A progress diary from a FTB

jade1986

AliceBanned wrote: »

Hi all

I have found this thread very useful.

I have had an offer accepted, am FTB and have 25% deposit. Had AIP from the Halifax 4.39%, £995 fee, fixed for two years. Their surveyor is coming tomorrow.

I have instructed a local solicitor following some research and after speaking to a few of them - total costs around £700 including disbursements. Solicitor has sent me the paperwork and asked me to sign to confirm, and to send a cheque for £400 "on account". Not sure what this means - perhaps that they will use the money to pay the fees? I am not sure when to send the forms and cheque back to them, as I don't yet have a definite mortgage offer from Halifax; just agreement in principle. Can anyone advise please? I am not in a hurry and have told the solicitor that I don't want to complete before 1st December which they were ok with. Thanks.

Hi there, we were in the same situation.. we had an offer accepted and instructed solicitors but were unsure as to whether to send the £250 "on account" until we knew if we could even get the mortgage.. so our solicitor said we could sign and send back all the papers and then forward the cheque, which was indeed to begin searches etc, when we felt comfortable. So when we received the call to say it had been approved subject to survey we then sent the money and he begin all the searches. Maybe you could do the same?

Lunary

homehunter wrote: »

Hmm...if the EA is serious about getting the house sold, they'll chase her up, regardless of her 'fragility' - if she was fragile, why did she put the house on the market? She has to realise that she will lose her buyers if she doesn't get a move on after all.Keep looking in the meantime, and don't feel pressured to buy just because of the stamp duty coming to an end - obviously easy for me to say, coming close to exchange on my first home, but I would have happily kept saving and looked for longer if I had to. Good luck

Thanks, yes, the 'fragility' issue worries me. We are luckily in a position where we have a large deposit and money being kept back for renovation so we are not financially stretched by any means at the moment. I think we are just getting anxious to be out of rented and into our own place. Good luck with the exchange on your house

VKay

Regarding solicitors fees - we were buying house earlier in the year which fell through. The solicitor had £250 of ours in their account to pay for searches etc. They immediately sent us back the money minus a £35 fee for all the photocopying and postage they had already paid for. I was pleased to see that money again! Check with your solicitor as they may do the same.

homehunter

homehunter wrote: »

Hmm...if the EA is serious about getting the house sold, they'll chase her up, regardless of her 'fragility' - if she was fragile, why did she put the house on the market? She has to realise that she will lose her buyers if she doesn't get a move on after all.Keep looking in the meantime, and don't feel pressured to buy just because of the stamp duty coming to an end - obviously easy for me to say, coming close to exchange on my first home, but I would have happily kept saving and looked for longer if I had to. Good luck

Wow, am I ever eating my words now - still close to exchange...that's if the lady two links up the chain doesn't flake out on us! Believe it or not, I've now got a 'fragile' seller, and if she pulls out, our seller pulls out, and the chain collapses. She is moving after a death you see, and so is unsure about the whole process...I do feel for her, it must be hard trying to sell while still grieving. However, I cannot afford to lose the 10% deposit I've had to pass to the solicitor either. Our lives will be on hold if we can't purchase and we lose £17k!!! Wish me luck, I'm calling the solicitor first thing tomorrow, to see if we can strengthen this chain.....we need this exchange to happen....

Lunary

homehunter wrote: »

Wow, am I ever eating my words now - still close to exchange...that's if the lady two links up the chain doesn't flake out on us! Believe it or not, I've now got a 'fragile' seller, and if she pulls out, our seller pulls out, and the chain collapses. She is moving after a death you see, and so is unsure about the whole process...I do feel for her, it must be hard trying to sell while still grieving. However, I cannot afford to lose the 10% deposit I've had to pass to the solicitor either. Our lives will be on hold if we can't purchase and we lose £17k!!! Wish me luck, I'm calling the solicitor first thing tomorrow, to see if we can strengthen this chain.....we need this exchange to happen....

Oh no Sending you lots of luck! I can understand hesitancy in a situation like that but hopefully the lady will realise that a move may help her to move through the grieving process. Is it a definite that if she pulls out your seller will pull the plug too? Is it all too far, financially, for your seller to find another place?

No real update concerning my seller except that she is now not sure whether she wants to rent or buy. Secretly I am hoping she will choose renting as it might speed things along, but seriously, is a fortnight after you have accepted an offer on your house really the time to be unsure about what you want to do?

homehunter

Lunary wrote: »

Oh no Sending you lots of luck! I can understand hesitancy in a situation like that but hopefully the lady will realise that a move may help her to move through the grieving process. Is it a definite that if she pulls out your seller will pull the plug too? Is it all too far, financially, for your seller to find another place?

No real update concerning my seller except that she is now not sure whether she wants to rent or buy. Secretly I am hoping she will choose renting as it might speed things along, but seriously, is a fortnight after you have accepted an offer on your house really the time to be unsure about what you want to do?

Our seller will pull out if she can't have the bungalow - she is selling purely to get that property because she wants to stay in the area, so reasons aren't necessarily financial - she simply won't move elsewhere. The lady in the bungalow is supposed to be moving in with her daughter, and they are part funding the move with the money from the bungalow - so indirectly, it seems our chain is longer than we thought!!

Hard to believe your seller is just taking her time like this - grief and fragility aside, why can't people realise that they are messing with other people's lives too? Do they realise how hard it is for other people, and all the money that people are putting in to purchasing? We're not spending for kicks

Bufger

Best of luck guys. I'm hoping this ends up being a happy ending. Keep us posted

Lunary

Homehunter, any news on your end? Hope the bungalow has come to the right decision so everything can move forward!

I just really wanted to rant, as I have just called the EA to see if there is any update on our 'fragile' seller and they told me that when they last spoke to her a week ago, she told them to stop hassling her! Is it just me or is that absolutely ridiculous? When you sell your house you should expect that the buyers may want to move in at some point, and that the EA will phone in order to get updates! The buzz of the accepted offer has now well and truly worn off I can't bring myself to think about walking though, as the house ticks so many boxes and, rather stupidly it seems, we have fallen in love with it.

homehunter

Lunary wrote: »

Homehunter, any news on your end? Hope the bungalow has come to the right decision so everything can move forward!

I just really wanted to rant, as I have just called the EA to see if there is any update on our 'fragile' seller and they told me that when they last spoke to her a week ago, she told them to stop hassling her! Is it just me or is that absolutely ridiculous? When you sell your house you should expect that the buyers may want to move in at some point, and that the EA will phone in order to get updates! The buzz of the accepted offer has now well and truly worn off I can't bring myself to think about walking though, as the house ticks so many boxes and, rather stupidly it seems, we have fallen in love with it.

I reckon we are peas in a pod! No, no news today. Our seller has told her solicitor that she wants the lady to exchange by Friday, and we're really hoping that the solicitors do what they are paid to do and push this along. Though I don't envy them trying to work it out with this fragile lady - I think she is resisting the 'hassle' too. But I know all parties agreed to a completion date, the solicitors managed that much - I'm signed up, our seller is signed up, we thought this lady was signed up and it turns out that she 'can't remember' what she has signed and claims not to have heard anything from her solicitor in a while...I think we are going to get strung out for as long as they can manage it, I think there is a second chain somewhere which is holding the lady up too. But we can't wait past this week really - we're going to have to renegotiate a new rental contract if they'll let us, or worse, find a new rental at really short notice. I can't bear to think of renting any longer, all I want is a home. It surely isn't that much to ask...

homehunter

All parties exchanged this afternoon! What a relief! Not home and dry til the keys are in our mitts of course but this is a big step forward, 3rd Nov can't come fast enough!!:D:D:beer: