The nervous wait to exchange....

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Estate agent photographers are pure magicians!!! They make the properties look amazing until you actually go view them!!!
 
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When we got outside the "What do you think?" conversation was amusing.

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.

Estate agent photographers are pure magicians!!! They make the properties look amazing until you actually go view them!!!

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.

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.
 
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.

The other fun thing was when I was advised about a property coming onto the market that met my requirements. Got a viewing in on the first day, liked it, said I was interested in making an offer and arranged a second visit for my partner to take a look. Was then messed around by the estate agent and told various conflicting stories until they finally advised that the owners had changed their mind about selling and it had been withdrawn from sale.
 
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.

Its been the same here in Tunbridge Wells. Lots of massively overpriced properties either having large reductions (often 10% or more) and others leaving the market only to come back on at the same price despite the market being worse than ever for sellers.

Fundamentally, in my view, the market is going through a period of readjustment and people are struggling with it. They have basically never seen house prices drop so when they looked in 2022 and saw their house was worth X, they can't quite fathom that its not worth that now. They also have no clue how expensive everything has become when it comes to building and renovations.

Well priced houses are still disappearing really really fast but thats because there are so few of them and there is a lot of demand at the moment. That demand isn't willing to pay what a lot of people want though.

The silly thing is that plenty of the people who come off the market until things pick up will re-list when its picked up again some time in the future and pat themselves on the back for waiting and getting what they want when the chances are very high that all thats happened is everything has got more expensive and inflation has effectively come up to meet their asking price. They haven't actually got more money for their house in the grand scheme of things.
 
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.
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.

You can't always win, unfortunately!
 
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.
They were asking for £330k and we thought "no chance" - we initially made a low-ball offer of £280k before agreeing on £300k.
 
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.


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.
 
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.
Holy ****. I thought my experience was bad...

Congratulations!!
 
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