Spring house selling/buying support thread

[PyjamasForever]

After quite a lengthy time on the market I finally have an offer on my house and have had an offer accepted on a house I want to buy. I’m feeling a bit uncertain it will happen with the current financial situation and wondered if anyone else in a similar position wanted a thread for a bit of moral support?!

We’ve instructed solicitors, filled out our TA6 and TA10 forms, applied for a mortgage and have some documents to send them… I then find the next bit the hardest bit about buying and selling when you have all those uncertain weeks with searches/surveys etc and it could all fall apart at any minute!

@speckledpinkhen the lady on the floor below us has just sold her flat after having been on since October 😬 I felt really bad that we'd sold before her as we only put ours on in Feb but it is happening slowly for everyone!

Out of the 3 flats that were for sale in our complex, three have now sold (since October, my downstairs neighbour was the first to list hers) Have hope! Yours will sell too!!

After an anxious week, we have heard that our buyer is looking to complete mid June. Our solicitor is expecting exchange paperwork next week. I do hope so as we’re getting rid of some furniture, but don’t want to do it too early. If we have to go back on the market we don’t want the house to look empty.
Hope everyone can have a house stress free weekend.

Ours is chain free and freehold. 3 months and no exchange or completion date even mentioned in passing after the offer.

How can I find out if the buyer is proceedable for certain? Also at what point do you give up on the buyer and ask to go back on the market?

Your solicitor should be asking serious questions and get the answers from the buyers solicitor.
with no ongoing information I’d look at remarketing, especially if the survey has not been done.

Yes surveys done and dusted. Repairs done after building survey. One repair to a window was in the wrong room so we have said we will do the correct room once we have some dates set. The repairs was under £800 to fix minor niggles like eindow hinges and gutters. But it's just more pissing about to delay for another few weeks for a £50 window hinge my dh can swop out.

We are talking to the estate agents today. Do you think we need to go direct to the solicitors now?

We was expecting a request to drop price yesterday. But heard nothing so I honestly think it's a delay as they are struggling to get a mortgage.

Should we write to the solicitor to say we need proof they are procedable by the close of the week or we will re market it? Surely that's fair?

It's empty so insurance is on dodgy ground too

However, I'm not sure if the mortgage survey has been done good point

Just checked with the estate agent and they said the buyers had a mortgage offer in Feb. But we only excepted the offer mid Feb, so can you can get a mortgage offer in two weeks for a specific property or could this be a mortgage in principle? Surely the bank can't get a survey that fast - or can they?

Personally I’d be smelling a rat at this point. Over the years we’ve had some nasty trick played on us both as buyers and seller. I trust no one in the property game.
EAs are only in it for the money, sale number and getting the highest price, whist pretending to be your best friend.
I’d always talk directly to your solicitor, your paying for their expert advice.

can I join you in fretting? I'm in Scotland like PP. i ave had my offer accepted two weeks ago, and my house went on the market yesterday. I've just talked non stop at my first viewer, I'll need to calm down!

Yes I think so too. Estate agent said its very normal for a sale to take 3 months. But we are three months and no exchange date even mentioned yet.

My friend had a cash buyer for her house. Four months in he pulled out as couldn't get a mortgage!

Will be emailing the solicitor abd ccing the Estate agent this afternoon asking for proof of mortgage offer or going back on the market.

Nothing was said after a viewing early afternoon yet the estate agent was open for three hours afterwards and today. Estate agent thinks they didn't have time to give thoughts as it was late in the day. Unlikely

@DyslexicPoster our bank did a table top valuation rather than survey, so our mortgage offer was in <3 weeks after our offer was accepted.

You are very tolerant doing the repairs from the survey!! Surely someone wouldn’t delay exchange for a window hinge?!?

I was shocked the hinges came up and they didn't just ask to knock £1000 off for the hassle of £700 worth of repairs. Undoubtedly they will want to check when we replace the last hinge. Meanwhile it's sitting empty not being aired etc.

I just think by now they would want to be securing the sale.

We are one day into the process, with our house on the market as of yesterday at 6pm.

we had a call this morning from the EA saying someone wants to view but it's 3 weeks' time, as they rang the EA from their holiday, which is hopeful. They must have seen the photos on Zoopla.

we have the dilemma everyone has at the start of the selling process - do we accept anyone wanting to view, whether or not they are on the market with their property or do we only accept those who are proceedable. For now we have said we are happy for viewings if people are on the market but not yet proceedable, but not if they aren't yet on the market. We need people to show commitment.

we are hoping to buy a house on a new development. The house hasn't even been started yet, so we think we may have breathing space but time goes by so quickly and we don't want to be still waiting months down the line and miss out on the plot we like the look of. Stress levels rising already!

we don't mind going into temporary accommodation, but we got a shock today. Short lets and Airbnb are biblically expensive! We've been phoning around some friends who have lets, but they are all fully occupied with long term tenants. We may end up in a tent in the farmers field 😆

@daisychain01 we once had someone view our house and then put theirs on the market afterwards, purely to buy ours. They viewed, then 4 months later called with an offer without seeing it again! We also put ours on the market years ago after viewing one down the road, if it had sold we wouldn’t have sold ours, we only wanted that one. I wouldn’t rule people out if they’re not on the market, though time wasters are annoying. There is now real way to know.
We have had 2 viewings in week 1. Both liked it both both need to sell theirs. The market just feels slow, Rightmove in my area this week seems like 90% houses being reduced.

Thank you @Sadteacher thats good to know that even people without their property on the market could end up being the one who buys. I can't stand the thought of people just coming round for something to do on a Sunday afternoon.

We are willing to consider offers. Our EA has set the price quite conservatively. When we looked at Zoopla, the price they quoted for our property was about £20K more than our EA.

I agree I’d let them view even if not on the market - but try to get your agent to book in viewings one after the other if possible to save you time tidying.

We had someone view who wasn’t on yet but had some valuations. They liked it and put in a provisional offer. And then wanted to sell with our agent to try to hurry things along. They aren’t the person we’ve ended up selling to ( as someone else got in quicker) but if we hadn’t found anyone else we may well have ended up selling to them.

I think things are so different from the mad rush around Covid times and with all the doom and gloom people are much more wary and often want to know there is something they like before going on the market.

We had a slow week 1 with 1 viewing who said it is perfect but think they will probably stay in area they currently are. We viewed one which was awful and really sad, he has dementia. She is so desperate to sell but overpaid 2 years ago.

Viewing number 2 next week. Agent said she is under pressure from a FTB, can afford our asking price without a mortgage but would need a small mortgage if any higher and wanted to know our position. The mortgage bit is a bit weird but maybe she is looking at other properties with agent. So just in case we have 2 to look at booked. If we don’t like them there is nothing else really at the moment.

Part of me would like more viewings booked, the other part of me can’t be arsed to tidy so is glad there aren’t. Well not tidy, hide all the cat stuff, change bedding etc .

100% re trying to get appointments sequentially on a particular day (Fri, Sat, Sun preferably). We've got the house into a reasonable tidiness level and trying to keep it like that (ie all non-essentials off the kitchen workspace, all bathroom toiletries in cupboards as much as possible), so it will be a quick fly around with the vacuum and duster the night before and not too much actual tidying to do.

I think our red line is set, if someone isn't proceedable or on the market, we wouldn't accept an offer from them. It would be "thanks for your interest, feel free to come back to us when you're on the market, for now we will continue to accept viewings from other people in the meantime".

No way would we take the property off the market for someone who isn't really in a position to make an offer. What if the offer they get on their property is too low and they're overstretched on their mortgage. I've seen that happen in the past. It's a recipe for disaster. That, and the "we're a cash buyer". That one is bandied about, unvalidated by the EA and then they time wasters do a disappearing act!

Totally.

We basically said yes we’d accept in principle but once they’d sold and house was staying on the market until then. And then someone else bought it in the meantime! It’s just the way it goes.

And yes 100% easier to tidy for limited viewings and it creates a bit of urgency having lots of people seeing others view.

Joining this thread. We accepted an offer 6 weeks ago, and had an offer accepted at the same time. We’ve got our mortgage offer, had survey on the house we’re buying last week and waiting for feedback from that, our buyer had a mortgage survey on ours a few weeks ago (and we’ve heard nothing so assume all ok!) and we’re just at the enquiries stage (we responded to them at the end of last week) and waiting for responses for our purchase.

I’m so anxious, basically thinking it’s going to fall apart at any point…. Can’t wait to get to exchange, will start to really push that once we have the results of our survey back.

Keeping 🤞 that your move continues to go smoothly at all stages @Magicmushroomsauce I always think once people have invested in a survey, it gives a greater sense of commitment on all sides.

I've been on Gumtree today advertising various pieces of furniture we don't want to take to our next house, there will be quite a few built in units there, so it's nice to help kit out other people's homes with a few bargains, especially with the CoL at the moment.

Thanks @daisychain01 it was only a mortgage survey, so they are either going to just have that or spring a survey on us at the last minute I guess…!

sounds like you’ve had a productive day!

I think this could be a big week for us in house progress. Buyers had a survey last week, so hopefully they’ll have the report now and we’ll be able to answer any outstanding questions…

Then hopefully we can get to drafting contracts and setting a date. I’m just hoping they don’t start negotiating for a discount following the survey as we priced very keenly aware of all the work that needs doing and our onward budget won’t work if we accept less 😬

@PyjamasForeverBest of luck! I hope they find nothing to complain about :D

We have our photos on Thursday and are still trying to get everything clean and ready. Pressure washed the patio today (so satisfying!) but it was also our daughter’s second birthday so we couldn’t get as much done as we would have liked.

Mum and dad now have 10 viewings for Tuesday. Just got to hope someone offers 🤞🏻🤞🏻

We’ve been told early to mid June for completion and expect to hear a firm date this week. BUT we know it can still go wrong. Fingers crossed for all on this thread, hope the week’s a good one.