When we got outside the "What do you think?" conversation was amusing.
Estate agent photographers are pure magicians!!! They make the properties look amazing until you actually go view them!!!
Having just started this process - this thread is very depressing.
Having just started this process - this thread is very depressing.
Don't be disheartened, people generally come to complain. Once you have bought a house people tend to drift away from resources that discuss it so all thats left are the bitter dregs who have had a nightmare (only joking!).
The process in this country is a mess but we've bought a flat and a house and had little problem with either beyond our first estate agents being **** (purplebricks) and our solicitor being crap. Outside of that its been fine. It requires some luck but its often not too bad.
I've been keeping an eye on the local market (Bristol) for the last year or so and have noticed quite a few properties reappearing for sale. Speaking to various estate agents they say there has been a widespread issue with chains collapsing.
Agreed. It is a gamble in most aspects. In comparison to our current house, the previous one was painless and I went from offer to completion in 8 weeks, then slowly changed things over the years. Sold the house at a nice profit which helped with buying this one. Great house, but it was time to up size as things had changed.I always wonder how much estate agents hate showing these sorts of properties. We saw one when we were looking about 7 years ago that looked good. Large, decent garden, not a bad price. Turned up and the estate agent seemed like they would rather be anywhere else and had no enthusiasm for the property. When we got inside we realised why. It was a mess. Water marks on ceiling in a couple of places that didn't look like old ones. General state was awful. Needed huge amounts of work doing to it. Probably best part of £100k.
I assume the estate agent had shown far too many people around it who all came out and had the "what do you think" conversation and said "its about £100k+ overpriced. They even tried to get us to make an offer saying that any offer might be considered. They must have been hoping that if enough people said "**** off, its worth £100k less than you want" they could persuade them to lower the price and actually make a sale.
Low resolution photos, kind angles and lens' along with only showing the pictures that look good.
We've seen waaaaaay too many £1m+ houses that only have like 7 photos. We're talking 5 bedroom, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, 2 reception rooms, utility, office and garden and they have 7 pictures. Very suspicious.
Don't be disheartened, people generally come to complain. Once you have bought a house people tend to drift away from resources that discuss it so all thats left are the bitter dregs who have had a nightmare (only joking!).
The process in this country is a mess but we've bought a flat and a house and had little problem with either beyond our first estate agents being **** (purplebricks) and our solicitor being crap. Outside of that its been fine. It requires some luck but its often not too bad.
They were asking for £330k and we thought "no chance" - we initially made a low-ball offer of £280k before agreeing on £300k.Are you not going to renegotiate or was your original "knocked down price based on the knowledge much of this needed doing.
You offer a price based on the knowledge that you have at the time and the survey should then inform you (vaguely) as to whether your knowledge was broadly correct.
well, the gift that keeps giving continues.
Recap:
- Initially went on the market in June 2023. Loads of interest. Several offers within the first 3 weeks, only for my mortgage advisor (first one...) to then say 'oh actually you can't get a mortgage.
- We come off the market.
- After clarifying the situation with first mortgage advisor, back on the market in June 2024. Loads of interest, several offers, sold to a cash buyer with no chain in just over 1 month.
- Offered on a house. Had a survey, told 'I can not recommend you buy this property.' It was a grade 2 listed barn conversion and had not been converted in line with planning. Estimate of over £100k if the conservation officer decided to enforce all the issues being rectified.
- Offered on another house. All great.
- Mortgage offer was taking ages. Spoke to a friends advisor who was totally confused at what the issue was. He took one look, sighed, we instructed him, and he sorted it all within a week.
- On exchange day our buyer pulled out, citing a TPO on a tree not on our property as the reason. Wild.
- We go back on the market, expecting a fast sale (Nov 2024). Our onward purchase was panicking and also went back on the market.
- She had been on the market for 4 months with no offers when we had agreed to buy it in July 2024....
- She sold in under a week of going back on the market to the first viewer (facepalm).
- It then took us over 40 viewings and over 10 offers to get sold again (May 2025).
- We offered on another property in May 2025... some complexities but nothing major...
- All progressing well... exchange was expected on Friday last week.
- Until... Tuesday came, and our buyers solicitor got closed down with immediate effect by the Solictiors Regulation Authority.
- They now have a new solicitor who has accepted the report the previous solicitors did (thank god) and we are hopefully going to now exchange on Tuesday.
I think we've seen everything that this market can offer now. We've spent a small fortune to get this far.
Holy ****. I thought my experience was bad...An update.
- We didn't exchange on Tuesday, or Wednesday, or any other day last week. Because? it turns out a new maintenance agreement was needed for the Water Treatment plant that replaced the old septic tank as its shared with the neighbour.
- We got to Monday, I was just about keeping the removals firm onside who were threatening to give the slot to someone else.
- We got to Tuesday... still no joy. At 4pm our solicitor said 'I need to cancel the mortgage funds, this isn't happening this week'.
- All goes mad. Our buyer flapping (as they've rented out their house) and the people we are buying from flapping even more as they moved out on Tuesday.
- Our solicitor offers to step in and sort it out even though its not our problem as its looking like the chain could collapse.
- Wednesday.... WE EXCHANGE ! Completion set for Friday 12th Sept.
So, the summary:
- 2 failed purchases
- 1 failed sale with a buyer who pulled out on exchange day
- thousands lost because of the above
Yeah. Never moving again. Thank god its our dream home.