The all new buyers/sellers waiting room (x 6!) thread

[Champere]

Welcome across everyone!

We’ve got six nights until we move and the insomnia has set in!

It’s taken us three threads to move and I hope this thread is the one I graduate on….

Best of luck to everyone! May your agents be truthful, your conveyancers responsive, your lenders generous and your chain reasonable!!

Thank god someone has completed! congrats @Muddledandmiddle!

Guys I need a steer on this. Our buyers' survey has come back and it's 66 pages of pure fiction. Says things like there is no extractor fan in bathroom - there are 2; the neighbours have rights over the shared chimney - we don't have a shared chimney, "there is no sign of Japanese Knotweed but that doesn't mean there isn't any, so would need a specialist survey", there is no sign of asbestos but there might be some, and so on... the worst part is where they say that the walls "might collapse if there is subsidence, although there is no sign of it yet". Saying that the buyers need to be aware that the roof may need replacing at some point and suggesting that the buyers have builders in to assess all of this before going any further (just examples, there is a LOT more).

So even by the "surveyors always find something" standards it's pretty damning, if you read it and believed it I am not sure you'd want to buy it at any price! But we know the majority of it is simply not true. It's as if the surveyor wanted to make it true just by saying it? I know we have no redress at all.

WWYD? Roll over now? Or point out all the errors and try to negotiate a bit more? So as not to drip feed, the surveyor has also down valued the property so even without all the wacky "mistakes" in the report I would have thought that figure would drive the bottom line regardless. Edited to say they have allowed us to see it - does that seem odd? I mean a good thing probably?

Congratulations @Muddledandmiddle !

Have they asked for any money off @IWillAlwaysBeinaClubWithYouin1973 ? Where does it stop? Everything is a future risk or has potential to go wrong, is there actually anything causing issues right now?

@IWillAlwaysBeinaClubWithYouin1973 have you got the right survey? Saying there's no fan when there's two, etc

That's amazing news. Congratulations! Time for fish and chips with champagne 😍.

Can I ask a quick question - how much notice have people had before they exchange? I'm hoping to this week but haven't been officially told by my solicitor - though I know the chain is ready and wants to complete on 12th!

I'm doing it on my own too, went on the market at the beggining of November had 8 viewings over 10 days and got a sale with an offer I was happy with, not much around here to move into that I liked, in areas I like etc, but I found a little place which is literally over the road from my elderly Mother which was perfect and ready to move into with no work to be done. Solicitors sorted, surveys all booked and then on a Friday evening at 5:30pm a week later my buyers pulled out! I was devastated. I'd been in a bidding war on my onward purchase and offered a bit more than I probably should to get the buyers to agree to sell to me. We had a chain of 4. On the Monday I let the sellers estate agent know and they said that they would go back to the other bidders, i was fully expectant to be back on the market for a long time given it was coming into Christmas, however my Estate agents pulled it out of the bag, secured another 5 viewings in three days and by the Weds afternoon i'd accepted an offer from some cash buyers!! I managed to get the sellers to take me back on as a buyer and my chain is now made up of 3. Such a rollercoster. All solicitors instructed, i've had a survey, there are a few things that have been flagged but nothing that is going to stop me from progressing, The Survey on my house is booked for the 10th Dec i'm nervous as I didn't have one done when I first moved in here, god knows what they will find, I can't really afford to knock anything off the price i've been offered.

@IWillAlwaysBeinaClubWithYouin1973
God, I feel your pain! Mine was equally brutal nonsense - including a lovely photo of the surveyor and his moisture meter showing how bone dry the loft was while simultaneously claiming the foil insulation I stapled to the rafters 17 years ago should be removed at a cost of £2k in case it caused condensation. Even the estate agent commented how unusually evil the surveyor had been.

My buyers asked for £10k off on the strength of such nonsense. My approach was anything graded orange or green was not in any way valid for a price reduction. Anything red was a bit more fair game - but I then went through that and ruled what was just silly (ie: mains operated carbon monoxide alarms are not an essential cost). I was left with a handful of things which were fair comment - although a normal person would have just let it go. Surveyor had costs of several thousand as an estimate to fix them. For unrelated reasons we have a very extended process, so I offered to get all of the important issues fixed rather than giving money off - which made sense in the circumstances.

I went through the survey very thoroughly and refuted everything on the red and orange list - so where it was wrong, i said so, where it was silly I pointed out how much an alarm would cost at Screwfix etc. and sent that back with a firm no to the price reduction. We still had a bit of a fight over the asbestos survey, but in the end all was OK. You don't have any chance to answer back to the surveyor, but you can definitely put your side of the story to the buyers - provide pictures of the disputed extractor fans for instance. Being allowed to see the survey really gives you a chance to answer back on everything and show you are basing your arguments on facts.

However, the downvaluation is a bit tough to fight. Is it majorly under? Is there any key thing identified in the survey that would be the cause of that?

I conclude surveyors are damn well making sure all their boxes are ticked in case you try to sue them these days!! So if you ignore anything- it's down to you
Same with solicitors!

I think we are being expected to exchange in less than 3 weeks time once a fire risk assessment has been done which could easily take a week or two to arrange and get back. So presumably an exchange date can be agreed pretty quickly.

I'm worried about when we come to sell what the survey will say. It's a big old listed house and they never do well in surveys! When we bought, the survey we got was as thick as a bible and made it sound like it was about to crumble around us, despite having stood for 500 years. We're pragmatic and it didn't concern us too much so we just have to hope we find similar buyers.

Surveys make all houses sound like the are in immediate danger of collapse or burning down.

3 weeks since we had our offer accepted, we have had the survey done, got the results back, mortgage agreed...but not kicked off the surveys as the sellers have not yet given their solicitors any ID, haven't filled in any of the paperwork, no questionnaires, nothing so ours just has to wait until they are ready. So much for being in a hurry!

Ours had literally noting in it. Level 3 survey, one line on each section, hardly any information at all. But said they didn't think it would fall down, and its quite a modern build.

@Hoolahoophop for our onward purchase they couldn't find anything either, just a couple of health and safety points rather than actual issues. They said we had got an excellent deal on the property which was very positive!

So we have reserved our new build and instructed solicitors for our sale and purchase, mortgage application in, our solicitor sent contracts pack to our buyers and they said they had only given a quote not actually been instructed by their client! There is a language barrier so I think this is going to cause us a lot of delays. We have 42 days to exchange deadline from the developer so I feel so tense especially as Xmas in the middle of all this!

So we put our property on the market last Monday got 8 viewings on Saturday and one offer for 380k the house is listed at 400
We have 3 more viewings today . We said 390 would be the lowest we would accept as we bought it for 300 in 2016 and spend 50k on an extension to it .
A house next street was sold for 400 without an extension and very dated . So we believe is a reasonable price .
Would you hold on until after xmas for more viewings offers ?

Not necessarily if you get an offer your happy with I'd say accept it and if you don't get an offer your happy with then hang fire to after Christmas for more viewings

I think my big enquiries are all done now. And I've asked solicitor when I can exchange... waiting in a reply!! Fingers crossed!!

@movingtoreading I would hold off - if you are getting viewings you are in the right ballpark

I'd definitely hold on. Not a great deal will happen sales wise in the next two and a bit weeks so you've not got a huge amount to lose in not accepting now.

Would you take the property off the market and put it on again after feb ? So it doesn't look like is sotting there since November ? I am fearful people will say is there for long and offer leas

I would check that all your viewers are proceedable. It's not unusual for the agent to get a stack of viewings booked in during the first 2 weeks and for it then to go really quiet. We found that so many of our viewers were not proceedable but were only given this info after the viewing as part of the feedback. There were people viewing who didn't even have their own property on the market yet. I know viewers can become proceedable but it's not such a speedy market right now and that can take time, by which point they will have seen a ton of other properties that might suit their needs better.

I flag this really because quality of viewer counts as much as quantity. Having said that, I'd hang fire until after the viewings you've already got lined up. However, I'm not sure I'd wait into January. Also, find out more about the people making the offer - are they cash buyers, do they have their finances in place, how motivated are they to move quickly? Being in a chain right now, I realise that having motivated buyers with strong finances is really key to getting a chain over the line. Having a buyer who is living hand to mouth and clueless about the purchase process is a surefire way to having things drag on for months.

Thanks all. It’s been a long night.

I wish you all so much luck and thank you for being a place to put myself when it was stressful.

@Gekko21 all or viewers were first time buyers what more can we ask ? That they have agreement in principle ? Is a 3 bed semi i think is mostly for first time buyers

Yes, check they have a MiP in place before progressing any offer discussions. Check if they are a cash buyer - even FTBs can be sometimes if they've inherited for example. Check what their current living situation is - are they in rented and if so, when is their lease up? That can be a great motivator if they know they'll have to be out of their rental in 6 months time or it'll cost them more. The FTB at the bottom of our chain is living with parents and we suspect has less impetus to get this over the line quickly.

Also, you might be getting loads of viewers right now due to the impending stamp duty changes for FTBs. That could dry up after Christmas once the realisation that they won't complete by end-March sinks in. Another reason to move quickly perhaps.

I’m in a similar situation although I haven’t yet had the mortgage approved or searches as my seller is yet to find a property. I haven’t had memorandum of sale or any communications at all. 4 weeks after offer accepted so I suppose early days..