The nervous wait to exchange....

Junglist · 7 Jun 2020 at 09:53

mid_gen said:
On the plus side, we're renting at the moment so one of the chain is in our hands!

Plus we have been able to view plenty of other properties and confirm we made the right decision.

we’ve been doing something similar just looking at comparable properties which has made us realise how happy we are with our little place

Mr.Cookie · 8 Jun 2020 at 23:04

Exchanged and completed today

IvanDobskey · 9 Jun 2020 at 11:16

DereksDontRun said:
5 months is likely to be nothing at the moment...

Our situation: We listed our house for sale in mid Dec so we could start looking at places, thinking we might have some interest over the Xmas break. It sold within hours, which was ace, but meant we had nothing lined up. There was little on the market and were told more should appear in the new year... we waited, relaxing more of our criteria and desirable area, and waited, and eventually found somewhere that nearly ticked all boxes in mid Feb. We made a cheaky offer which was accepted. Mortgage meeting and paid for the survey and then lockdown (before the survey was done)... But, I'm now on furlough and have been told from work to not expect to be back until Aug and it will likely be part time. Now, call me crazy, but I'm not willing to move to a more expensive mortgage until I'm back to work full time and have a feeling of job security again... So, say I return part time in Aug and then full time in Sep (which I honestly think is optimistic) - by which time the mortgage approval has run out, so we need to reapply. For that I'll need a payslip (showing full pay), so that will be end of Sep, meaning mortgage meeting in early/mid Oct. Plus some time to get an idea of job security, so we're only going to be in a position to move in Nov (at the earliest)...

To make matters more complicated, we've just received the survey results (apparently the survey was done before lockdown, but nobody has been around to type it up until last week), and the survey is shocking enough we've pulled out of the purchase. So, now we need to find somewhere else (potentially with less commuter-centric bias with a likelihood of prolonged working from home) - so if we find somewhere with a decent upward chain, it could be well into next year...

I've chatted this through with our estate agent who understood and agreed when I explained it all, and apparently our buyers are happy to wait (for now) as there's nothing else on the market they're interested in. So, they've effectively got min 11 month wait from offer to exchange, and their buyers were apparently 3 months earlier, so 14 month wait for them...

When you think about the gated requirements for each stage, like some gantt chart, it's soon clear that anyone in furlough will need to wait to return to full time work, then a month for a payslip (or potentially 4 months to get 3 payslips) to get mortgage approved, which could mean the end of the year for a lot of us. So, in the present climate, 5 months is v unlikely - hell, our present house's purchase was over 5 months (with slow solicitors and the length of the chain) and that was 5 years ago without a pandemic...

Sorry to hear of your experience. This sounds like a real nightmare scenario. Covid has certainly messed up a lot of people's plans this year

happy_2008 · 9 Jun 2020 at 16:37

Interesting to see the market at the moment. Given that the furlough scheme is in place until October, i do wonder how bad the knock on effect from unemployment will affect the housing market.

Deleted member 77746 · 9 Jun 2020 at 16:40

happy_2008 said:
Interesting to see the market at the moment. Given that the furlough scheme is in place until October, i do wonder how bad the knock on effect from unemployment will affect the housing market.

Got to decrease house prices.

happy_2008 · 9 Jun 2020 at 17:04

mrbell1984 said:
Got to decrease house prices.

Probably no doubt but i will be interested to see if properties in my area would still be busy. Pre Covid properties in my area would sell within 1-2 weeks.

kitkat9933 · 9 Jun 2020 at 20:49

So after our previous vendors pulling their property of the market that we were buying a few months ago and finding another, then having the offer accepted, mortgage approved for the property we were buying, all legal work pretty much done etc. Virgin Money threw a blinder at us today saying they can't actually uphold the mortgage offer given my partner is furloughed, even though she was when we applied...

We were looking at a £470,000 mortgage on a £800k property so an LTV of just under 60%. We were offered up to a ~£750k mortgage. Because my partner is furloughed they can't take her £22,000 gross annual income into account any more(her company have been topping her up to 10)%), so will only now offer us up to £320k, which is ~1.5x my own base gross annual salary. How £22,000 per year makes that much difference I don't know... Perhaps because she's now classed as a financial dependent... But with a <60% LTV and ~1.5x gross Annual Income to amount being requested, I would have thought it's a fairly safe lend for any provider.. They say you should be able to borrow 4-5x gross annual income...

So now have to start the entire process again, to which I will use a broker this time. The problem is with a massive backlog for valuations for mortgages, it means I'll be at the back of the queue again...

Bonkers.... It's like the world doesn't want me to move. Ruined a great day as we saw the progress on the property we are wanting to buy and have been choosing the bits and pieces..

DereksDontRun · 9 Jun 2020 at 21:23

mrbell1984 said:
Got to decrease house prices.

I think we're already noticing a drop around us. For the last ~18months there's been v little on the market with people waiting for Brexit results, then election, and now Covid. Now, since the lockdown reductions, there's a few appearing each week on the market, almost as if people are sick of waiting, have smartened everything during the break, and now it's good to show off. But, the new properties almost seem to be valued a little less, and the pre-Covid listings are starting to reduce to be competitive.

Whether it's directly because of Covid, increased unemployment and recession, or just that there's now more properties starting to appear and it's simply an increased supply (and reduced demand for the majority on furlough unable to proceed with anything) - either way, prices seem to be dropping.

xb8browney · 9 Jun 2020 at 21:27

Completing on Friday if all goes well,

Are the funds generally transferred to me same day? No chain as I'm selling an empty property (I've only ever bought, never sold.)

DereksDontRun · 9 Jun 2020 at 21:29

kitkat9933 said:
So after our previous vendors pulling their property of the market that we were buying a few months ago and finding another, then having the offer accepted, mortgage approved for the property we were buying, all legal work pretty much done etc. Virgin Money threw a blinder at us today saying they can't actually uphold the mortgage offer given my partner is furloughed, even though she was when we applied...

We were looking at a £470,000 mortgage on a £800k property so an LTV of just under 60%. We were offered up to a ~£750k mortgage. Because my partner is furloughed they can't take her £22,000 gross annual income into account any more(her company have been topping her up to 10)%), so will only now offer us up to £320k, which is ~1.5x my own base gross annual salary. How £22,000 per year makes that much difference I don't know... Perhaps because she's now classed as a financial dependent... But with a <60% LTV and ~1.5x gross Annual Income to amount being requested, I would have thought it's a fairly safe lend for any provider.. They say you should be able to borrow 4-5x gross annual income...

So now have to start the entire process again, to which I will use a broker this time. The problem is with a massive backlog for valuations for mortgages, it means I'll be at the back of the queue again...

Bonkers.... It's like the world doesn't want me to move. Ruined a great day as we saw the progress on the property we are wanting to buy and have been choosing the bits and pieces..

Sorry to hear/read m8. As I mentioned in a post above, we're in a similar kinda position. Mortgage agreed, but I'm now furloughed, so if we were to pull the trigger we would have to divulge a change of finances, or wait for me to finish furlough. Personally I don't want to increase any outgoings with any risks of redundancies etc, so I want to be back full time before proceeding with anything, which means our mortgage offer expires. To go through the process again I'll need 1 new payslip a month after returning full time (some people will require 3 slips...). If the furlough scheme is continued to Oct and we're able to work part time from Aug, I can see a lot of furlough staff returning for 1-2 days in Aug and slowly increasing to a full week in Oct/Nov. That means anyone on furlough would need to wait to Nov/Sec for their full wage payslip before applying for mortgage again...

So, it's not just u screwed with the present situation, it's going to be a LOT of people (whether they're aware of it yet or not).

reilly · 11 Jun 2020 at 23:04

With the whole house buying process if I don't laugh I will definitely cry!

Offer accepted on a property in Nov-19, I'm chain free and the property is vacant (probate property). I'm now 7 months down the line....

Seller is using Frank Innes as their estate agent who are part of the Countrywide, they are also using their in-house solicitors. 1st set of queries answered and received from the sellers solicitor by Feb-20, however some questions remained unanswered then it went dark.

Countrywide furloughed all staff in Mar-20, estate agency staff and solicitors, even though there is clearly work to be done. They slowly returned in May-20 but are yet to be at 100%.

My solicitor has been chasing weekly since March, emails and phone calls with no answers or responses.

I've chased the estate agent, through webchat when the branch staff were furloughed, promised the world, again no meaningful progression. I'm now ringing the estate agent twice a week, they are following up with the solicitor, but again no assurances are given or SLAs as to when the outstanding queries will be answered. I've been promised responses to my queries 3 weeks now, this hasn't happened.

The seller is also chasing their solicitor again, they are also not seeing any progression.

What else can I do? I have no further point of escalation, my solicitor can't do anymore, the branch manager of the estate agent is chasing and so is the seller.

Mortgage runs out at the end of June with no extension. All parties are aware of this but it doesn't seen to prioritise the case any further.

I'm ringing the estate agent tomorrow and stating if my solicitor doesn't have the queries by Tuesday then I'll have to reconsider my purchase. Hopefully if Countrywide see a potential loss of a fee they might do something!

So stressful, last house I purchased was completed in 12 weeks!

IvanDobskey · 12 Jun 2020 at 10:13

The whole thing is just a nightmare at the moment

We were told exchange could happen yesterday, then absolutely nothing! No comms from solicitors at all.

xb8browney · 12 Jun 2020 at 10:16

My solicitor called this morning to get authority to exchange. Fingers crossed.

ChrisD. · 15 Jun 2020 at 16:10

reilly said:
Seller is using Frank Innes as their estate agent who are part of the Countrywide

I'm pretty sure @dessimpson had a load of issues with Countrywide, in the end he told them he's pulling out of the purchase unless they sorted it.

mid_gen · 16 Jun 2020 at 09:40

Getting annoyed with my solicitors, file has been passed to someone else and now they're doubling down on all the AML checks, despite being a day away from exchanging back in April.

Still...sale is still on, and the days are ticking away, hopefully not too long now.

ShiWarrior · 16 Jun 2020 at 21:18

Hi, i have a question in my head id like to ask, hoping im not hijacking thread

Any first time buyers that bought a house in the past 3 years ?

i'm curious to find out what monthly payment will be
I've looked on Martin Lewis website and a did a search on moneysupermarket

if i was to buy a 200K Freehold house , what sort of deposit would i really need ?
i am hoping to get my monthly repayments no more than £500 - £600 a month

is that doable with a small deposit ?

apg · 16 Jun 2020 at 21:29

ShiWarrior said:
Hi, i have a question in my head id like to ask, hoping im not hijacking thread

Any first time buyers that bought a house in the past 3 years ?

i'm curious to find out what monthly payment will be
I've looked on Martin Lewis website and a did a search on moneysupermarket

if i was to buy a 200K Freehold house , what sort of deposit would i really need ?
i am hoping to get my monthly repayments no more than £500 - £600 a month

is that doable with a small deposit ?

Which part of the world are you buying a house in?

ShiWarrior · 16 Jun 2020 at 21:33

apg said:
Which part of the world are you buying a house in?

withing 20 miles of Aylesbury if that helps

i have no idea really as of yet, got 3 years left of my Help To Buy ISA

b0rn2sk8 · 16 Jun 2020 at 22:11

ShiWarrior said:
Hi, i have a question in my head id like to ask, hoping im not hijacking thread

Any first time buyers that bought a house in the past 3 years ?

i'm curious to find out what monthly payment will be
I've looked on Martin Lewis website and a did a search on moneysupermarket

if i was to buy a 200K Freehold house , what sort of deposit would i really need ?
i am hoping to get my monthly repayments no more than £500 - £600 a month

is that doable with a small deposit ?

For repayments to be below £600 on a £200k house you are looking at needing a fairly hefty deposit plus extra for stamp duty etc.

For a 25 year mortgage you are looking at needing a £50k deposit if you can get the best rate available.

For a 30 year mortgage you'll need roughly a £30k deposit assuming you have access to the best available rate.

Just chuck some numbers in the below site and it will tell you how much exactly.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/best-buys/

Bear in mind the interest rates are currency about as low as they can realistically get, could you afford it if they rise?

https://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/property-statistics/uk-interest-rate-history-graph/

ShiWarrior · 16 Jun 2020 at 22:35

cheers