The nervous wait to exchange....

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Anyone any thoughts on using the same estate agent to sell as using to buy?

Offer accepted on a house on Thursday, had the selling estate agent (although a different branch) come round on Friday to value our flat as well as a second agent. Costs are identical, but she prefers the app and analysis one provides rather than the other and they happen to be the selling agent.

To me, I don't think it makes too much difference and I'd go with whoever says they can get the highest home report value but just seeing if I'm missing anything.

All being well, the flat should be on the market on Friday. So just a tidy up and declutter this week and a bit of a clean for the photos during the week. Then we've got a cleaner booked on Sunday for a deep clean before the viewings. £150 for someone to come and spend the day here cleaning sounds like money well spent to me!
We're in a very fashionable area (though it's covered in dog poo, junkies all over the place and litter everywhere), with flats selling very quickly so hope to have it sold within a fortnight. Excited to get a move date, really hoping I can sit in my new back garden in June!
 
Well I've had to put the brakes on my house purchase.

When I asked the estate agents why the house was on rightmove since November but I hadn't seen it they told me it had been put back on the market. She shouldn't really tell me but it will all come out anyways that the previous initial buyer wanted a shale test done, due to the area in question being prone to have houses built on shale. There was back and forth and the result was the house got put back onto the market.

I've gone through all the mortgage acceptance but my solicitor has contacted the estate agents and been told the same thing, so has spoken to me and apparently, there were other things that needed doing to the house and they reduced the house bid accordingly, but the vendor refused and hence the house went back up for sale.
I was told that if my mortgage has a mandatory requirement that a shale be done there might be more oomph behind it since the previous people had a significant deposit so it wasn't required to borrow, only their own peace of mind.

Apparently, the vendor has got annoyed the estate agents have told me and my solicitor - not that it mattered since my solicitor lives nearby and had to have her house tested for shale, and is a requirement for them to check within the age of the house for that town - and the vendor has stated if it doesn't sell he will take it off-market and rent it out.

I'm rather miffed cause I've paid a bit already to the solicitors but thankfully nothing more. I've asked them to hold out doing any searches and I've also cancelled a homebuyers report survey that was booked in until I can more information as to if I'm going to be just wasting my money by him refusing to have a shale test done. My solicitors have recommended they will say it is a dealbreaker and hopefully by cancelling the survey they might actually see that it is.

I can understand his position - His solicitor obviously didn't know the area when he bought and hasn't done any sort of checking when he bought the house, and could potentially devalue the price of it if it comes back with shale. That said, in 6 years he's made £23k on the price, and I believe with what I'm paying it won't go much higher or could potentially be less when I come to sell it if house prices drop, and therefore I would like a shale test completing. My solicitor said it probably doesn't have it but when I come to sell I could end up in the same scenario and end up having to knock 20k-30k off the value of the house because it needs doing.

My solicitor has stated she will inform my mortgage lender as she is meant to do this regardless I believe by law? She said hopefully this will put enough backing for them to realise that to sell their house it needs one since we are the second people to ask and backed by a mortgage lender.

They could just tell me to do one, and try again for another sale or rent it out. Either way its a bit of a pig as I've been looking a year and was getting excited to actually buy my first home :|
 
HRL said:
4 properties in the process of selling, 2 of which are chain-free, then upping sticks from Essex to Devon into a grade II listed property.

Can’t flipping wait. Aside from the crappy broadband speeds down there, there are no other negatives.

Looking to move end of May, early June.
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Broadband in Cornwall is actually really very good now on the whole, but I'm sure there will always be properties that are still awful. Although coming from Essex you may be used to crazy Virgin speeds!
 
doug_1986 said:
Broadband in Cornwall is actually really very good now on the whole, but I'm sure there will always be properties that are still awful. Although coming from Essex you may be used to crazy Virgin speeds!
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Yep, used VM for the past 10 years. It’s the kids that are going to miss the faster speed more than myself.

20Mb is useable, just not as good as 200Mb clearly.
 
Anybody have any experience buying a property which has had a downstairs chimney breast removed? Just had the survey back and it mentions confirming the adequacy of support for the above chimney masonry. I suspect this modification was done some years before the current sellers moved in. Half of me thinks it's likely fine, half thinks it warrants further investigation. Other than a full structural survey (which the sellers may not agree to as it may involve removing plaster etc) not sure how best to check this issue.
 
One a mortgage is agreed and while the solicitors are still doing their thing, can I go out and find another lender or rate? Seems rates have come down a little.
 
ChrisD. said:
One a mortgage is agreed and while the solicitors are still doing their thing, can I go out and find another lender or rate? Seems rates have come down a little.
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Yes you can, I did the same.

Damn you for pointing out though, I could save 0.1% plus £1000 fee on my 5 year mortgage :D. Fortunately I'm hopefully exchanging today and I've also changed jobs so not going to bother.. (don't think they can after exchanging?)
 
Buffman said:
Yes you can, I did the same.

Damn you for pointing out though, I could save 0.1% plus £1000 fee on my 5 year mortgage :D. Fortunately I'm hopefully exchanging today and I've also changed jobs so not going to bother.. (don't think they can after exchanging?)
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We are yet to exchange and I haven't seen draft contracts yet. I see no harm in it as the original deal still stands. I'll have a closer look later on today. I might even call Nationwide and see what they say.
 
ChrisD. said:
We are yet to exchange and I haven't seen draft contracts yet. I see no harm in it as the original deal still stands. I'll have a closer look later on today. I might even call Nationwide and see what they say.
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Let me know how it goes, I'm tempted to do the same!
Edit: nevermind money saving expert hasn't included the nationwide product fee (£1500 but they say its zero). At that point for me the saving is minor so I won't bother
 
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Current deal is 5 year fixed, 1.69% and a £999 product fee.

I now see on Compare the Market:

Screenshot-2021-03-31-at-08-50-45.png


It's actually not going to save us all that much over 5 years, I'm not sure whether it's worth the hassle for ~£1k over 5 years.
 
ChrisD. said:
Current deal is 5 year fixed, 1.69% and a £999 product fee.

I now see on Compare the Market:

Screenshot-2021-03-31-at-08-50-45.png


It's actually not going to save us all that much over 5 years, I'm not sure whether it's worth the hassle for ~£1k over 5 years.
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If you've not yet exchanged and its with the same lender I'd give them a call to see how easy it will be. I probably wouldn't bother with a whole new application (saying that, I did previously to save circa £800 over 5 years so that's a lie :D
)
 
Buffman said:
If you've not yet exchanged and its with the same lender I'd give them a call to see how easy it will be. I probably wouldn't bother with a whole new application (saying that, I did previously to save circa £800 over 5 years so that's a lie :D
)
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Yeah I will give them a call later on today.
 
@Buffman - Nationwide have OK'd it without having to do an application, they are refunding the original £999 product fee I've already paid and they said just call back up and pay the new £1499 product fee when ready. It'll save me £812 over 5 years.
 
Macky said:
Anybody have any experience buying a property which has had a downstairs chimney breast removed? Just had the survey back and it mentions confirming the adequacy of support for the above chimney masonry. I suspect this modification was done some years before the current sellers moved in. Half of me thinks it's likely fine, half thinks it warrants further investigation. Other than a full structural survey (which the sellers may not agree to as it may involve removing plaster etc) not sure how best to check this issue.
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Yep -the chimney breast in the kitchen had been removed, while we still had a fireplace in my son's room directly above. When we did our renovation recently they cut everything back to reveal the hearth being supported by a wedge of cement and a couple of poorly stuck on pieces of wood. Looked terrible and surprised it hadn't come down before. We initially thought we'd have to fully support it by through bricks or steels, but in the end the structural engineer figured we could use a few solid two by fours.
 
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Mortgage offer has come through! Nationwide booked valuers for Tuesday and then rebooked for today (development site is shut Mondays and Tuesdays) and this afternoon got a text saying the valuation report had been received and 10 minutes later, if that, another text saying accepted and mortgage offer sent out! Great result; I was getting rather anxious over the whole thing as my finances definitely looked a bit weird if you judged it only by bank statements, so now I can relax and hopefully the house doesn't get delayed - roll on June! :D:D
 
Just been round to the house we’re buying to measure up, we asked the vendor if they’d found a house yet as we’d not heard anything. Turns out two weeks ago they had an offer accepted and their estate agent couldn’t be arsed to let us know..

Good news is it’s only a three person chain, we’re FTB and at the other end they’re buying an already empty property. Fingers crossed it’ll be all sorted within a month or two.
 
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