The all new buyers/sellers waiting room (9) the one where we start to wonder if we'll move by Christmas..

[NeverGoingToMove]

Huge apologies if I have missed this thread, I have searched high and low but don't think another was started after number 8 ended in May.

After a seriously stressful encounter with building control, I think we are almost ready to exchange. After going on the market last July, I'm hoping we'll move before our year anniversary!

How is everyone else doing?

Thank you for replying @YetiRosetti
My DD has sold, currently in rental.
Was told over the weekend that my buyers have lost their buyer, problems with survey and searches. So they are basically starting again. I wish they had told us, instead they have been saying they are ready to exchange when they evidently are not. So I either wait for them to sell, and potentially face the same survey and searches issues again, or I sell to my DD and her DH, who are in rental.

I’ve had a gut feeling about these buyers from the start, but so far have gone along with their reasons, they suggested exchange late August initially. We rushed around getting ready, only to be strung along.

Just wish our buyers had been honest with us.

@ErlingHaalandsManBun how did you get on with your buyers on Friday?

That sounds like a bit of a nightmare! What's the market like in the place where your buyers are selling? It's absolutely dead here, houses are routinely on the market for over a year. But I see others on MN selling after a week! I'd be tempted to sell to your daughter, seeing as your original buyers have been dishonest about their situation...

Our buyers have pulled out this morning after 4 months. This was a private sale, we were just about to put it on the market. So now we’ve missed the whole summer. 😞. They had a survey two weeks ago. Their surveyor said he didn’t know why they were wasting their money on a survey if they’d already had their builder look over it, and he didn’t think there was anything major (it’s being sold as a project and is £150k less than it would be done). But they obviously think he’s found something.

I'm so sorry about this. How disappointing. Do you know what it is that's put them off? Surveys are important but I think that they can look really scary about normal stuff! When I bought my current house, there were lots of red points about things like narrow stairs, low doors- all stuff that's completely normal (and charming!) in an old house. But it did scare me a bit, and I know how lots of people are put off houses by scary looking surveys...

@moving300m we had a conversation with our buyers on Friday. They are on board. We have told them the title changes we will be making and they spoke with their solicitor and came straight back to us to say they still wish to proceed. So we are now in the process of moving the sale to a better local solicitor who will then pick this work up, do the title applications to the LR and hopefully we can get this sale moving again. Thanks for asking. Its been a hard slog but I feel we are all finally on the same page.

How are things with you and your sale?

@ErlingHaalandsManBun I am so glad it seems to be working out for you. Hopefully you also find somewhere you love and although traumatic it’s totally worth it in the end.

We are back to waiting for solicitors. Hoping to exchange this week but still some paperwork outstanding. Have a couple weeks until the anticipated completion date that has been agreed so should be ok. Would rather exchange and it be certain asap if possible!

We’re having a nightmare. Solicitors are no longer communicating with us, there’s a proposed completion date for next week which everyone is happy with but our solicitor won’t confirm if it can be done, we haven’t signed contracts. Our removals company are now booked up until the 28th October, our buyers are abroad the rest of this week. I have more removals quotes booked for tomorrow and don’t know when I actually need them. The house is in chaos and my eldest has a bug. The Monday-est of Mondays.

@moving300m you will feel better once contracts have been exchanged for sure. The waiting for solicitors is awful. I honestly can't believe how they are able to just completely ignore everyone. In no other business or profession could you do this. Hopefully you will get exchanged this week and the pressure will finally be off.

The market place is a bit sluggish where they’re selling, it’s within 10 miles of the property I’m selling, which is in a much more desirable area, so if priced right, properties are going quickly.

Thanks. No they sent a vague text message saying after reading the report they feel there might be more work or so hints to look into. And that combined with their personal circumstances they had to pull out. I think they were probably pushing things financially and were perhaps worrying. They were planning to do a lot more than was necessary imo. But when you’ve lived in a 300 year old house all your life you don’t worry like someone who hasn’t. My husband wants to speak to them and ask what the survey said in a couple of days. When we’ve calmed down. I don’t want to speak to them again, I’m disgusted with them. It’s the begging us to not put it on the market, then doing this four months down the line. One of my friends worked with them and said they pulled some dirty tricks there, stealing clients in an underhand way when they left.

In that case I’d sell to your DD no guilt given your buyers have misled you and messed you around!

My mortgage offer is with Barclays and they will only extend by 2 weeks which gives us until 20 October. I’ve told them we have to complete by then or I’m pulling out. I cannot believe it has taken 6 months so far for me to buy an empty property and I am still not in. I’ve had enough.

I totally understand, everyone says it’s stressful, and we’ve bought and sold many times. It’s like child birth, like you’re programmed to forget how bloody awful it is, otherwise you’d never do it again. I hope it works out for you and everyone else. I often wake up in the morning and think, that’s it, I’m done. Big hugs

I would sell to your daughter. Trust your gut. Mine has been feeling like my buyers were going to be flakey for a month now, and today they pulled out. We tried to be as fair and honest as we could all the way through. They didn’t!

Thank you @Gingercar , I do need to listen to my gut. Like I said I’ve had a vibe about my buyers since the start, and I’m just too long in the tooth to waste time waiting to be proven right. You’re right thank you. I hope it works out for you,fingers crossed.

Do you think there’s any chance of getting a sale done by Christmas? we are desperate to avoid Christmas in our awful rental but as our offer was only accepted late last week I’m wondering how realistic a December completion is.

I think it’s probably unlikely. Possible if it’s very straightforward and both sides have good solicitors. But I doubt it. Have your sellers found something? Is there a chain?

We are completing next week and that will be 15 weeks from our offer being accepted. There were a few niggles but nothing too serious. I guess it is possible but depends on searches, enquiries etc.

There’s no chain - the vendors don’t live there anymore. We definitely have a great solicitor but no idea of the quality of theirs.

We are in a similar situation, no chain and the property is empty. Our solicitor is great. We had our offer accepted at the end of June and there's no sign of exchange or completion. Each step seems to throw up more enquiries, each survey leads to another! I thought it would be so straightforward...

Oh god! We have a full structural survey booked in but unless it says the house is falling down, we probably won’t do anymore. We’ve just spent thousands doing endless surveys on another house and although we did end up pulling out of that sale, it wasn’t really because of the (very bad) surveys.

We’re actually considering doing holiday let’s with it rather than going through the sale process again. This happened to us last summer too (not quite as far down the line, but 2.5 months held for a friend who had a bad dream and decided not to move!). I don’t know if I’ve the strength to go through this again.

You might be lucky! We had a mortgage valuation that insisted upon a damp and timber report, and we were advised not to book the survey until that was done in case in uncovered something huge. It said we need to spend around 8k on damp-proofing. We're waiting on the survey report now, and I'm dreading it tbh... There are cracks that I didn't really notice when I went to view...

I feel like I've got no right to complain about our purchase in comparison to some of the stories on here. But even after 8 weeks since our offer was accepted I'm bored of the waiting already. Mortgage is sorted, survey and searches done but I'm just keen to get it to at least exchange by the end of this month so we can give notice on our rental so we're not paying for another month. Its just us buying an empty property so it should be straight forward. I feel like I'm going to have to start chasing up the solicitors to get things moving.

Our purchase is moving at snails pace. The remaining hold up is a lack of Building control completion certificate for an extension that was done 12 years ago. Solicitor is recommending the sellers apply for a regularisation certificate. No idea how long that will take. Why they haven't done so already is a mystery to me. I just want to move.