Anyone else putting their home on the market in early 2025?

[newhomein2025]

Just that really - I'm going to be putting my home on the market soon, and hoping to find something to buy too. It's due to divorce, but I'm actually feeling ready to move on and find a wee place just for me and my teenager. I'm slightly dreading the process, and all the associated hassle, and worried that I won't be able to find somewhere I can afford nearby, but excited to start again. Anyone else planning on selling and buying in 2025 and want to keep me company?

Good news - my onward purchase offer has been accepted! Very happy.

Question: the house is 5 years old, with a balance of NHBC guarantee. Do I still get a survey, if so is level 1 sufficient or should it be level 2? My last 2 houses were older so a survey was without question, but I have no clue with a newer house!

congrats @ScoobyDoesnt ! sorry can't help with survey as I also don't know. good luck.

it's gone quiet here. no more viewings booked in. and nothing coming on market for us to look at. think this might be it for a while now.

Congrats!

DS did a Level 2. His is 8 years old so had a little warranty balance left. The survey gave him a lot of confidence in his purchase and noted a few useful things for when he moves in. It also noted one repair that was needed and the vendors did that straight away saving him money. They were so impressed by the surveyor they used him for their onward purchase too!

DD bought a 1930s place last year and had a Level 3 and it was certainly worth doing on that age property as it highlighted a few extra things they didn't know about and that's allowed them to do the work on moving in - for one matter they were able to negotiate a reasonable reduction on asking price too. She doesn't know if a Level 2 would have been just as good, of course.

No B4RN, we’re in Northern Ireland. Yes I mentioned Starlink and DH’s immediate reaction was a no for that reason!

We've asked the agent to find out a bit more but unfortunately it’s a probate sale so the vendor doesn’t actually live in the property. They were supposed to ring back today as we don’t really want to do the hour round trip to view if it’s a no go. Hopefully they’ll get back to us in the first thing but my heart is telling me it’s not going to work out.

Not a single new listing in our search parameters today, it’s not encouraging. We did have our first viewer but they didn’t spend much time looking round so DH thinks they had made their mind up before they came in.

@ScoobyDoesnt that's great re your next house. I must admit we didn't get a survey as our house was fairly new, we were the second owner but I can't say whether that was good or bad, I mean we've had no issues so far.

@Hermioninny If it's probate could it be an elderly couple who didn't use internet. I would definitely want to to check whatever they say out, not just take their word for it. Did DH show them round? I don't think you can always tell from anything, everyone is so different when they view and people often get second views too for a more in depth viewing. I never say anything overly positive or negative when I view a house at the time.

We haven't seen anything in over a week that fits our criteria, just hoping April will be more positive!

Unnerving time with negotiating/waiting with offer, on ours.

Currently in negotiations with family in renting with mortgage in hand who are being stingy/greedy. Have batted back 2 offers from them – they’ve been at it since yesterday afternoon with calls/emails with insane offers that have at least reached some point at which we can discuss. Yesterday afternoon they came in with offer way under what we bought it for in 2021. Then this morning theyve offered what we bought it for in 2021. Agent trying to extract another 10-20k more. The not knowing/waiting/endless viewings – I just want it to stop. I’ve had low level anxiety and insomnia for so long.

Strange thing has happened. Mortgage monies have arrived and are £12 less!!

So panic transfer of £12 .... at least over 25 years that saves £24!

We’ve had 6 viewings so far, another 9 booked for tomorrow morning. 4 out of the 6 seemed concerned that we don’t have an onward purchase yet - they don’t seem to understand that we need an offer on our house in order to have an offer accepted elsewhere. One of the ones concerned that they might be waiting months for us to find something also need to sell their property and aren’t on the market! Baffling.

3 weeks since we 'sold' and almost 3 weeks since survey.. nothing is happening.
No enquiries, no contact, dead quiet.
Is it normal?

@Hermioninny yeah that's ridiculous. We haven't found anywhere and we've just sold. Glad you've got a good number of viewings.

It's the first time we've sold a house so we don't really know what we are doing. EA called today and asked what solicitor we are using, I haven't got a clue. Is it cheaper to use the same for both sale and purchase or does it not matter? Ones I've contacted said we can't have a quote for our purchase side of things until we find a house. I presume they quote based on house value (amongst other things). Do they just start on the sale of your house and then wait? Obviously for things like what we are leaving may depend on where we are going.

I looked at a house this week I was prepared to just say no to, but actually quite liked it. Only issue is it doesn't have much of a garden, it's got decking outside the kitchen, decent size but that's it and then a small garden fenced out the front which comes off the lounge. I think it's good value for money and great location but can't decide if the garden is a deal breaker with young kids. Currently we have more of a garden but don't use it as much as the kids need to be watched but once we no longer have a toddler we might appreciate a bigger garden. We are also going to view a house slightly further out of town next week that is newly renovated with a big garden. But now I'm thinking do I want to be queuing in traffic all the time to get to school/work. It's that type of road that's quick when quiet but during rush hour it adds a fair bit of time and patience. Maybe we just need to keep looking but I feel what we want in the perfect location is too pricey for us so something has to give. My husband works from home so understandably he has more of a bias towards the actual house only rather than considering the location etc.

Bit like you had a RICS survey around 3 weeks ago and was really expecting some kind of knock back/negotiation/feedback from the survey. Just been away for a few days and got some really anal questions from the buyers on what I consider to be minor issues eg who deals with surface water - and have I knowingly contravened any local covenants - have to say on the last point WTF as these covenants were put in place circa 50 years ago as there is nobody to police them as the people who set them up are now dead - if I look around my estate I can see that some have been contravened over the years.

I don't get the purpose of covenants.
Mine says (80s built) that you have to ask builder for permission to built extension. The builder is no longer around.
Another is essentially no WFH. What are historical reasons for covenants? Inm from abroad and there is none of them.
Thanks

@OtiMama we have generally used the same solicitor for sale & purchase because if you find one that seems good, why not? I don’t think it’s necessarily any cheaper though.

They can start work on the sale before you find a purchase but I would instruct them not to run up too many costs. If it takes you too long to find somewhere to buy the sale could fall through so it’s best to keep costs low for now. Mind you most of the costs are on the purchase side not sale side.

@Twiglets1 thank you. Yes that is our thoughts, if we struggle to find somewhere the buyer could pull out and we don't want those costs to start again. But equally if we don't instruct a solicitor it will look like we aren't serious about moving. If I was them I would be tempted to do the survey because what if you waited and the survey showed a reason you didn't want to buy it and you had waited all that time...although unlikely on our type of house and equally I guess if we pulled out you don't want to waste your money on the survey!

I would probably use the same solicitor too, I just don't like the way they cannot quote for the purchase as we don't have a house yet...I do understand why but I worry they could make that quote expensive once they've already got you in for the sale of your house...I am obvious a skeptical person 😂 doesn't really make sense for them to do that actually as we could go elsewhere for the sale if it was a ridiculous quote!

@rhubarb007 The modern covenants I have seen are no satellite dishes, storage of boats and caravans on drives - running a business from home and no change of the frontage . House builders do this so that when they are marketing an estate , their vision of the estate remains intact. But years down the road, there is nobody to police it and these covenants get broken. It's only when you come to sell the house that they get raised in the conveyancing process. My 70s build house states you can't put fences up on the front and should remain completely open plan - in my estate there are many examples where this has been broken.

@ScoobyDoesnt our buyers didn’t have a survey on our 10 year old house. Or, if they did, it was a drive by, because no one made an appointment or knocked on the door.

@Movinghomes we sold a house some years ago, to a couple living with family. They obviously thought it gave them some clout to be cheeky because their first offer was derisory. Over a few weeks, they went up in 10K increments, until we got to within striking distance of the asking price. It was a tedious procedure though.

@Gunz we had most of those as covenants. Virtually everyone changed their front garden and quite a few changed the garage door. Very few had large vehicles on the drive and one house tried to run a laundry business, but that was stopped smartish.

I think most of them have standard prices based on the cost of the house you buy so you should be ok though obviously you are also free to shop around to get other quotes so you know you aren't being ripped off.

I wouldn't personally get a survey on a 5 year old house but that's me. If you were to get one then I would stick with level 1 to save a bit of money.

Pretty much every house here is changed.
Do you just buy the indemnity?

All our viewings are done! 16 in total, 3 no shows and one family who let their kids rampage around 😏really hope for some offers next week so we don’t have to go through that again!

Wow several weeks to get to an acceptable offer?! And I’ve spent today fretting about why we haven’t heard from them since we rejected their offer yesterday! Had two more viewings today though so hoping a proper offer comes in ..

Thank you.

It doesn’t appear many surveyors even do level 1 these days. I’ve been quoted £550 inches VAT for a level 2, and I just don’t know whether to do it for peace of mind.

I’m going to debate it for a week or so, we’ve only just started legals, and the vendors still have to find somewhere to buy!

From what I can see - you just transfer these convenents on to the next owner - even though they are just a pile of nonsense. I have had to read in full the convenents for the property I am selling this afternoon in order to answer queries from the buyers. There is reference to the property owner maintaining a fence - what fence? there was not a fence there when I brought it - (I brought this property 30 years ago). I am certaintly not buying an indemnity for this - just declaring as far as I am aware I haven't breached any convenents. They will be recycling these convenents in a 100 years time!

Advice please, seasoned sellers -

Got an offer on Thursday from a buyer which was insanely cheeky and agents rejected on the spot. Came back Friday with offer at max of their DIP but at exactly what we bought for in 2021, which we rejected. They emailed on Saturday to request time till Monday (Today) to go back to their bank for affordanility re-testing. In the interim we had 3 positive viewings with others on Saturday.

Whilst awaiting how the Saturday viewers feel (the agents say the viewings were positive) the offer currently on the table has come back with this email today - "We would like to check if there has been any other offers as you had some viewings this weekend. We are still thinking about the increase of the offer as we really like this property and our circumstances match.
Thank you!"

How should we play this? i mean we dont yet have another offer so agents have said weve had positive viewings on Saturday... but anything else we could do? Agents say they are strongly considering an increase...