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!!

Thanks that's really helpful.. yeah that's a good idea. Yeah it's just hard not having any one to have conversations without about stuff so it's just all whirling around my head constantly but I have got friends who are very supportive, and know they will help practically when it comes to me actually moving.

Finally spoke to my solicitor and they've sent the contract and mortgage deed. I'm not sure why they couldn't have sent it months ago but at least we have it now. My printer has decided it no longer wants to work so it'll be next week before they'll get them back. They said there no outstanding queries when I don't think they've even sent any yet. I can't believe there isn't one at all! I guess it gives them some stalling time to do it.

I have now exchanged hurrah!

@Blanketenvy I'm also buying alone, after previously buying with my ex husband not that long ago. It is very different doing it solo, like you say no one else to really talk it over & analyse it with. But you will get there.

My buildings insurance is with LV, who didn’t ask any of the ‘what kind of locks’ questions.

Congratulations to today's exchangers! Exciting times!

just popped on to see if I can get any opinions on this - we're completing Monday, I no longer live in the area, Ex-H has keys to his new place, estate agent has keys to our house. Estate agent has said that he will come over and meet the buyers at the house on the day once funds have gone through. Can you see anything odd about the estate agent being there for the buyers (particularly as he's done bugger all for us)? I suppose one good thing is it saves Ex-H having to drive to the agent's office after the removal van has left, but when we bought the house we had to get the keys from the estate agent's office ourselves.

I keep thinking maybe he's expecting a tip or a box of chocolates, he's certainly worked 100% for the buyers in our sale but that's another story. Am I over thinking it or is it odd for estate agent to want to show the new owners in? Happy to be told its entirely innocent, one less niggling worry.

It's quite normal for the EA to meet the new buyers at the house to pass the keys over @IWillAlwaysBeinaClubWithYouin1973 - we've had that happen several times (not always though, sometimes we've gone to the EA office to collect the keys).

Thank you @Twiglets1 - now you've said that I feel entirely re-assured. I've been on these threads for a couple of years with several user names and you've always been so helpful and thoughtful to me and others. If @Twiglets1 says it's ok, then it's ok (no pressure eh ...!!)

I'll be back in a while no doubt when I try to buy - currently in a nice rental but with a very difficult landlord so feeling very sad to let my home of 30+ years go. Now need to find somewhere new to live.

Thank you so much @IWillAlwaysBeinaClubWithYouin1973 that's such a nice thing to say x

Well our buyer came back and didn't budge at all on their new offer after all the "fake issues" and said they need more time to speak to family. So we have gone back on the market and will take more viewings whilst they faff around. Don't trust them one bit and really annoyed they have wasted 8 weeks.

Really hoping we don't now lose the plot we have reserved 😢

We are still waiting for a response to our offer on a rental. Why the fuck is everything so slow? It's ridiculous. This landlord presumably knows what figure he needs so it's either a yes or a no. 🙄

If we get the flat we can exchange next week but next week felt quite reasonable when it was suggested on Monday. Now it's Friday and next week is 2 days away, it seems a bit insane.

Buyers second viewing today. They are a young couple and both brought their mums 😊. I had a heads-up that they wanted to look at damp that was flagged on their survey. I showed them the wall (impeccable, no visible damp), explained what the surveyor had said about the rainfall and decking and I think they were reassured.

They really love the house (as do their mums) and have started planning what they are going to use each room for and where they will put the furniture. They are very pleased that we are leaving dishwasher, blinds and curtains as they won't fit our new house as FTB every little helps til you can replace things over time.

I was glad I had spent some time making the place showhomes ready and working on building rapport with the buyers. If we have delays on our build, they will be happier to wait if it's absolutely what they want and they know we have been helpful and generous.

I agree. Helpful if you can build a bridge with your buyer / vendor as parties are more likely to have empathy if issues occur later in the process. It's hard when it becomes transactional and you can't see where the other is coming from, so if you can add any humanity I think it does help.

Agree with leaving things for FTBs (if they are asked first).

My son is in a furnished annexe and will need almost everything apart from kitchen utensils. And we can equip one bedroom as my father has moved in with us and he has a single bed so the double one (and all the bedding) has been stored and kept for him.

Otherwise he has a whole house to equip and anything they leave he will no doubt be grateful for.

I asked the EA if she could do that with me as I will be coming with suitcases and I don't really want to have to travel to the estate agency with suitcases to travel back to the house with suitcases as I will be relying on London public transport which is fine, but I don't want to be travelling all about Southeast London with luggage they said no.

I still haven't exchanged

Sorry they said No but I guess it’s not something they have to do.

When my daughter bought her flat they said in advance that they would meet her at the flat with the keys once the money came through then changed their mind on the day as said they were too busy 🙄

Still haven’t exchanged? You are having a difficult time with this purchase.

Yeah, still haven't exchanged. I think it's taken the other solicitor quite some time to get back to you my solicitor on the financial things.

I have outstanding enquiries to do with the retainer and what I will owe for the end of January. It's really quite annoying and the longer I wait the more I question if I overpaid for the property.

I've told my ex h he has to take his key to the EA as I'm posting mine through the letter box and I 100% don't want him there. My friend and neighbour is keeping her spare key JIC I think.

For the other end, I'm hoping the EA will give the keys to my son as I'll have a car full of animals and don't want to leave them out of site to get the keys.

Praying I can drive 4-5 hours without stopping as again, worrying about leaving them in the car while I run in a service station.

@JawsCushion there shouldn't be an issue with the EA handing keys to your son (proving you pre warn them, and he is an adult!). We bought a house which completed when I was literally giving birth (fantastic timing) and they handed keys to my ILs with no issues.

Sight*

@TheCatCameBack112 he is 19 and I've said to him to video call me if there is an issue still not sure about the services.

Well our buyers have got their mortgage offer through... 3 months to the day since they offered on our house! We've just got a couple of things we're waiting for and then we should have our sale contract through and be ready to exchange.
Still hoping for 14th Feb completion date, does that seem realistic?

I have a noob question!
Once the full mortgage appt is done and all searches are back, whats the next step?

Arrange a survey if you haven’t already?

@DaringlyDizzy have you had any enquiries through? Apart from that I'm not sure what else? Sign the draft contracts and return? I'm selling for the first time so unsure myself.

Update from me - our buyers wouldn't provide the actual survey or evidence of these "issues" and wouldn't budge on their offer which is 5k less than we need. So they have wasted 9 weeks faffing and haven't even applied for searches. So we put the house back up for sale and we start again 😢 really annoyed that they are going to potentially cost us another 2.5k in stamp duty because they have delayed us so much with the change coming in April. they said they are thinking about increasing and will let us know Monday but we said we are still remarketing anyway as no wasting any further time as we gave them a deadline.

So now we've lost the plot we had reserved 😭

Gutted for you @sillysausage92 . Hope you get another buyer quickly, the market should be picking up at this time of year. Re: your plot, how fast are they selling on that development? Ours sold all the three beds quickly but the 4s and 5s took a lot longer to shift. Is there an alternative plot if you can't get that one?

Given you have presumably completed your finance and legal steps as far as possible, if you had a proceedable buyer you could still be the buyer in the best position to complete on that plot. A ftb coming in now would be many weeks away from sorting mortgage offer, instructing solicitor, getting searches completed

@TheCatCameBack112 yes I guess that's true and hadn't thought of it like that.

There are two other plots we could think about but this one was our ideal one really for multiple reasons.

Really hope things do pick up and we get some viewings this week! 🙏🙏🙏