Waiting to exchange - Not for the impatient!

mrsmchapman

The deposit would probably have been the search money, we paid out solicitor money at the beginning to. Really with no chain, there is no reason why you couldn't be exchanged and completed in 6-8 weeks.

How long as it all taken so far?

mapcr77

We got our offer accepted on second week in March, and the survey happened just before Easter. Im getting anxious as we're moving half way across the country and the logistics of giving notice on the rented place and moving, etc. will be very complicated...

mummyroysof3

Damn it ....went to view a house and we really like it despite needing some work but its big so don't mind. Need to get ours up for sale but its a tip ATM due to kids being off. Argh if I'm this impatient now then I'm a lost cause lol

arbrighton

reformedEffortmaker wrote: »

Does anyone else still look on rightmove to see if anything else has come up in your catchment area in your price range?

I dont think I could ever face our EA agent again if I pulled out of this sale and I am happy with the house we have offered on, yet find myself still looking. Is this normal?

We still look once in a while and we completed 6 months ago. Interesting to see that one of the properties we considered, but had been on a long time, is still on, and the price or agent hasn't changed.

mrsmchapman

Me and the hubby had a conversation about rightmove just the other day, he no longer looks, however I do. I will stop once exchanged, but until then I know what is for sale, prices locations etc, anything can happen until exchange.

arbrighton

mapcr77 wrote: »

We got our offer accepted on second week in March, and the survey happened just before Easter. Im getting anxious as we're moving half way across the country and the logistics of giving notice on the rented place and moving, etc. will be very complicated...

You're only a month in- it took us 14 weeks to get to completion on ours, and rather annoyingly exchange happened a couple of days into a rental period so we had a 6 week overlap between completion and handing rental keys back. But that meant virtually the whole house was decorated while empty (much easier) and I had a couple of manic pre-work trips between houses having realised I'd left things in the house I wasn't sleeping in etc (about 30 min apart and work in the middle).

nakiwala123

I have also kept the rightmove updates coming in even though we have had our offer accepted for just in case vendor pulls out. When we made an offer on a house back in Feb I was worried about having it accepted and then a better house could have come along just after exchange. Our offer was rejected and while we were considering our counteroffer the house we are currently buying came on the market.

The funny thing thing now is that the feeling of 'if something better comes along I will be disappointed' has completely vanished with this house. The 1st house needed so much work and I was nervous about the 2 massive oaks trees at bottom of garden with TPOs(I worship the sun alot). These are compromises we were willing to make after 3 viewings and convincing ourselves that it was the best we could get in our preffered area. We made an offer on the house we are buying now only after one viewing! Maybe we are fools but we shall wait for survey and solicitors searches before we think that. 2nd viewing is going to be carried out at the same time with the surveyor in the hope that he/she will say more than what will be put in report.

Valuation survey has been instructed for 16th Apr. We have not heard anything from solicitors yet apart receiving the property information pack which we sent back yesterday morning.
When should the searches begin? Does the solicitor get a prompt from the bank alerting them that the valuation is satisfactory?

I plan to start packing in earnest after exchange. To pass the time for now I am packing items that we are not going to need for a while for now and decluttering.

moneyistooshorttomention

mummyroysof3 wrote: »

Damn it ....went to view a house and we really like it despite needing some work but its big so don't mind. Need to get ours up for sale but its a tip ATM due to kids being off. Argh if I'm this impatient now then I'm a lost cause lol

In your position, I'd get your current house up instantly for sale.

I would have felt bad about keeping my buyer waiting for me to find mine and thus waited a bit before putting mine up for sale - in order not to keep them hanging around.

In hindsight, I shouldn't have done that - I should have just whacked it straight on the market the second it was "ready", rather than being unselfish and putting my buyers interests before my own. I realised we aren't in Normal Times at the moment - but I honestly didn't think a fairly-priced (indeed "bargain price" considering what area its in) house would still be on the market for sale 4 weeks in.

I shall be going ahead when I planned to and doing a definite search for mine and putting in an offer (even if my buyer is still keeping ME waiting before they put in an offer or even do their 1st/2nd viewings) and just keeping my fingers crossed that I am "proceedable" at the time I make my offer - but have decided I cant go hanging around for my buyer if they still haven't shown by then).

The only plus point to having delayed putting mine up for sale in those circumstances is I have a "brownie point" racked up for "treating my (potential) buyer well" at the outset by not making them wait whilst I find mine and have lost time because I was being a bit too "fair". Will "cash that point in" if I need to later on once I've found them iyswim (added to the brownie points from both my solicitor and I being efficient people - so neither of us will be causing hold-ups between buying and exchanging).

Four brownie point "bargaining chips" to play with by now (if you include the one that I have in reserve up my sleeve).....

mrsmchapman

Searches will begin once your solictor has recieved the draft contract from the other solicitor, once mortgage offer is made they will send a copy direct to the solicitor. We are has far as surveys and mortgages revived and now waiting for some searches to be done as paperwork was extremely slow from the people we are buying from. I've packed nothing as yet, I have de cluttered bits but will start packing once exchange is done, I started packing last time just things I didn't use and the buyer pulled so I had to unpack to put back into the market.

moneyistooshorttomention

mrsmchapman wrote: »

I've packed nothing as yet, I have de cluttered bits but will start packing once exchange is done, I started packing last time just things I didn't use and the buyer pulled so I had to unpack to put back into the market.

The packing is one of the reasons I wont be hurrying up the exchange to completion bit of the process - because packing obviously has to be done AFTER exchange in case of a buyer pulling out. Not that doing any advance packing is possible anyway if you're going to be paying your remover to do that for you the day before your move starts (as I will be personally).