House Buying/Selling - unnecessary stress?

[RedvGreen]

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.

 

[RedvGreen]

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.

You say that, but we had a survey arranged on the Tuesday, and occurred on the Friday (structural + valuation)!

 

[RedvGreen]

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.

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.

 

[RedvGreen]

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...

 

[RedvGreen]

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.

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...

 

[RedvGreen]

Agreed about putting the pressure on - when we were FTB (no chain, mortgage agreed, hot to trott etc) everything seemed to be going at snails pace until the vendors said "complete by the end of week or you lose your contribution towards required works" at which point the solicitors finally got their arses in gear and sorted things out.

At the end of the day solicitors will be dealing with dozens of cases at any one time and unless pressure is applied you will always be bottom of the pile. Just remember in their eyes despite being the client, you are VERY small fry and barely worth giving the time of day to as they will not be making a fortune from your business. Their goal is to complete the deal with minimal effort and whether it takes 4 weeks or 4 months is no great concern of theirs.

Ahh, so the pressure is more for the sake of the Mortgage company/Solicitors than anything within the control of the FTBs?

 

[RedvGreen]

They have (if you are a buyer) absolutely ZERO responsibility to represent your interests. Not one iota - so if you approach things from the POV they are there to help you, you are always going to come away with a bitter taste in your mouth. They are there to collect their commission by selling their clients house, at the highest price possible to boost their fee - they are not there to help you drop the price if you feel like you have reasonable grounds to think they should, or indeed anything that involves you unless its getting you involved in whatever stage the process is, to move things along.

You say that, but I had 2 estate agents come around, and only one seemed to 'care' about the house price. The first wanted to list our house for about £90k less than what it has 'sold' for. Based on his history, it would be a possibility that he is a developer himself so he'd get a proxy in to buy the house for himself.

 

[RedvGreen]

Only problem i'm having is trying to book an appointment at my local natwest! Offer accepted on the house, ring up and there is a 2-3 week wait! We were only in on Saturday and had everything sorted and in place and now we'll have to wait because its clogged up with help to buyers inquiring. its either pay extra through my broker or look elsewhere!

2 weeks shouldn't affect much i wouldn't have thought? solicitors have been told to act and are in contact with the estate agent and the couple in the house currently haven't found anywhere to move to as of yet..?

I HATE not being in control!

You say it shouldn't affect much, but from the seller's perspective, each day is painful, and each week is tedious beyond belief. Every single negative possibility is running through your mind...

1. Are the buyers genuine?
2. Are they someone I cheesed off, or a friend of someone I did?
3. Maybe they're hiding from not being able to buy it, but haven't the cajones to say?
4. The deal will fall through, and all the surveys i've paid for are wasted.
5. Maybe I best off just cancel the sale altogether and save myself hassle and upset...

etc

 

[RedvGreen]

This is EXACTLY the point I have been making

Most Estate Agents have no upfront cost - this therefore makes them equally interested in both the Buyer and the Seller. Obviously once their Seller signs up with them it is important to retain them (no cash if they go elsewhere).

We nearly pulled out of our house sale (due to what I mentioned in the OP), and our Estate Agent went above and beyond the call of duty to try to get us to keep the house on the market - in-so-far-as to hassle the buyer to speed things up.

 

[RedvGreen]

exactly - YOU don't think it's enough - but you want someone else to pay for whatever level of information you do think is enough, rather than paying for it yourself??
out of interest, have you actually seen the content of a basic survey to decide if it's enough? because they do comment on all the things you've so far claimed they don't

The full range of surveys are horrible things - sometimes drilling walls, bore-testing the foundations at several points in the house, getting access to parts of the house even the previous 3 owners hadn't seen...

Whilst there is merit in a single survey being done (to avoid further wasted funds of multiple surveys, as well as the inconvenience for the sellers having their house turned upside down many subsequent times), it is very costly, and often would put people from viewing - as any EA will probably tell you, the big sell happens if/when people are physically at/in the property. Emotions are more powerful than hard facts, yet hard facts of a survey will prevent the emotions from ever coming in to play.

 

[RedvGreen]

Well, first minor stress over - our Buyer has officially booked their Survey next week... finally!

 

[RedvGreen]

My word reading this thread fills me with dread. Planning on buying our first home next Christmas most likely. Made the fatal mistake of going on Rightmove and looking at houses already - school boy error, the Mrs has already seen some houses she loves haha.

Its going to be a long 12 months!

I don't think that is the bad thing to do - get a feel for the market, and what money can get you.

You will find that the same money can get you a gem of a house, or an ill-maintained disaster. Also get a feel for the areas - drive by them at different times of the day and in different weathers to see the effect this has on vehicles/pedestrians/drainage etc.

And, finally, never get your heart set on a property, remain level headed as much as possible - work out floor space for the main rooms and work out a rough £/m^2 costing ratio just to see how much the location (or inflated ideas of the seller) is potentially going to cost you.
If you're feeling quite adventurous, you can also contact Land Registry and check the plot and if it has lost/gained anything. Remember that every inch you gain is ££.

 

[RedvGreen]

Well, our survey came back 2 grand under the asking price, and had a load of 'serious' items flagged up, including damp issues on one wall, and cavity wall ties needing investigation.

In the spirit of putting my money where my mouth is, my email to the estate agent looked like this :

As you can imagine, we don't quite fancy purchasing a financial time bomb, so we'd like to leave the recommendations of the home buyers report by our surveyor, back with your vendor. If the vendor can have the items referred to in section E4 examined and signed off as not requiring further investigation, we will be happy to proceed based on a revised offer of £xxx,000. In this instance we would be willing to ignore, as a gesture of goodwill, the other remaining severity items that have been highlighted in the report, relating to some cracked render around the chimney absence of various gas and electricity safety certification.

In the event that further, more extensive works are required, we will need to have this work quoted for (we would require multiple quotes for comparison) and would be willing to work with the vendor in this instance to have the value of that work deducted from the revised value advised by our surveyor, to form a new offer price. As we know the vendor is keen to move and complete on their own house purchase, we would be willing to bear the inconvenience of having works completed, provided the cost of these works was reflected in a final agreed price.

Let's see if that works

This is a tricky situation for all concerned...

Surveyors will never find a faultless house. It just never happens. Nor will it ever. They also virtually never value the property at the offer price unless there is something seriously wrong (i.e. quick sale due to bereavement etc).

Case in point, our house. We had our electrics rewired 9yrs ago, and a snazzy new RCD box put in. We plastered every room in the house and new carpets etc.

We came to sell our house, and our first survey said we had no electrical safety certificate (this is just a money making venture for electricians, much like Photocard ID 10yr expiry is for the DVLA).

We arranged for an electrician to come round to do our certification, and he said 'Oh sorry mate, that is the old version of the RCD box, can't cert that. I'll need to replace it.'

We get a second opinion, and it is the same thing. Electrician comes to replace RCD box with the 'new' version (looks just like the 9yr old one), and he says, 'Oh bad cabling back here going into the box, i'll need to rewire the house'.

And so you can see where this is going... the fact is, i've PAT tested on the most sensitive setting all the power outlets, and all pass perfectly. This is just to do with a certificate and work generation.

At the end of the day, the certification is purely optional to consider for the Buyer, as is the 'Home efficiency' rating when you come to put your house on the market. It is simply more expenditure within a captive audience.


From your POV nucastle, you may be concerned by the elements raised by the survey, however please bear in mind that these things NEVER come back perfect. Even in new builds they find faults and criticisms.