The nervous wait to exchange....

[Buffman]

Moving day on Friday.... Slightly cacking it.

Do I need to hand keys over before I move into new property? (effectively briefly homeless )? I'm selling to a cash buyer and a short onward chain after that.

 

[bJN]

been looking into properties again

so ive managed to find out what income i need, didn't realize it was quite easy to find out, so going by what banks would lend me, how do people get on the property ladder when im not earning enough ? and ive been with my job for 15 years, and i still cant get enough
i wish i saved all that money now

Unfortunately it's the unhelpful statement of earn and/or save more. Obviously two incomes are better than one as well. If you're desperate to get into owning over renting and on the lower end of income then there's always Shared Ownership for new builds, should make it easier to at least start somewhere and gain equity, though I confess to not knowing the ins and outs of it.

Everything all seems quiet on my front. Chased the solicitor during the week (as did my mortgage advisor!) and got a rather uninformative and slightly dismissive reply. Original completion timeline was second week of June and it seems that April has disappeared in a flash. Not been the most helpful people - the solicitors I wanted to use turned out to be the solicitors the developer uses so there was a slight conflict of interest meaning I needed to find a third party. Seems family recommendation for these may have been ill-placed. I'm sure it'll sort itself out soon enough. Being FTB we aren't/weren't too concerned with the stamp duty holiday, but seeing how things are (in my opinion) slowly progressing I'll be a bit miffed if we complete after the holiday...

 

[dl8860]

Starting a new nervous wait to exchange, having just had an offer accepted this morning.

We are almost complete with our sale to a FTB, and our purchase is no onward chain too, so hopefully soon enough we'll be a nice chain free buyer.

Though obviously we have this 30th June deadline which I really wish we didn't have to worry about but for the sake of 12.5k either way, I can't not. We always planned to buy around now as of years ago, as our second child is now big enough that we've fully outgrown our 2 bed semi, so we're lumped in with all the other people desperately trying to meet the stamp duty deadline.

I spoke with my solicitor this morning and she said that because our lender is compliant, we may be able to do an indemnity policy for searches, whereby they defer them until after the sale, but our policy protects us from anything nasty it might find.

Has anyone used this or knows anything about it to share any experience of it? I can find some info online but looking for real life first hand experience if possible. The house is Grade II listed if that makes any difference.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Searches can flag up all sorts from planning issues right through to having to pay for the upkeep of a church.

To be honest, for a property that old, I’d want to be doing as much due diligence as I could before buying.

 

[MikeTheNative]

To be honest even a straight forward sale can take months these days, I imagine your going to be very close to that deadline.

 

[dl8860]

Searches can flag up all sorts from planning issues right through to having to pay for the upkeep of a church.

To be honest, for a property that old, I’d want to be doing as much due diligence as I could before buying.

Can planning issues be searched by a solicitor themselves rather than waiting for LA to do it?

There is zero flooding risk as my family knows the area. Planning wise in the area there are no potential sites to worry about.

Not pretending I know that there is no potential for an issue, but I have a decent degree of confidence we won't get shafted. Chancel liability is always handled with an indemnity policy anyway, so that is hardly an argument against... taking an indemnity policy.

To be honest even a straight forward sale can take months these days, I imagine your going to be very close to that deadline.

I know, we have no way of being confident of doing it. It's just that there's an annoyingly large amount of cash at stake, so much so that I have to push it as hard as I can.

The property is vacant and he wants to sell ASAP so just got to do our best.

Wish it wasn't this way, honestly.

 

[taB]

We offered on a vacant property in July. Ours was being bought by a BTL buyer with cash. We moved in November.

Be careful and have a backup plan in case it all doesn't fall into place. We didn't go cheap on the lawyers and I knew our buyer very well so any communication was pretty speedy.

To caveat this we did reduce our offer (quite rightly) post survey and a big part of the time lag was the bank approving the lower amount for mortgage (would have taken 10 mins in branch with the advisor in normal times).

Good luck.

 

[rhysduck]

I know, we have no way of being confident of doing it. It's just that there's an annoyingly large amount of cash at stake, so much so that I have to push it as hard as I can.

The property is vacant and he wants to sell ASAP so just got to do our best.

Wish it wasn't this way, honestly.

What stage are you at? Have contracts been sent out to any parties?

We are hoping to complete end of May (Offer accepted on the 10th March).
No chain on the property we are buying. Cash buyers of our buyers house, and our buyers are down sizing. My house is leasehold of which we are purchasing the freehold of so will be sold as a freehold.
I've told our solicitors that completing after 30th June isn't an option... But I'm still getting a little nervous at the moment as it's money (potential stamp duty fee) that we could really benefit from with doing what needs doing in the house!

 

[FlamBango]

well finally!, we're completing on the sale of my place next Tuesday! so I'm moving in with my other half while we wait for completion on the new place, hopefully just a couple of weeks away. Its going to be a tight squeeze all together in hers. I could string things out and wait for the dates to match but I just want to move out of here now, fed up with it, really grew to dislike the area and after 3 years it will be a relief to be gone. Its been 4 months which has felt a little long but circumstances are what they are i guess so cant moan too much. Onward and upward!

 

[Ahleckz]

Need some advice.

We’ve had an offer accepted, offer accepted on her place. Mortgage approved. Basically should be good to go in five or six weeks!

However, I’m not convinced the house is right. It’s not what we first started looking at, ones we bid on last year had 15+ offers. This one had 2. It’s a lot smaller than the others but then again it’ll just be me and her. The area is so much nicer than others but then obviously it’s a smaller house. I just have niggles. It hasn’t got the original period features we want. It’s not got a driveway. But it has good views. Not sure if this is normal nerves or something more... part of me thinks I’d be like with this the perfect house, I’m spending pretty much all my savings on it (though do have a flat which is 50% paid off).
I think this is a three-five year house at the most but feel we’ve overpaid for it based on that. If I’m honest I bid what I bid because I didn’t expect to get it, but the fact there was so little interest is telling.

we’ve spoken about it a few times and I always come round and appreciate we can’t afford the house we want in the area we want do something has to give. She’s ended up in tears as she reckons it’s not happening anymore and I’m in the spare bed....

 

[dl8860]

Need some advice.

We’ve had an offer accepted, offer accepted on her place. Mortgage approved. Basically should be good to go in five or six weeks!

However, I’m not convinced the house is right. It’s not what we first started looking at, ones we bid on last year had 15+ offers. This one had 2. It’s a lot smaller than the others but then again it’ll just be me and her. The area is so much nicer than others but then obviously it’s a smaller house. I just have niggles. It hasn’t got the original period features we want. It’s not got a driveway. But it has good views. Not sure if this is normal nerves or something more... part of me thinks I’d be like with this the perfect house, I’m spending pretty much all my savings on it (though do have a flat which is 50% paid off).
I think this is a three-five year house at the most but feel we’ve overpaid for it based on that. If I’m honest I bid what I bid because I didn’t expect to get it, but the fact there was so little interest is telling.

we’ve spoken about it a few times and I always come round and appreciate we can’t afford the house we want in the area we want do something has to give. She’s ended up in tears as she reckons it’s not happening anymore and I’m in the spare bed....

I think it's a fairly normally feeling that once someone accepts an offer from you, you start thinking about all the negatives and wondering why someone else hasn't come along to pay more than you.

Are you the sort of person that makes a decision more logically, and based on a lack of negatives rather than just going with a good feeling? In which case I'd say this is probably something you need to work past in your head, and the house is probably fine, it's just your normal decision process in absolute overdrive. But if it's unusual for you to think this way then perhaps it is a strong instinctual thing that you should listen to.

Only you know the answer sadly, and if you've made an offer that's accepted then you've got to **** or get off the pot with it ASAP, for your partner's sake if no one else's.

Other thing I would say is, are you in a hurry to move for any particular reason? We are moving right now because we really need to upsize as we've outgrown our current place and then some. If you aren't in a hurry, consider postponing for 6 months for when the market is probably going to be much quieter.

 

[Arsonist]

Need some advice.

We’ve had an offer accepted, offer accepted on her place. Mortgage approved. Basically should be good to go in five or six weeks!

However, I’m not convinced the house is right. It’s not what we first started looking at, ones we bid on last year had 15+ offers. This one had 2. It’s a lot smaller than the others but then again it’ll just be me and her. The area is so much nicer than others but then obviously it’s a smaller house. I just have niggles. It hasn’t got the original period features we want. It’s not got a driveway. But it has good views. Not sure if this is normal nerves or something more... part of me thinks I’d be like with this the perfect house, I’m spending pretty much all my savings on it (though do have a flat which is 50% paid off).
I think this is a three-five year house at the most but feel we’ve overpaid for it based on that. If I’m honest I bid what I bid because I didn’t expect to get it, but the fact there was so little interest is telling.

we’ve spoken about it a few times and I always come round and appreciate we can’t afford the house we want in the area we want do something has to give. She’s ended up in tears as she reckons it’s not happening anymore and I’m in the spare bed....

I have a good friend that always tells me you can change the house but you can't change the area, and he's not wrong. You can make some changes to the house and make it feel like the home you want to live in (ok, can't likely add a driveway, but you get the idea). My partner and I are currently doing exactly this, buying a much smaller property but in the right area - desirable, good schools, great transport links, not to close to the city etc etc. THe house we were buying last year was much larger but in a not so great location.

 

[UnworthyBean]

Just had to pull out of a house purchase because of a down valuation and therefore couldn't really get a mortgage.

Have just had a message from my solicitors asking if they find another buyer would I be prepared to sell my search results. Not sure how this really affects me?

 

[Peerzy]

Just had to pull out of a house purchase because of a down valuation and therefore couldn't really get a mortgage.

Have just had a message from my solicitors asking if they find another buyer would I be prepared to sell my search results. Not sure how this really affects me?

If you are sure you won't be going back in for the house then do it. The next buyer gets search results returned much quicker so it aids their transaction and you get a little bit of money back / to go towards the next purchase.

If you are potentially going back in for the house then don't as obviously it makes it easier to sell to someone else.

 

[Buffman]

Completion date in 2 days (Friday) any pro tips?

 

[Scam]

I know, we have no way of being confident of doing it. It's just that there's an annoyingly large amount of cash at stake, so much so that I have to push it as hard as I can.

Wish it wasn't this way, honestly.

I've told our solicitors that completing after 30th June isn't an option... But I'm still getting a little nervous at the moment as it's money (potential stamp duty fee) that we could really benefit from with doing what needs doing in the house!

Sounds like we're in the same situation as you guys. FTBs, buying freehold from landlords. We want to push our solicitors but we 'only' instructed them on 16th April. Seller's tenants moved out last week, our solicitors haven't received a contract from sellers but haven't told us what else they've been doing in the meantime... They are responsive at least but we're worried they're just waiting. Last week she said she "wasn't worried, yet" about completing before end June...

Does anyone have a fair idea of what the solicitors should be doing in terms of process/order? lol, loaded question I know... But surely they can be starting the searches etc?

Had the girlfriend in earlier shouting that she doesn't want to ***** £15k down the drain to the government for no reason whatsoever. What a farce

 

[Peerzy]

Sounds like we're in the same situation as you guys. FTBs, buying freehold from landlords. We want to push our solicitors but we 'only' instructed them on 16th April. Seller's tenants moved out last week, our solicitors haven't received a contract from sellers but haven't told us what else they've been doing in the meantime... They are responsive at least but we're worried they're just waiting. Last week she said she "wasn't worried, yet" about completing before end June...

Does anyone have a fair idea of what the solicitors should be doing in terms of process/order? lol, loaded question I know... But surely they can be starting the searches etc?

Had the girlfriend in earlier shouting that she doesn't want to ***** £15k down the drain to the government for no reason whatsoever. What a farce

Generally speaking solicitors won't start doing anything until they've received the contract and pack from the sellers. Without it there isn't much indication that you are actually buying the place apart from your word so why do work or send of for searches when they don't even have the property details and the sellers solicitors haven't made contact.

You may be able to ask them to start straight away and proceed without the contracts but it'll mean if anything goes badly and one party pulls out you'll be liable for a much larger bill earlier on as they'll have done more work.

FWIW - I don't think end of June is going to be easy / realistic unless you are buying without a mortgage and can forgo certain due diligence.

 

[Scam]

Generally speaking solicitors won't start doing anything until they've received the contract and pack from the sellers. Without it there isn't much indication that you are actually buying the place apart from your word so why do work or send of for searches when they don't even have the property details and the sellers solicitors haven't made contact.

They have the sales memorandum, I thought that was the point of that

We heard from the agent today that the sellers had posted (!!) their paperwork back to their solicitors last week but it has not arrived yet. Bloody stupid pensioners, they only live 11min drive from their solicitors

Once we hit May this is going to get very stressful, we will be going back to the agent to whip the sellers into shape and perhaps remind them subtly that it would be cheaper for us to pull out rather than stump up £15k extra stamp duty if they continue to delay things for no reason.

It seems no-one can really predict how long this stuff takes. My friend completed in 6 weeks (in a chain) last time he bought...

 

[ChrisD.]

It's hideous at the moment, I sold on the 12th March and I spoke to my (highly regarded) solicitor today and he says there's a lot of work to do yet and they are busier than ever, so much so they've stopped taking on new clients. I'm hoping for end of June but nothing is certain.

 

[dlockers]

They have the sales memorandum, I thought that was the point of that

We heard from the agent today that the sellers had posted (!!) their paperwork back to their solicitors last week but it has not arrived yet. Bloody stupid pensioners, they only live 11min drive from their solicitors

Once we hit May this is going to get very stressful, we will be going back to the agent to whip the sellers into shape and perhaps remind them subtly that it would be cheaper for us to pull out rather than stump up £15k extra stamp duty if they continue to delay things for no reason.

It seems no-one can really predict how long this stuff takes. My friend completed in 6 weeks (in a chain) last time he bought...

Have you made your target completion explicitly and abundantly clear? There isn't much else you can do but if that isn't logged as a target completion (alongside all the caveats) then you're going to wear yourself down. June was always going to dicey no matter what. You have a couple of bank holidays to deal with as well.