The nervous wait to exchange....

  • Thread starter Thread starter noj
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we finally exchanged yesterday after weeks of delays! move in on the 12th of april! lots of work required on the new house though!
 
Had 18 viewings on our place over the weekend (and 4 tomorrow), but only 1 initial offer today. It's on at the right price and pristine throughout but the EA's seem to think people may have been scared off by the popularity, thought it'd go for loads more and so not bothered placing an offer. Certainly all the feedback they had was positive. The 1 offer is a cash buyer at asking so I'm guessing they're BTL and they obviously know 'the game' which aligns with the EA's thoughts.

The EA hasn't been able to contact all the viewers today either so we may get a few more initials in tomorrow/Weds but still weird though! Anyone else's sale process start in a similar way?
 
Had 18 viewings on our place over the weekend (and 4 tomorrow), but only 1 initial offer today. It's on at the right price and pristine throughout but the EA's seem to think people may have been scared off by the popularity, thought it'd go for loads more and so not bothered placing an offer. Certainly all the feedback they had was positive. The 1 offer is a cash buyer at asking so I'm guessing they're BTL and they obviously know 'the game' which aligns with the EA's thoughts.

The EA hasn't been able to contact all the viewers today either so we may get a few more initials in tomorrow/Weds but still weird though! Anyone else's sale process start in a similar way?

I find it hard to believe that people are scared off by the popularity unless the estate agent has been an idiot and told everyone who viewed that there were X viewings and its likely to go for way more than asking. When we were putting our flat on the market we avoided a couple of estate agents because they came across as arrogant barrow boys who we felt would be a nightmare.

If I viewed a place that I liked and wanted to make an offer I would call the estate agents and make an offer or at least talk to them. We found that probably 60% or more of estate agents didn't bother to call us after we viewed a property as well. There were plenty that weren't as described, in worse condition than we were expecting or were simply far smaller than the pictures suggested. Basically something doesn't add up. If the price is right, the pictures and description from the estate agents are honest and it doesn't have any obvious issues or weaknesses (tiny garden etc) then 1 offer out of 18 seems very low.

On the other hand, its only been a couple of days since the viewings so I would at least wait until the end of the week to draw any conclusions.
 
FFS, 10 day notice to complete issued to our buyer, but the developer's solicitor hasn't been instructed to issue the notice to us.

We were supposed to complete on the 28th, and have a 'new home visit' booked in for the 25th.
The biggest worry is that we have already extended our mortgage agreement once, and that extention expires on the 31st, eek!
 
I find it hard to believe that people are scared off by the popularity unless the estate agent has been an idiot and told everyone who viewed that there were X viewings and its likely to go for way more than asking. When we were putting our flat on the market we avoided a couple of estate agents because they came across as arrogant barrow boys who we felt would be a nightmare.

If I viewed a place that I liked and wanted to make an offer I would call the estate agents and make an offer or at least talk to them. We found that probably 60% or more of estate agents didn't bother to call us after we viewed a property as well. There were plenty that weren't as described, in worse condition than we were expecting or were simply far smaller than the pictures suggested. Basically something doesn't add up. If the price is right, the pictures and description from the estate agents are honest and it doesn't have any obvious issues or weaknesses (tiny garden etc) then 1 offer out of 18 seems very low.

On the other hand, its only been a couple of days since the viewings so I would at least wait until the end of the week to draw any conclusions.

Yeah it's an odd one. We've had 2 offers now, 1 at asking but they've now withdrawn their offer (they made an excuse but either they didn't actually want it and wanted to find out the other initial offers, or they've seen somewhere else since) and another today at £330k (asking is £350k guide price). I was pretty confident the price was right, and both our current estate agents and 2 others that valued it said to list at 350k but expect 360-370k.

We've had about 25 viewings now and two 2nd viewings. It's definitely at the top of first timer buyer's budgets so maybe they're being super picky but I still think 350k is a bargain compared to other recent sales in the area.

Who knows!
 
Yeah it's an odd one. We've had 2 offers now, 1 at asking but they've now withdrawn their offer (they made an excuse but either they didn't actually want it and wanted to find out the other initial offers, or they've seen somewhere else since) and another today at £330k (asking is £350k guide price). I was pretty confident the price was right, and both our current estate agents and 2 others that valued it said to list at 350k but expect 360-370k.

We've had about 25 viewings now and two 2nd viewings. It's definitely at the top of first timer buyer's budgets so maybe they're being super picky but I still think 350k is a bargain compared to other recent sales in the area.

Who knows!

Its a tricky one really. The value of a house is whatever someone is happy to pay. The prices around us dropped about 7% in the year before we sold yet looking at sold properties and the prices other similar things were on for we could easily have priced ours far too high. In the end we chanced it at a very slightly higher price than we thought we would get and ended up accepting slightly less than that. Estate agents will tell you what you want to hear in the way of prices. If one tells you that they can get you £10-20k more than another, most people will go with the higher valuing estate agents.

The flat below us went on sale about 3 days after ours and it was priced far too high. Went on with one of the estate agents that we enquired with and they told us that it would be worth £290-300k. They had it listed for £300-320k. That might have been the sellers requesting that price but I reckon it was the estate agents that told them it would go for that.

It sounds like yours will sell quite quickly based on all the interest and second viewings so I wouldn't worry. Some people just get far too emotionally involved when selling and buying a house and don't seem to be able to rationally evaluate things. When we were looking for houses we saw some drop from £600k to £525k and still not sell. God knows how they valued it at £600k after viewing them. They must have been smoking something strong!
 
I find it hard to believe that people are scared off by the popularity unless the estate agent has been an idiot and told everyone who viewed that there were X viewings and its likely to go for way more than asking. When we were putting our flat on the market we avoided a couple of estate agents because they came across as arrogant barrow boys who we felt would be a nightmare.

Generally you can get a feel for the level of interest anyhow as a buyer and most agents won't be obtuse on the subject if asked - we had half a dozen plus viewings on the first day and went to best and final offer within a week but almost everyone pulled out at that point due to the level of popularity which sucked and eventually the best offer fell through due to other complications but there hasn't been a shortage of interest and currently under offer and progressing.

They must have been smoking something strong!

House on our road they started at half a million and turned down an offer at 490K because it was "too low" and currently all the way down to something like 235K and for some reason the sales keep falling through - I think they must be difficult to work with or something.
 
First time buyer here, put in an offer yesterday morning on a nice Victorian house we saw on the weekend and by the afternoon I had a call back saying they'd accepted.

After reading this thread though, I'm not looking forward to the potential issues/stress of the coming weeks/months :D
 
We put house on the market early February as a suitable house in an area we like came up, this has now sold. But there is very little on the market at the moment if we did get an offer i am not sure what we would do as there is currently zero properties that suit our needs.
 
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We put house on the market early February as a suitable house in an area we like came up, this has now sold. But there is very little on the market at the moment if we did get an offer i am not sure what we would do as there is currently zero properties that suit our needs.

better to have a buyer for your house so when a house does turn up you can jump on it and be in an advantageous position
 
Well we've had another setback with remortgaging the rental property.

The mortgage company required a full structured survey so I had one done, it highlighted so potential subsidence on an old extension which hasn't changed/moved for about 15 years but it has moved in the past.
There were also a few cracks above the windows from when the double glazing was installed.

Sent the survey off and they were ok with it, just needed a quote for the work and they'd take that off the value of the property. We did clarify that the work didn't need doing for the remortgage.

Got a quote and sent it off then waited. Heard back that they now require the underpinning to be completed before they will lend on the property.

It's now 3 months since we had our offer accepted and the structural survey etc has been going on for about 4 weeks now and will be another couple of weeks for the structural work.

I've no idea why everything gets delayed but it seems they're buying time before lending. It's costing me a small fortune though and will potential make us lose the house.
 
Has anyone had to drop a kerb and move a lamp post in order to fit a driveway? I know the cost depends on the area but any rough figures?
 
Dropped kerb are typically £600-£1500, depends if the Council insist on doing the work or allow you to use your own contractor - some have an approved list. Lamp post will be a lot more, and given how under-resourced Council's are these days they might simply refuse to even discuss it.

Also note if your property is on a classified road you will need planning permission for the access. In reality the planners will just go with what the Highways Engineer says if it's just a plain driveway with no silly gates or fences, so probably best to talk to Highways first to make sure its a goer.
 
We have a date for moving, everything seems to be moving along, finally the chain has all fallen into place... still a few weeks to go very definition of that nervous wait to exchange :|

they might simply refuse to even discuss it.

Around here they tend to just quote £LOL rather than refuse to discuss it in this kind of context heh.
 
Dropped kerb are typically £600-£1500, depends if the Council insist on doing the work or allow you to use your own contractor - some have an approved list. Lamp post will be a lot more, and given how under-resourced Council's are these days they might simply refuse to even discuss it.

Also note if your property is on a classified road you will need planning permission for the access. In reality the planners will just go with what the Highways Engineer says if it's just a plain driveway with no silly gates or fences, so probably best to talk to Highways first to make sure its a goer.
Shouldn't be an issue tbh, other houses on the road have had lamp posts relocated in order to make the driveway accessible for 2 cars. :)
 
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