To those BUYING in these difficult times....

westlondonbuyer

An update and another grumble from me I'm afraid:(

I've mentioned in an earlier thread about a probate sale up the road from me (I'm renting but want to buy in the same street, ideally). The house was on for what seemed to me a CRAZY price (2007 peak+15% or so) and I was *flabbergasted* when it went under offer before I'd barely managed a second viewing, and supposedly at asking price, particularly because better houses had been on the market for months.

Well, the house was on with multiple agents, and offering the asking price turned out to be a sharp tactic on the part of the buyer. It was basically a ruse to get the house off the market and stop viewings with all other agents.

Various people warned me probate sales are at risk of gazundering, and that's exactly what seems to have happened to this house: it has completed at 70% of the original AP, according to my next-door neighbour, who is friendly with the daughter of the old lady whose house it was.

There are several other houses up for sale in my street, all of them priced the same or higher than this house's AP. I'd happily buy any of them at this house's completion price.

But the LR figure won't be in the public domain for ages, and I don't hold out much hope of the vendors reducing their price expectations any time soon.

What makes it worse is the the successful EA has this morning put flyers through people's doors (and of course I've got one because I live in the same street) claiming the house sold at asking price, and that prospective vendors may be surprised at how much their house is now worth!

SG27

Well done to everyone with an offer accepted!

Doing my search today found two more properties we'd like to view this weekend. One which we've seen online before has dropped it's price to just about our top budget and another has dropped from £245K to £235K now down £175K!! Thats got to be worth a viewing! looks like what we are after although it's a bit further away than we would have liked.

Waiting for one agent to call me back still but looks like we have a packed weekend of viewings, and lots of driving as the new ones are far from the original two and in differnt towns! Hopefully it will be worth it though!

rosyw

I'll join in with this one! am another who is stuck in the land of "what do solicitors do", waiting for my sellers solicitor to get his finger out and send the final few bits of paper required so we can exchange next wednesday! my buyers are all ready to proceed, at last! so am stuck, waiting for a solicotir who doesn't reply to phone calls, faxes or emails, and who I know for a fact has everything we need to get this sorted out! gggrrrrrrrrr!

dizziblonde

Damp saga now semi-resolved finally (took me threatening to pull out of the purchase for stuff suddenly to move very rapidly). Survey found damp only by his handheld doo-dah... I think there's little problem to be honest, speaking to the guy next door he quoted £700 for the work that could benefit from being done to fix it in the future - mortgage co whacked 2 grand off the valuation because of it. Vendors dragged their feet over it all - until I hit snapping point and threatened to pull out if things didn't speed up. They got a damp survey done the other day which revealled issues (funny how companies who fix a problem always find it) - and funnily, when I said how close I was to pulling out because this has dragged on for weeks, they got back within the hour dropping the price to the mortgage valuation. Hopefully now all we need are the revised purchase price in writing, some more forms signed and we can move toward exchange of contracts and get a completion date sorted out (I want to be in by mid November or I'm stropping a lot).

Could laugh now about the damp - no chance of it at the moment - had no water supply here for pushing toward 17 hours!

HelenDaveKids

dizziblonde wrote: »

Damp saga now semi-resolved finally (took me threatening to pull out of the purchase for stuff suddenly to move very rapidly). Survey found damp only by his handheld doo-dah... I think there's little problem to be honest, speaking to the guy next door he quoted £700 for the work that could benefit from being done to fix it in the future - mortgage co whacked 2 grand off the valuation because of it. Vendors dragged their feet over it all - until I hit snapping point and threatened to pull out if things didn't speed up. They got a damp survey done the other day which revealled issues (funny how companies who fix a problem always find it) - and funnily, when I said how close I was to pulling out because this has dragged on for weeks, they got back within the hour dropping the price to the mortgage valuation. Hopefully now all we need are the revised purchase price in writing, some more forms signed and we can move toward exchange of contracts and get a completion date sorted out (I want to be in by mid November or I'm stropping a lot).



Could laugh now about the damp - no chance of it at the moment - had no water supply here for pushing toward 17 hours!

Must Live in Nottm then!!
Glad things on the move.

LydiaJ

I'd like to join in please. :hello:

My offer was accepted this morning. I said it was conditional on them taking it off the market and putting SSTC on RM, and the EA said he'd "get on with that" when I spoke to him at 10am, but here we are in the evening and it hasn't happened. Will he wait until he's got my proof of funds? That may not be until early next week. [ETA It is now the following morning and they have done it.]

I've had a survey already (long story that I won't go into here) but the surveyor advised a drain inspection, so I need to phone up to sort that out soon. My solicitor is away on holiday but is due back next week, I think. I've phoned and left a message with her assistant - they know me because I've made two previous attempts to buy houses but had to pull out.

One problem I'm having at the moment is the planning search. Both my last goes at house buying, I've told the solicitor I didn't want to pay for a planning search because I'd do it myself. I just went on the borough council's planning website. You could look up a property and search for planning applications within 200m or whatever. But the planning website seems to have been redesigned, and that search feature no longer appears :mad: - or perhaps it's still available but I just haven't been able to find it. Not sure what to do next about that one.

Congratulations to everyone who's moved a step nearer to purchase. I'm glad to be joining you.

redstararnie76

Hi Lydia - congratulations!
I can't help on the planning search point, but my estate agent waited until they saw my mortgage in principle documents before they took the house off the market.

JuniorSherlock

Congrats to all with offers accepted! We revised our original offer on Tuesday, making it £5k higher. On Weds afternoon I went into the EA with details of our deposit, our mortgage in principle cert and our ID for her to forward to the repo company selling the house.

I phoned yesterday for an update but the EA never called back. Just how long do I leave it before insisting on an answer? I know they had another viewer on Thursday, are they waiting to see if anyone else will bid do you think?

Even if our offer is accepted, they can still market it, so when do they finally take it off the market? When the contracts are exchanged? Until then I guess anyone could put in a higher offer and any money spent on valuers and solicitors would be lost.

I'm beginning to wonder if this is such a good idea after all. It's a lovely house with good potential, but with so many pitfalls associated with a repo, perhaps we are better off withdrawing our offer. I hate being messed about and if they start now they are likely to keep messing up about all the way through.

southerngirl_2

Welcome to the group Lydia

Likewise I pulled out of a previous purchase after getting my building survey back so hopefully this purchase will go smoothly.

zizu73

westlondonbuyer wrote: »

An update and another grumble from me I'm afraid:(

I've mentioned in an earlier thread about a probate sale up the road from me (I'm renting but want to buy in the same street, ideally). The house was on for what seemed to me a CRAZY price (2007 peak+15% or so) and I was *flabbergasted* when it went under offer before I'd barely managed a second viewing, and supposedly at asking price, particularly because better houses had been on the market for months.

Well, the house was on with multiple agents, and offering the asking price turned out to be a sharp tactic on the part of the buyer. It was basically a ruse to get the house off the market and stop viewings with all other agents.

Various people warned me probate sales are at risk of gazundering, and that's exactly what seems to have happened to this house: it has completed at 70% of the original AP, according to my next-door neighbour, who is friendly with the daughter of the old lady whose house it was.

There are several other houses up for sale in my street, all of them priced the same or higher than this house's AP. I'd happily buy any of them at this house's completion price.

But the LR figure won't be in the public domain for ages, and I don't hold out much hope of the vendors reducing their price expectations any time soon.

What makes it worse is the the successful EA has this morning put flyers through people's doors (and of course I've got one because I live in the same street) claiming the house sold at asking price, and that prospective vendors may be surprised at how much their house is now worth!

Why would probate be more at risk of gazundring?