Is there a new thread for “Anyone putting their home on the market in early 2025”?

[IWasBornIn1989]

The other thread is full 😏

I’m a nuisance too!

My solicitor is crap at responding to emails, but generally will take a call. They also have this online portal which has all the stages of the sale / purchase on it, which should then mean you see what stage everything is at.

Only they don’t update it. I spoke to her yesterday as the purchase has absolutely nothing showing as completed, and I paid for the searches 3 weeks ago. I had to chase her to check the sales contracts I’d signed had been received (not on the portal, but yes they have them), that they’d received my bank mortgage offer letter (my copy said they’d been sent one, 3 weeks ago) - but she says she hasn’t had it and would I chase them, had they had the sales contracts from the vendors solicitors (no, but in fairness after our call she emailed me to say she’d subsequently spoken to them and they were sending that afternoon).

I then forgot to ask if any of the searches were back. After 3 weeks, assuming she did apply for them quite quickly, they should mostly be back by now.

On Monday I booked and paid for my survey. Hadn’t heard anything this morning (they also have a bloody portal!) so checked with the agent if they’d been in touch to arrange to visit. No they hadn’t, so had to ring them to chase, and then 20 mins later I got a portal notification to say it was booked in.

Still hopeful that it’s 7-8 weeks to move date….hopefully that’s still realistic.

I don't like having to do it but I will 😂I have no qualms contacting who I need to contact to get some answers.

We are a bit behind you in the process, with only receiving confirmation that our chain was complete last week, but I will be keeping an eye on things and will pursue if I need to. Its just annoying having to do it and wondering what the hell is going on behind the scenes. Glad you have finally got your contract pack!!

Great news on your house @Vie8126!

Ah some of the people you are all dealing with sound so useless! We issued our contract to our buyers Monday, they've come back today with initial enquiries and only 3 for us to answer and easy answers for us. I did ask the EA last week if our buyers were having a survey but they didn't respond to that part when they called and I forgot to ask again. Our solicitor mentioned about the survey as soon as we got the contract/instructed on searches so I'm amazed some of these buyers don't even know about having one. Their solicitors sound rubbish! We are having our survey on Monday next week.

I am really hopeful we will be able to exchange in less than 8 weeks with the speed of things so far. My friend said apparently searches are only taking a couple of weeks at the moment, so I hope that's all of them being that quick! Matches with the fact there's less houses being sold here at the moment.

another nuisance here! despite contracts being issued on 13th may, we still haven't received all the title documents! so annoying. agent insisting everything has been done. my solicitor saying no. me saying no. then it turns out their side is on holiday. back on Tuesday. so nothing will happen until then! at least they acknowledged we didn't have everything.

we're supposed to be aiming for end of July move, but my solicitor has said its far too early to be talking dates. we agreed the sale in April so I didn't think July was unreasonable. no idea now if its possible...

First time buyer, Anyone selling a House in these areas:

• Bromley
• Maidstone
• Dunstable
• Surrey
• Reading
• Bedfordshire area
• or on the outskirts of London?

@OtiMama thanks! We had our official offer accepted on our onward purchase also! Apprehensive about our buyers as they were more than a bit difficult to our agents and want second viewings with their parents asap before sending their official paperwork in - anyone selling to FTBs and can reassure me they aren’t absolute nightmares?! I just can’t get excited right now. We have other viewings going ahead over the next few days also because of the above.

We’ve accepted an offer on our probate property, it was under the asking price (which we had already lowered slightly) but it was over the valuation quoted by other estate agents and was exactly at the minimum I felt I was happy to accept (it was a difficult property to value as not many comparators). We complete the chain of four so I am a bit worried about something going wrong, so I don’t feel as though it’s very real! We obviously don’t have to coordinate moving, but we do have to clear the house at some point and I don’t want to make it look too sparse if there’s still a risk of it falling through and having to go back on the market again.

Doubting how switched on our seller or their estate agent, had a call from their EA yesterday asking about our chain when I’ve stated multiple times we are chain free and wrote it in an email only 2 days before when I asked about an update on their onward chain!

@Vie8126 our buyers are second time buyers (but their house is a new build, so they feel like first time buyers eg never bought an older house, dealt with estate agents, house not perfect etc). They have been quite difficult, they also brought parents around. 2 surveyors! made a fuss about a garden wall. threatened to pull out. but i think we are finally progressing now...

biggest problem seems to be they expect everything to be perfect which in a 100 year old house is not possible. you might have the same trouble with ex renters, they think you have to do everything as the seller .

@StrawberryThief1930 oh dead lord! Yes they are currently in rented. We have all 4 parents and them for a viewing - have asked the agents to do it as I did the first viewing with them and the whole thing was awkward with weird low ball verbal offers and I had to keep reminding them of the price and to go via the agent. I have this horrible feeling they will try to get the price back down once we’re further down the line…so really cannot get excited about it!

@KnutsfordCityLimits well done on accepting an offer! I am with you on the worry.

Joining. Have accepted an offer on our house. Had an offer accepted on our onward purchase.
Ive never sold before so no idea what happens now. Moving from England to Scotland so we have two different solicitors and have done all that both have asked. So I guess we wait!

gosh @moving300m a move from England to Scotland sounds complicated. are you going to be able to complete on both at the same time? 2 different legal systems. i wonder if conveyancing undertakings apply across the border? I don't envy you that. fingers crossed for you!

@StrawberryThief1930yes the plan is to complete on both at the same time. We are in the middle of FTB and no onward chain so hopefully not too complicated and everyone is patient enough to work together!

@Vie8126 That's great. If it makes you feel better we have FTB and they are just getting on with things. They've instructed a good solicitor and we have already received their initial enquiries when we only sent the contract at the beginning of the week. My only reservation is whether they are having a survey and if they are can they get on with it!! I think FTB are either obsessed with perfection or have no idea what is meant to happen so it just happens around them. We were definitely the second type when we were FTB buying our current house!! I am finding it much easier this time round as we understand the process more and acceptable timelines for things.

@moving300m welcome - that does sound more complex being both England and Scotland with different rules. We have the same length of chain as you, so relieved!

@KnutsfordCityLimits glad you have come to an agreement on your property. I totally know what you mean about clearing it. I think it's much better to sell with some furniture for viewings as it's easier to picture how things would fit.

Nooo it was all going so well! We were weeks in, seller was prepared to break the chain and now we find out through the searches that the extension doesn’t have planning permission!!
Really torn on how best to proceed, it’s really annoyed me because it feels so dishonest.
I’m not sure how likely retrospective planning would be, or if I would be happy with an indemnity policy or if the lender would even accept an indemnity policy?!

We are at the same point as you. Contracts received and sent and initial enquiries being answered. I have asked if they are having a survey and apparently they are. But no contact from a surveyor still. We were told yesterday that they had one lined up and were going to instruct him today but we have not received a phone call. I am so impatient and I just wish they would get on with it. 😂Its agony waiting and waiting on someone else. I just don't get why people don't just do what they say they are going to. 🙄

Oh no! This happened to us a few years ago. A two storey extension with no planning permission/building regs. Work was done a good number of years previously so the current homeowner didn’t know anything about who did it (and bought it possibly not knowing it was not a signed off extension?!). The extension was half of the house. We pulled out after taking legal advice. The indemnity policy doesn’t really offer anything, even the estate agent said that. We didn’t want to seek retrospective permission, we had no idea how safe the extension was or any history about it, part of it would have been our DC’s bedroom, and we knew if we wanted to sell again we’d have to go through it all again. The house just wasn’t worth it so we walked away. It sold eventually but for £30k less than we were going to buy it for.

We have found a house, there is no onward chain, it originally belonged the vendors family member who has passed away. I asked for a figure to take it off the market as we have lost out in 2 bidding wars so far, however it was the first day of viewings and the vendor isn’t ready to cancel further viewings yet. House is on at 390K, they have vaguely indicated they want over 400, our absolute max using all our savings is 406. I have no idea what to offer and feel that going too high will push others to bid higher and we’ll immediately be out of the race. I also don’t want to pay over the odds and don’t really want to move in with no money for new curtains and all the other incidental expenses that crop up. I’m so fed up with the whole process.

This is interesting! It sounds like a nightmare finding that out and probably for the best that you pulled out.
I think on a personal level I don’t overly mind on the planning thing, it’s been done fairly cheaply and we were going to put in a new steel to open it up fully so I guess that would give us reassurance. It’s only a small single storey extension so nothing crazy for fancy.
But I’m reading online that it’s hard to mortgage and no obviously it’s Friday evening and I can’t speak to the solicitor or anyone I can only read horror stories on google and now I’m spiralling.

I would just try to stay calm and make the call first thing on Monday. Mortgage wise I do remember it was an issue which was another reason we pulled out.

Had a viewing on my Dad's house yesterday.
It was a woman with her parents. The dad owns a construction company. They knew that the house had already been sold and they wanted to know why it didn't work out. We told them about the survey; asbestos, damp and rewiring. They liked the house but want to have the asbestos checked out first. He is coming back today with a ladder and a pokie stick to have a better look. We had a frank discussion about the level of offer we are likely to accept. Fingers crossed.

The potential buyer wants an asbestos survey before they offer. We and they know that there is asbestos in the ceilings, which is very normal for a property of this age. But they want to investigate the type and removal cost before offering.

It he buys it he is also very keen to buy the adjacent paddock, which we were just going to hang on to for the time being. Something to think about.

@AhBiscuits that all sounds very positive as it sounds like they know what they are doing. Hopefully it will be a fair offer that you will accept.

We have received in the post today from our solicitor the TR1 Land registry transfer and contract to sign for the sale of our current house. On the letter it says that the buyer has approved the contract. Does this mean enquiries are done or would they send this and still be asking questions? We only had 3 very straight forward queries to answer earlier this week. I am also not sure what it means for searches, but I presume they are still ongoing as they only instructed earlier this week. I will ask our solicitor on Monday but want to know now haha!!

Either way sounds like a positive step forward to me.

@AhBiscuits this sounds positive!

Our FTBs come for their second viewing today with all 4 parents. We went out and let the agents do the viewing after an hour we returned home and they were still here doing photos and videos. In total they were here for around 90 minutes? It’s a 3 bed semi so a bit confused around the length of time they needed. The agents then sent us a whole list of around 20 odd questions - some around what is being left behind and some ridiculous ones. They only provided all the documentation to our agents at 4:45pm yesterday to have it marked as sold and offer officially accepted. We have told the agents we don’t want anymore viewings until a reasonable amount of movement has been gained, the fixtures and fittings form will tell them what is being left (we haven’t decided yet it’s been all of two days!) and it is our home so we won’t answer stupid questions about things that will clearly be gone when we leave.

We went to view our onward purchase today which is a project so felt massively overwhelmed with that and our buyers!