To those BUYING in these difficult times....

The_Drama_Llama

adam81 wrote: »

Thats going to make a hell of a mess removing an extractor fan, assuming its not a built in cupboard one. I'd try and stick with your offer. I would guess the value of the appliances is a lot less than £1,000 so they are unlikley to lose the sale for that little.

I wouldn't stick to my offer...I'd reduce it, considerably. Built in items are a pain to replace, so your offer should shrink by their cost plus a whole heap of fitting/making good/nuisance on top.

TMoose

The_Drama_Llama wrote: »

I'm always amazed/sceptical at offers that close to 250. Even if you're not a FTB, it still means an increase in Stamp Duty from £2,500 to £7,800, which isn't insignificant. You have to wonder if they offer that and then after the survey haggle it down to 250 on spurious grounds. I know I would...

Good luck Moose - the house I'm buying was up for 275 and I got them down to 250, so it is possible.

Thanks

If we don't end up getting it, we'll be disappointed, but ultimately know we made the right decision. And will also be interested to see what the sale price registered with Land Registry is!

I don't think I'd be comfortable offering 260 in the knowledge that I would be haggling down whatever the survey said. But then maybe I'm too honest for this game!

sonastin

:mad:Aaaaaaaaargh - last week, I was told that the vendor had been told that the garage needed to be demolished and rebuilt (btw - that's a good thing, its what we're planning to do if they sell it to us).

This week, I've been told that the vendor has asked the asset management company handling the repossession to get some quotes for underpinning the garage. Noooooooooooooooooooo :eek:

The EA has given up all hope of ever selling this house to us and suggested I get my solicitor to give them a kick up the backside because they're not listening to her any more.

My solicitor doesn't want to get involved until I have some sort of confirmation that I can fund the purchase and he's of the opinion that it is now unmortgageable. :eek:

My mortgage advisor doesn't seem to grasp the severity of the situation and without knowing how much the vendors are prepared to sell the place for now I don't know what to tell him in terms of securing me a new mortgage offer to satisfy my solicitor to get him to give the vendors solicitor a nudge to get them to sell me this property.

It looks like its going to fall apart completely after 7 months of fighting. All because the vendor is sitting in his ivory-tower office completely ignorant of where this property is, what the building inspector's powers are and what is involved in bringing the property up to building regs standards! :mad:

Moomum

Well mortgage offer in hand, survey done, few problems but nothing that we weren't expecting. Contracts here ready to sign and deposit ready to transfer! Agh cant believe it's happening!

LondonAndy

Hi guys

Just wanted to say thanks for the advice above. Flagged the kitchen fittings with EA as a "deal breaker" (they are bl**y expensive Neff ones) and agreed they will now stay at original offer price. Will make sure my solicitor does a very good inventory !!

On to the survey now....

Great thread and thanks for the tips

seraphina

LondonAndy wrote: »

Hi guys

Just wanted to say thanks for the advice above. Flagged the kitchen fittings with EA as a "deal breaker" (they are bl**y expensive Neff ones) and agreed they will now stay at original offer price. Will make sure my solicitor does a very good inventory !!

On to the survey now....

Great thread and thanks for the tips

Our solicitor also told us to view the house again 2 days or so before completion and check that the house is as it was when you committed to buy. You can then insist upon a retainer if things don't seem to be right. For example, I'm concerned that a lot of the stuff in the garage/shed won't be moved by the sellers - we've been advised to check this just before completion, and if the junk hasn't been cleared to inform our solicitor who can then insist on a retention until such a point as we're satisfied that all the junk has been moved.

And if the seller was going to remove all the junk anyway, then they don't need to worry about a retainer, do they;)

vesper

Well I am hoping we have about done it and bought our first home. Saying that the house is a repossession so anything could happen. The mortgage offer is in place, an offer has been 'accepted' (for now- please no one gazzump up), the surveyors are going in Monday for a valuation and full building survey and the Solicitors are ready and waiting. And to be frank I am terrified!!! It feels as though I should be elated with this, but instead it feels like a bittersweet occasion. Yes we have found the house for us at a very nice price, but at any time some one could outbid us. All we keep getting is people telling us how brave we are attempting to buy a repo.
Any advice from anyone that is buying/bought a repo would be appreciated.

sonastin

vesper wrote: »

Any advice from anyone that is buying/bought a repo would be appreciated.

I'm hoping that my experience of buying a repo really is far from typical. I hope for your sake that the mortgagee-in-possession actually wants to sell the repo you are buying :rotfl:

Best advice - make sure that you are doing everything you can to push it through: chasing mortgage broker, solicitor, EA as often as you need to to make sure that things progress as fast as possible. If you do end up being gazumped, you can walk away knowing there was nothing more you could do. And the chances are if someone tries, that you'll be so close to completion the vendor won't want to risk dropping you for the unknown quantity of a new buyer

vesper

sonastin wrote: »

I'm hoping that my experience of buying a repo really is far from typical. I hope for your sake that the mortgagee-in-possession actually wants to sell the repo you are buying :rotfl:

Best advice - make sure that you are doing everything you can to push it through: chasing mortgage broker, solicitor, EA as often as you need to to make sure that things progress as fast as possible. If you do end up being gazumped, you can walk away knowing there was nothing more you could do. And the chances are if someone tries, that you'll be so close to completion the vendor won't want to risk dropping you for the unknown quantity of a new buyer

Thank you. I think we have done all we can right now, it's just a case of waiting for the surveys and there is no way we can go any faster. Feeling really guilty right now as we know we had already gazumped someone. I am just hoping we can be as quick as posible in the process and the fact that the deposit is sat there with a mortgage offer and we aren't in a chain will help.

I am hoping they are serious about selling, luckily its not in a saught after area in a small village in the middle of nowhere.

sonastin

I don't know which is the right smiley: :eek: or :j!

EA phoned. The vendor has asked for how much I'll pay to take off their hands now, knowing what I know about the property. My answer was £35k less than the agreed price (we've been thinking about this for a while - 7 months or so!). She came back saying they were wanting £15k below to which she all-but told them to get stuffed. They asked her to ask me if I'd meet in the middle (i.e. £25k below) which she thinks is still taking the michael. So she asked me what I thought of £25k-£30k below and £30k below is absolutely fine but I could stretch to £25k off if they won't move any more.

This is one of those occasions where I think the EA is actually on my side. She gets no personal commission out of this sale and its pee'd her off that they've been dragging it out so long so I think she will actually be pushing for the lower price for me. But I want to just phone her back and say "forget it. I'll take it for £25k off. Just make sure they don't change their minds and actually sell it this time". But I fear if I do that, I'll be doing myself out of the £5k which will finish off the loft conversion.

I just want a bleddy answer. I've been waiting since 10:30 this morning! :eek: