Just starting the process now. Had an offer accepted. Sold our place. Just need to get cracking with solicitors etc. I won't feel remotely comfortable until surveys on our side and our buyers side are done however. Our house is a victorian and the one we are buying needs quite a bit of work.
The nervous wait to exchange....
- Thread starter noj
- Start date
Offer accepted on our house. The estate agent initially valued it a fair bit higher than we expected. We reduced the price after about 7 weeks and just accepted an offer £1.5k below what we thought it was worth. So we're pretty happy with that.
We also offered on a house under 20k asking and it's been accepted! So very very happy with that!
Now the nervous wait begins...
We also offered on a house under 20k asking and it's been accepted! So very very happy with that!
Now the nervous wait begins...
Our seller sat on their hands for over a week deciding whether to accept our offer. Eventually accepted and have been hounding us every day since accepting....at 5pm last Friday. Literally asked about solicitor on the call when they accepted. Another email Saturday and phone calls every day this week.
Its nearly Christmas and absolutely nothing is going to be done before Christmas. Got a call earlier from the EA saying "someone else who looked at the property has just become proceedable so...". I got a little short with them essentially telling them we are getting quotes and will let them know as soon as we have instructed one. They wasted over a week of our time sitting on our offer and we left them to it. We shockingly didn't instruct a solicitor until we actually had an offer accepted.
Its nearly Christmas and absolutely nothing is going to be done before Christmas. Got a call earlier from the EA saying "someone else who looked at the property has just become proceedable so...". I got a little short with them essentially telling them we are getting quotes and will let them know as soon as we have instructed one. They wasted over a week of our time sitting on our offer and we left them to it. We shockingly didn't instruct a solicitor until we actually had an offer accepted.
Solicitors are a nightmare, Absolutely no urgency from them with providing infoformation.
I sold one of my properties last month which was due to close on the 14th of November. I hadn't heard from the solicitor so called them to query what was happening the next day regarding key drop offs etc.
Their response was 'Oh, Did no one tell you, It has been delayed by multiple weeks as we think the buyer decided to start his mortgage applications again'
I sold one of my properties last month which was due to close on the 14th of November. I hadn't heard from the solicitor so called them to query what was happening the next day regarding key drop offs etc.
Their response was 'Oh, Did no one tell you, It has been delayed by multiple weeks as we think the buyer decided to start his mortgage applications again'
My experience of conveyancing solicitors seems to have been long periods of silence and apparent inactivity, punctuated by the occasional sudden burst of action when they expect you to quickly review a bunch of documents and respond immediately with information or whatever. Then it's back to no updates again.
I was literally about to say. Our last purchase we had a very rude solicitor who didn't speak particularly good english and was ******* awful. Rude whenever you spoke to her, acted like you were an idiot if you asked any questions and would literally just forward anything from the other side over to us. Give us some ******* context. You are supposed to be our legal advisor in all this. Explain what this document is saying and what its for; don't just act like an email forwarding service.
We said repeatedly "tell us everything you will need and we will get it to you now so there is no delay". Cool cool cool. Nothing, OK. 3 weeks later "We need this and we can't progress any further until we have it, you need to get this to us ASAP". So why didn't you tell us we would need this? It wasn't like it was usually things that came up out of the blue either. They were standard things she would have known we would need to provide.
Seems that the entire industry around buying a house is full of people trying to do as little work as possible whilst charging you as much as possible.
Surveyor - "well, your house is absolutely fine but I'm going to suggest that every part of it might fall down to cover myself"
Bank - "Of course we will lend you money sir, whats that? No, 5% on the loan isn't enough, we also want £1000 to do the work in order to lend you that money"
Solicitors - "We will engage with you as little as possible and only expedite things and communicate if you constantly nag us"
Estate agents - "No we have no idea if there are any schools in the local areas. Yes I think there probably is one within 5 miles of here for sure"
Last edited:
Associate
- Joined
- 30 Nov 2024
- Posts
- 104
- Location
- Kettering
Well the sale of our house has fallen through - we had a suspicion it might as our solicitor has been telling us the buyer had gone quiet on them for 4-weeks now. They claimed they were a 'cash buyer' but then last week I had a call from some surveyors asking when they could come and look at the house, which I queried as no mortgage needed re. cash buyer. Turns out they lied to us and have been dragging their feet and stringing us along for 5-months. Not happy! Means we've also now had to withdraw on the house we wanted to buy.
Wish we used the Scottish system.
Oh well, we're going to enjoy Christmas and might start all over again in the spring.
Wish we used the Scottish system.
Oh well, we're going to enjoy Christmas and might start all over again in the spring.
Well, after a second viewing today we have just received an offer on my Dads house.
Its 8k less than our asking however its a cash buyer who have sold their home.
So lets see how this pans out over the next few weeks as we said go for it.
Its 8k less than our asking however its a cash buyer who have sold their home.
So lets see how this pans out over the next few weeks as we said go for it.
That is shocking. In what world did they think you wouldn’t (eventually) find out? And of course you did. That being said, surely cash or mortgage, you want a survey?
He means a mortgage valuation survey I think
Soldato
- Joined
- 23 Mar 2011
- Posts
- 11,560
So we finally exchanged yesterday... And completing tomorrow 
Chaos. In a mad rush to pack now. It was 50/50 if we were exchanging this week, or a massive gap to February so we only part packed. That said we don't have much really and it's going ok!
What do you guys do/expect regarding wall fixings when buying selling?
Not really thought about it until now and taking items down.
I guess we just leave the screw and wall plug intact so the new owners can reuse or remove/fill?
Like a small TV bracket in the bedroom.. it's the only location for a TV. Do I leave the cheap bracket in place and hope they may make use of it, or take it down leaving the 4 holes.
Never sold before and only brought once and that was a new build. Not really sure on the expectations?
Obviously I'm cleaning as best I can with 1 days notice
Chaos. In a mad rush to pack now. It was 50/50 if we were exchanging this week, or a massive gap to February so we only part packed. That said we don't have much really and it's going ok!
What do you guys do/expect regarding wall fixings when buying selling?
Not really thought about it until now and taking items down.
I guess we just leave the screw and wall plug intact so the new owners can reuse or remove/fill?
Like a small TV bracket in the bedroom.. it's the only location for a TV. Do I leave the cheap bracket in place and hope they may make use of it, or take it down leaving the 4 holes.
Never sold before and only brought once and that was a new build. Not really sure on the expectations?
Obviously I'm cleaning as best I can with 1 days notice
Soldato
- Joined
- 8 Dec 2002
- Posts
- 21,889
- Location
- North Yorkshire
Top tip leave the house how you expect your new house to be.
Last edited:
If you can make good something that the new people will not want then do it. If its something they might use then leave it. The worst thing you can do is a ****, quick job that will take them more work to undo/do again properly than if you just left it as is.
Our sellers used normal wall filler on wood for some reason...
Our sellers used normal wall filler on wood for some reason...
Soldato
- Joined
- 23 Mar 2011
- Posts
- 11,560
Yeah I've gone this route really.
Maybe if we had more time between exchange and moving then I could attempt filling but we don't have any of the matching paint and honestly I think a wall plug and screw would be preferable to a bad fill job and white patches everywhere
So we finally exchanged yesterday... And completing tomorrow
Chaos. In a mad rush to pack now. It was 50/50 if we were exchanging this week, or a massive gap to February so we only part packed. That said we don't have much really and it's going ok!
What do you guys do/expect regarding wall fixings when buying selling?
Not really thought about it until now and taking items down.
I guess we just leave the screw and wall plug intact so the new owners can reuse or remove/fill?
Like a small TV bracket in the bedroom.. it's the only location for a TV. Do I leave the cheap bracket in place and hope they may make use of it, or take it down leaving the 4 holes.
Never sold before and only brought once and that was a new build. Not really sure on the expectations?
Obviously I'm cleaning as best I can with 1 days notice
How come it's so quick? I thought it was normally a couple of weeks between contracts and completion.
Soldato
- Joined
- 28 Dec 2017
- Posts
- 10,148
- Location
- Beds
We went same day in 2022, which seemed to be the advice at the time. I don't know why it varies!