Nervous first time buyer!

Squirrelz92

Kjelyse - Sooo pleased your searches have come back! Did you mention you have already had your draft contract through? I am at that stage now. Solicitors are reading through the sellers documents and sending back queries...this is the worst part as it could take a week or 4 weeks depending on what they find!!! It's great that you get to keep an appliance. I just figured that if they were built in, you would keep them? Christ I am dreading what my fixtures and fittings list looks like now you've mentioned it! All the cupboards are rammed with DIY crap....

Spicybananas - Welcome! Wow you are getting your keys on Friday?!? How exciting. What did you decide to buy? New build or a reno? I am terrified of that too, especially because I have just had to spend £250 on my credit card to buy a new hoover as mine just died  Want to pay it back as fast as possible! Plus I have two birthdays to pay for so that hasn't helped with the odd toy going onto that (told the kids, nothing significant this year)!

Vanessa1215

Gonna move to this thread now from the mortgage one:
Here is my timeline, we are FTB, and the seller has already moved out before lockdown. So no chain.
29/05, House viewing, put down an offer, and has been accepted on same day.
01/06, meet broker, give her our documents. 
04/06, AIP through broker from NatWest (they do a hard search if apply AIP through a broker)
08/06, Full mortgage application went in.  
12/06, solicitor instructed (actually did this on 05/06 but she got our address wrong so we never received the first post she sent), paid for search and she said she would start search straight away (she didn't).
15/06, lender valuation took place,
16/06, mortgage offer. 
17/06, Called solicitor to chase up on update, tole her we have got mortgage offer. She wold us she will start search.
23/06, We communicated with broker, she told us that solicitor told her that she(solicitor) has received the draft contract and has sent the request for search. 

Really hope we could move in during summer so I could get things sorted before September (I am a teacher). But the solicitor seems really lay back and I sent her an email on last Thursday (18th) but she didn't reply. In the end we got the updated from our broker. I don't want to push her too hard so she could delay us on purpose? 

Anyway, I am joining this waiting game. x

kjelyse

gemmacampbell2019 said:

Kjelyse - Sooo pleased your searches have come back! Did you mention you have already had your draft contract through? I am at that stage now. Solicitors are reading through the sellers documents and sending back queries...this is the worst part as it could take a week or 4 weeks depending on what they find!!! It's great that you get to keep an appliance. I just figured that if they were built in, you would keep them? Christ I am dreading what my fixtures and fittings list looks like now you've mentioned it! All the cupboards are rammed with DIY crap....

Only one of the searches! The local authority searches are still all pending. 😭 They (and any enquiries) are all that's left now.

From everything I've read on here, fixtures and fittings lists need to be taken with a huge grain of salt. There's some real horror stories around. Hopefully it won't be too bad for any of us!

On the bright side, I'm slowly chilling out about it all. The longer it takes, the more money I'll have in reserve when I finally do make the move! And there's some work that I want to get done to the house that I'm less looking forward to. All of the rooms except the kitchen have single plug sockets - and most of them only have ONE single socket! Obviously that isn't anywhere near enough. 

momo1103

Hi all,
We are FTBs and we’ve just completed yay! Just wanted to share our timeline and story with you all;

21st February: MIP received from whole of market mortgage broker
4th March: 2nd viewing on property (part of a chain and sellers haven’t found onward purchase yet)
9th March: Made offer and offer accepted on property
17th March: 90% LTV mortgage application submitted and instructed solicitors
20th March: Lenders valuation takes place

*23rd March: Lockdown starts*

24th March: Searches ordered by solicitors and memorandum of sale received from EA
26th March: Environmental and water/drainage search received
31st March: Lender down-values the property considerably less than the accepted offer, and draft contract pack, title plan and fittings and contents form (TA10) received
1st April: Changed mortgage application to 95% LTV and started negotiation with sellers. EA informs us that there are only 2 purchases in the chain, our purchase and the sellers purchase.
8th April: Final offer accepted and new memorandum of sale received from EA
14th April: All search reports received
19th April: Mortgage offer received
12th May: Homebuyers survey booked for 20th May

*13th May: Government lifts moving home restrictions*

20th May: Homebuyers survey takes place
29th May: Mortgage deed, transfer deed (TR1) and contract signed in preparation
2nd June: Homebuyers report made available for us to view and our solicitors provide us with a consolidated report on all their searches and findings
4th June: Received statement of account from our solicitors and set a day for simultaneous exchange and completion (on our solicitors advice) for 26th June
12th June: Statement of account settled in full
24th June: Our solicitors again confirm they are preparing for simultaneous exchange and completion on 26th June
25th June: Our solicitors receive our mortgage funds ready for tomorrow
26th June: Exchange occurs around 12:20pm and and completion 20 minutes later

*Keys collected from EA*

Overall, it’s been a very interesting experience, including dare I say it, that old cliché of an emotional roller coaster. Excitement at the start when we finally found and had our offer accepted on a property that ticked all the boxes (of being in the right area, had everything we weren’t willing to compromise on and within our budget etc).
Then wondering whether the sale would fall through when the lender devastatingly significantly down-valued the property. We had to think really hard about whether we wanted to pay the original offer when a professional valuation said the property wasn’t worth that much. However, we used this as a bargaining tool and managed to have a reduced offer accepted whilst also securing a 95% LTV. 

Even though I was quite surprised that we received our mortgage offer on a Sunday in the middle of lockdown, the Covid-19 regime did hit us where nothing at all happened for just over 4 weeks and was so damn frustrating. Our solicitors were working from home but the sellers solicitors had stopped working on the case altogether and wouldn’t even reply to enquiries. Even so, our solicitors would check in with us every week just to let us know they hadn’t forgotten about us. It was a relief when things started moving again.

Also at the risk of sounding like an advert, kudos to both our mortgage broker and our solicitors who were absolutely great throughout. We decided to go for both broker and solicitors that are wholly online companies and boy am I glad we made that decision! Both were already set-up for working at home so there were absolutely no delays when lockdown started and things were still progressing in a timely manner on our end (ordering searches etc). 

Our solicitors were particularly good at keeping in touch with us (note: we didn’t need to keep in touch with them, they kept in touch with us), they would send us an email once a week to let us know exactly where we were at (even if nothing had progressed that week) - we didn’t have to chase them up even once - Personally I am really grateful for this after reading some of the horror stories of others experiences on here. We simply followed up any queries we had on a phone call with them whenever we wanted and they were really helpful with explaining terminology and processes we didn’t quite understand without being patronising.

I know most people are wary of using online companies in general and especially for such life-changing transactions such as these, but honestly I couldn’t have had a better experience. I believe we would’ve got to exchange/completion 1 month quicker if Covid restrictions weren’t in place largely due to the swiftness of both my broker and solicitors.

If and when the time comes to buy another property I would definitely be using my broker and solicitors again. I know I'll be using my broker when it comes to re-mortgaging.

Not sure about rules on this forum so I’ve not named my broker or solicitors but if you want to message me directly I am more than happy to recommend them and answer any queries. 

Lisa8803

I feel the pain too! Im a first time buyer, sole occupier and it is causing so much anxiety. Im convinced my conveyancer hates me because im asking loads of questions. I queried why shes asking me to fill out the contract form and sign the plan of the lease when i havent even received my personal lease details. I told her im not signing this until i get the details as i dont want to be tied to a property when i havent got the full information.
Feel like this should be a really happy time but all i want to do is cry! 

kjelyse

Still twiddling my thumbs, waiting for the local searches! 

Has anyone had better luck than me?

Squirrelz92

kjelyse said:

Still twiddling my thumbs, waiting for the local searches! 

Has anyone had better luck than me?

Oh my gosh, you are still waiting?!?! That's outrageous! Must be soo stressful for you waiting for them for this period of time!

matthew91822

Lone first time buyer here, got an offer accepted on a property today. Viewed it at the begining of the month but was overpriced. Was reduced this morning and put in an offer, did some negotiating and bam!

Looked at some conveyencing quotes and the estate agent's own solicitor was best price so that should be easy. Got a mortage in principal but still scared that something will go wrong when it comes to proving my earnings as I'm on the cusp of the full mortgage offer (Full time job + variable extra income) But do have a 60% LTV. It's chain free so hopefully doesn't all take too long. It's scary being this adult!  

kjelyse

matthew91822 said:

Lone first time buyer here, got an offer accepted on a property today. Viewed it at the begining of the month but was overpriced. Was reduced this morning and put in an offer, did some negotiating and bam!

Looked at some conveyencing quotes and the estate agent's own solicitor was best price so that should be easy. Got a mortage in principal but still scared that something will go wrong when it comes to proving my earnings as I'm on the cusp of the full mortgage offer (Full time job + variable extra income) But do have a 60% LTV. It's chain free so hopefully doesn't all take too long. It's scary being this adult!  

60%, wow! 

Good luck, keep us updated. I know what you mean about it being scary. 

kjelyse

Squirrelz92 said:

Oh my gosh, you are still waiting?!?! That's outrageous! Must be soo stressful for you waiting for them for this period of time!

Funnily enough, twenty minutes after I posted this I got an email from my solicitor saying that she got the searches back! So it was about a month and a week, all told. 

Who knew that complaining on a forum could have so much power! Speak of the devil, I guess