The nervous wait to exchange....

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Skillmister said:
If they're waiting for the contract pack there is little your solicitors can do and there could be a number of reasons why the sellers solicitors have taken so long to provide it. Anything from solicitor incompetence/busyness , seller incompetence, title issues, they might not have the memorandum of sale from the agents etc etc. Its a major part of the problem in why the process takes so long overall. I'm a strong advocate of bringing back a home information pack type thing for this reason so the legal pack is already prepared and ready when you have an offer accepted like with an auction property. In a climate where some local authorities have 2-3 month turnaround time for searches wasting a month at the start is a big problem.

I'm completing on a purchase for a mate next week, less than 4 weeks since offer accepted. But then on the other hand I've got ones that have been going on for 6+ weeks without contracts being issued. It's a joke.

Speak to your estate agent. They are the ones who should be getting this sorted by contacting the seller direct and making sure they have returned all the paperwork they need to for their solicitors (ID, t&cs, property info forms etc) and if they have, chasing up their solicitor to issue contracts.
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That's helpful, thanks. Solicitors are now on the case. I think half the reason is I put my offer in the day the after it went on for sale, so their end probably hadn't even started to think about solicitors etc at that point. Hoping for an update this week and hopefully continue moving forward.
 
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It’s funny reading the comments around the valuation the bank is giving.

works very differently up here.

You get the home report from the selling estate agent before you even view. it is basic, but has the valuation in it. Trouble is, nothing goes for home report atm so the valuation is essentially useless and you need to make sure you have the extra money.

Everything goes to closing dates so you just have to offer your best price and hope for the best that you’ve offered enough but not too much.

we bid on houses last year, one was 205 valuation, went for 285. Another 215 and went for 305. No idea what to bid anymore, wish we had the English system where the price is the price.
 
Ahleckz said:
It’s funny reading the comments around the valuation the bank is giving.

works very differently up here.

You get the home report from the selling estate agent before you even view. it is basic, but has the valuation in it. Trouble is, nothing goes for home report atm so the valuation is essentially useless and you need to make sure you have the extra money.

Everything goes to closing dates so you just have to offer your best price and hope for the best that you’ve offered enough but not too much.

we bid on houses last year, one was 205 valuation, went for 285. Another 215 and went for 305. No idea what to bid anymore, wish we had the English system where the price is the price.
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Yep, we moved in November and went for £15k over home report, £25k over advertised at.

Out friends paid £60k over advertised! Actually, our house sold for £25k over home report, 35K over the price it was listed for.

It's Crazy/
 
Ahleckz said:
It’s
we bid on houses last year, one was 205 valuation, went for 285. Another 215 and went for 305. No idea what to bid anymore, wish we had the English system where the price is the price.
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England isn't much better at the moment. Lots of houses up for "offers around", "offers in excess of" etc which are all going over asking. My gf offered one one that went to "best and final" offers twice because there was so much interest :rolleyes:
 
A work colleague of mine is going through a stressful time buying a house at the mo.

It needs renovating. Price has been dropped because of some issues picked up by surveyor but now, he finds he needs the house rewiring.

The vendors are adamant they wont drop the price anymore even though, the cost of the renovations, including rewiring, is going to put the money spent way above what the house will eventually be worth. This has been confirmed by the estate agents. He wants the house but, on the other hand he is loathed to pay over the odds.
 
koolpc said:
A work colleague of mine is going through a stressful time buying a house at the mo.

It needs renovating. Price has been dropped because of some issues picked up by surveyor but now, he finds he needs the house rewiring.

The vendors are adamant they wont drop the price anymore even though, the cost of the renovations, including rewiring, is going to put the money spent way above what the house will eventually be worth. This has been confirmed by the estate agents. He wants the house but, on the other hand he is loathed to pay over the odds.
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You'll be damned to find a surveyor that doesn't recommend a rewire unless it clearly has been done recently (>20 years).

Edit: Also, qualify "way above" - how much is a rewire nowadays? First and foremost he should assess whether it is a place he wants to live. Unless it outperforms the national average for house price increases, he'll be spending more than face value on general upkeep anyway - boilers, decorating, furniture, gardening, etc...
 
dLockers said:
You'll be damned to find a surveyor that doesn't recommend a rewire unless it clearly has been done recently (>20 years).

Edit: Also, qualify "way above" - how much is a rewire nowadays? First and foremost he should assess whether it is a place he wants to live. Unless it outperforms the national average for house price increases, he'll be spending more than face value on general upkeep anyway - boilers, decorating, furniture, gardening, etc...
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Rewire approx £3k. Its a tiny 2 bed terrace.

It needs new everything! Lol

Vendors digging their heels in. He been looking for a house for 2 years now.
 
Just rang Nationwide to check on the mortgage application for the move, they've said they're quite busy so things are taking a few working days to check however they've received the valuation for the house we're buying and it's been valued at what we paid and I'm waiting for someone to check my payslip. Massive weight lifted with the valuation as I thought they might value it less.
 
koolpc said:
Rewire approx £3k. Its a tiny 2 bed terrace.

It needs new everything! Lol

Vendors digging their heels in. He been looking for a house for 2 years now.
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Doesn't help but the best thing is to get it done before he actually gets in the property, will just make everything easier
 
ChrisD. said:
Just rang Nationwide to check on the mortgage application for the move, they've said they're quite busy so things are taking a few working days to check however they've received the valuation for the house we're buying and it's been valued at what we paid and I'm waiting for someone to check my payslip. Massive weight lifted with the valuation as I thought they might value it less.
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Didn’t take long, within 15 minutes of this post they’ve offered the mortgage. Another thing off the list so now it’s the waiting game with the solicitors.
 
Just got a call from the estate agent, the property we were buying has been taken off the market, the seller has been unable to secure a mortgage for the property they are buying. A real kick in the teeth for us, we had just had the local searches done and back so not a million miles away from the exchange etc. With COVID and everything we are getting onto looking for nearly 15 months so for this to happen is really crap.
 
Had property on market since end of October, accepted an offer this morning, not had many viewings so we were starting to get worried we wouldn't sell it.
Can now start properly looking at properties to buy.

We are viewing 2 properties this week, waiting to hear back on a 3rd for an appointment.
One of them has a "Guide Price", what is the general conscious with this, do houses generally sell over or under guide price ?
We are probably punching above our weight a little with this one, we can afford £10k under the guide, that being said it has been on the market since last year, showing on rightmove as price reduced on 30/10 last year.
All houses around here have been selling astonishingly quick.
 
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koolpc said:
Rewire approx £3k. Its a tiny 2 bed terrace.

It needs new everything! Lol

Vendors digging their heels in. He been looking for a house for 2 years now.
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Surely that would have been obvious enough from the age and condition of the property? Also define "need" a rewire. I had an electric inspection done and a rewire was recommended (as would all 60s properties that haven't had one in the last 5-10 years) but it works and seeing as I don't have kids to stick fingers in sockets the risk is miminal (although I did screw through a wire that didn't trip a fuse so got away with one there :o)

If he's worried he's paying over the odds for the property he should wait until the stamp duty holiday ends and then buy as he's probably overpaying more than the "saving"
 
Skillmister said:
Surely that would have been obvious enough from the age and condition of the property? Also define "need" a rewire. I had an electric inspection done and a rewire was recommended (as would all 60s properties that haven't had one in the last 5-10 years) but it works and seeing as I don't have kids to stick fingers in sockets the risk is miminal (although I did screw through a wire that didn't trip a fuse so got away with one there :o)

If he's worried he's paying over the odds for the property he should wait until the stamp duty holiday ends and then buy as he's probably overpaying more than the "saving"
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The wiring looked ok he said but, he aint no electrician! Apparently it was way out of date and in urgent need of replacing.
 
Viewed a house on 24th Feb, offer accepted that day, mortgage application went in on the 1st, conveyancing was done on the 5th. That came back last week with no major issues. Had a text off my broker yesterday to say the mortgage offer is in place and I'll be getting a letter sent to myself and solicitor. As a FTB things seem to be moving quite fast, is this timescale normal or is it due to COVID?

I suspect things will start to slow down as the seller is also looking for a place unless they've had an offer accepted in the past few days.

I need to arrange another viewing to go measure up and whatnot, get an idea of where things will go etc.. They're still living in the property but going around and measuring up just feels intrusive. I've no doubt they would be ok with it. What did you do if you went around to measure up, just take a pad and sketch each room with measurements?

Should there be anything else I could do whilst there? I don't really want to keep going around because "I forgot to do x,y & z" the first time.
 
I accepted the offer on my house a couple of years ago at 6pm one night, got a text from the estate agent at 9am the next morning asking if it was ok for the buyer to come measure windows etc. I let him in, offered coffee and sat and watched TV as he pottered around the house. He lingered a bit too long in one room so I went in to see what he was doing, nothing much just taking his time..Remember it is their home still, do your thing and get out..
 
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