Offer accepted! Wish me luck! - FTB journal

B52

Thanks everyone on this forum, we learned a lot from here.

We are FTB and have our offer accepted. Things seems to be happening real fast and smooth. Hope it's not an illusion!

Mar 8th, Wed, Day 1: Meeting with Mortgage advisor and was offered mortgage in principle (?)

Mar 11th, Sat, Day 4: Viewing this house for the first time, lots of work needed but if we could get it at a lower price, we would not mind.

Mar 13th, Mon, Day 6: Viewing this house for the second time, despite being an 'older house', the structure 'seems' alright - but then we are not expert at all! Talked to a neighbour and was assured that's a nice area.

Did our homework and found the sold price of a 2 bed house on the same street last year (there's not many properties in that area) and that it was all done up when they bought it. (The house we are interested in is a 3-bed but needs modernisation.) Decided to put in an offer 83% of the asking price, which is 3K lower than the 2 bed done up house.

Mar 14th, Tue, Day 7: Made the offer in the morning, got a reply from EA in the afternoon that vendor has accepted the offer!

We were very pleased because we have heard usually vendors will not accept the first offer. But then we would not offer much higher as we would rather buy a 'done up' house.

Mar 15th, Wed, Day 8: Met up with Mortgage Advisor again and went through all the paperwork. As much as we would like to shop around, we used the Solicitor and Surveyor recommended by our Mortgage Advisor in order to speed things up. Paid £459 for the Homebuyers Survey.

Mar 16th, Thur, Day 9: Called MA as we would want to be present when the Survey is being conducted. MA asked us to call EA. EA told us they would notify us when surveyor picked up the keys.

Mar 17th, Fri, Day 10: Received convenayance documents in the post asking for formal instructions, proof of identity and £200 fee upfront for land search etc. Went straight to their office in the morning to complete all these. The house was removed from Rightmove, in fact it was shown as Sold STC.

Mar 20th, Mon, Day 13: Went to Ikea to look at the kitchen designs, signed up for their store card (thanks for your tips here on this forum). I know Vendor can still change his mind/ there may be problems with the Homebuyers survey etc. and we should not be too excited about this house, but we could not help it!

Mar 21th, Tue, Day 14: Called EA trying to remind them to contact us about the survey and was told it has already been carried out. They did not notify us. Oh well. MA advised us mortgage has been approved.

That's for now.

I hope it's not too boring for you forum members.

terrierlady

im sure i speak for lots of people reading this thread and wish you all the luck in the world, its a time when you will need more than luck, you are doing more than ok, posting on here any questions you need answering, im sure some of the experianced people on here will point you in the right direction. keep your wits about you at all times and question everything the estate agent tells you, keep asking question. good luck.

B52

Thanks Terrierlady!

Yes there's still many things that we don't know.

Such as: When do we speak to the vendor about our proposed completion date?

And, the house is already vacant but there's still some beds, empty chicken shed in the garden etc. Do we need to specify in the contract that the vendor needs to remove them from the house?

Thanks!

terrierlady

the estate agent should know the details of when the vendor is looking for completion etc, when you get upto exchange of contracts there will be a completion date decided that suits everyone in the chain.
Make sure your deposit funds are ready to give to the solicitor, he will need a bankers draft or cash a few days before the day of exchange.
Your solicitor will also get the fixture and fittings list make sure that what you have agreed on is listed ie curtain/curtain poles? light fittings? oven? garden shed?

Doozergirl

B52 wrote:

When do we speak to the vendor about our proposed completion date?

Once you have have your survey results and mortgage offer in place, you can tell your solicitor when you would like to exchange and complete and they will try to agree the date with the vendor's solicitor. As your sale sounds like it is chain free, you can probably move as fast as your solicitor can do the conveyancing for you.

B52 wrote:

And, the house is already vacant but there's still some beds, empty chicken shed in the garden etc. Do we need to specify in the contract that the vendor needs to remove them from the house?

The vendor will have already had to sign a document stating that all of their effects will be removed, unless they've stated them in the fixtures and fittings form as staying.

zar

B52 wrote:

And, the house is already vacant but there's still some beds, empty chicken shed in the garden etc. Do we need to specify in the contract that the vendor needs to remove them from the house?

No no keep the chicken house if you can! They're so easy to keep and the eggs taste so good! :drool: And you can sell the eggs to pay off your new mortgage. If you want more info the main threads on keeping chickens over in OS are indexed in this post (scroll down to chickens and eggs).

But if you really don't want them then I'd guess you should put it in the contract but someone with actual experience is more worth listening to than me! If you have any problems with getting the vendor to remove, put them on your local freecycle group, people will come and collect them so you don't have the hassle of moving them. Hope it all goes according to plan.

us,thecat&thedebt

Good Luck


:A :beer: :j :money:

B52

Thanks very much to TerrierLady and Doozergirl for all your advice!

Zar, the taste of fresh eggs are really tempting! But I don't think I can convince my husband as he is very paranoid about oh poo poo! LOL.

Doozergirl

Chickens are really noisy too (if you have a boy one)

However, I may try to convince my husband to have chickens at the new house. As long as they don't poo in the house (like the cat does), I think he'll be relieved.

B52

Mar 22nd, Wed, Day 15,

Just received a call from EA that they made a mistake, the keys were just picked up by the Surveyor so the Homebuyers Survey was not done last week as we have been told.

We would like to have a word with the surveyor:
o the possibility of loft conversion
o if there are major issues of the house

MA advised us just to turn up and speak to them.

B52

Mar 24th, Fri, Day 17

Received Environmental Search result and Certificate from solicitor.

All's ok except:
Natural Susidence: The property is in an area of natural subsidence hazard potential. It is recommended that a surveyor is consulted.

Level of risk: Low

Is it very common?

I wish to speak to the surveyor who did our Homebuyers Survey but since we appointed through our lender we have no idea yet who did it and are still awaiting for the result/report. (Did not see anyone on Wednesday when we went there.)