To those BUYING in these difficult times....

InkZ

Struggling to find anything we like in Bournemouth. Every house seems to be next to a main road, or you have a whole row of houses looking on your garden. There are about 2 properties a week which match our criteria in the area we want new to the market.

We found one place we liked which is on for 270, offered 250...rejected. She's spent 20k on conservatory and landscaping so wants the money back even though the house isn't worth any more... sigh. I'm betting this place will either still be on the market in a few months time or it will be withdrawn.

We are going to give up in a couple of weeks and once I have the completion date for the sale on my flat will be looking to rent until the winter when hopefully sellers have got a bit more realistic. I've accepted 17k less than the original asking for my flat so other people are going to have to do the same.

sonastin

So frustrated today!

Went to see the solicitor this morning to sign the contract ready to exchange. Except he's now decided that as the searches are over 12 months old (originally done for the HIP last feb) he needs a fresh one before we can proceed. Oh, and he's still not received the hard-copy mortgage instructions from Abbey so I couldn't sign the mortgage deed even if the searches were all up to date. I don't think he'd even looked in the file until I arrived in reception. Everything that we discussed could have been done over the phone and then I wouldn't have had to leave work for 2 hours. Luckily for me it was my boss who recommended this solicitor so he has to agree to let me leave work again when there finally is something for me to sign.

But its gonna be at least another week now. Today is 37 weeks since the offer was submitted. For what is effectively a purchase with no chain. (My sale completed 32 weeks ago to break the chain). The estate agent says its not her longest sale but I really hope we don't end up breaking that record!

azkaban420

That's pants Sonastin, absolutely hate the way these things drag on and on unnecessarily. Really hope that it will finally be next week then and that your solicitor pulls his finger out!

Az

tyler80

Considering putting an offer on a house (first time eek!), 12% under offers over price

The market is so strange at the moment, asking prices seem to bear little correlation to actual house, so I've got no idea whether this is reasonable, too high or too low.

23rdspiral

hello everyone, it's been a long time since i posted here, at least 6 months i reckon. i've had a read back and am so glad to see some of the old faces, like Azkaban, making great progress!

if you dont know, i left this thread because i was certain my mtge broker was 'stalking' me. (i know its paranoid, but when a 1st time poster answered my qu on independent brokers vs in-house, and their name is the same as your town...). anyway, the purchase then got very sticky due to survey results, and despite wanting the comradery of the thread, i really felt i couldnt risk it.

so now things are sorted out, i just wanted to update you on what we're up to. we were on the market since sept 09, with lots of interest but no offers as everyone was a ftbuyer so no mortgages just lots of hope! so we decided to look into renting ours out and buying with the equity and savings.

we made an offer on our next house last autum, and we will get the keys this week, 5 months later! :eek: needless to say it was a very complicated chain, even though there were only 3 in it and we were at the bottom of it!

we just put our house for rent last week, and have got a viewing booked. the house we're buying needs serious work before we can move in so fingers crossed the timings will be ok.

good luck to everyone wherever you are in this process... it's a very odd market out there.

Grimbal

More fustrated would-be buyers here too.

3 Houses have come up on a road we liked over the last 4 months - all since when we were in a procedable position

house A. Modernised, lovely inside, just how we liked it. Introduced via our own EA, we put an offer in with them in December which we accepted subject to them finding somewhere to buy. Nothing came of that until last w/e when they went up for sale with another EA. We re-submitted our offer which was then promptly turned down

house B. needs work, but seems structurally pretty sound. At this point we were chain free, but beaten to it by cash buyers (who were in a chain - ie would be cash at point of completion - no mortgage required)

house C. needs a lot of work, possibly structural. Guide price over that of house B but that's mainly because of its location within this particular road. Has enormous potential, but not at the price they're asking unfortunately

Yesterday, we got a call to say that buyers of house B were being advised by their solicitors not to proceed with purchase. Not because of house AFAIK but bad timings of sale / purchase (their buyers threatening to walk unless they exchange imminently, but they themselves aren't in a position to exchange yet on the house we like. It's also looking like an imminent probate case which would delay matters further). We're waiting on a call to say wether they're going to continue with the purchase - if they don't we're the back-up

We're just getting so frustrated - we always seem to be being used as the safety net. House A are, understandably, going to market their house for a few weeks to see what the interest is, knowing all the time that we're there possibly waiting for them. House B also has us on stand-by.

We have everyhting going for us - MIP, big deposit & are chain-free: how come the EAs see us as substitutes rather than A team players?!!!

azkaban420

23rdspiral welcome back! Glad to hear after so much headache that your story's got a positive ending - good luck with your house move, how exciting to be at that stage!

Grimbal, chin up, must be frustrating to be so near yet so far. Really hope things take a turn for the better for you, whether it's any of these houses or one that is yet to turn up!

Az

Funkygibbon

Grimbal wrote: »

We have everyhting going for us - MIP, big deposit & are chain-free: how come the EAs see us as substitutes rather than A team players?!!!

Make sure you drop your offer if they come back to you! Will tell your estate agent that you don't want to be messed about with at the least!!

Grimbal

Funkygibbon wrote: »

Make sure you drop your offer if they come back to you! Will tell your estate agent that you don't want to be messed about with at the least!!

yup, we've said that to all the EAs !

house A. They are buying off of someone who is relocating abroad - he presumably has a finite timescale, so they are gambling on not losing us for the next month whilst they gauge the market - but still enough time to sell to us as chain free to secure their onward purchase

house B. Guide price 385k, we originally offered 375k, but then upped to asking, whereas other couple got it for 380k as they were cash buyers. We've said that if they fell through, then our offer goes back to original offer of 375k rather than our second one of 385

house c. guide 400k. We've said no to anywhere near this, so going on for an open day soon. We'll call after that to ask if any interest but tbh not worth doing unless we can get it for 325k

rinkydinkpanther

Well after 4 long months since our offer was accepted, we were due to exchange today and complete next week. The solicitor called, but instead of the confirmation of exchange we were expecting, instead we got the news that the vendor has withdrawn out of the blue. So that was a waste of time and a very considerable amount of money then. Better start unpacking...