The nervous wait to exchange....

[Captain]

It took a couple of months for our searches to come through so I'd sit back and forget about it for a while.
The list of fixtures and fittings came through after the searches and we know the sellers completed it about 6 weeks earlier so it's probably solicitors taking their time.

Well the seller has already done it once as she was all set to move 3 days before i made an offer but the buyers pulled out.

Searches took about 6 weeks for us. We've found the solicitors involved in our house move mostly to be a shambles generally re-asking for documents provided specifically rather than looking at what has been submitted to them and we and the estate agent (who seems to be doing half the solicitors job for them) have had to keep constantly on them to get any progress.

Check list should be available once you have an offer.

Hmm well my seller wants to complete in under 6 weeks, she's been given an ultimatum over the houses she wants as they too have been waiting for almost 3 months for the sale to go through.

 

[Robi]

I need a little advice if someone wouldn't mind helping out?

Situation: my apartment lease ends early October, which effectively gives me around 6 months to buy and complete. I already have a deposit (based on affordability calcuators not a AIP), plus sufficient to cover legal fees, survey, furnishing etc, so the date for kicking off the process is not dependent on money. I want to exchange as close to October as possible, simply to ensure a smooth transition / avoiding having to renew my lease.

I was considering going for an AIP now, but if it only lasts 90 days would it be too early?

As a general rule of thumb, when should I start booking viewings and chucking offers in? I appreciate it's dependent on the seller, if it's a chain etc, but at this stage I'm a little perplexed. Any advice would be wonderful.

 

[Captain]

I need a little advice if someone wouldn't mind helping out?

Situation: my apartment lease ends early October, which effectively gives me around 6 months to buy and complete. I already have a deposit (based on affordability calcuators not a AIP), plus sufficient to cover legal fees, survey, furnishing etc, so the date for kicking off the process is not dependent on money. I want to exchange as close to October as possible, simply to ensure a smooth transition / avoiding having to renew my lease.

I was considering going for an AIP now, but if it only lasts 90 days would it be too early?

As a general rule of thumb, when should I start booking viewings and chucking offers in? I appreciate it's dependent on the seller, if it's a chain etc, but at this stage I'm a little perplexed. Any advice would be wonderful.

I would say the average time from Viewing>Offering>Completion is 12 weeks, allow -/+ 2/3 weeks for good/bad solicitors. Nothing wrong with getting things started now, you can always delay the completion date if it doesn't suit you. You might struggle to delay the completion date if the sellers you are buying from are in a rush to move.

 

[D.P.]

I might have accidentally purchased a house and now I'm second guessing. The house is nice, hits most of our criteria but is a compromise given affordability. It needs some work done, replace all windows and redo floors. the financing is OK but I would prefer move in ready on a newer house, just some nagging feeling like the roof will need replacing in a few years although property is only from 1972. Biggest concerns is actually just about the market situation, house prices are dropping 5% or so a year here. They gained 80% in the last 15 years so there is an expectation of a correction of 20% or so. Although major banks predicting small drops and jut years of stabilized pricing which is OK. Also, liekly changes of jobs could make this house less desirable with longer commute.


When we viewed the property we loved the location, layout, and situation but weren't fully committed. It was the best house we could afford so put in an offer 5.5% under asking (here you typically offer 5-10% under and negotiate down to 3-5% under). Owner had rejected lots of previous offers so we didn't see the point in low-balling. We entirely expected a rejection or some negotiation that would end up above out price limit so somewhat surprised the owner agreed. So now I am a little worried that previous offers were all much lower and we are paying over the odds. Our finance person seems to think value is reasonable but in I put some weight on the market. It may just be the local buyers don.t want an older house that needs some upgrades. Or maybe after 6 months the seller has finally realized he wont get anywhere near his asking price.

So, might be a bargain from out side but I can't hep but feel a little dubious. Accepting your first offer just seems strange. Even if we met the sellers internal threshold they surely would have negotiated just a little and eked out a few percent.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

The sellers may be up against a hard deadline themselves and your offer might be the only one which fits.

 

[fez]

Do you like the house and are you planning to live there for a long time? Are you happy paying the price that you have agreed? The bank will soon tell you if they think you are overpaying for a property. Your surveys will also highlight any serious issues if you get the right one.

There is no right answer as to the actual value of a house as its such a complex set of factors that effect it. We have seen houses sit on the market for months at £50k over the amount its worth and then suddenly drop. Some people are happy to sit on the market for years at the same price. Its something you have to decide for yourself. If you think the roof needs replacing in the relatively near future I would get a proper structural survey and tell them your concerns about the roof. That is something that should affect the price you pay if it comes back bad news.

 

[Russinating]

We reduced our accepted offer by 10k because we only achieved 5k under asking on ours (we had an offer accepted before ours was on the market), so there's always room for manoeuvre. It depends if you want to play hard ball and how much you'd be disappointed if you didn't get it, which it sounds like not much.

I always put a huge amount of value on no faff too, and the one we're buying was the first place we viewed and even with the reduction we're probably still paying a bit over (hence their re-acceptance) but we're happy with that just to be done.

 

[D.P.]

The sellers may be up against a hard deadline themselves and your offer might be the only one which fits.

the sellers are older and have their own place. This was an inheritance, they tried renting but was too much work and last tenant was removed owing them 8 months of rent. They weren't in a hurry so the house was on the market for 6 months and supposedly the seller rejected every offer, but while we visited they were expecting an offer to go through but it fell down on the financing.

So we may just be lucky and the seller had to give up on his initial price and after agreeing to a price but having it fall through he may just want to be done with the property. It is is also not like we low-balled him, it was a genuinely reasonable offer, which we made to give us some real chance of securing a deal rather than annoying the seller.

We'll see what happens. Some of the sellers conditions I dont; quite understand the French. He may be wanting an extra 40k or so but that wont happen.



Now I'm trying to work out how the heck Swiss mortgages actually work. Seems like you end up with 2 or potentially more mortgages. Due to tax reasons you basically don't ever want to pay off your mortgage, you you only amortize down to about 35% ownership and the rest is interest only. The amortization can be a direct or indirect, with the later again meaning you can save tax by never paying off the mortgage until the term is finished in 15 years when you have to pay the lump sum. It seems so counter intuitive. The whole system is set up so you never increase your property ownership, and you will never own the house before you die.

 

[D.P.]

We reduced our accepted offer by 10k because we only achieved 5k under asking on ours (we had an offer accepted before ours was on the market), so there's always room for manoeuvre. It depends if you want to play hard ball and how much you'd be disappointed if you didn't get it, which it sounds like not much.

I always put a huge amount of value on no faff too, and the one we're buying was the first place we viewed and even with the reduction we're probably still paying a bit over (hence their re-acceptance) but we're happy with that just to be done.

The value of no faff can't be underestimated. There is a very low property availability despite the markets warning that house prices are dropping and availability is increasing, we are still talking about 1% free housing for sale. Once you whittle that down to something within our budget, within the size/layout/location/style/requirements that we wont then there just aren't much.

 

[utajoker]

we are going for a home demo today and complete on friday!

 

[Rroff]

I might have accidentally purchased a house and now I'm second guessing. The house is nice, hits most of our criteria but is a compromise given affordability. It needs some work done, replace all windows and redo floors. the financing is OK but I would prefer move in ready on a newer house, just some nagging feeling like the roof will need replacing in a few years although property is only from 1972. Biggest concerns is actually just about the market situation, house prices are dropping 5% or so a year here. They gained 80% in the last 15 years so there is an expectation of a correction of 20% or so. Although major banks predicting small drops and jut years of stabilized pricing which is OK. Also, liekly changes of jobs could make this house less desirable with longer commute.


When we viewed the property we loved the location, layout, and situation but weren't fully committed. It was the best house we could afford so put in an offer 5.5% under asking (here you typically offer 5-10% under and negotiate down to 3-5% under). Owner had rejected lots of previous offers so we didn't see the point in low-balling. We entirely expected a rejection or some negotiation that would end up above out price limit so somewhat surprised the owner agreed. So now I am a little worried that previous offers were all much lower and we are paying over the odds. Our finance person seems to think value is reasonable but in I put some weight on the market. It may just be the local buyers don.t want an older house that needs some upgrades. Or maybe after 6 months the seller has finally realized he wont get anywhere near his asking price.

So, might be a bargain from out side but I can't hep but feel a little dubious. Accepting your first offer just seems strange. Even if we met the sellers internal threshold they surely would have negotiated just a little and eked out a few percent.

Sometimes goes like that a mixture of people low balling offers well under realistic prices and seller having unrealistically high expectations and eventually settle for a more reasonable offer.

 

[Rroff]

Brilliant we got a flyer through the door today with "We have recently sold a property in your area" trying to drum up custom with a picture of our own house on the front (we haven't yet moved but house is sold).

 

[Captain]

Received my survey today, 62 pages to read through. Should be fun.

 

[Funky-Melon]

Had our survey done on recently, waiting for the report.

I found out a day before via solicitor notes that the house we are buying has Japanese Knotweed at the bottom of the garden, only a tiny amount as it's coming from the neighbour, which almost makes it even harder to get rid of. Hadn't even heard of this plant till now.

House was up and sold for £265k last year, then buyers pulled out after damp was found and they purchased somewhere else while damp was being fixed by the seller. House was then relisted by same EA at offers over £225k, we got it for £227k.

Nobody bloody told us about the JKW till we're a grand down and next stage is completing.

Sadly as much as we love the place I think we're going to have to cut our losses and pull out now

 

[SMN]

Had our survey done on recently, waiting for the report.

I found out a day before via solicitor notes that the house we are buying has Japanese Knotweed at the bottom of the garden, only a tiny amount as it's coming from the neighbour, which almost makes it even harder to get rid of. Hadn't even heard of this plant till now.

House was up and sold for £265k last year, then buyers pulled out after damp was found and they purchased somewhere else while damp was being fixed by the seller. House was then relisted by same EA at offers over £225k, we got it for £227k.

Nobody bloody told us about the JKW till we're a grand down and next stage is completing.

Sadly as much as we love the place I think we're going to have to cut our losses and pull out now

Yep, I would. Sod having to deal with that.

 

[Funky-Melon]

Yep, I would. Sod having to deal with that.

We've arranged for a specialist JKW surveyor to come round and look since they charge nothing for the survey.

If it's minor and can be dealt with at sellers expense/neighbours expense we might be swayed but for now it's not looking good.

 

[Rroff]

Ooof nearly all came apart at the last minute due to the solicitors (where we are buying) being a complete shambles handling the money I think it is all sorted. How do these companies stay in business being so bad at what they do?

People (including myself) give estate agents a lot of **** but I don't think this sale would have gone through if it wasn't for the amount of effort our estate agent has put in - she has literally done half the solictor's job for them as well.

 

[SMN]

We've arranged for a specialist JKW surveyor to come round and look since they charge nothing for the survey.

If it's minor and can be dealt with at sellers expense/neighbours expense we might be swayed but for now it's not looking good.

From what I read a year or so ago, its pretty much impossible to kill. You have to essentially have someone come around and inject the thing with bleach (well, not quite bleach) on a regular basis, you mustnt cut it, etc. It can also undermine the foundations of your house, etc and it grows at a rate of knots. Pun intended. I'd be very wary!

 

[Captain]

Can someone give me an answer to a question please, when exchanging contracts and paying the deposit, when is the first mortgage payment normally due? Just been hit with a text asking if i'm ok to complete next Thursday instead of 8 weeks away I would be completing on the 18th, does that mean the first payment should be at the end of May? As i have chosen the 28th of each month for the mortgage to be debited.

 

[utajoker]

We have completed!



very happy with the place, a much better experience overall with Jones Homes than our last new build from Persimmons.