The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

1616six

RM_2013 said:

New week but no updates today - how’s everyone else getting on? 

Hopefully you get some good news soon!

Nothing for us today but we’ve drawn down all of our funds (😮) scary in itself! Ready for when we have to pay our bill. 

I’m massively tempting fate but we’ve found a lovely corner sofa that absolutely will not fit in our current house but it’s too good of a bargain to miss so we are going to collect it in our campervan tonight and it will have to stay stored in that until we move. 

RM_2013

@1616six

ha ha I stopped myself from buying a fabulous corner sofa this weekend but we did order a king size bed that won’t fit in our current bedroom but it’s being delivered in a few weeks to my parents house just in case!! 

Hopefully some good news for us all this week 

RM_2013

julicorn said:

RM_2013 said:

julicorn said:

RM_2013 said:

New week but no updates today - how’s everyone else getting on? 

nothing here either. I was hoping we might get our survey report back today, but I reckon it'll probably be tomorrow now. 
We commissioned a valuation as part of that as well, because our lender undervalued the house by £50k, but that was based on a desktop valuation only. Not mega surprising because it's quite an unusual property for the area (which I guess a computer wouldn't really factor in), but I'm curious to see what the surveyor thinks. 

Fingers crossed the survey and valuation come back soon.  Did you re negotiate the down value with the vendor? Or will you if the survey picks up any serious issues? Surprising that they only did a desk top valuation of its an unusual property for the area.

We haven't yet, waiting to see what this valuation comes back with. I don't think we really have a leg to stand on when the desktop valuation is based on the properties nearby that are nothing like the one we're buying (it's on a street with mostly fairly run-down 1930s houses, and this one was only built in 2017, very energy efficient, solar panels, quite interesting architecturally... quite a different type of property, really). 
They did a desk top valuation because our LTV is quite low, even at the lower valuation it's still under 60%. So it's very low risk for the lender, which means they didn't feel the need to send someone out in person. 

That’s fair comment - the house sounds fabulous 

Ksw3

No update here. Offer still expires this week. We've refused to even start packing let alone looking at furniture in case it does all fall through. I did start looking at paint colours but told myself to calm down and it's back to just chasing everyone!

RM_2013

Ksw3 said:

No update here. Offer still expires this week. We've refused to even start packing let alone looking at furniture in case it does all fall through. I did start looking at paint colours but told myself to calm down and it's back to just chasing everyone!

Stressful.  Hope you manage to get things sorted.  I keep looking at home decor and telling myself to stop! Fingers crossed for more news tomorrow 

sophieo16

RM_2013 said:

@sophieo16 great news about your sale - hope your purchase is smooth sailing.  How far along in the process are you?

@RM_2013 ! Any news on your end? 

Offer accepted late September. We have had all the searches etc back now so we are just waiting for some missing info from the seller and draft contracts before enquiries can be raised. It has been delayed due to the sellers pack going to the incorrect address and not being reissued for about 4 weeks. Alittle bit of a backwards process but will hopefully be moving to enquiries soon! Im expecting being in for Christmas will be a bit overly optimistic so I'm guessing Jan/ early feb at the latest.

HWBY

Wall of text incoming...

What a whirlwind the past few weeks have been. Offer accepted 19/09, mortgage application submitted 26/09. Mortgage offer came through on 28/10... for £50k less than what we'd asked for.

No news of a down-valuation, just "we are pleased to let you know that we've approved your mortgage application", and only upon reading the offer of loan we saw that we'd been offered a mortgage for £231k rather than £280.5k.

Many phone calls and emails later, it transpired that our broker submitted our application incorrectly, putting the loan amount requested as what we were buying the house for. The bank's valuation then said "yup, that's fine".

We raised a complaint, but were told by both the bank and our broker to expect the valuation to come back the same, as "if it isn't correct, then you would have seen what looked like an up-valuation", that they don't take the amount offered for a property into account when preparing a valuation, etc. I said that £280,500 was a very specific value to assign a house, and it's one hell of a coincidence that value was also the exact amount of loan we requested... but no, apparently that was correct.

We were waiting for a final confirmation before taking it to our vendor to negotiate, but had resigned ourselves to losing out a second time and having to find a new rental instead.

Our broker emailed today to say that, actually, the bank's surveyor has redone the valuation and now agrees with our actual purchase price of £330k. NatWest is happy to proceed and will honour the interest rate from last month. We should get the offer issued by COB Wednesday.

Of course, it raises a lot of questions. How did our broker make this mistake in the first place (we're with L&C - they've been dreadful this entire process, I really recommend avoiding)? How has the valuation been allowed to jump £50k no questions asked? We already have a complaint filed with the broker, and we'll probably be making one with the bank too.

So, after spending several weeks consoling ourselves about why it wasn't a big deal we lost the house... we're now back to buying it! Of course, things can still go wrong (we lost out at the six month mark on one before this, so know all too well), but I'm back to feeling optimistic.

19/09 - Offer made
21/09 - Offer accepted

23/09 - Solicitors instructed

26/09 - Mortgage application submitted, memorandum of sale sent
28/10 - Mortgage offer made for incorrect loan amount
31/10 - Complaints and appeal started on mortgage offer
14/11 - Broker tells us that bank accepted updated valuation at correct purchase price, things get moving again

Fingers crossed this is the worst of it... I can't take much more of this.

RM_2013

@sophieo16
we haven’t heard any further.  As of Friday there was one query to clear up for the sale which solicitor was dealing with and the enquiries on our purchase were back and being reviewed. We’ve stressed that our buyers are keen to move before Christmas but we are running out of time I think 

sophieo16

RM_2013 said:

@sophieo16
we haven’t heard any further.  As of Friday there was one query to clear up for the sale which solicitor was dealing with and the enquiries on our purchase were back and being reviewed. We’ve stressed that our buyers are keen to move before Christmas but we are running out of time I think 

Now the management company thing had been solved for us everything has sped up by 100mph, so Christmas could be possible for you if there is the 1 enquiry outstanding...but it may be worth mentally preparing just in case. Friends, family and colleagues keep asking if we will be in our purchase before Christmas and I keep saying no. It would be VERY much wishful thinking but not completely impossible.

I'm just waiting for the sale to complete then I will get back in contact with the EA about our purchase. The sellers pack still hasn't come back after 6-7 weeks. It was initially sent out to the incorrect address, but I would have assumed it would have been flagged a little sooner by either the seller or solicitor, which isn't filling me with confidence that its going to be a quick process moving forward.  

nearlythere38

Hello, jumping on. Can I ask what peoples experiences have been recently of timescales? How long is a piece of string I suppose. 

We’ve had searches done on our purchase (just waiting one coming back), mortgage offer has been issued and survey done. They’ll be raising enquiries once last search is back. Our buyers are cash buyers, they have had searches done and we are waiting for enquiries.

Are we miles off?