Anyone want to be my house-buying buddy?

BabyBoots

Congrats Sharon1982 on completing and Becca 0417 on exchanging and well done Pollyhelen on having your offer acepted at the level you wanted!:j

Hope exchange goes smoothly for you Tony_R and Blondiebird

pavlovs_dog

room for a little one? we've just had an offer accepted and are waiting for the AIP to come back from the mortgage company before giving the solicitors the green light to get going with the searches.

It's chain free on both sides and ideally i'd love to be in before school starts back again in september, but i sense that 2 months start to finish may be a tad optimistic! i'm a teacher and our newly built school will be handed over to us at the end of the summer, so the start of term will be even more chaotic than normal without the stress of moving on top. on the positive side, every payday still at the inlaws means another £1k in the furniture kitty :j

our timeline so far

21/06 - initial offer submitted, rejected but left on the table
25/06 - second offer accepted, made on the condition that a problem with a door is fixed by the vendor prior to completion
28/06 - mortgage ball put into motion by our advisor at London and Country.
29/06 - solicitor instructed.

sharon1982

Brilliant news pollyhelen! And good luck Tony_R and BlondieBird!

My updated timeline is as follows:


17/5 Offer accepted
18/5 Instructed solicitor
20/5 Mortgage application submitted and now with underwriters - they will review in next 3-4 business days when received payslips and review again when valuation and survey carried out, which is scheduled to take place on 28/05.
28/5 Advised Halifax had put a hold on the survey as wanted further proof of income - IFA away so nothing was sent
1/6 IFA back in the office, docs sent. Turns out our case was picked to be randomly audited. Solicitor received draft contract from seller's solicitor.
2/6 Advised mortgage application all fine and approved - valuation and survey re-booked
9/6 Survey and valuation carried out midday - mortgage offer from Halifax emailed over at 9pm!
10/6 Advised by solicitor that all searches are in - still waiting on answers to final enquiries
17/6 Most answers to enquiries in and contract and solicitor report ready for pick-up
21/6 Signed papers returned to solicitor that morning. Final answers to enquiries received. Exchanged in the afternoon.
22/6 Receive final bill from solicitor detailing remaining deposit to be paid plus legal fees.
25/6 Final transfer of money to solicitor complete (did in 2 installments over 2 days so could do it via Faster Payments and avoid paying a transfer fee).

30/6 Completed at 10.30am!

pollyhelen

wow sharon 1982 that seems so quick!! bet it was an age for you though! welldone welldone!

neas

Our Timeline

11/06 - Offer accepted after week of negotiations
11/06 - Solicitior instructed
15/06 - Mortgage applied for in branch, mortgage accepted although needed to check with employer etc
17/06 - Solicitor pack comes through, sign all forms and agree terms etc and pay initial £200 for searches. Also send them copy of HIP
18/06 - Homebuyers survey done - few things found we already knew about, valuation comes back spot on
24/06 - Contacted solicitor as nothing heard back, draft contracts not received from vendor solicitor so chase around EA and find out vendor has only just started this bit. So for all my running around looks like because vendor was slow rest is slowed down too.
01/07 - Draft contract received by my solicitor now. So hopefully searches will be kicked off shortly, shame though as HIP expires in 17 days time... and that leaves 12 business days!. Because vendor waited 2 weeks to kick off her end am now stuck with paying another couple hundred i guess. oh well. Also mortgage is now approved and formal offer has been sent out

gnimia

Hello all! Can i join in please I'm a ftb, in London, so hand holding i think will be very useful!
I really like the timeline idea, to keep track of things so...
24/05 second veiwing
26/05 initial offer in - rejected within half an hour!
26/05 Phone calls to mortgage broker and solicitor
27/05 second offer in "will hear first thing tmw"
28/05 am. - chewing nails
28/05 3pm. - offer accepted! "they wanted 4k more, but I (EA) persuaded them to accept as you're such a good prospect" (ok, so its probably stuff and nonsense but ho hum... Solictor details sent and requested property is updated as under offer
28/05 5.30pm, a very large glass of celebratory wine!
03/06 Sales letter finally received from new EA (he has been giving evidence in some court case all week!)
04/06 Calls to solicitor, and Property Amendment form to Mortgage Broker

In the meantime I have had hassles with the Mortgage Co not receiving my valuation payment, so I had to go in and pay for it with cash (ouch!)... then nothing, at all, seemed to be happening, until today I have discovered...
28/06 Valuation carried out...
29/06 ...and sent to Mortgage co, so should get report, and offer, fairly soon
1/07 - Solicitor happy with all paperwork and aspects, apart from 2 outstanding planning permission bits, both of which i'm aware of... he says that notwithstanding, he's pretty much done! EA says that vendors have a shortlist of rental properties, and are still keen

We arent there yet, I know, but I am definitely :j

Tony_R

Finally exchanged contracts this afternoon. Completion set for the 15th July.

sharon1982

Brilliant news Tony_R - congratulations!

pavlovs_dog

neas - how annoying having to chase people. it's so frustrating when you're doing everythng you can to get things moving.

our timeline so far

21/06 - initial offer submitted, rejected but left on the table
25/06 - second offer accepted, made on the condition that a problem with a door is fixed by the vendor prior to completion
28/06 - mortgage ball put into motion by our advisor at London and Country.
29/06 - solicitor instructed.
30/06 - receive lots of info from solicitors to read, sign and return
1/07 - found out that we passed the credit checks and mortgage agreed in principle. took proof of ID and address to solicitors. money paid for initial searches

i'm anxious to get things moving ASAP as i'll be out of the country for a week next week (now is really not a good time to have every tom, d!ck and harry after my passport!) and i desperately want to be in before school starts up in september

9wizard9

Rant, plus high-level timeline:

4/5 - offer accepted
5/5 - solicitor instructed
8/5 - mortage application
12/5 - valuation completed
13/5 - mortgage offer received
13/5 - attended with surveyor for building survey
18/5 - solicitor sent initial enquiries to vendors solicitor
early June - negotiated with vendor regarding price for dishwasher, and discussed possible end of July completion target with end of June exchange
.
.
since - chased solicitor/vendor/estate agent regularly for updates.

My solicitor says they've still not had responses to enquiries from mid-May. Vendor's solicitor tells vendor that the responses were returned over a month ago.

So, very quick start, then it all seems to have stalled completely. We seem to have a fairly good relationship with the vendors, so I doubt they're trying to pull a fast one - I think they're getting just as frustrated as we are. Sick of not knowing what's going on, and being powerless to speed it up. It looks like the two solicitors are blaming each other, and I've no way of knowing who's telling the truth (or perhaps both and stuff is lost in post, but why not send it again?!)

Hopefully better luck to others...
Rant over...