House fell through (again) need cheering up. Tell me your story.

x.sophie.x

So my OH and I started looking for our first home in dec 2012. By March we found a home we liked and put an offer in for the full asking price after going into a bidding war with another couple. Everything was accepted, survey came back ok... Were just waiting to exchange contracts. But then the old lady we were buying off refused to move out until she found a perfect home. By the time it was late July and waiting for 4 months for her to find somewhere we'd had enough. She still hadn't found a house and refused to move. The estate agents told us we could be waiting indefinitely and with our mortgage offer soon running out, we decided to move on and started looking for a new home.

At the end of August our dream house came up on the market. So much nicer than the first one, and hardly had any work needing to be done. All our friends and family loved it and we were thrilled. Vendors wanted a quick sale, as they were moving into a new build. We pulled out of the first house and had our offer accepted on the second one (the old lady still hadn't found anywhere by end of August... She really was stringing us along). Mortgage reapproved ok on the new home and we were half way through our searches. Then we got a phone call yesterday saying the vendor is pulling out due to personal reasons

We are totally shocked and completely gutted. I feel like I've just been dumped and just want to cry. My OH says he feels sick to the stomach about it too. I've been looking and re-looking on right move and can't find a single home we like in the area we want to be. I know everyone says something better will come along... But this WAS our 'something better'.

I need some inspirational stories or advice to cheer me up. Please let me know if something like this has happened to you, and how it's worked out...

I need to know it'll be ok.

Better_Days

Sorry to hear of your experiences. It is very hard. We have also had 2 purchases fall through. The survey of the first turned up the bungalow was non-standard construction. The second the vendors accepted our offer, changed their minds, decided they wanted more, but I only found out when I asked a friend to ring up the EA. She was told there had been an offer on the property but it had been rejected. EA had been stringing us along. We loved both properties, it was very disappointing.

We are now on the third property, which we don't love. But, our rent is expensive, and prices have gone up 9% in our area this year. HTB will probably push prices up further so we are buying now and hope we can try again in a couple of years.

Have a hard look at what is going on in the market in your area. The problem here is that the number of properties coming onto the market is remarkably static, (you should be able to tell this from your RM alerts) but demand is increasing (prices have increased by 9% this year). What is going on in your area? Do you 'have' to move? Can you hang on for a couple of years until the effects of HTB shake out and until after the next election?

matador04

Being so close to exchange for it to then fall through is a horrible experience.

We were about to exchange in our move and then the bottom of the chain (our buyer's buyer) inexplicably pulled out. So frustrating after all those weeks of waiting.

Thankfully our vendor is ok waiting and our original buyer has got a new buyer for her house. But we've obviously got to wait for them to get sorted (and there's an extra party in the chain now).

To make matters worse we are having a baby in precisely 8 weeks. Bizarrely so is the person at the bottom of the chain, so I'm hoping this will hurry things up a bit.

x.sophie.x

Hi BetterDays,

Our rent is expensive and our apartment is falling to pieces. It's depressing thinking that we are going to be here for yet another Christmas. I think I'd go crazy if I thought I'd be here for a couple more years!

I know we're going to struggle finding a new home. Houses in our area have increased by 6.8% in the past year. I just don't want to settle for something I'm not happy with. None of the houses which are on the market still are half as nice as the second house. Looks like I'm caught between a rock and a hard place.

x.sophie.x

Hi Matador04,

Congratulations on your baby, how exciting for you

Glad to hear that your chains back up and running. Hope you get in before baby comes

Better_Days

x.sophie.x wrote: »

I just don't want to settle for something I'm not happy with. None of the houses which are on the market still are half as nice as the second house. Looks like I'm caught between a rock and a hard place.

It's so difficult to decide what to do, and sometimes you won't know if you have made the right decision for a couple of years. We sold in January and moved into rented so we could find something we really liked. In the past we had purchased properties that were just OK. However, it hasn't worked out. I didn't expect prices to rise so much, I didn't expect HTB to be extended, I didn't expect 2 purchases to fall through. My health has suffered and I just couldn't face continuing traipsing round houses.

There is a balance to be struck between holding out for what you really want (and thought you had!) and being realistic about your current situation. It can be soul destroying, especially when you consider how much it costs to move and to purchase a property. Are there any local EA's that you feel you could ring up and chat to them about the market in your area?

I do hope you find somewhere you love.

AnnaV

Ours has just fallen through too, know the feeling. Completely gutted.

ACG

I dont believe in perfect homes...

If a house on the same street came up and you decorated it to your tastes - that home would then be your dream home too? So there is no dream home, its all abuot it being nice and in the right area (in my opinion).

I bought my house off a 92 year old man. No GCH, avocado bathroom, kichen which hasnt been touched since the 70s, same for the living room. I put my offer in having driven past the house only. I hadnt seen inside photos but as the EA told me it was a 92 year old man i took an assumption on what the inside would be like and it was pretty much as expected - well looked after but extremely out of date.

The only major surprise was that it needed re-wiring but that was neither here nor there, the house itself was a complete bargain because nobody else could look past the fact it needed gutting. I bought a house for about 20% under its true value.

As a Mortgage Advisor i could give good and bad experiences. One good experience is that i went to see a client at 7pm on the 2nd September. I submitted the application on the 3rd. We will be completing first thing on Monday morning. 4 weeks from offer to moving in.

When everyone pulls together - solicitors, lenders, vendor and buyer everything can be done in a very short space of time.

I dont believe in that everything happens for a reason mumbo jumbo either. What has happened, has happened. Like anything in life you have to make the best of a bad situation and find something else you will be happy with.

jules888

We had a happy ending to our house buying as we finally got the one house we all really liked and ticked all the boxes out of the ones we looked at in our price bracket.But took us nearly a year,getting gazumped,finding out our house and one we were buying had shale etc.So there were ups and downs,tears,frustrations and i never want to do it again!But love the house we"re in and have to pinch myself sometimes as had wanted to move for so long.Good luck op!

witchy1066

OP sorry to hear about your house situation

we spent 4 months looking at 35 houses and nothing ticked all our boxes or even came close , the house we are hoping to buy is totally opposite to what I expected I would like , but on walking through the door we both knew it was right for us , the dream of a large dining kitchen , 3 double bedrooms became unimportant once I glanced at the garden , and I was the one that didnt want another house with a large garden but hey this one seduced me and the fact that the kitchen hasn't got room for my washing machine is just a minor inconvenience,
what I am trying to say is don't give up hope the right house is out there ,you just haven't seen it yet ,
and remember , a house is simply a house , its you that makes it a dream home,

wishing you all the best and hope its 3rd time lucky for you

makeyourdaddyproud

Sold to eager FTB'er in November, all going smoothly even through protracted single question missives from Countrywide. Found lovely house then at 80% of the way through the chain, our buyers own buyers couldn't proceed to funding breakdown, so we lost out 2 months later.

I then decided a chain is too risky.

Due to time lost I asked seller to raise the sale price £10k (initial suspicions arose due to irrationally fast first offer).

Two weeks later we got asking price offer (only because we were ongoing chain free). Alll went through with no hassle.

Once we were stationed at our inlaws, we started looking and found an even better value 6 bed property than the first (was 5 bed).

Sale went through only with one hitch: a charging order. This only added a week to the process, and we move in next week.

I'm not sure I will entirely agree that long selling processes is always bad in a rising market, but keep your head held high and not let it get to you.

If it is at all possible, consider avoiding ongoing chains, though it may not be practical for everyone.