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!!

My buyers have just asked for £4k off the price as they feel some work needs to be done to a small bit of roof. They've sent some random quotes but not actually said what they think the issue is, or the problems it's causing (no damp and no leaks etc) so I've asked for an extract of the survey which apparently highlighted something 🤷

My buyers tried to do that - asked for about the same £ for something that might 'possibly, potentially' cause a problem in the future! I told them I wasn't in the business of predicting what may/ may not happen in the future and were they interested at the price we'd agreed or not, as I was putting it back on the market otherwise.
They agreed the original price and we exchanged the next day.

If it's not an issue that's currently causing a problem for the roof, then it's for them to decide whether it's a risk/cost they are prepared to take, not your problem to fix!

@LlamaDrama20 thanks! You've completely confirmed my thinking... There are plenty of other things I'd sort out on the house first before even thinking about the bit they're talking about 'fixing', really odd thing to focus on 😂 will reply to our EA tomorrow

Basically a surveyor will NEVER go back with a survey saying 'I didn't find anything of concern at all' so they tie themselves in knots looking for potential risk factors for the buyer. A lot of buyers then (wrongly) assume these are things they can use in a late negotiation.

OMG @LlamaDrama20 and @RugbyGirl1 - exactly where I am this weekend. Survey was done earlier this week, survey told ex-h who was present that there were a "few problems", now our FTB are considering all the work they need done apparently and will need "people in" to look at it, whatever IT is. To be fair as @LlamaDrama20 says surveyors just look for stuff, they want something to say, so leaves inexperienced buyers floundering and looking for a discount. We shall see.

I can barely believe it- we’ve exchanged and will complete on Monday!!!

I'm whispering this just in case. I think I was misinformed about my EA actions. My buyer is sticking with my house. I think I'm a go..

@Muddledandmiddle congratulations - good luck this weekend!
@JawsCushion Wow that sounds like some messed up communication!

People are starting to whisper about completing on 12th which would mean exchanging next week... still too nervous to actually start packing!

Yes, @Maybenexttime08 and my heart is still pounding. I have messaged to apologise but no reply.

I started packing when I put the house on the market. If you're doing it yourself you need to start. It takes longer than you think and it is amazing what you realise you don't need.

@JawsCushion I have a husband and two teenagers to help, but in reality I'm doing it on my own 😂

Our purchase fell through last week when the sellers pulled out 10 weeks in, having spent all that time looking for an onward purchase.
But we've had an offer accepted on a house we love today and I think it is all on again!

I have to say, though, that the reports are very ominous! I've got lots of 'this now needs repair' in mine, and as I really don't want to ask some random thousands off the sell price I'm trying to discern what's actually needed now and what's just in the realm of possibilities! Lots of research incoming 😆😅😬

Good luck to you all still ongoing- spoke to FIL at the hotel night - sale money now in his account- he's had a posh dinner and seemed slightly sozzled! He did say the process these days seems way more stressful than he ever remembered and people are flakier!!

I think people used to have more integrity. But at the same time the mortgage payment represented a smaller amount of their monthly income (could often be afforded in just one wage) so probably didn't have to be so paranoid/uptight (not sure if that's the word im looking for) about the whole process

@Littletreefrog yes indeed- I think the people who bought his have very much gone to their max and it does need work- not maintenance work as it's immaculately maintained , more taste as it's very 'brown' - and dated in parts - as you say I think there often isn't a lot of headroom these days and hence people trying to get money off for this that and the other- often quite last minute too . At 85 it was hard to deal with that kind of stress .

We’ve exchanged finally! We move weds. We have horses cats and dogs and my son is in the middle of his mock exams! Packers are in the day before. Always done it myself but can’t this time. I feel unprepared as still sat in my house unpacked. Strange feeling.

if we are number 4 out of 5 in the chain can anyone (I know, stupid to ask) give me a guess on when we will get keys?

am I looking at 4pm ish?

good luck to everyone.

We are in! Finally! 18 weeks of frustration!

I cannot find a damn thing despite trying my hardest to be organised but never mind. Already feels like home even though it’s a total money pit.

Good luck everyone!

We moved two weeks ago and ten years before that. During that time, the number of enquiries, searches and whatever else seems to have multiplied exponentially. It’s an utter nightmare and we were also the ones sitting in the sales office waiting for completion ( which didn’t happen until after close of business, so we were homeless overnight and had to find a hotel, plus pay the removal company to return the following day.)

Congrats those of you exchanging/completing! How exciting after all the hassle.

Can I ask how long it's taken?

We are now 4 weeks since accepting a new offer (after 10 MONTHS of our buyer messing around) - mortgage survey and homebuyers survey done and searches requested. Buyer is in rented so nothing below. We are completely ready with our purchase and they are completely ready with theirs (chain stops there). I love the idea of a pre Xmas exchange but think it's v unlikely. We definitely don't want to move now until at least mid January.

@mamnotmum my FIL
was 14 weeks start to finish and his onward purchase is now 7 weeks in with no chain at all

We’re in a very short chain (our buyer, us, our seller, chain free property she’s moving to), but I’m terrified of it all falling down. We tried to sell two years ago, only to have the buyer pull out. We decided that, as I was very pregnant by that point, we’d stay put for a bit rather than try to find another buyer. We’ve now massively outgrown our 2 bed flat (two of us wfh, toddler, and two cats), but flats are just not selling around here. We’ve had to accept less than we paid for it just to get out.

I thought we’d reached the stage where our buyer’s solicitors had asked all their questions and were satisfied with the answers, and was just starting to relax a little bit. Yesterday we had an update call from the estate agent saying the solicitors haven’t actually looked at everything yet, and the buyer is having to chivvy them on a bit. So they might still have questions. So the leasehold terms that put the last buyer off might still be a problem.

I’ve felt physically sick and slightly dizzy with panic for the last 8 weeks. It was starting to go away but now it’s back with a vengeance!

I'm also fascinated with when it all got so complicated. We are currently buying and selling for the first time in 20 years. As a result, we've been digging out all our house documentation. For our purchase of this house, the only documentation we have is the contract, title deeds / plan and the fixtures and fittings form. For our next purchase, we've been sent reams of documents - spreadsheet of enquiries, a ton of search results, previous planning docs, FENSA certs, boiler certs. There are even plans from when the road was constructed in the 1950s.

I don't recall any of that last time. I remember we went in person to the solicitor on exchange day and only then did we see the title deeds & plan and were talked through the covenant and asked if we wanted to be joint tenants or tenants in common. We never dreamt of trying to get money knocked off after offer acceptance even though we could see the house needed lots of work and the survey flagged up all sorts of things that 'might' need doing. It was just what home ownership entailed and we went in with eyes open. The pipes rattled like holy hell every morning when the boiler came on and we had to have the whole thing replaced in the first 2 years. But it was our own home so we worked through jobs gradually as our income allowed.

This time it's a whole different ball game and it feels like it's set up to trigger chain collapses by terrifying buyers at every stage. I've also noted that vendors are having to account for things done decades prior by previous owners that went unchecked when they purchased the property. The whole process from estate agency through to conveyancing needs some serious disrupting.

@Gekko21 , we've found exactly the same, everything needs an indemity insurance, we've been asked to pay £85 insurance against mineral mining - dug out our mining survey and the area was last dug for coal in 1886 !

Yes, I can’t remember now what it was, but there was one question about something similar to the mining one, that had never been an issue anywhere in the village since the Middle Ages.

Is it the church related one? Where they need to see if you've got some obligation to pay something or fix the church?