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

RandomDan

This was back in 1999.  I was a self-certified endowment mortgage.  I had to have an HIV test as part of the process.  That was quite unexpected and stressful.

Slithery

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.

Your husband was incredibly lucky that the tenants decided to leave, they had no reason to.

All that happened was that he became their new landlord, there was no way of legally getting rid of them except the usual statutory notice.

anewbuyer

Absolutely the whole process was a nightmare, but especially, the solicitors weren't very communicative, so it made it all more frustrating.

WiseOwl00

We're FTBs and had an offer accepted on a property back in July 2020. To be honest, that whole process was just a shambles from the start and caused so much stress. I actually felt relieved when the vendor finally communicated and dropped out of the sale in October 2020. The stress was starting to make me feel physically unwell. 
- There was very minimal communication, and even then the communication we received was false and misleading. The estate agent kept saying that the vendor was in the process of instructing their solicitors, but then it never happened. If we asked the vendor for an update, it would take them ages to reply to the estate agent. They'd say "oh I'll ring back by Monday night", and then never actually ring back. After 3 months, they finally admitted that they didn't even have a house to buy. 
-The mortgage application was a nightmare. Because of Covid, there was a 15 working-day wait between each stage. But we kept getting asked for more information, which kept putting us back to the start of the 15 working-days. We finally got there after 3 months... just as the vendors pulled out.

In hindsight, we should have just pulled out. But people constantly kept telling me that I was being inpatient and that these things take time! Luckily this second property has been a lot easier. We've got our mortgage offer and have direct communication with the sellers. The stressful parts have been the delays due to Covid (10 weeks for return of searches!) and the fact that we've already waited 3 months with the first property. I definitely won't be buying another house any time soon. 

Snookie12cat

Having no control over your buyer! Lack of communication and no mortgage offer 11 weeks on... If this goes through I will be over the moon but I am thinking the worst now and I feel very stressed! 

comeandgo

The process was absolutely fault less.  Got first house we ever made an offer on, moved in 6 weeks later.  This is off course in scotland.  I don’t know how you English allow the house buying system you have.

Snookie12cat

comeandgo said:

The process was absolutely fault less.  Got first house we ever made an offer on, moved in 6 weeks later.  This is off course in scotland.  I don’t know how you English allow the house buying system you have.

Buying a house isn't that bad, try selling and buying together.. that will test your nerve lol

comeandgo

Snookie12cat said:

comeandgo said:

The process was absolutely fault less.  Got first house we ever made an offer on, moved in 6 weeks later.  This is off course in scotland.  I don’t know how you English allow the house buying system you have.

Buying a house isn't that bad, try selling and buying together.. that will test your nerve lol

Have done it too.  We don’t have chains in Scoland.

Owleyes00

Sounds really stupid but the most stressful bit for me was printing off different bits of paperwork and then having to get someone to witness the signatures. Just seemed like such an unnecessary faff

JGB1955

We bought our first house in 1977.  At that time you had to wait until a local Building Society branch had enough funds to offer you a mortgage.  Luckily my (now) BIL was a solicitor so had friends in relevant places - eventually got our mortgage through an Abbey National branch miles from home.  More stressful than the >8% interest rate was my (future) MIL's angst about us buying in a 'bad' area.  It was suggested that she either 'shut up' or 'put up'.  She took the first option.