The nervous wait to exchange....

[Mulder]

Hit a problem, maybe. The mortgage valuation identified potential asbestos (as did the survey), so we now need a specialist asbestos contractor to do a survey and then forward that to the mortgage provider.

I don't know what the outcome might be on the mortgage......

There's definitely asbestos, but I thought it was fine so long as it isn't touched.

 

[BongoHunter]

Hit a problem, maybe. The mortgage valuation identified potential asbestos (as did the survey), so we now need a specialist asbestos contractor to do a survey and then forward that to the mortgage provider.

I don't know what the outcome might be on the mortgage......

There's definitely asbestos, but I thought it was fine so long as it isn't touched.

Depends where it is, we have some under the floors and on the roof of the shed and had no issues and didn't need a specialist to evaluate. If it had been the cielings then we would have need someone to take a closer look.

 

[RDCorporation]

When was the house built to likely have asbestos?

Thanks.

 

[mohawk]

does anyone know anything about indemnity insurance? we are purchasing a house that has some subsidence (escape water) fixed august 2018. this was fixed on insurance by the owners. we will need to declare this when we get home insurance, do we need the current owner to get indemnity insurance to provide cover for this issue?

This is the last thing thats holding up our sale!

 

[BongoHunter]

When was the house built to likely have asbestos?

Thanks.

Ours was 60's - but its not that uncommon in anything built before the 70's (when it was banned)

 

[MR_Punk]

Bit of an update. We moved into a new build at the end of November. Had he site manager round this week to go over a couple of little snagging bits. He said that the site surveyor had been around and was not happy with the plot sizes and they are going to increase our garden. We already had the largest garden on the site (approx. 50 houses) and now we get a bit more land. I have turfed the garden yet so I'm quite happy!

 

[Skillmister]

does anyone know anything about indemnity insurance? we are purchasing a house that has some subsidence (escape water) fixed august 2018. this was fixed on insurance by the owners. we will need to declare this when we get home insurance, do we need the current owner to get indemnity insurance to provide cover for this issue?

This is the last thing thats holding up our sale!

What are you expecting the indemnity insurance to cover?

Indemnity insurance is for title defects.

 

[mohawk]

What are you expecting the indemnity insurance to cover?

Indemnity insurance is for title defects.

possible future issues if the work done was not adequate.

 

[Skillmister]

possible future issues if the work done was not adequate.

That isn't what it does. Building regs/planning indemnity only cover costs of defending enforcement action by the local authority or the cost of carrying out work to comply with enforcement action. It does not cover general defective work where there has been no enforcement action. Common misconception.

 

[Martynt74]

This bit is key - if they'd told you "realistically we're going to want to complete close to X date" then you can plan accordingly.

We've got our preferred agent down to 1.5% + VAT. I think we'll be quite happy with that, having spoken to a number of friends and family about what they paid in fees in and around Zone 1.

Not worth just going fixed fee? I presume something in zone 1/2 is going to be 700k and up, so you're paying close to £15k in fees vs £1k

How quickly does property move around you? I'm never sure what agents do these days given most people just use Rightmove/Zoopla when looking.

 

[toshj]

Not worth just going fixed fee? I presume something in zone 1/2 is going to be 700k and up, so you're paying close to £15k in fees vs £1k

How quickly does property move around you? I'm never sure what agents do these days given most people just use Rightmove/Zoopla when looking.

If we price it accordingly it'll move, I reckon. I'd rather wash my hands of it, let someone else take over for a % fee, and allow me to focus solely on work/family stuff. I do feel a little sorry for Foxton's though - or their employee, to be specific. He's diligently called me every fortnight for 18 months, and has actually been very responsive and helpful. Had to deliver the bad news that the other agent has sold a great deal more than Foxtons has in my local area in the last six months, despite Foxtons being very present. The 2.5% fee is ridiculous.

 

[Martynt74]

What do you think a physical agent would do extra over an online one though?

I'm genuinely curious, we sold our house with a traditional agent too and i'm not really sure what benefit we got for the extra money. Think was on a £150k house sale when a 1.2% fee didn't actually work out much more than a fixed fee. When we come to sell our current house though at double that value i'd have to seriously consider whether i'd want to pay a 400% premium for little extra benefit.

 

[toshj]

What do you think a physical agent would do extra over an online one though?

I'm genuinely curious, we sold our house with a traditional agent too and i'm not really sure what benefit we got for the extra money. Think was on a £150k house sale when a 1.2% fee didn't actually work out much more than a fixed fee. When we come to sell our current house though at double that value i'd have to seriously consider whether i'd want to pay a 400% premium for little extra benefit.

It's an important question, and something we took into consideration. My wife is 7.5 months pregnant, and certainly doesn't need the hassle of us doing everything ourselves... which seems to almost always be the case with such online agents. I have a small company, and we've never been so busy. I work, work, work. I don't really have any spare time whatsoever - as such, spending ages chasing and chasing and chasing an online agent could have a material and detrimental impact if I have to spend time away from work. Everyone I've spoken to - and asked friends of friends, etc. - has said to stay away from online agents at all costs. The agent we're using to sell has recently purchased the agents we originally bought through, and I have to say that not only were they excellent, but they offered one of the most professional services of anything I've ever experienced. As surprised as I was, they were incredible.

If I had more time on my hands, I'd be happy to look into reducing costs as mush as possible, but I don't think it's a feasible option right now for us.

 

[Martynt74]

Good answer. I think if you have prior experience of the agents and they were good then i agree it can be worth it. Our agents rarely knew what was going on, and it felt that once they'd agreed the sale they felt that was their job done which certainly left us wondering what we'd paid the extra for.

 

[Basher]

It's an important question, and something we took into consideration. My wife is 7.5 months pregnant, and certainly doesn't need the hassle of us doing everything ourselves... which seems to almost always be the case with such online agents. I have a small company, and we've never been so busy. I work, work, work. I don't really have any spare time whatsoever - as such, spending ages chasing and chasing and chasing an online agent could have a material and detrimental impact if I have to spend time away from work. Everyone I've spoken to - and asked friends of friends, etc. - has said to stay away from online agents at all costs. The agent we're using to sell has recently purchased the agents we originally bought through, and I have to say that not only were they excellent, but they offered one of the most professional services of anything I've ever experienced. As surprised as I was, they were incredible.

If I had more time on my hands, I'd be happy to look into reducing costs as mush as possible, but I don't think it's a feasible option right now for us.

It's a bit of a myth that online agents = do everything yourself. We used a traditional one the first time we sold and PB the second time. PB were far more responsive, did all the viewings, followed up properly and negotiated on our behalf.

I guess it all comes down to how good the agents are (online and traditional) in your area, I just wouldn't rule online out just because they're online.

 

[fez]

I think the biggest thing is that everyone who I have spoken to who loves PurpleBricks and the like have had really easy sales. We didn't find them very good because our flat took 4 months to sell and there wasn't a huge amount of interest so when they ****** up it felt like more of a big deal. The house we are buying has been a bit of a nightmare with the sellers and the fact that they are using a proper estate agent to sell it has been a god send. We have probably sent 40+ emails to him and spoken on the phone dozens of times. He has also shown us around the house 3 times and made our lives much easier.

I agree that on super expensive sales you are getting far better value for money but on lower value houses I would probably not go with PB again. The price was £1400 for sale and viewings with PB and I think it was about £2400 flat fee from all the estate agents we considered. In the end its all worked out OK but we could have been in our new house for 3 months at this point perhaps if we had gone with the high street agent. Who knows.

 

[toshj]

It's a bit of a myth that online agents = do everything yourself. We used a traditional one the first time we sold and PB the second time. PB were far more responsive, did all the viewings, followed up properly and negotiated on our behalf.

I guess it all comes down to how good the agents are (online and traditional) in your area, I just wouldn't rule online out just because they're online.

Not that it's a myth - I'd more than happily trial them myself - but our current situation is such that I don't have the flexibility or time.

 

[Jimbeam3678]

After reading this thread for a while guess I should join the nervous gang ... Timeline so far is below. The property is empty and we are first time buyers so fingers crossed it should go OK

• 25th Jan Mortgage agreed in principle
• 28th Jan Offered accepted
• 29th Jan Legal instructed
• 30th Jan Sales memo received
• 1st Feb Formal mortgage applied for
• 1st Feb Valuation booked 7th Feb
• 1st Feb Paid for searches
• 7th Feb Valuation taking place

So just been told the house which was built on the end of the house we offered on which has effectively split the land in 2 hasn’t been title deeds altered. The knock on effect is longer time to move and more expensive legal fees on our end as I guess they’ll e checks to complete.

Has anyone any experience of this with regards to how much more it will cost and what additional time scales will be ?

 

[Mulder]

Depends where it is, we have some under the floors and on the roof of the shed and had no issues and didn't need a specialist to evaluate. If it had been the cielings then we would have need someone to take a closer look.

The three possible areas are garage soffit boarding, floor tiles under the stairs, and a cement flue in the loft.

When was the house built to likely have asbestos?

Thanks.

It's a 50s build.

Initial conversations with an asbestos specialist suggest these are very common and not likely to need any special/expensive work, but let's see.

 

[fez]

Think we might actually be exchanging today and completing on the 22nd Feb if everything goes smoothly today. Exciting times!