The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

dramaticat

dramaticat said:

dramaticat said:

Finally able to post here, but in confusion and stress rather than the excitement I expected to feel.

August 2020  Put my house on the market, after thinking about doing so for three years. I’ve been viewing properties over the same period and saw the house I’m interested in buying at around the same time.

October 2020  After not a lot of interest in my house, received an offer that was too low.

October 2020  Offer increased by £15,000 and also declined.

October 2020  Offer increased by £30,000 – £20,000 off asking price. Delayed accepting because some good friends wanted to buy my house were struggling to sell theirs, and they had some more viewings booked. Unfortunately, they still haven’t sold.

October 2020  Offered 7.5% under the asking price for the house I’m interested in, which reflected what I considered to be a fair price in comparison to other things on the market. Declined, giving a figure that would be accepted that was just over my budget.

19 October 2020  Third viewing of house with a builder to discuss various options. We notice strong musty smell in a particular area, although no signs of damp visible. I get permission for an independent damp survey.

26 October 2020  Viewed a second house I was keen to view for a second time. Arranged this for a couple of days after the first viewing, during which time they accepted an offer.

11 November 2020     Damp survey carried out. No damp, and surveyor couldn’t smell anything! I raise my offer by £15,000, which is still £15,000 below the price the seller wants.

16 November 2020  Offer declined and house price is reduced by £25,000 on the estate agent listing.

As background, I have been intending to move for three years after my husband died. Just as I was going to contact estate agents in 2017, my neighbour put in a planning application to build houses in what was his parking area at the end of his garden, which is opposite my house. House selling put on hold while he made three applications before the final one was accepted, and then started to build. Didn’t think it would be a good idea to try and sell while living opposite a building site and portaloo! Then decided to try an take advantage of the stamp duty holiday.

I am also looking to move in a very restricted area – the same village. I have good friends here and I still feel I need their support – so not many properties to choose from. I realise this is a problem of my own making.

I now feel depressed and am questioning the wisdom of selling my house and having to rent while I wait for a suitable house to come on the market. There was a flurry of activity in the summer, but only two of the houses were right for me. I lost out on one and can’t agree a price on the other. I’m lucky that I can put my stuff into storage and stay with a friend for a few months while I either buy a house or look for something to rent – and it’s good not to have to rush into anything. But I’m now scared the market will dry up with the effects of lockdown and I’ll be stuck renting for ever. On the other hand, it wasn’t that easy to sell this house, and if I don’t sell now, I might not be able to if something I like does come up for sale.

Having said I can’t afford the house I like, it’s more that I don’t want to afford it. If I paid the price asked for, I’d wonder why I was getting only £30,000 more for my much bigger house and whether it was a wise move to make financially. I could end up with around £1,000 – and if we don't get the transaction done by 31 March next year, I'd have to pay to move. This all started out as a downsizing exercise that was meant to release a bit of equity as I work towards retirement!

I’m going to spend the evening eating ice cream.

Quite a lot to update on my journey.

The house I wanted to buy was taken off the market a couple of weeks after my final offer and hasn't reappeared.

January 2021 I learn that my buyer is funding the purchase of my house through the sale of two properties. One had completed; one fell through in January. I gave him two weeks to put it back on the market, and luckily he sold again very quickly. It seems that his original estate agent was lying to him and everyone about the length of the original chain – we all thought it was being bought by someone with nothing to sell! Needless to say, he changed estate agents.

February 2021 Nothing much coming on the market in my very small search area, so I start packing up stuff that I want to take with me when I move in with my friend. The rest is going into storage.

27 February 2021 Said friend has been nagging me to get more exercise, so I go out for a walk with her, only to fall off a stile and break my leg! Have to wait 8 days for an operation and now face 5 or 6 weeks of not being able to put weight on it. I tell my solicitor and estate agent there's no way I can move until I can use the leg again in some form – my friend's house isn't suitable for someone with this type of disability :-) Luckily there are still queries to be answered at the bottom of my buyer's new chain. This delay shouldn't affect that chain in any case, since he is not living in the house being sold. The only concern is when his mortgage offer expires.

March 2021 A very suitable house in my search area comes on the market. With no immediate hope of being able to view, I get my friend to book a viewing – she has been doing viewings with me, so knows what I'm looking for. There's also a video tour, which is helpful, and the estate agent selling my house is happy to do the negotiating for me. Well, potentially buying a house you've never seen seems to be fairly unremarkable in the crazy world I live in at the moment! :-)

Having had my first hospital review, the leg seems to be healing well. But because I smashed it up really well, the healing process is going to be quite long. I am now allowed to start putting a little weight on the leg, but apart from it being easier to limp to the loo than hop, that isn't going to make me any more independent. My next review is at the end of May when I hope I will be able to put full weight on it and start learning how to walk again. I was told I wouldn't be walking 'normally' again until July.

Of course, this has a big impact on my ability to physically organise moving house. I have a physio appointment in 10 days and I might get more practical guidance from them I did from the doctor. But apart from needing a lot of help from friends to deal with the practical issues, I need to discuss with the friend whose house I'm moving into how she feels about taking in a patient rather than a lodger! That on top of feeling confident about moving around her house.

I told my estate agent that the move can't now happen until June. My buyer has come back to give an ultimatum of 11 June as the date his solicitors and removals firm could work to – they are expecting to be busy in the run-up to the stamp duty holiday coming to an end. It's difficult to know at this stage how capable I will feel by then. Part of me wants to just say now the deal is off until I feel able to cope with this, but another part feels that I might feel like that in a few weeks and would be kicking myself if I pulled out now.

In the end I decided the 'suitable house' was too big and would need too much work. My friend went to see another one for me, but I haven't followed up on that either because I felt it would be too small! Until I feel comfortable about hauling myself up someone else's staircase on my bum to view their house, perhaps I should forget about finding a house to buy – unless it appears to be the 'dream home' of course :-) And if I lose my buyer, then it all becomes irrelevant anyway.

jenni_fer

Slow and steady here, reading through the pages on this thread I'm grateful for small progress and minimal drama!

We had our counter offer for a price reduction on our sale accepted...and found this out because the solicitor phoned us to confirm the reduction before we'd even heard from the Estate Agent!

The survey on our purchase came back, with more work to be done than we were hoping but nothing that we felt needed a price renegotiation. There were a couple of queries that we've pass onto our solicitor to follow up though.

It took a direct message to our sellers to get some traction there, there is a huge contrast between communication with our traditional EA and their online only one! Prompted a random question though....with an online agent...how do you get the keys on completion????

Buyers are starting to ask about dates, we assume they'll want end of June but sellers seem to have forgotten they said that would be ok and are quoting July, we're keeping out of it!


Timeline for us so far:
13th Jan - Current house on the market
30th Jan - Viewing morning, 8 viewers
2nd Feb - Offer accepted (cash buyer, currently renting), Solicitors engaged
23rd Feb - 1st (only) viewing on new house (sellers claim to be going into rented....we'll see!)
23rd Feb - 1st offer made
24th Feb - Offer rejected, 2nd offer made, accepted verbally
5th Mar - Memorandum of Sale
9th Mar - Survey completed on current property
10th Mar - Mortgage Application submitted
19th Mar - Mortgage Application approved
30th Mar - Buyers requested reduction due to under-valuation, declined
1st Apr - Buyers requested £5k reduction due to 'works' required, declined, offered £2k GOGW
6th April - New Memorandum of Sale confirming £2k reduction
6th April - Survey on purchase
12th April - Survey received
15th April - Draft contracts received from seller, searches started

rubywhatashmoo

We bought from an online estate agent and the keys were handed over by the vendors on completion day - they just hung around at the house until everything was confirmed and we picked them up there

birdmadgirl8

Hi everyone - planning campaign for next week...need to believe progress can be made (ongoing since Oct 20). Sticking point is vendors' solicitor who has not responded to enquires from our Solicitor for 6 weeks now. Everyone involved has tried making contact...but I have the feeling (for various reasons) vendors are just waiting for things to happen. Given how &%£# their solicitor is, they need to be on it. I've tried contacting vendors via agent, but it's hard to know how he's presenting concerns. I don't have their email, so thinking of writing to them in very diplomatic, but 'I'm taking no more &£%#' terms. Does anyone have any advice on wisdom of contact with vendors? Strategies welcome too. This is our dream home, or we would have walked ages ago. I know they still want to sell BTW. Any advice gratefully received!
 

dungabeagle

Good luck @birdmadgirl8! 

I am in a constant state of low level worry- we have agreed to do same day exchange and completion - & while it makes sense for our situation, my little anxiety brain refuses to believe that it is going to happen without some sort of massive drama. 

I feel like being too positive about it might jinx things, but being too negative might as well! 

I guess I need to keep telling myself that whether I worry about it or not, whatever happens would happen anyway! 

Our sellers are moving in with their parents & have been really amenable to our completion date suggestions, they’ve responded to all of our solicitors queries nice and quickly- they’ve never acted in a way at all that has made me think they may pull out... but knowing that they CAN is driving me mad. 

I guess they may be at the other side of things worrying that we might wake up on Friday and decide we don’t want to buy a house! 

birdmadgirl8

dungabeagle said:

Good luck @birdmadgirl8! 

I am in a constant state of low level worry- we have agreed to do same day exchange and completion - & while it makes sense for our situation, my little anxiety brain refuses to believe that it is going to happen without some sort of massive drama. 

I feel like being too positive about it might jinx things, but being too negative might as well! 

I guess I need to keep telling myself that whether I worry about it or not, whatever happens would happen anyway! 

Thank you! I find that doing at least one constructive thing each day (related to the move) helps me to manage my stress. Good luck with the (hopefully) final stages though. 

dungabeagle

birdmadgirl8 said:

Thank you! I find that doing at least one constructive thing each day (related to the move) helps me to manage my stress. Good luck with the (hopefully) final stages though. 

Oh that is a good idea! I guess I have been doing that, even unconsciously for the past few days! 

I decided to take from last Friday off work- I work in a mortgages related field & I was convinced that hearing about everyone’s mortgage worries would make it worse for me, rather than keeping my mind off things, so I’m trying to be really methodical with my packing- and fitting a lot of long lovely walks in with my dog to keep my mind from spiralling!

Wren14

Good luck this week everyone, hopefully some of us will get lucky! 

birdmadgirl8

jenni_fer said

It took a direct message to our sellers to get some traction there, there is a huge contrast between communication with our traditional EA and their online only one!

Hi jenni_fer  - I'd be interested to know how you made contact. Were your sellers receptive? I don't have email or phone details, but thinking of writing a friendly letter to get that traction you mention. Need to do something to get them pushing thier solicitor, but don't want to annoy/freak them out 😂 either!

tink_1983

I thought it was time  I joined the thread.!

We are apparently getting close exchange according to my solicitor! 

Our timeline and process has been one of the most stressful experiences of my life and I feel sick about the process most days! 

But I know itll be worth it!
We initally sold and found purchase August 2020, day of exchange 23/12 our first buyer pulled out.. no reasons given.
We got a new buyer the first working day after Christmas but then our vendor said it was all too stressful and pulled the house from market (hearts broken)
 
Found new house early January but vendors dragged heels and chain didnt form for 6wks and we found they where not serious about moving.

Current purchase we offered and offer accepted mid feb, vendor going to bungalow who are moving into rented.
Our buyer is buying for 2nd house, remortgaged his 2bed as let to buy.

All searches are back, enq for my sale and purchase are all done. Vendor has some enquiries shes waiting on but things seem to be moving.

It's been weekly chasing of the agents, my vendors agent hates me as I dont let them fob me off, but I'm not there to be liked.
I want honest and straightforward answers not their put off tactics.!

Good luck to you all, I keep telling my partner we will never move again after this!