The nervous wait to exchange....

Soldato
Joined
2 Feb 2010
Posts
10,740
Location
East Midlands
I've read so many horror Stories

From gazumping to failure at end. Feels so wrong you can be in this position spending out on surveys etc for it to all fall through at the end

I don't think gazumping is very likely once you get past the early stages.

My biggest problem has been complete lack of communication between solicitors. You have to keep chasing them and encouraging them to pull their fingers out to get anything done.

Choose your solicitor carefully is my biggest tip.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
90,816
My biggest problem has been complete lack of communication between solicitors. You have to keep chasing them and encouraging them to pull their fingers out to get anything done.

I dunno exact story but the first person who put in an offer for our old house apparently solicitor screwed them right up - he was looking to acquire multiple properties on the same road as a bit of a development project so wasn't as hands on with the individual properties as a private buyer would have been. Supposedly they told him 2-3 months late that we'd taken the house off the market when infact we'd sold it to someone else after it went quiet despite giving his solicitor a deadline in the end after multiple contacts to try and get progress.
 
Associate
Joined
14 Jan 2013
Posts
1,275
Location
Horsham
I dunno exact story but the first person who put in an offer for our old house apparently solicitor screwed them right up - he was looking to acquire multiple properties on the same road as a bit of a development project so wasn't as hands on with the individual properties as a private buyer would have been. Supposedly they told him 2-3 months late that we'd taken the house off the market when infact we'd sold it to someone else after it went quiet despite giving his solicitor a deadline in the end after multiple contacts to try and get progress.

Some agents like Purplebricks give you the sellers/buyers details to contact them directly, I take it this wasn't the case
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
90,816
Some agents like Purplebricks give you the sellers/buyers details to contact them directly, I take it this wasn't the case

The buyer was some kind of small time developer so it was handled a bit differently - he was looking to buy up a bit of land including ours and our neighbours properties to build flats, etc. he was kind of hands off in terms of dealing with the properties individually.
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Nov 2003
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5,521
Location
Bedfordshire
My seller has just told me my solicitor is now ready to set dates after we've both been contacting them for the last few weeks chasing for a date... why couldn't my solicitor tell me this?
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Jul 2007
Posts
5,392
So viewed a house today that was a testing of water regarding distance, while top of budget/just over. Only thing is we both have really fallen for it and would be a stretch to buy, although monthlies would be ok.
Other half is going to make enquiries tomorrow, but we both really want it.

Just needed to vent/express somewhere.
 
Soldato
Joined
2 Dec 2004
Posts
13,980
Location
Under The Desk, Wales
My friend fell in love with a newly refurbished house. Only issue was knotweed the other side of the rear fence. Management plan in place for the knotweed, which, covers a vast area. They still went through with the purchase. Seems like the stuff is everywhere these days.
 
Caporegime
Joined
19 May 2004
Posts
31,386
Location
Nordfriesland, Germany
German banks are bonkers. We're buying our house on Friday but when my wife was talking to them on Saturday they were like, so shall we just pay the sellers on Monday? So, yeah, they've sent the money four days early. Totally unconcerned about €229,500 being in limbo.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Oct 2007
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7,418
Location
UK
Help to buy approved, mortgage offer done, aiming to sign contracts next week, completion date mid-December (although wouldn't care if it was Xmas eve!)
 
Soldato
Joined
2 Aug 2016
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4,039
Location
Third Earth
At least everyone seems to be having a better time than me!

After 15 views on the MIL property, and ALL feedback saying the same, we decided to have a sit down with her and discuss the options. Principally reducing the house in price.

She reckons it's worth £525k, the estate agent £420k-£450k and we've gone from £525k to £500k to £490k and wanted to drop to £450k.

MIL is refusing to budge after 6+ months despite us presenting her with the facts.

She then rang us a week later and told us she didn't want to move to Scotland, so wasn't going to sell and we should take the house off the market.

We're gutted. We've had to advise the sellers that we can no longer afford the property. Luckily our offer wasn't legally binding as it was conditional on us selling both properties in Kent so we don't incur any fees.

Ordinarily I would feel sorry for the sellers however 2 weeks ago our solicitor discovered in May of this year, a big planning application has been approved not 500 yards away from the house we had offered on. They clearly knew as it was well documented in the online application, and further did not object to the application. We actually asked them specifically during the viewing in August and they didn't mention it so as gutted as I am, it may have been a blessing in disguise.

MrsHB is suitably fed up, we feel 'done over' by the MIL, not necessarily because she's changed her mind, but because she seemingly doesn't care how much time, money and effort we've invested just to get this far. No apology, just a "I've decided this is too stressful, no one can afford my property and I'm tired of viewings, despite the fact she never did them, we did them all.

Didn't help that the last two families to view her property were not English, white people - heaven forbid!!! Sadly she's 86 and quite racist.

So, after much talks, we've still decided to move up - just on the sale of our house which only went online a couple of weeks ago, so we're going to get Christmas out of the way and do viewings on a less grand property. We advised the MIL this was our intent and apparently she was a bit put out, but we've always said we're going, and we've waited over 10 years.

At least we know where we stand and can focus on us, still a shame though.

Just had to type it out a bit...

If we knew it was going to be like this, we could have just sorted ourselves out and be up there by now, and it means I've lost out on a considerable overpayment for work as my flexi and leave get reset as of Jan.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
90,816
After 15 views on the MIL property, and ALL feedback saying the same, we decided to have a sit down with her and discuss the options. Principally reducing the house in price.

She reckons it's worth £525k, the estate agent £420k-£450k and we've gone from £525k to £500k to £490k and wanted to drop to £450k.

Ooof - similar with the owner of the house next to mine where I lived before moving recently - he was convinced the house was worth 500K - turned up his nose at offers around 490K when prices were at their peak and somewhere around 300-400K from the people renting it from him and in the end was forced to take quite a lot less than that (his wife got fed up and forced the sale from what we heard) as prices declined a bit from a ~2017 peak.

(Originally there was a development opportunity which inflated the price but in the end it went as a residential property as all his messing about resulted in other parties pulling their support for the development).
 
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