The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

faerielight

I've signed both my contracts but my buyer decided to get a survey done at the last minuite, and has been round with a builder today.. i feel so worried as I don't know what came up in the survey.. is it normal for people to get a survey done at the last minute? I accepted their offer a year ago. 

whizzywoo

We are waiting to exchange on a new build very soon.  It's already built so we can move straight in.

It's taken more than 12 months to get to this stage though.
3 buyers pulled out on us, the 3rd one on the date that Exchange & Completion should have taken place.
4th sale went very quickly though, sold, completed and money in our bank account in less than 3 weeks, as they didn't bother with searches.

We are still in temporary accommodation as we moved out for the 2nd buyer and never moved back in.  Just a few weeks now and we will be in our brand new house which will be nice and warm.  It's been very cold in this static caravan.

So it seems that it's 4th time lucky.

jazzyja

Thought I’d jump on this 🙂
currently in a small chain, my buyers are cash buyer and my vendor is chain free (selling their old rental). My solicitor started searches yesterday and according to my EA my buyer started searches last week. My mortgage offer has been accepted. My buyer had a survey done at the very start of the process before solicitors (I assume they wanted to make sure before instructing) So I’m hoping i won’t be waiting too long and that it is pretty straight forward. I’m purchasing a freehold but my property is leasehold…I had no issues or concerns raised when I bought it though so fingers and toes crossed!! Hoping to be out at least before summer school holidays 🤞

esubbs

Well its been almost three years and back we are again. I'd forgotten how utterly frustrating this process is!

We're still a fair way off exchange but this board helped keep me sane last time so here goes:

16/04 - our "ideal house" pops onto the market, while we are abroad on holiday
20/04 - get back from holiday and pop round to the house as its bank holiday weekend to see what the vendor's position is and if its worth us viewing and putting our house up for sale
24/04 - view new house, confirm interest and that we would definitely make an offer once proceedable
25/04 - estate agent comes to look at our house
09/05 - our house goes on sale
23/05 - buyers view our house
31/05 - buyers second viewing
02/06 - offer accepted on our sale, £15k below asking on the basis they are cash buyers in rented and want to move quickly
05/06 - second viewing on purchase, confirm offer and offer accepted
06/06 - instruct solicitors and apply for mortgage
10/06 - vendor reserves a ready-built newbuild, completing the chain
11/06 - MOS issued for sale and purchase
13/06 - mortgage advisor appointment and mortgage approved subject to valuation
16/06 - homebuyers survey instructed on purchase
16/06 - draft contract sent to buyers solicitor
17/06 - homebuyers survey conducted on purchase
18/06 - solicitor packs for sale and purchase received through the post, disbursement funds transferred to solicitor
19/06 - mortgage offer confirmed
19/06 - buyer have a builder come round to quote for replacing a glass roof with a solid one (they knew they wanted to do this before making an offer, it wasn't something out of the blue they weren't aware of). Builder says it isn't necessary and not worth it as the current roof is good quality, provides a £12k quote. Buyer pulls out within half an hour of the builders visit and refuses to negotiate.
20/06 - vendor on our purchase speaks to the EA and offers cash towards the replacement roof if our buyer will re-engage and negotiate, as they obviously don't want to lose the reservation fee on their new build
23/06 - buyer comes back requesting a further £6k off (£21k in total). Our vendor generously offers to reduce their price by £5k if we put the other £1k in. Sale back on.
23/06 - homebuyers survey report returned on purchase, no issues
25/06 - all paperwork returned to solicitor who then orders searches
27/06 - initial searches (environmental etc.) returned, just waiting on the local search which is expected by end of this week
30/06 - buyers instruct a homebuyers survey for 17th July!!!

Needless to say, we're all very frustrated with our buyers. They were insistent that they wanted to move quickly and if our buyer didn't find an empty - ready to go property that we'd have to break the chain etc etc and now seem to be delaying the whole thing by any means necessary. Perhaps in the hope that if they threaten to pull out at the last minute then we'll knock even more money off just to keep it going? I feel awful for our vendor who has been overly accommodating throughout.
For now, we just plod on though and hope for the best.

esubbs

Am I the only one waiting to exchange? Ah well, I'll update anyway! Following from the above:

6th July - buyers come for a third visit, they say their solicitor has been chasing ours for the contract pack which still hasn't been received and I promise to give them a nudge
7th July - Our solicitor forwards initial enquiries from the buyers before we have chance to chase, so they must have had the contract pack! We answer them immediately. Also confirms there is a delay on the local search and it might be another week or two.
7th July - Our vendor pops round (we're on neighbouring streets) to let us know they're ready to exchange on their purchase and they're off on a cruise for ten days in case we can't get hold of them.
11th July - EA chases us as the buyers are still saying they haven't received what they are now calling the "information pack". I explain what's been sent and we've even had initial enquiries raised so I'm not sure what they're chasing - maybe its the pack from their own solicitor with the TA6 etc that's usually provided once the searches and survey are completed?
14th July - Second lot of enquiries from the buyers (again just confirming what it already says on the forms), answered immediately.
14th July - worryingly, our solicitor asks for us to travel to branch to provide ID so she can do the anti-money laundering checks, which we already did weeks ago. I've asked her to double check her records before we take time off work etc again. Bit annoyed that she's only picking this up six weeks in.