly at the end. I’m packed pretty much and ready to go but feel like I’m wishing the next two weeks away as just want it to be the 9th!
Hope you exchange tmw. I’m guessing we won’t til next Friday now. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Well we managed to sell again, thank god. 5k less than the offer that fell through and 10k less than our original offer which is a bit gutting but at least our onward purchase won’t be affected. I just hope there’s no big concerns at survey as we have no room to negotiate further, and they’re getting such a bloody bargain anyway! If it falls through again we’ve agreed we’re going to take it off and stay put for a while as it’s just been so stressful.

Don't worry, I did! Although they have been caught out lying by us several times already!

@AliceinSlumberland congratulations on the sale. Whatever happens you know you have a desirable house and even if you do have to wait until next year (hope not) you know you can move quickly.

After a long chat with DH we gave our agent a counter offer to take to the people who live on our road and the chap who has sold his business £25k less than the current asking price, I don't think this'll make much difference, but it's a lot of money compared to the house i'm buying (but not compared to the value of ours) - you know it's really hard downsizing :/
The agent said the chap who viewed on Sat still hasn't sold his business, but they've viewed 10 houses and ours is the joint fav at the mo.

We are going to pull out from our purchase, and I was going to withdraw altogether, but our buyers are asking us to please keep looking. There is absolutely fuck all out there though. I can't tell if it's worse than normal, or whether everything is so expensive anything half decent is way out of budget, or if no one is putting their houses on the market cos of the current climate? We really love our house so don't want to settle for anything that ticks fewer boxes but is twice the price! Are you all finding similar in your areas? We don't want to live on an estate, or a busy road, and that seems to rule everything out around here now (semi-rural part of the NW).

Aaaargh we were supposed to be exchanging yesterday with everyone ready to go and now bottom of chain have raised a further enquiry. The rest of us have been ready to go for ages and they sold first! No idea how we'll get through another weekend of limbo.

Amazing news @AliceinSlumberland - third time lucky for you I hope!

@sugarbyebye I think things have stabilised price/mortgage wise now (thats what a surveyor told us), but its now just a crappy time of year with school holidays and vacations etc. Reckon there will be more of an influx of properties in September - so hopefully your buyers are willing to wait a bit!

Could it be worth you leafleting a few desirable roads (Kirsty&Phil style) to see if anyone was thinking of selling? or is that completely frowned upon nowadays ha! If I was a 'going to put the house on the market, just need to get it ready first' type of seller I would jump and someone just offering to buy without having to deal with all the viewings/estate agent hassle plus fees.

@TheEnglishSystemSucks thanks, yeah I guessed the school holidays are probably impacting things, lots of people on holiday. It does seem quiet around here. Good idea. I think we need to have a good walk around and see where we could tolerate living but my suspicion is our problem is us and the fact we both have strong opinions on this. My boyfriend has found houses he's interested in further away but I've got a really strong network of uni friends who live within walking distance and I'd prefer to stay within a couple of miles of them, which really limits things. My boyfriend is anti-social so he doesn't care if he sees no one, but I'd go mad if I was stuck talking to him day in day out, when we both work from home most of the time.

@Bootoagoose123 the longer it all goes on, it seems the more enquiries have time to rise up. The process needs an efficiency overhaul. Sorry for your another weekend of limbo.

@sugarbyebye definitely important to get the location right - almost everything else can be changed.

This is what my buyer did. It's so frustrating isn't it. Hopefully your solicitor will be able to answer it asap and you can exchange Monday / Tuesday. We ended up exchanging a full week later than planned but we got there in the end. So will you.

Glad to have found this thread. We submitted an offer yesterday as FTB’s however the estate agents have said the seller is in China so “very difficult to get a hold of”. It’s now been over 24 hours so feeling very impatient, especially with it soon being the weekend ☹️

Hi all, long time lurker not wanted to post as somehow felt it was tempting fate (3 sales fell through last year, final one being when I was 6 months pregnant so then couldn’t move). Managed to go under offer very quickly in mid May. We asked for a quick exchange and after a what seemed fairly slow responses we think all enquiries have been answered. EA have said other solicitor is sending a report to their buyers is this just standard collection of all info for them to review? Would it be standard for any serious issues to have discussed prior to this? Guess I’m trying to ask could they going to blind side us with something!

There is absolutely NOTHING coming on in our area, like absolutely nothing. The only houses at the ‘top’ of rightmove are reduced, not new sales. The houses that are being added are quite frankly bizarre, as in would feature in those weird ‘spotted on rigntmove’ blogs, or hoarder houses. This is part of the reason why we will take ours off the market if it falls through again, and why we over offered on our chosen house - there’s literally no alternative.

Oh lord.
Just found out from our solicitors that our purchase hasn't moved forward, at all, since out offer was accepted.

Vendor hasn't paid for id checks yet. Apparently there's some paperwork she's filled out incorrectly which means the searches we paid for, 5 weeks ago, haven't started.
.the solicitors did take some of the blame tbh but it's got me very very worried. There's no chain, just us buying the cottage. The vendor is moving in with friends so no onward purchase.
How has it got to nearly 8 weeks with nothing happening?

I called two weeks ago for an update about the fixtures and fittings form and they said it was with the solicitors, which isn't true, because it hasn't even been sent out yet!

What do I do? Apart from calling for updates every week I can't physically make the vendor fill in forms or pay solicitors.

This is grim, hope they come back to you soon!

EA have said other solicitor is sending a report to their buyers is this just standard collection of all info for them to review? Would it be standard for any serious issues to have discussed prior to this?

OMG @Dairymilk99 our estate agent said the same thing last week and I was thinking hang on, the buyer only reviews it NOW? Not when I sent everything in 8 weeks ago? No wonder enquiries get raised at the last minute. I wonder if this is a "thing", as you say? When I bought this house, albeit 30+ years ago, every time some information came in my solicitor sent it to me. He certainly didn't wait 2 months and then bundle it up to say have a look at this lot even though we are meant to exchange next week ....!!

I'm so sorry for all of you who are having difficulties. I can't help or advise but I'm offering good wishes.

I've just instructed conveyancers for the sale of mine. My friend is viewing the house I love for me for her opinion, which I think will be too small and tomorrow she's viewing one that is big enough but needs a lot of work. Plus what they want for it I would not pay.

The housing stock round here has a high majority of, frankly, over-priced shite! It's why we plumped for new build shared ownership in the end.

Our old rented house is in the above category. So many deluded sellers around.

Edit: congratulations on re-selling! 🎉

Oh my god guys, the new buyers pulled out 24 hours later as they’ve seen one with a bigger garden. Good luck to them, I hope it falls down.

Thankfully we had a second offer, she’s in a chain but it’s already exchanged and due to complete early next week. She matched the other offer, and we have mo
other option, so we’re on buyer four and I’m done for today.

I wouldn’t mind, literally none of the buyers have pulled out due to issues with our house - they’ve never even done a survey!!!

If we weren't splitting up I wouldn't be selling. We are having to pay a lot of money to get out of our mortgage and whoever buys it will be getting an absolute bargain as we have spent an absolute fortune on it. It seems that very few people have any incentive to move...

I have a work colleague whose house would be attractive to first time buyers but she ended up taking it off the market as she got fed up with lots of them loving it, but being very uncommital. We are at the other end of the market, and it's obvious we are (sort of) desperate to sell hence the silly offers, even the agent has told us not to accept them - I'm bored of it all - I just want to move arghh!

I know! I’ve been thinking anything that’s gone through with potential questions or issues would have been sent to the buyer over the last few weeks but apparently not! I do think when we last bought and a potential issue came up our solicitor brought it up with us during the sale rather than right at the end but I’m not entirely sure. I did email our solicitor and he said it was normal to send the report now… now got another weekend of anxiety and hoping this will as get resolved next week. Wishing you lots of luck and hoping for your exchange next week!

Okay thanks for the feedback on the market from you all. Sounds like it's the same dirge properties all over the place. Yeah I don't think anyone has confidence in current prices or the market and it's leading to so much second guessing, not helped by the fact it takes so long to get information through conveyancers, so the anxiety ramps up in the meantime. It's a mess!