The nervous wait to exchange....

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3 weeks today we moved. Making ours is well on the way. Main bedroom waiting on 3rd coat of paint later today. Then it’s glossing, final checks and then carpet to finish. Waiting for a date for carpet fitter.

living room has been stripped back. Wallpaper all off. Every time a piece comes off I find another crack in a wall. Lots of filler needed. Nothing serious as didn’t show through the paper put up in 1982. Walls are all signed by the kids who lived here before with their ages and a date.

bricked up chimney and installed air brick to let it breathe. It now whistles in high wind but wanted rid of a horrible 1970s gas fire that was there before. Electric fire going in it’s place.

coving up in bedroom and living room. Just hallway to do today if I can.

we stripped back downstairs carpet to check the slab. Turns out it’s carpet and underlay on a parquet floor. Flooring guy suggested taking it out and selling it as it’s not to our taste. Apparently goes for a lot for refurb/reclamation. eBay prices silly high but not interested in selling in small batches. Once it’s out will be time for new LVT/laminate throughout. 45m2 of flooring in 1 run and will probably need levelling first.

Bathroom guy/plumber due today or tomorrow to discuss both bathrooms. Yay. More demolition.

All in all. Busy 3 weeks and doesn’t seem like yesterday we exchanged and I worried something would come up.
 
We moved just before christmas. It should have been August / September but what could have been plain sailing was not. In brief our buyer pulled out ON THE DAY OF EXCHANGE.

I don't know how common this is, but I have heard of other people experiencing sales collapse just before exchange. But I have not heard of one on the day of exchange. Maybe there are some in this thread?

Quick Sale? Not.
We spent a year looking for the right property and back in May 2019 we found it and decided to put our existing house on the market. We had 4 viewings booked that weekend and one of them agreed to buy at the full asking price. Solicitors were instructed, fiananced sorted and everything was plain sailing. The house in front of us was supposed to move to a new property in July / August and the one buying our place was selling up a B&B business and had a cash buyer waiting. Thus there was only a small chain.

The estate agent estimated 8 -12 weeks to completion and quite possibly the lower end of that. But in July there was a slight issue with the person we were buying from. The property she was moving to would not be ready for 'a few weeks'. This dragged on into late August and early September but everyone was fine with that.

Solicitor's were not very effective. There were mistakes, delays. I tried to minimise all that by immediately returning all paperwork that needed signing. As soon as I had them they were signed and hand delivered the same day.

Change of Agent
Everything was looking great for a September move but we found out the estate agent advisor (a really nice chap, IMO that's unusual) had left the business. We did not know this for a few weeks. He did not answer emails and we only found out when checking his FB page and seeing a picture of 'you are leaving us' cake. A new agent was appointed to us and he was more Mr Nasty / Pushy.

There was a bit of horsetrading going on at the end. Furniture plans had changed. Originally the buyers did not want stuff, then they did. We were happy to leave all the white goods, curtains, shades etc. But things were still going smooth although I did not like the way the EA was saying things. It's like we were getting two different stories at times.

OK Just Move!
We had aimed to move at the end of September but there was one more delay from the house we were buying. The occupier of the house we were buying had abandoned original plans as was going to rent for a few months until their new property was ready. Unfortunately the rental property needed cleaning renovating so the move could not take place on the weekend we had expected. But all parties agreed that adding 3 days to the move date was not a problem. The next day we were all in a position to exchange.

There were now only 3 in the chain. Us, our buyer and our seller. The seller was renting, the buyer had sold her B&B and was sitting on cash, staying with a friend. OK let's go!

On the Friday the solicitor's and EAs called all parties to confirm the exchange. But our buyer could not be contacted or so we were told. Later that day we found out that she had a bit of a bust up with the EA (Mr Nasty). He said she threw her toys out of the pram and was just a stubborn person. I can see that but I can also see how easily wound up should could have got with the EA.

What Next!
Well we were gutted. It was a horrible feeling. Emotionally and financially. A few days before I had dismantled the kids bedroom furniture, garden furniture, other furniture and gave it away / recycled it. The house was 80% empty as we had move most of it to a storage unit. For a few more months we had to live very minimalistically and pay a fare sum for storage.

Luckily our seller was sympathetic and stated they would keep the house for us. They would not go back on the market and would allow us time to find a new buyer.

That did go pretty quick. We were back on the market within a week and shortly after we must have had 10 viewings, some positive, some tyre kickers. The problem now was that Brexit may / may not happen so no one wanted to make an offer.

New Sale
We had a hand written note put through our door. It was from someone who walked past the house regurlarly and wanted to buy it. I contacted them and told them they must contact the EA.

Mr Nasty was not happy about that. Even though I told the buyer to contact HIM directly!

Then the EA teamed up with another EA (it's something they do to generate more leads). That got some really interesting leads and a nice young couple put in an offer a couple of grand under the asking price. Now we had two confirmed buyers. The young couple and the hand note. Hand note said he had finance, the young couple a mortgage in principle. In the end we had to decide who we wanted to sell to. They had different circumstances and different EAs!

I chose the young couple as I assumed they would be able to sort the mortgage out quicker than the single guy (hand note). Unfortunately he was now Mr Nasty's client and Mr Nasty was going to lose his commission. I tell you he went full nuts. His true character came out that day. It's not understandably so either. No one in business should have an attitude like that.

Finally Exchanged
The exchange took place at the end of November and we moved out / in on the 16th December. It was not an easy time to do that what with Christmas, and schools, eldest at uni. But it was all pretty smooth. I had months of planning and it was done to military precision.

There's still lots to do in this house. It's a 2 year old house, which has many, many snags and we had a flood after day 3. We knew about some of the snags and had hoped to get them done under the 2 year warranty. We also expected the flood to have been sorted by the developer but guess what - the warranty had run out a week earlier.

In my mind - possibly because we were initially set to move in Septmber - I had assumed we were still covered and that the snags would have been logged and actioned on. But the developer dug their heels in, and would not budge. It's a great house, a great location, but the support from the developer's is absolutely dire. Ironically we had considered purchasing new but we did not want the hassle of snags. Now we have snags and we have to sort them all out ourselves.
 
Just out ours on the market, I bought it when I was young and single and just kind of stayed here. Married with a kid and a other on the way so deciding to move. Going to be nice moving from a small 3 bed semi detached to a detached 4 bed + house! Looked at one already in budget and wife has fallen in love! Wait and see how ours goes when it goes live!
 
We've exchanged! should've happened a week or so ago but alas, here we are.

Now we get to do the fun bits and pick our customisation options. We've just moved the bits out of our rented accommodation and we are in a pretty nice position of not owning any furniture as we've either sold it all or will be throwing it away over this weekend. So when we get to the new house we will literally own nothing... So that first week of the house will be waiting for lots of packages to be delivered once we start buying all the bits we need
 
Congrats all!

Just twiddling thumbs waiting for my survey to come back. Cleared the last load of crap out of the garage and taken to the tip so pretty much ready to move. Hopefully can exchange in the next couple of weeks for end of march completion.
 
House went on Market Thursday, had loads of interest so had an open day today. 2 x Offers of Full Asking price. Happy with that!
 
MrKnifey said:
House went on Market Thursday, had loads of interest so had an open day today. 2 x Offers of Full Asking price. Happy with that!
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Awesome stuff!

We're still away from completing. Aiming for May but with all these storms could well be later if it needs to dry up before the roof goes on
 
Phew. Much harder than anticipated did not get keys until 2.30pm Friday and as we were doing the move ourselves, was a challenge. Had to contend with snow wind and rain for the last 2 days too!

Now the real work commences, builder in tomorrow to quote on garage conversion and to look at bathroom!
 
"As there is some time until completion it may be a good idea to lodge what is known as a “notice” against the title owned by the developer. This is to give you some protection so that if either there is a change in ownership or the Seller inadvertedly tried to re-sell the same plot (ie they make a simple error) that your interest in Plot XXXXXXXXXXXXXX is duly noted at the land registry. The land registry charge a fee of £40.00 to do this -can you confirm if you wish for us to attend to this and if so can you transfer £40.00 to us as per our same account details?"
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Just had this from the solicitor. Anyone ever had to do something similar before? I know £40 isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things but feels like they're just trying to get an extra £40 out of us
 
JunglistE said:
Just had this from the solicitor. Anyone ever had to do something similar before? I know £40 isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things but feels like they're just trying to get an extra £40 out of us
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They aren't getting anything out of it that's the land registry fee.

What's the reason? Have you exchanged and when is completion due to take place?

The only time I've bothered with that was when I had someone buying a flat off plan that was due to be about 9 months between exchange and completion and all the other foreign buyers had already registered their interests so it seemed silly not to
 
I've seen this thread existing for years and never entered it as talking about housing just depresses me as I've never been in a position to buy. However, times change. For almost 20 years we've rented and I've had to withstand people telling me I've been wasting my money when I could "get a mortgage with monthly payments the same amount as my rent" seemingly ignoring the ridiculous deposit I would need for a house large enough for my family where I live. Well it's taken a death in family and some inheritance to put us in a position where it may finally be possible, and even then large lump sum gifts from family to boost us.
Any advice for someone completely new to this as first time buyers?
 
Skillmister said:
They aren't getting anything out of it that's the land registry fee.

What's the reason? Have you exchanged and when is completion due to take place?

The only time I've bothered with that was when I had someone buying a flat off plan that was due to be about 9 months between exchange and completion and all the other foreign buyers had already registered their interests so it seemed silly not to
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We exchanged contracts last Thursday but I don't think the house is due to be complete until May.
 
JunglistE said:
We exchanged contracts last Thursday but I don't think the house is due to be complete until May.
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I'd say it's unnecessary and isn't done as a matter of course on new builds where I work now or my previous place but your solicitors may well have different policies. This is not legal advice :p
 
@jaybee have a look at the process online so you know what’s coming. It’s differs in Scotland if you are buying there.

Try not to get all wrapped up ‘in the moment’, it’s easy to get over excited and miss important things when viewing a property (e.g. the age/condition of expensive fittings like bathrooms, kitchens doors, windows and boilers) which are expensive to change. Also keep an eye out for little things which are very useful but very hard to retrofit such as power in the garage which is easy to miss and a complete PITA without.

Do a few drive-bys at different time’s of the day so you can get a feel for parking, noise and traffic.

Apply a healthy amount of scepticism to anything anyone tells you who are not specifically working for you, that especially includes estate agents and the person you are buying from and their solicitor.

Any party in the chain can be a pain, including your own solicitor. People say get a local one, I disagree, it doesn’t matter if they are local, you shouldn’t ever need to meet them. All that matters is they are competent. A good solicitor will make the purchase very easy.

Read all paper work very carefully, make sure it matches what you have been told verbally. Once you have exchanged it’s costly to change your mind.
 
jaybee said:
I've seen this thread existing for years and never entered it as talking about housing just depresses me as I've never been in a position to buy. However, times change. For almost 20 years we've rented and I've had to withstand people telling me I've been wasting my money when I could "get a mortgage with monthly payments the same amount as my rent" seemingly ignoring the ridiculous deposit I would need for a house large enough for my family where I live. Well it's taken a death in family and some inheritance to put us in a position where it may finally be possible, and even then large lump sum gifts from family to boost us.
Any advice for someone completely new to this as first time buyers?
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Honestly the first bit of advice I can give is that it's really not that bad, you'll need to have a good handle on your finances, and be reasonably organised with things, but don't stress too much over it.

Speak to a broker to work out what you can afford, they will give you an idea of that based on your income, outgoings, deposit, debts etc. Be honest on all points because banks have checks for things like money-laundering, and eventually you'd have credit checks against you.

London & Country are fee-free, which means you don't pay anything to the broker, they get a cut on any successful mortgages from the bank. https://www.landc.co.uk/. Feel free to find your own, but no harm in talking to someone like them.

What you will want is an agreement in principle, this will be a letter/form from a bank that shows intent to lend you the money in the price range you are looking at.

You should then book some viewings to go look at houses once you know what you can afford in your area.

Once you find a house and you have an offer down, then you'll need to instruct a conveyancing solicitor to handle the purchase. You'll want to get a handle on the situation in your chain as well.

If buying a new build, then negotiate a discount on the RRP because they will rip you off.
 
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