The nervous wait to exchange....

[Basher]

Quick question. What is a reasonable amount of time to give a vendor for an answer to your offer? I’ve offered asking price for the house, in cash.

This was on Tuesday last week. I’ve contacted the agent for updates, but the lady I’m dealing with fails to return calls, and is being very scarce and all I get is she’s waiting for the vendor to respond.

Maybe I’m being impatient but I have this worry that someone may gazzump us in offering the vendor more for the house.

Given they're not responding, I suspect they've had (or are expecting) higher offers. It certainly wouldn't be gazzumping if they got a higher offer, given that yours hasn't even been accepted.

Personally, I'd want an answer in 48 hours max, or I'd assume they're not interested in my offer and I'd find somewhere else.

 

[Deleted User 298457]

Quick question. What is a reasonable amount of time to give a vendor for an answer to your offer? I’ve offered asking price for the house, in cash.

This was on Tuesday last week. I’ve contacted the agent for updates, but the lady I’m dealing with fails to return calls, and is being very scarce and all I get is she’s waiting for the vendor to respond.

Maybe I’m being impatient but I have this worry that someone may gazzump us in offering the vendor more for the house.

My seller took 2 weeks to accept mine. We low-balled as restricted by LISA headline value, so it took a lot of mulling over on their side.

 

[bJN]

Finally got Authority to Exchange from Help To Buy! All fingers and toes crossed, we'll exchange this week and hopefully complete next week. House has a driveway now, so all that's outstanding (that I can see from the outside...) is flooring and turf! Cannot wait

 

[Basher]

Finally got Authority to Exchange from Help To Buy! All fingers and toes crossed, we'll exchange this week and hopefully complete next week. House has a driveway now, so all that's outstanding (that I can see from the outside...) is flooring and turf! Cannot wait

Nice one! Assuming it’s a new build, make sure to get a pro snagger in there. Saved us a fortune.

 

[Scam]

Well we completed today! Woop woop!

It seems utterly bizarre if I'm honest! We're renting (FTBs) so still have 3 weeks left on our tenancy, and are just about to confirm a moving date of just before then. So basically, we did nothing today, we walked into an estate agents, came out with some keys and had a look around an empty house and took some meter readings, lol We've got this week off work and have electricians, locksmiths, loft conversion companies lined up all week so perhaps it'll all hit home a bit then. But yeah. Super happy, a lot of work to do... noticed how shabby the paint, plug sockets, some of the windows etc. are. Girlfriend was tempted to go off and buy some white paint to sort it out this week. Kinda pointless if we want electricians to do work with new sockets/running cables, then some plastering work... then eventually the loft conversion and rear extension...

Anyway, part of the club now with a massive debt now appearing in our Nationwide app

 

[Deleted User 298457]

Well we completed today! Woop woop!

It seems utterly bizarre if I'm honest! We're renting (FTBs) so still have 3 weeks left on our tenancy, and are just about to confirm a moving date of just before then. So basically, we did nothing today, we walked into an estate agents, came out with some keys and had a look around an empty house and took some meter readings, lol We've got this week off work and have electricians, locksmiths, loft conversion companies lined up all week so perhaps it'll all hit home a bit then. But yeah. Super happy, a lot of work to do... noticed how shabby the paint, plug sockets, some of the windows etc. are. Girlfriend was tempted to go off and buy some white paint to sort it out this week. Kinda pointless if we want electricians to do work with new sockets/running cables, then some plastering work... then eventually the loft conversion and rear extension...

Anyway, part of the club now with a massive debt now appearing in our Nationwide app

Congrats. Nationwide kindly presenting your mortgage alongside your current account balance is not exactly a welcomed 'feature' I must admit

 

[ci_newman]

We're still waiting to exchange, although all parties are still aiming for completion on 30th June Solicitors have already requested funds from the mortgage companies so we're all set up on that front...

Squeaky pants time...

 

[ChrisD.]

Decided to stay in the house on the final night.

Also just sent £40k odd over to the conveyancer, **** just got real. Moving on Thursday. No more Ferrari dreams for me.

 

[Vita]

Given they're not responding, I suspect they've had (or are expecting) higher offers. It certainly wouldn't be gazzumping if they got a higher offer, given that yours hasn't even been accepted.

Personally, I'd want an answer in 48 hours max, or I'd assume they're not interested in my offer and I'd find somewhere else.

My seller took 2 weeks to accept mine. We low-balled as restricted by LISA headline value, so it took a lot of mulling over on their side.

Estate agent dealing with it hasn’t contacted me back giving any updates.

I think I’ll just wait now until they do contact me and go from there but we are looking at other houses in the mean time which fit our needs. It’s a shame as the house we’ve put the offer in for is ideal. Would hate to miss out but I guess that’s how the game is.

 

[ci_newman]

Estate agent dealing with it hasn’t contacted me back giving any updates.

I think I’ll just wait now until they do contact me and go from there but we are looking at other houses in the mean time which fit our needs. It’s a shame as the house we’ve put the offer in for is ideal. Would hate to miss out but I guess that’s how the game is.

We had an estate agent get shirty with us when we told them we were rescinding our offer 48 hours after making it because we'd found another property (they hadn't accepted our offer yet). I think they felt bad because I'm pretty sure ours was the highest offer, but they were keeping the table open for more and I wasn't prepared to wait and lose out on the other house we'd found. The game works both ways

 

[MassiveJim]

Offer accepted on our house in early March,
22nd March offer accepted by sellers
8th April we received our AIP
14th April we received the full application Docs
26th April we submitted everything back (was waiting for year end accounts to be completed)
back and forward until 17th May asking for additional docs etc.
21st May, submitted final document (letter from accountant)
10th Jun I got a text from the seller that the valuation has been booked for the 22nd of this month, which presumably means the underwriter has finally underwritten the mortgage.

Our lender has draaaaaagged their heels, we were stuck with a "specialist lender" due to me having only a single year of self employment accounts to submit to them.
Could have easily moved in before stamp duty holiday if it wasn't for them

 

[Ahleckz]

We're porting her mortgage (and borrowing more) over to the new place. When you port a mortgage, can you reduce the term? It's on a fixed deal until March 2023, so I assume you can't but thought I'd check.

If not, then the 'new' money will be on a 2 year fix which will run out in September (assuming we move then) 2023 which we want to do on a 14 year term - is it possible to have two terms? I know we'll have two interest rates so assuming this is possible as well?

It's not the end of the world if not, we'd simply just go onto the SVR for the 'old' money for 6 months and then remortgage everything in 2023 to ~12 years and overpay in the meantime.

I'm waiting on Natwest calling me back, but can't see that happening until the end of the week so trying to figure it all out beforehand.

 

[Dano]

Ugh... having issues with my conveyancer saying they've not received the memorandum of sale from my estate agents even though I know 100% it was sent, been chasing all afternoon as it's holding up the sale process of my place, won't have any effect on my purchase but annoying all the same.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

We're porting her mortgage (and borrowing more) over to the new place. When you port a mortgage, can you reduce the term? It's on a fixed deal until March 2023, so I assume you can't but thought I'd check.

If not, then the 'new' money will be on a 2 year fix which will run out in September (assuming we move then) 2023 which we want to do on a 14 year term - is it possible to have two terms? I know we'll have two interest rates so assuming this is possible as well?

It's not the end of the world if not, we'd simply just go onto the SVR for the 'old' money for 6 months and then remortgage everything in 2023 to ~12 years and overpay in the meantime.

I'm waiting on Natwest calling me back, but can't see that happening until the end of the week so trying to figure it all out beforehand.

Generally you can’t reduced the fixed period but you can tweak the length of the mortgage e.g. replay slower or faster so they both end on the same date in however many years.

The main issue is the fixed period ending at different times which you can’t do anything about.

What you may find is that your provider may allow you to renew both mortgages at the same time when as the second will be close to expiring. You’ll obviously have to stay with the same provider.

As you say you may be best to let them both expire as it’s not that long on the SVR and the whole market then opens up to you.

 

[PermaChanged]

We've just gone to sealed bids on our "forever" home, we're really hoping to get it - the Mrs will be heartbroken if we don't that's for sure, but our bank balance will thank us

We won!!! Now we're actually in the "nervous wait to exchange" - however, I highly doubt we'll be as nervous as we were when in the bidding war which ended in sealed bids - what a relief!

Valuation survey complete, our offer price was 8% more than the official valuation - we have a problem and are going back to negotiation - eurgh, we could lose this!!!

 

[happy_2008]

We're porting her mortgage (and borrowing more) over to the new place. When you port a mortgage, can you reduce the term? It's on a fixed deal until March 2023, so I assume you can't but thought I'd check.

If not, then the 'new' money will be on a 2 year fix which will run out in September (assuming we move then) 2023 which we want to do on a 14 year term - is it possible to have two terms? I know we'll have two interest rates so assuming this is possible as well?

It's not the end of the world if not, we'd simply just go onto the SVR for the 'old' money for 6 months and then remortgage everything in 2023 to ~12 years and overpay in the meantime.

I'm waiting on Natwest calling me back, but can't see that happening until the end of the week so trying to figure it all out beforehand.

You will essentially have two mortgages until you either pay them off or you can align then and consolidate them back into one providing you can aligh there deal end dates together.

 

[Ahleckz]

Thanks for the reponses, seems we can’t do what I want (reduce the term of the ported mortgage), but it’s not the end of the world. Gives more flexibility with payments/overpayments.

Valuation survey complete, our offer price was 8% more than the official valuation - we have a problem and are going back to negotiation - eurgh, we could lose this!!!

I find it funny that that’s a reason to negotiate. Up here we have to pay at least 10% above or we don’t have a hope of winning. I wish I could buy a house and only have to pay 8% over the valuation - though, we do see the valuation before we bid.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

What cracks me up about valuations is if there are multiple people willing to bid above the valuation and you actually need to pay 10% over to secure the house against other bidders then the valuation is probably wrong. Especially in the current climate of rapid growth in prices.

They are often based of historic prices and well funnily enough the market has risen by more than 10% this year.

The house is worth what the market says it’s worth at the end of the day.

 

[squerble]

Girlfriend's house on the market at £95k, top offers are all over £105k so we're not short of offers, which is a nice position to be in. Unfortunately, we still haven't found a house to go into yet and the amount coming onto market in the area we want seems to be slowing down so things are getting a bit nervy. We know we're in a good position with that many offers in, new joint mortgage-in-principal agreed etc, it's just waiting for a house that doesn't have too many compromises.

Looking very likely we'll have to move in with parents for a while (again) to not miss out on our high offers.

 

[fastwunz]

What cracks me up about valuations is if there are multiple people willing to bid above the valuation and you actually need to pay 10% over to secure the house against other bidders then the valuation is probably wrong. Especially in the current climate of rapid growth in prices.

They are often based of historic prices and well funnily enough the market has risen by more than 10% this year.

The house is worth what the market says it’s worth at the end of the day.

RICS valuations take full account of comparable evidence of sales over a recent time period and also take full account of current market conditions.

just because people want to pay more does not in any way make the property worth it.

Comparable evidence is the only way of correctly valuing property in line with the RICS Red Book.

There are big issues especially in the south where people are getting into bidding wars and then paying vastly over market value for properties.

you should thank the surveyor for protecting your wallet not moan about it.