The 'We want to buy a house' support group

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For like minded souls who are having trouble buying a house even though the property market is supposed to be on its knees.

We've had a vendor pull our, been gazumped and are horrified by the complete lack of any houses for sale at all.

So come share your woes here.

Agent has come back and said they are prepared to drop £1K but only after he'd had a very long conversation with them. He sounded exasperated. I've told the agent that I'm very concerned that if we agree to to that price they might just change their minds closer to completion and that I'm not sure that they are actually committed to selling.

Have told the agent that we want the fixtures and fittings listed faxed over as we're concerned that we have only heard verbally what's included and that they may have changed their minds about what is included as they wouldn't be getting the full asking price. The vendor has said they are only asking for another £500 but I have pointed out that it would be considerably more than that if they take things like curtains off the fittings list.

Grrr.

they sound a bit mad 3inthebed, good idea to get things on paper now. Fingers crossed for you.

We've got another buyer . Obviously not going to get too excited yet but they seem keen. Took a £3k hit on the price but that was expected and we are ok about that.

Think I need to join you guys - we were buying our perfect home - meant to be moving in Jan - they have pulled out.

So we are back looking. What a stupid time of year to be looking for a house. But we have a good buyer, but they aren't going to hang on forever are they?

Welcome Growlygus!

For the same reasons you are wailing, on the upside, your buyers might hang on because they will also find it difficult to find another house. Actually, a similar thing happened to some friends of ours and they have convinced their buyers to hang on at least until the New Year, which they are doing. So hope that your buyers will stick too!

we're a bit confused about what's going on with our house. The one we are buying went back up for sale online without us being told. 1 man from the agents told our agent people were seeing it today then a different man told me noone was seeing it and it is still ours!
Will hopefully become clearer on Monday.

Can I join please? First time buyers been looking for 10months and now convinced if we don't find somewhere we will have to wait until the next crash in 20years.

Been messed around with a few properties (Repo's, won't go near them now), put an offer in on somewhere we loved (£45,000 below asking price!!!) and were told if we can go £10,000 more than he'd accept. This will leave us with literally £2,000 after paying the deposit....er, which will be the cost of the stamp duty.

We own literally a tv chest, a cot, a few bedside tables and a coffee table - oh, and a broken sofa bed.

bricking it....

GirlWith- well done, it is hard to even find a property worth putting an offer in on.

Check out your local Freecycle- have a look and see what people are giving away. Also local charity places that sell furniture. I have donated sofas and all sorts when I couldn't be bothered to sell stuff.

It took us about 3 years to have enough furniture for every room, before that it was stuff we brought from our rooms at our parents so mine, knotty pine, DH black ash A good lick of paint does the trick!

We have our buyers and the vendors solicitors pushing ours to speed things up which I feel is good, DH is saying "why do they want to move so badly" it is making him nervous and then me in return

good luck GWtMH. If you really love it and it won't break the bank to pay the mortgage payments every month go for it. You could try and offer maybe £8k more to start with to see if they'll take that.
And I 2nd freecycle, I've given away furniture on that and seen some good sounding stuff on it.

Fizzy- we're desperate to move out too but doesn't mean there's anything worng with this house. Just that it's too small and we're fed up of the whole process now.

Noone saw the house we're buying, seems like we got our offer on this one just in time. So it's still ours. Our new buyers seen keen and are trying to get things moving quickly so fingers crossed it won't be long now.

Have already started a thread today about houses here.

think we are going to give up and stay put now as we were only moving so my dad could live with us.

Good luck to everyone else moving and looking though.

Update: As we suspected owners have reduced the items in their fixtures and fittings but really petty little things rather than a serious attempt to claw back some of the £1K they think they are losing out on. They then had a problem with our completion date saying they'd looked at 29 houses in the last week and none was suitable (Perfectionists or terminally indecisive?) and were asking if we could go into rented for 6 months to give them time to find something. WTF?

When I pointed out we were looking at other properties, were not going into rented under any circumstances, and it was meet our completion deadline or the deal was off. Within half a day they had put in an offer on another property (with vacant possession) and we are awaiting confirmation of acceptance of that offer.

Girlwith we are being left with very little to furnish this place with (assuming we get it) but the desirability of the house outweighs everything. You might well find that once word gets about that you are getting your own home you get offers of furniture etc from family and friends. Whether you would want to give a home it is an entirely different question

thanks everyone - we eventually went up the extra £10,000 but he's paying half the stamp duty so a bit of room to breathe, and we've got the money I put aside to pay my taxes (self-emplyed) which will be free if I don't get another job before April, also some money given to our son which we'd then obviously pay back (he's 13months), so think we now have about £2000 to pay all fees with and maybe get a fridge.

I'm more than happy to freecycle and have already got in touch with the freebies on gumtree. The only major things we need are a bed for us, a fridge/freezer and a washing machine...

eeeek am absolutely terrified! might go and buy a round the world plane ticket instead

Grr! to everyone having problems.

We have exchanged today!! !! We are moving on 21 December. Please don't tell me I am mad to move just before Christmas. We have packed a grand total of nothing. Boxes are arriving tomorrow. Have spent the evening telling the gas / electricity / DVLA etc about the change of address.

Hope everyone else gets there in the end too!

Offer accepted which is a relief but owners continuing to be really petty. Don't think a pre-move visit will be possible without possibly ending up on attempted manslaughter charge on my part

our buyers want to exchange and complete on the same day. Is that crazy?

Congratulations 3inthebed!

Debi - yes that is crazy. Removal firms round here won't take your firm booking until you've exchanged contracts. You won't be able to tell everyone about your new address in advance, like the utilities companies etc. You won't know for certain that you are actually moving until the morning you are meant to be moving. They could pull out on the morning you think you are moving.

What does your solicitor think?

Why do they want to exchange and complete on the same day?

Well, it looks like many of you don't need the thread anymore, glad to hear somebody is getting somewhere.

We are still in rental and sifting through very few and overpriced properties. The market is crazy... there is a road with a three bed terrace for less than 250 but the other terraces have asking prices in the region of 500-600 just because they have one extra bedroom or better layouts. Of course they are really overpriced as they need work.

Still, at least we are renting locally, it's hard to househunt when you are miles away. I thought we'd be in our house by now but we have been in rental (in two different places) since August 2008. We were forced to complete quickly hence the rental, but it has not been all bad as we changed our mind on where we want to live.

seems their logic was that if they can do that then we could complete before Christmas as 1 of the couple buying it has to be out of her rented place 29th Dec.
Fair enough, but they haven't even had survey done and haven't heard today if it's being done anytime soon!
So somehow can't see us completing next week!

OK, so likely is it we'll exchange before Christmas? Mortgage approval still awaiting, solicitor got stuff from estate agents today, broker is pushing to get valuation done this week. Trouble is part of our deposit is coming from my parents who are selling a house in France, they exchange on Friday but won't get money til after Christmas...

Girlwith... I think it's unlikely. Our solicitor told us their last day is Tuesday next week. Sounds like there's still a few too many things to do.

Our buyers are realising completing before Christmas is crazy but still hoping to exchange before.

We move on Friday! It's taken along time coming but sooooo pleased it's nearly here! We've exchanged (ages ago) but completing Friday (I hope).

Good luck everyone else. Deb - fingers crossed for you!

My DB is trying to buy and exchange on a house by Xmas Eve. It's a repossession so it has to stay on the market until the last minute, pressure is on.