House Buying/Selling - unnecessary stress?

RedvGreen

RedvGreen

RedvGreen

Soldato
Joined
2 Dec 2009
Posts
4,012
Location
Midlands
Hi all,

A brief précis:

Jumping back 7 weeks...

Our house had been on the market for 3 weeks before it received an 'asking price' offer, after just 4 viewings.

Within a week, we had found a property we liked, and have sorted the mortgage, Solicitors, Surveys and everything. We are basically good to go right now.

Buyer of our house took a month to sort mortgage and supply Solicitor details to our Estate Agent. First time buyer. They have no property to sell, and have an urgency to seal the deal and move before the end of this year.

Fast forward to current time... there hasn't yet been a survey done on ours (this has been on the cards for the past 3 weeks, but seems to be taking forever to occur). Buyer hasn't been back to view the house (only viewed it once), and we almost pulled out of the deal due to a family event. Buyer insisted they really wanted the house so we hung about.

Currently, we are still waiting for the survey, which in turn will agree the value of the property and validate the mortgage. However despite both us, and apparently, the buyer being desperate to move, nothing much seems to be happening on the buyer's side.

Been out of this property market for a while, but is this usual to have this set of circumstance:
- First-time buyer viewed property only once
- Put in full asking price offer
- Haven't viewed property again
- Took a month to sort out Mortgage and Solicitor
- No movement for over 3 weeks

Obviously my reservations are that he hasn't paid anything out yet, so is delaying do so, or is simply just messing us around for whatever reason.

What are your thoughts?

The respective Estate Agents (our house and the house we are *hopefully* moving to) seem fairly lethargic about the situation and say "Yea it always happens and takes ages" - despite their vested interest lying in the sales being finished.
 
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The only advice I can give is that surveyors are in high demand at the minute and the wait for one is fairly long. Don't ask me how long 'long' is though.
 
Nothing seems overly unusual to me.

For some reason it does seem to be a fairly lethargic process.

We were in a very similar (but opposing) situation to you. We were the first time buyers, we found a place we loved, but weren't fully sorted with a mortgage. As soon as we had one agreed in principle, we offered, negotiated and agreed a price in a short space of time.

We were free to move at the drop of a hat, within days if need be. The seller had already moved out and no doubt would have been happy to complete asap too. But even from us agreeing a price and having a mortgage in place, it still took 6 weeks to get all the paper work done.

We only went back for a second viewing to show our parents round, but that was just a formality, we knew from first viewing it was right.
 
Kemik said:
The only advice I can give is that surveyors are in high demand at the minute and the wait for one is fairly long. Don't ask me how long 'long' is though.
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You say that, but we had a survey arranged on the Tuesday, and occurred on the Friday (structural + valuation)!
 
div0 said:
Nothing seems overly unusual to me.

For some reason it does seem to be a fairly lethargic process.

We were in a very similar (but opposing) situation to you. We were the first time buyers, we found a place we loved, but weren't fully sorted with a mortgage. As soon as we had one agreed in principle, we offered, negotiated and agreed a price in a short space of time.

We were free to move at the drop of a hat, within days if need be. The seller had already moved out and no doubt would have been happy to complete asap too. But even from us agreeing a price and having a mortgage in place, it still took 6 weeks to get all the paper work done.

We only went back for a second viewing to show our parents round, but that was just a formality, we knew from first viewing it was right.
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Ah, that is slightly more reassuring then - our mortgage was a simple adjustment to our transferable mortgage and reassessment of income; I guess the overall 'getting a total new mortgage' process will be slightly long-winded, particularly as the Government's new scheme will be throwing hundreds more applications the way of the lenders.
 
It can take quite a while for banks to approve a mortgage for first time buyer. My mate has just 'bought' a flat and the bank said it could take 4-6 weeks to approve the mortgage.
 
The process of buying/selling a house is a bit like war: long periods of complete inaction punctuated by brief bursts of running about. If the whole process takes less than two months it's a record, and three months is pretty lucky. My last sale, the top of a chain of precisely three people, took nearly five months. A friend once took nine months only to have the whole lot fall through at the last moment. And how urgently the various direct parties think it is doesn't matter: the hold-ups are usually with out outsiders - lawyers, etc.
 
Ouch. Our chain is ridiculously small:

Buyer - Us - Builder

Just the three parties. On the one hand being part of a bigger chain leaves more chance for any one element to fall down and jeopardise the entire chain, so I can be thankful that we are at least insulated from that, for the most part...
 
I think it is sadly pretty normal, and the process elongates when there are inexperience people involved. In this case, as can often happen, people have an idea of what they want and are likely to be able to afford, view somewhere, like it and then go and sort the other stuff out later.

Then there are delays getting mortgage interviews, proof of income then needed that they probably didn't take to the appointment - the same with meeting or arranging the solicitor too.

House buying isn't overly complicated but people rarely put in the required effort (Meridian's point is well made!) and then don't speed up at times when it is really needed.
 
They can't get the survey done until the mortgage is a certain way through the process. Ours took a long time, despite me being away of the process being a 2nd time buyer - government's 5% scheme can't be helping things.
 
Depending on the lender, some do the mortgage valuation once the underwriting is done. Most do the survey first but I would advocate you get the agent to find out .

This is why mortgage brokers are so important. At least it would give the agent a direct contact to talk to who would have all the answers.

Those who turn their noses up at them because, HEAvEN FORBID, they earn something as disgusting as commission are just kidding themselves.

Don't blame the agent, like you say they won't get paid unless it goes through.

What I would do is say you will commence viewings again if the survey is not booked in within say two more weeks.

A month is too long in my opinion and you are not a charity.

Threats such as the above often not only bring action but also swiftly bring to the surface any problems that the buyer may have been trying to hide.
 
fastwunz said:
Threats such as the above often not only bring action but also swiftly bring to the surface any problems that the buyer may have been trying to hide.
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Good plan - the only apprehension is that it could scare them off. However, with our property getting a reasonable interest and several offers (of which we accepted the first timers) so quickly, i'd wager that we are in the position of power...
 
From personal experience and several purchases by people at work in the last 24 months, I'd say in south east any completion in a chain taking less than 5-6 months is very lucky. Things like surveys and bank providing proof of mortgage arrangements is usually completely out of hands of the first time buyer, due to paperwork and credit checks taking as long as they do internally in banks.

Many of us, after first purchase would like to think we've learned from mistakes and next time around we would know to make prior arrangements, have financial records handy and always hire Ally McBeal or Denny Crane as solicitors instead of the "last in class" screw-ups that litter this particular market, but it's a game of many pawns played on a chessboard of many desks in royal mail second class franking timed turns. Nothing is fast in this process.
 
We've just had our offer accepted on a house and were first time buyers so no chain from us. The couple currently in the house haven't found anywhere to move yet so we could be in for a good wait either-way!
 
it really is how long is a piece of string. I know people that have walked into estate agents and brought houses and picked up the keys the very same day, although i believe that was some guy who had like 50 house already so I think they knew he was good for the money.

I also knew someone that was in a situation with a large chain that was getting more and more protracted until someone near the bottom of the chain basically said that he was going to pull out if everyone in the chain didnt pay him £1000 to cover his rent for 6 months so he could complete and then rent temporary until he found somewhere else (I think he was rather upset becuase the house he was going to buy fell through) would you believe that everyone agreed to pay him and he got £9000 in the end.

In my own experince we actually purchased the house we were living in from my wifes family after her grandmother had passed away. We moved in orginally to help fund the nursing home costs and sorted out a deal to buy the house. I think it was a fairly straight forward transaction since we were living here already we just had the mortgage company survey the house to ensure they would lend against it. I think from start to finish the whole process took about 6 weeks and some of that was delays in getting stuff signed and having to sort time off work to get to the soliciters together and stuff.
 
I was an FTB albeit 6 years ago. From first viewing to keys handed over took about 10 days here.
 
Were you buying a new-build though? That is much simpler. Indeed, many building companies only give you a month to complete or the deal is off.
 
All comes down to the solicitors and/or mortgage company really.

Our mortgage company (monmouthshire) on the first place we wanted were absolutely dire, they wanted 16 copies of every bank statement and piece of paper we had... whereas the second company (Nation of wideness) 0 issues, didn't need to provide anything (helped I have my current account with them I expect).

And don't get me started on solicitors... horribly slow human beings :(
 
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