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!

Congratulations BraOffPjsOn there is light at the end of the very long tunnel. I’m sure you’ll get sorted soon.
A difficult situation for you HouseMoveRound2 good that you can still proceed.
we’re still waiting for an exchange date, but relieved to know the seller’s purchase is almost ready.

@HouseMoveRound2 such good news for you possibly on target for mid November and that wont be long. The ups and downs navigating conveyancing is so much harder than it used to be.

Got a viewing saturday, trying to suss it all out before the view because I know the EA spouts such drivel. Plus dh is super excited and I need to ground him. He's terrible for going off piste. Its a nice house tho, ive just got my accountant/surveyor hat on.

Oh @BraOffPjsOn your dreams are making me think you are guilty of something 🤣🤣. Aww the unpacking is like getting the supermarket shop home and having to put it all away. Its such a chore. This is why im looking forward to the airbnb. Bye crap, see you in the future.

Oooh sounds possibly quite positive @2longinthetooth and you are in a very strong position as a buyer because you would be breaking any potential chain.

yes I’m finally coming down from ceiling after a hellish 2 days. But I’m now so on edge I don’t think I will be able to relax until we are actually holding the keys.

@Beebumble2 hope you get an exchange date soon, most people are going to be pushing hard to complete over the next couple of weeks otherwise everything creeps closer to Christmas….

We've had another viewing booked for Monday, shall see if we actually get someone through the door this time. They booked for next door and the agents have tacked us on afterwards for shits and giggles

Got the Friday blues here as we end another week without getting exchange and completion dates agreed. It’s unfathomable why these processes take so long, we’ve been waiting on a simple form to be signed and returned to us since last Friday. I chased it on Tuesday Thursday and today. The length of time it takes for people to reply is also insane.

@HouseMoveRound2 we moved in on Monday. My husband just said he expected me to be more excited about ordering new furnishings etc. I am just too jaded from the last few months. It is, indeed, an insane process.

I get that @Sadteacher i feel
like I’ve been living under such a sustained level of stress for several months that I can’t imagine relaxing even when we are on the other side. Hopefully it just takes a bit of time to adjust to the reduced pressure, a bit like coming up after a deep sea dive!

Good to hear that you have moved @Sadteacher . Sounds like you need a bit of time to relax before you start to feel enthusiastic about buying things for the new house.Hopefully we’ll all be glad we did it in the end.

@HouseMoveRound2 aw the friday silence is awful and heavy. Honestly evennif you had a text to say still waiting for this or that it would be something to grasp but the nothing plays tricks on your mind. All the emotion is sripped away, i dont even cry anymore. Its like you are numb.
We cancelled our viewing for this weekend, there were environmental issues the government are involved with so that put us off. Did see another house on rightmove but it needs too much work, so we have decided not to aggressively look for the rest of the yr, made our peace that we wont find it now and wait til jan.

You are spot on @2longinthetooth the numbness is horrible and pretty entrenched now, and it’s only really broken up by moments of extreme stress and anxiety.

Sorry to hear the house you were interested in ended up being a non-starter, hope you manage to decompress a bit now your foot is off the pedal

@HouseMoveRound2 yes we went out for food tonight and it was nice to get out from the boxes and packing. Felt nice and stress free.

You will get over line even tho it seems like way off. It consumes you.

Feel for everyone in the thick of the stress. We're back to square one, as our buyers pulled out after being spooked by their survey. There wasn't any issue with them getting a mortgage, but they wanted a minimum of £30k off to insure against stuff going wrong in the future. Er, no. They let us see the survey in the end, I suspect as a kind of gotcha, and after getting tradespeople out to quote for repairs, it will cost less than a third of that to fix what actually needs doing. So we're getting those bits done ourselves.

House is still on the market, and getting a lot of interest, but no new offers yet. I don't feel discouraged by this, because frankly right now I would rather keep living in a half packed house than start again with all the conveyancing and queries and flaky people you have to deal with. Can't tell whether having work done is a good or bad thing for buyers. If I wanted to offer on a place with outstanding work waiting to be done, I would want to see some evidence of it before offering or committing to legal/mortgage fees, but DH doesn't feel this is a serious factor.

@JohnBullshit Sorry about your buyers but I feel alot are doing that today. Good for you standing your ground. Its the constant up and down of emotions tho which makes this process so tough. You,ll find another buyer and off you go again.

sorry to hear that @JohnBullshit so frustrating how quickly everything can be pulled out from under you and you have to start all over again. I’m sure it’s not like this in other countries tries so just can’t understand why it’s so difficult here 😫

Thanks, @2longinthetooth and @HouseMoveRound2 . It's such a weird climate for selling right now. We're on what I fervently hope will be our final move, but we've sold several times over the years, and while it hasn't always been a speedy process no buyer has ever pulled out or tried stupid games before.

@JohnBullshitIm with you on this one. This will be our last move as well. We are downsizing preparing for retirement. Like yourselves we have bought and sold a few homes but never experienced the crap we have endured. Its crazy. The conveyancing timelines has doubled. For our solicitor the average length of time is 12 to 16 weeks. That blows my mind when it used to be 8 to 10 weeks max. Yrs ago I did have trouble selling a house, 1 tried to guzunder me and another just fell off the radar but I sold it perfectly find the 3rd time. All the others were straight forward. Plus we have never been in a position whereby ive not found an onward property. I was discussing this with dh yesterday and we think as the yrs are passing life is being made worse by heavy bureaucracy. Even organising this rental geez the questions they are asking.
Plus the state of some of these homes, they are asking a bomb for them yet they have major issues like full roof reno. I dont really know what is going on but since covid the country has deteriorated.

@2longinthetooth There seems to be a real shortage of properties, doesn't there? While we were still in the 'thinking about it' stage, there was always a choice in the places we were considering. We imagined that our flexibility would guarantee something suitable would be available, somewhere. The reality now is that any choice is far more of a compromise than we were hoping for. There's hardly anything out there. We keep hearing it's a buyer's market, but it seems like nobody's market to me.

@JohnBullshit youve hit the nail on the head, when we started to look, there were superfically houses that were viable, there are viable houses now but like you say when you scratch beneath the facade there are serious issues that cant be compromised. We were going to see a stunning home, however when digging around on the internet the house is right by an opencast mine which has now esculated into a massive court battle, with suggestions of illegal dumping of toxic waste. Uumm nope sorry. Plus this house is asking a pretty packet.

The house we were conveyancing on had cavity wall probs, vendor had zero paperwork yet thought an invoice for work done would do and what was our problem.

People are crazy to think if you paint a kitchen you can pass it off as a brand new kitchen. Crazy times

Definitely agree on the nightmare of conveyancing timelines in the 2020s. Our last sale in 2025 took 7 months to go through and no chain and it was very straightforward too. It was a large solicitor with all the team working from home and basically not working! We have learnt so much from that experience.
Best advice is to ask estate agents about great conveyancers as they will know some or do extensive research yourself on reviews. Family members have had speedy success with one man band conveyancers that are just set up on their own even. The days of great service pre year 2000 when everything was done by phone and post have long gone and you need to choose your conveyancer as carefully as your house.

Still not much happening with my sale yet. The day I have the new estate agent round to take photos, I had original EA call to book a second viewing but the couple have been a no show twice so I'm not hopeful. New EA took way more details from me than the first one, many photos including the garden (hope he can photoshop out the weeds...) and sounded more interested than the first one.

Of course, I have been on Right Move etc constantly and have found a few houses I'd like to view but I'll have to be patient!

just found out the land being transferred to us to resolve the boundary issue has a charge on it 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 current owners trying to get it removed before lodging TP1, but I am guessing this is yet another stupidly bureaucratic process that will again stretch timelines out. Wtf.

The viewing happened!! As far as I can tell anyways. I was peephole spying until they went in next door (young couple, we're hoping the ready to move into flat is more tempting than the empty ex rental). Our viewing was straight after the one next door so we left after they went in.

It was an awkward time, an hour before my son's drum lesson so we took a very slow walk there but we don't want to put off any viewings so will put up with weird and annoying times. Fingers crossed for some feedback tomorrow... Hopefully they want to come and view it again/make an offer!!

@CatsRuleMyLifetwice no show what a piss take, they wouldn't have a third. Viewings are hard enough to clean up and make the house look presentable without time wasters.

@HouseMoveRound2 That boundary is a bloody nightmare. Ive not a clue what a charge means but it sounds crazy.

@TeddyBeansviewings, what joy, it will be worth it in the end. I sat in the car with the dogs for round the corner for 1hr on 1 back to back viewing. The things we do to sell our homes.

Finally removers are here tomorrow and I cant wait to see the back of sodding packing. Went to check out the airbnb, looks cosy and warm so thats good. Ive got 5 days to leisurely clean my house for completion next week so it will be spotless. Ive injured my shoulder tho and in pain. Just want to be out now.

@2longinthetooth hope you feel better soon and the rest of packing/cleaning goes smoothly ❤️

@2longinthetooth i hope your move day went well. Let us know you're ok in your own good time. It's an awfully emotional time leaving a home where you've lived with your family all those years. Big hug. Look after your shoulder x