The nervous wait to exchange....

Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2005
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17,281
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Bristol
Apologies for the naive question but we recently emigrated to the UK so still trying to read up about what we need or where to start. We have been putting it off to try and save for a dep. But this tax lift is making me more interested to get the ball rolling.

Would you say now is a good time to try ? Also with almost a year of being in the country would that be enough credit history ? I have had direct debits just about since we got here

Nobody can comment on your personal situation without having access to everything a mortgage broker would, but as someone else said even 6 months is pretty fast to go from viewing to completion in England. If you're buying a home under £250,000 then you're saving 1% of SDLT with the changes, so £2,500 if buying at the max. You have to weigh up whether it's worth rushing through one of the most important and certainly one of the biggest purchases of your life for a 1% saving.

Nearing to a purchase of £500,000 and obviously the saving becomes more significant a factor.
 
Associate
Joined
3 Sep 2019
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263
Nobody can comment on your personal situation without having access to everything a mortgage broker would, but as someone else said even 6 months is pretty fast to go from viewing to completion in England. If you're buying a home under £250,000 then you're saving 1% of SDLT with the changes, so £2,500 if buying at the max. You have to weigh up whether it's worth rushing through one of the most important and certainly one of the biggest purchases of your life for a 1% saving.

Nearing to a purchase of £500,000 and obviously the saving becomes more significant a factor.
Thanks for the reply dude. So would my first step be go to a broker ?
 
Soldato
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12 Nov 2004
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Bath
Just in case it helps anyone, my solicitor has confirmed SD is calculated on completion. So if you've already exchanged contracts you will receive the new SD rate.
 
Associate
Joined
31 Oct 2006
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270
Suppossed to complete yesterday. Sellers solicitors decided they are still looking at something and havnt responded to me, the estate agent, my solicitors or the vendor in a week. Useless. The seller should have known. I mean who uses someone called "premier property laywers"!
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Nov 2004
Posts
2,527
Location
Bath
Suppossed to complete yesterday. Sellers solicitors decided they are still looking at something and havnt responded to me, the estate agent, my solicitors or the vendor in a week. Useless. The seller should have known. I mean who uses someone called "premier property laywers"!

I used them years ago and regret it. I was young and the estate agent pressured us to use them.

Stay clear!

I've used a local firm who have been brilliant, just got to wait for our house to be finished!
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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13,997
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Sandwich, Kent
I looked at all the online lawyers and thought about doing it as cheaply as possible. However after reading the reviews I decided to just use a well known local firm. For the sake if a few hundred pounds I'd rather go with a solicitors with a good reputation and established links to the agents and other local solicitors.
 
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Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2014
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2,585
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East Sussex
I looked at all the online lawyers and thought about doing it as cheaply as possible. However after reading the reviews I decided to just a week known local firm. For the sake if a few hundred pounds I'd rather go with a solicitors with a good reputation and established links to the agents and other local solicitors.
This - any saving on solicitors are just not worth it when you consider how much money your already spending and the stress you have to go through anyway.

I'd only go with the bargain basement lot on an cheap investment property with no chain - not primary residence.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Jun 2010
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6,564
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Essex
Can anyone recommend a conveyancer or solicitor?

I’m selling a leasehold flat (188 years remaining), and will be purchasing a freehold house.
@Skillmister are you allowed to gain clients from this forum?

or should I just go with some local solicitor?
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Dec 2005
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5,182
Location
Cambridge, UK.
I used a local company for the sale of my last house and they were terrible. I thought going local would make things easier as I could sign all documents and drop off straight away in to their office. Perhaps this one local place was just a bad example.

My wife googled conveyances for the purchase of our new house and we found a London (we purchased near Cambridge) based firm for a reasonable price with lots of good google reviews. They were brilliant when we used them in 2018. Everything was done via phone or scanning of documents, we didn't have to go to their office once. I think I did have to post some documents though. I wont mention the name in case its against the forum rules, and they might be rubbish now if the lady who dealt with our case has left etc ;)
 
Associate
Joined
31 Oct 2006
Posts
270
I used them years ago and regret it. I was young and the estate agent pressured us to use them.

Stay clear!

I've used a local firm who have been brilliant, just got to wait for our house to be finished!

Indeed, the sellers agent has them linked on their website. When the offer was accepted I enquired as I thought it might be a good idea that all parties were with the same solicitor but after having a call back from them where the guy sounded about 15 years old I stayed clear!
 
Man of Honour
Joined
20 Sep 2006
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33,883
Viewed two houses yesterday, we really, really like one of them but it's next to one of the main roads in and out of the village. I just know it will annoy us with the windows open in the summer, sat in the garden listening to traffic etc.
 
Caporegime
Joined
13 Jan 2010
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32,495
Location
Llaneirwg
Viewed two houses yesterday, we really, really like one of them but it's next to one of the main roads in and out of the village. I just know it will annoy us with the windows open in the summer, sat in the garden listening to traffic etc.

Yes. My house is on very edge of houses.
Picture a D shape with the corners being junctions but nothing on the D.

Still hearing the traffic come past is annoying. Can't imagine living on main road.

In this house noise goes straight thought too. No idea why! It's like the walls aren't even there!

Things that you can't change that are important are location and (for me) South West facing rear garden .
The nice houses across the road have a south east facing rear garden, not worst. But not great if you work 9-5
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Nov 2008
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4,413
Does anyone dual list with multiple agents these days? If so, how does that work? Especially with Right Move? As I presume you can only have one listing for your home attributed to one agent?

Our first pick of agent hasn't lived up to expectations in terms of getting all the content together for the listing and we're on the verge of contacting our second choice to see if we can dual list or maybe switch before we go live.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2003
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14,056
You’ll almost certainly have an exclusivity agreement in the contract with the agent. If you are unhappy with the service I would looking to getting out of it if you can.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
9,158
Does anyone dual list with multiple agents these days? If so, how does that work? Especially with Right Move? As I presume you can only have one listing for your home attributed to one agent?

Our first pick of agent hasn't lived up to expectations in terms of getting all the content together for the listing and we're on the verge of contacting our second choice to see if we can dual list or maybe switch before we go live.
You can have your home on Rightmove multiple times. I.e. each agent will put your home on Rightmove with their own copy/pics.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Jun 2010
Posts
6,564
Location
Essex
Anyone recommend a good Surveyor, not one who just pokes those stupid damp meters at things.

We're in Essex, but the place we're buying is close to the Essex/Hertfordshire border. The house is 1930s (ish).
 
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