Anyone else just started the "Buying a House" Process?

KathrynPenguin

Our move is going well touch wood. Vendors wanted to exchange in 28 days which is 28th Sept and we won't be far out.

Homebuyers survey done and back with us
Searches done and solicitor happy
Mortgages agreed on my BTL and new house Valuations being done this week
Other money raised by selling everything but the family silver!
Soon as mortgage offers made exchange will happen
Solicitors on the BTL have told existing mortgagee that they want to settle on 28th - seems unlikely as survey isn't being done till that day.

So fingers crossed its all on track - we've scraped together just over half a million quid and are looking to move mid October! Completely brassic now until we sell Mums house - luxuries are out for us completely.

yak00

Finally got a reply to the email I sent to the solicitor first thing Monday morning.
Couple of things to chase up with the vendors solicitors :-
* query re: integrated appliances.. form completed state they are not part of the sale, need to clarify.
* with it being a leasehold property, have to write to freeholder to confirm vendors have been upto date with their payments, also written to vendors re: receipts.

Am also having to think long and hard about the leasehold issue, although the house is a small 2 bed semi it was the potential that sold it for us (garden around 15ftx70ft). Was thinking about putting up a conservatory within 6 months of moving in and then a further extension a few years down the line. As part of the agreement we have to seek the approval off the freeholder to any additional structure or extension at the property. ! I did seek advise off the solicitor but she was unable to offer any helpful advise other than writing to the freeholder to see if he was prepared to sell the freehold.

I've had a read through https://www.lease-advice.org.uk which suggests I would have to owned the lease for 2 years before I had the right to buy the freehold, also it's difficult to assess roughly how much it would cost.

Any advise would be appreciated.

MyHouse75

First time buyers also, put an offer in on 12 August and now just waiting to hear when the seller wants to complete.

Everything seems to be moving soooooo slooooooow! There have been so many weeks when absolutely nothing has been happening. The most frustrating part is not knowing what's going on with the rest of the chain. We asked our solicitor to find out what stage the rest of the chain are at, but so far no word back from sellers solicitor. We had to wait ages (5 weeks) to receive our mortgage offer and all that time we thought that we were slowing the chain down and as soon as we'd get the mortgage offer things would start moving.

But now nothing seems to be happening, we are all ready to exchange contracts, we've had our mortgage accepted, have received our homebuyers survey which we are happy with, all the searches have been done and solicitor has the results...so we're just sitting and waiting for a word from the seller.

We need to give our landlord our notice today, so will now be in a situation where we have to leave our flat in 2 months time and not knowing what's happening with the sale and what timescale the seller has in mind.

Very stressed and frustrated at the moment, absolutely hate the feeling of uncertainty that surrounds the whole house buying process.

So far it's been almost 7 weeks since we put our offer in and we have absolutely no idea how much longer until we can move.

izoomzoom

Hiya,

Can see we started this saga in August too and would you believe in the beginning we were hoping to be in by the end of September and we too were held up by our mortgage offer, and thought things would happened then, but it seems that we are still waiting for some searches to come in as well as answers to queries that our solicitor has raised.

I called our solicitor yesterday and they advised us not to hand in our notice jut yet !!!

upset_2

* 29-31 August: House viewed, offer made and accepted, mortgage application submitted, and solicitor instructed.
* 4 September: Homebuyer's survey carried out.
* 6 September: Survey results received - everything ok.
* 7 September: Sent payslips to mortgage company.
* 12 September: Searches completed by solicitors - all ok.
* 21 September: Valuation carried out by mortgage company.
* 26 September: Mortgage offer received in writing! Also received a load of stuff from the solicitors (fixtures/fittings details, property details, land registry details etc.)

Update:

We are signing everything tomorrow, should exchange on Monday, and *fingers crossed* will complete at the end of next week.

izoomzoom

Wow, and congratulations.

pawpurrs

Thats good going upset, wow, how wonderfull to have no chains to worry about, its everyone else that slows you down.

VickyA_2

Things are just disastrous with our purchase.......... We've heard today that our vendor has pulled out because she's just realised that she can't afford to buy anywhere suitable where she's moving to (near her family in Middlesex). Or should I say, where she was wanting to move to. We're trying to find out whether our survey has been booked and whether we will have lost £400 or not..... Our solicitors are on "no sale, no fee", so we'll just have to double check the small print.........

dale_hyde

I am having a nightmare. Relocating to Manchester with work. Start there on 6th November. I accepted an offer on my house about 3 weeks ago. Straight away I paid a reservation fee on a new build property. Developer set an exchange date of 9th October.

Today the worst happened. First time buyer at start of chain (3 people, we are at the top) pulled out! So now I have had to put the house back on the market. So looks like I will probably lose the new house. Also, I have already had the survey done costing £490 and pre contract searches costing another £190! I am gutted and judt don't know what to do next! If only the people at the start of the chain realised what they are doing to my plans by pulling out!

MascaraMinx

Oh that's gutting, that's what we all dread. Poor you