To those selling in these difficult times Part Deux. AKA sellers support network!

Karmacat

Morning all! Strawberry, welcome to the thread and mse, but I've no idea, sorry, its been over 12 years since I last bought/sold, and I've only just appointed my own solicitor, so I don't know from this time round either. Thats my news, actually - found a solicitor, recommended by my EA, after talking around and checking quotes - he's in a town in the same county, at least, and I've spoken to him, and he's a partner in the law firm, so it sounds good so far. He undercut the web-based firm by at least £100, but he may be a little bit patronising until he gets his feet under the table - he asked if I knew what stamp duty and estate agent's fees are!!!!

strawberryx

Thank you for the welcome

Yesterday we were told that our chain had come to an agreement on a date to exchange (beginning of June), with a completion date of 2 weeks later (top of the chain buying a new build and builders wont fit carpets, etc, until contracts are exchanged) but unfortunately this meant the moving date everyone had agreed was whilst we were on holiday! So now we're hoping we can exchange two weeks before our holiday (28th May) and complete the Friday before our holiday, but not sure how possible this is! Alternatively I would like to exchange on the date suggested at beginning of June, then just hope everyone can hold out an extra week or two to complete when we return home! At least then we could enjoy the holiday knowing we have exchanged! Sod's law though that everything happens at once!

Reading this thread has really scared me though and brought to light everything that could go wrong! haha.

Karmacat - I guess some people don't actually know, hehe. Those that don't really research moving probably don't have a clue! I've spoken to people about mine and my partners move and stamp duty and hardly anyone has known what it is. Just pride yourself on being able to say yes, I do know, hehe. x

rosered100

Searches should only take a week. Most searches are already in the HIP & then its just any extra questions to answer such as fixtures/fittings & the SPIF(sellers property information form) like council tax & rights of way questions.
I did all my own (doing my own conveyance - gulp) & the HIP searches were done in a day & the others I'm doing this weekend. You need to fill in the forms to tell your solicitor anyway as you know the property. Then its just for everyone to agree the contract & all its terms before exchange.

jaffacat_2

hi, been reading this thread since Oct out of interest but thought i would join in. we put our house on Sept for £230 dropped it down over time in March were on at £219,950 and some buy-to-let people offered £205 then went to £207 we rejected it (we dont have to move, we would like to move to a new town out of the city of oxford), anyway we changed the pricing to offers in excess of £217,500 so far we have had 21 viewings since Sept, but yesterday the previous people that offered the £207 came back out of the blue (6 weeks later) and offered £210, we said we would meet them half way (if we could find somewhere) but they offered £211 today and said they wont go any further. The prob with our house is the 2nd bedroom is a large/small room and most people want 2 large rooms & a single room from a 3 bedroomed house - hence it taking time to sell other 3 beds fly of the market within a week or two.

Anyway our predicament is there is a house we like on paper (on rightmove) on at £235 (was on for £245 in Jan reduced beg of April when they moved to new est agents)anwyay we are viewing it on Monday with a view to make a lowish offer see how the land lies, we havent given an answer on the £211 offer yet said we want to think about it and this afternoon we received a voicemail from the est agent saying that someone else wants to view our house - on Mon AM when I speak to the est agent should we say we will let others view prob Tue/Wed, and we cant make a decision on the offer (est ageent seems to be pushing us for a decision today) as it isnt what we would really accept and other people may want the house (in hope that they up there offer again - they did say at £207 back in March they couldnt offer anymore!!!!!! which also gives us time to see what sort of price this other house will accept if they will accept an offer at all.....its such a waiting game and these people are playing mind games, told the est ageent they had nowt to sell back in March but told us they were selling a house, now they have said they are in rented (which could be true if they have in fact sold).

At the endof the day if this house we like on paper is nice when we view it we dont want to lose out on it for the sake of £6.5k difference however if they dont take an offer things will be very tight for us and we may have to tell the people that offered on ours that it cant be done unless they up there offer!!

If we accept the £211 would you ask our est agent to leave the house on the market until the survey has been done?

Thanks in advance, never sold before so not looking forward to it all and im not patient at all but am sure going to have to learn very quickly if this all starts moving!

Good luck to those still on the market, hopefully things will pick up now for everyone

Lisa

azkaban420

Welcome strawberry and jaffacat, and anyone else new that I've missed.

Strawberry, can't remember off the top of my head how long searches take but I think if you were to let your solicitor know of the timescale, this could be fed along the chain, so that all parties agree. I would personally also be happy to exchange prior to going away and complete on return, just in case anything went wrong before you leave....wouldn't want it to prevent you going away or anything;

jaffacat - ultimately you will have to make the decision about whether it is worth holding out for a little bit more/better offer or taking it. In my opinion if you've been trying to sell since September then the £211 is a good raised offer - it is 8% less than your initial asking price, and only 3% less than your current asking price. I have read that offers on houses around upto 10% are still deemed a good price.

It is a tough decision, as you know your situation better than others, but if I were you, I'd take it, for the sake of losing the buyers/more time to a better offer. If someone offered me the same sort of percentages, I'd go for it on my house.

Good luck whatever you decide

Az

PottyHouse_2

strawberryx wrote: »

Thank you for the welcome

Yesterday we were told that our chain had come to an agreement on a date to exchange (beginning of June), with a completion date of 2 weeks later (top of the chain buying a new build and builders wont fit carpets, etc, until contracts are exchanged) but unfortunately this meant the moving date everyone had agreed was whilst we were on holiday! So now we're hoping we can exchange two weeks before our holiday (28th May) and complete the Friday before our holiday, but not sure how possible this is! Alternatively I would like to exchange on the date suggested at beginning of June, then just hope everyone can hold out an extra week or two to complete when we return home! At least then we could enjoy the holiday knowing we have exchanged! Sod's law though that everything happens at once!

Reading this thread has really scared me though and brought to light everything that could go wrong! haha.

Karmacat - I guess some people don't actually know, hehe. Those that don't really research moving probably don't have a clue! I've spoken to people about mine and my partners move and stamp duty and hardly anyone has known what it is. Just pride yourself on being able to say yes, I do know, hehe. x

Hi Strawberryx, we are in the same situ as you !!

We were really hoping to be able to complete by Friday 28th May too (yes only 3 full weeks away) but we are waiting for our Buyers to purchase their freehold which we have been told will be 3 weeks min - so we are assuming completion the following week 4th June or the week after 11th June and on both of these dates we are on holiday !!!!!!

We are prepared to cancel/resched hol but as time is getting on we really would like a definite date to work to - we think it's only fair that we know now rather than a week before would'nt you agree ???!!!!!

Have said to my OH if it waits until we return we cannot physically complete until Monday 14th June but not sure if everyone else in the chain will be waiting for us then !!!

Would just like to know when its all going to happen so emailed by solicitor on Friday to get some communication going in the chain - this house mullarkey ... you're always in limbo ........

strawberryx

It's just sod's law that everything happens at once! And I really don't want to cancel the holiday as it's cost us a lot of money! But surely everyone should be ok. We have a 3 link chain and worst case scenario is everyone moves a week and a half later than originally planned!

Tomorrow we're going to get onto solicitors about seeing draft contract to see fixtures and fittings list (although we aren't going to be over fussy about this so it shouldn't take long) and hopefully they should get onto the searches this week!

So by some miracle it could be possible to exchange on 28th May? EA said she was going to look into things on Friday, so hoping she can come back with some suggestions tomorrow.

rosered - I think you're brave doing everything yourself! hehe

kst101

I need to talk to solicitor about when completion seems likely. Our buyers were wanting about 6 weeks from about 3 weeks ago (I think) but this is exactly when I do some of my rare working (I do freelance marking at certain times and have it every day from 2nd until 6th June). Have said we really can't move then as this is about a quarter of my earnings for the year.

Got a letter from mortgage company yesterday dated 4th May saying the solicitors had been in touch about redeeming the mortgage. Was slightly puzzled as it talked about redeeming on 4th May and that we needed to make June's payment by the 4th May to redeem on that date. As far as I have noticed we haven't redeemed our mortgage. Am hoping it might be talking about 4th June? It said to talk to solicitor so I will tomorrow

We are organising a house to rent (just need to pay deposit and first month's rent) which DH will move into slightly before us as he is already partially living up in York at the moment. Have also sorted school places although can't do that officially until we have an address up there.

Haven't started to think about packing :eek: - need to get some quotes for removals.

Also slightly worried about teh extra information we have had to give to buyers' solicitors as it wants planning permission for things we know there wasn't permission for when we bought the house 5 years ago. Also going on about damp (which we were fully upfront about when we were showing viewers round and provided a report giving estimate for treating it). Hope buyers don't want to reduce offer by that amount although I think we could absorb it. Keep making spreadsheets showing different possibilities!

DH also went on to the buyers about selling our kitchen table to them (this is fine as it is massive and wouldn't fit any where else). On some draft contract it is saying including table and chairs (but with no price given). Don't actually want to give them away and want to keep the chairs anyway. Must discuss that too.

Hope people are getting viewings, offers and everything goes smoothly:j

kst101

That was a lot of waffle :rotfl:

Need to do something or other that is useful now seeing as DH, DD and DS have gone out

[Deleted User]

ooh so many ups and downs on the thread, elation and then hopes dashed but it is all very grounding for me.

I started off full of hopes, yes a really lovely spotless house. Very high epc. On a gorgeous site of several wooded acres. Lovely people all around and at a bargain price. I saw the house on right move last monday but still no viewers and suddenly in my sleep last night, I wondered if it could be due to the EA not having received our hips yet? We had a letter last friday re sending a copy of the lease to the solicitor so that the hips could be finished and today is only 2 days after that

Does an EA have to have access to the main body of the hip before they can actively market the property? Looking at the web, it appears so.

The upside is that we are getting into a more relaxed mode re keeping everything too pristine ie life goes on

This house will sell but what really occupies us now is getting to exchange on the house we want. Maybe next week, fingers crossed