What part of buying your first home did you find most stressful?

annetheman

diggingdude said:

Just doing it all by myself. I hear so many couples moaning about partner not pulling their weight. When you are on your own you do everything without someone to even emotionally support you 

Interesting, I think doing it with someone else would've made the whole thing more stressful - currently I only have to think about my own needs/wants/worries/paranoia.

I haven't heard anyone moan about partner not pulling their weight but it is great to have someone to moan/panic/whinge with occasionally - I find this forum has been a great emotional support substitute in that respect!


My parents are homeowners but never really explained or I think even understood the process enough themselves to advise or really understand what I'm banging on about(!) and my sister has never bought or even rented on here own, always moved in with partners who did all the "hard work" prior. No other close relatives/partner.


I am an aspiring FTB currently in the waiting-for-mortgage process with no chain (new build) and I was VERY stressed at this stage many months ago, but due to EWS1, I have been in the purchase post-offer since 4th March and I don't have many emotions left to give to it! Still waiting for mortgage.

Whatever happens happens, I'm drained 

Dribiddi

Getting the mortgage offer. Broker advised our application went for audit after underwriting. The auditors found the underwriters had done something wrong so went back to underwriters which then had to go back to audit - added weeks. 

gab3x

Oh where do I start...
1. Getting a phone call from my agent whilst in a pool in Tenerife that my buyers pulled out in March (we offered already on a house and got accepted)
2. Scrambling to find buyer no2, took us only a week
3. Buyer no2 drags feet post lockdown then pulls out in July
4. Our seller puts the house back on the market and so do we but ours is inner London flat without a garden so it goes slowly
5. Back in the game by October we have buyer no3 and accepted on second house which is even better than the first one and at the same price
6. Seller demands completion on 10th December and I scramble to get everything done on time
7. Then 48hrs before exchange seller informs us they cannot complete until 8th of Jan and then they make me wait for two weeks fearing I will lose my buyer again
8. Finally we exchange after much blackmail and drama from me and will now move in 10 days time

I am NEVER moving again. This process has aged me mentally by about a decade.

Mickey666

I really can't remember.  Honestly.  And that's my point - however stressful it might or might not be once it's done, it's done and you'll soon forget, while the benefits last a lifetime.
Besides, is the renting alternative any less stressful - not knowing that you might be asked to move out at any time? 
Being in control of your own life is a big stress-buster in itself and owning your own home is a big part of that.

AskAsk

my husband helped his friend move when she bought her first home.  they had hired a van but when they got to the flat they couldn't open the door.  they called the estate agent and was told they got the wrong flat! 

she had not remembered the door number and so they had tried to get into another flat in the block.

steampowered

I found dealing with incompetent estate agents the worst bit. Once I actually found a property, the process went quite smoothly (no chain). 

I hated calling up estate agents only to find that the property they had listed has sold, but they hadn't bothered to update their Zoopla listing.

I hated dealing with estate agents who couldn't be bothered to do their job (i.e. to have their property listings in order), but were perfectly happy to spam me with nuisance phone calls trying to refer me to their relationship mortgage broker. Referral fees ought to be banned.

amandacat

I bought my first home 11 years ago and to be honest I can’t recall there being any stress during the moving process, it was a short chain and was all done in 3.5 months. I’m sure there were stressful aspects but I can’t remember them! Actually viewing houses and dealing with EAs who insisted you saw their mortgage broker and seemed to start bidding wars whenever offering asking price also stressed me out because I knew they were often playing games eg. we wouldn’t go above asking price even though they said other offers on the table but when we walked away the house was still not sale agreed a month later. 
The only thing I really remember being stressful was packing, I wasn’t an experienced mover and it took me forever. Also the post tenancy cleaning to get the rental up to scratch to get my deposit back was a pain.  
This time I’m selling as I need to relocate for work and I’m moving into rented initially. I’m finding this sale very stressful, I think the biggest stress is constantly worrying the buyer will pull out. Our first buyer pulled out due to mortgage issues and when we tried to sell a few years back we lost 2 buyers in a row, gave up trying to sell and ended up with a massive solicitors bill. This time we are quite far along in the process so hoping all is good but the constant worry of it all collapsing is my biggest stress. 

Rachel*

As a FTB who is in the process of buying a property, the two things that I’ve found most stressful are:
1. Waiting for my mortgage application to go through (and the numerous requests for more paperwork) 
2. Not being able to get hold of my solicitor between Christmas and New Year, when I’m hoping to exchange 2nd week of January. 

A lot of stress was added due to being on and off furlough throughout this time as well. One thing I can say now that I’m near the end of the tunnel (finally!!) is that it’s stressful at the time but once stuff starts falling in place, you soon forget about the stress and start thinking about the end result - owning a property! 

NatNat77

I think it's whatever stage you're in at the time 😂 I thought getting my mortgage was the worst part, until my buyer couldn't get theirs! They still might but it's taking so long we're back on the market just in case, but it's quiet. I'm resigning myself to the fact we'll probably have to reduce our price once we know for sure and as a result we'll lose our purchase, especially as we'll have no chance of making the stamp duty deadline even if we got a new buyer ASAP. But if their mortgage had gone through first time, and quickly, I'd have been worrying about the searches or something else! I don't understand how people put themselves through this on a regular basis 

jackomdj

AskAsk said:

my husband bought a flat where he went in after completion when he got the keys and was shocked to find people were still living there!  they said they didn't know the flat had been sold as they were tenants.  my husband called the estate agent to tell them there were still people living in the flat and the estate agent called the vendor, who said her brother had rented out the flat without her knowledge, yeah right.

my husband said to her that he will give her two weeks to get the tenants out and luckily after two weeks they were gone.  the estate agent said my husband could sue the vendor but that she wasn't all there so it may not be worth pursuing, so my husband left it.

Although not a buying story this reminds me of when my partner was working away and renting a room.  He went back to the house one Sunday night, to find it empty except his belongings in his room and the other renters stuff.  Turns out the ‘landlady’ was sub letting and she did a runner!