The nervous wait to exchange....

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Why bother, surveys are generally a waste of time anyway, you've already given as much or more information that a surveyor will give.

Here's sample survey data for such things:
1. There is possibly some damp/mould, get a specialist contractor in to assess.
2. There may be a roof leak, get a specialist contractor in to assess the roof.
3. In relation to the above, the roof may need replacing in 0.5 - 50 years.
4. The grass is long, we recommend consulting a specialist contractor to see if it can safely be lowered in height.

*We are not liable for anything we say in this report and cannot confirm nor deny anything*
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When we had the survey on the house bought in 2018 there was genuinely a note that said 'historic evidence of woodworm' - so obviously we were a little concerned and asked them expand on it.

'As the property is over 120 years old, there is evidence that there may been woodworm around 100 years ago'. Brilliant.
 
Helping my parents in trying to purchase a bungalow and never realised what a headache it is trying to find a decent conveyancing solicitor. Find one, research then find shocking reviews. It seems the same for all, or that they are part of some massive group that outsources everything.

Can anyone recommend an online that they have used recently?

I have a headache :(
 
hyperseven said:
Helping my parents in trying to purchase a bungalow and never realised what a headache it is trying to find a decent conveyancing solicitor. Find one, research then find shocking reviews. It seems the same for all, or that they are part of some massive group that outsources everything.

Can anyone recommend an online that they have used recently?

I have a headache :(
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I had good results with a local smallish solicitor firm with a physical office.
I think they have like 3 small offices in towns local to me.

Of course YMMV but I found them to be more responsive and you can actualy go to the office if you need to speak to them or give them documents etc. And you speak directly to the conveyancer or thier PA.
Prices were just as competitive as the online solicitor warehouses where you don't get the personal touch and the job is just farmed out to whoever and you have yo interact with some horrible online system.

It doesn't matter if they are not local to the property in question so don't feel you have to use an 'all online' service.
 
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I'm on the fence about a RICS Level 2. Best quote I've had is £495 and I'm waiting on a couple more quotes (lender only did a desk survey). I got one sample report from a 2004 built property and basically it's just says "get contractors in to check all the utilities and essentials despite all looking fine". Well I will do that anyway for the obvious things.

It's a late 60s build going by my own research. It's got two flat roof dormas front & rear but they're gonna have a hard time assessing those from the ground so I would need to get a roofer to check those. I doubt there's anything going to majorly put us off however my main concern would be the roof and main structure. Can I be bothered getting a roofer in instead? Would that be weird?
 
Well I'll just say an L3 RICS survey helped me dodge a bullet as a layman/non builder.

Amongst other things, the house I was looking at, the seller craftily put up a vertical blind to cover up a collapsing window lintle.
Likely caused by failed rendering on that side of the house that may also mean wall ties etc.. Basically a 20k job to fix properly, plus the inconvenience of a big job, getting the builders on and all the associated mess.

Yes you do have to read between the lines a little bit with surveys, but also they do a lot of methodical checks that certainly I might not spot with just a 30mon viewing.
 
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hyperseven said:
Helping my parents in trying to purchase a bungalow and never realised what a headache it is trying to find a decent conveyancing solicitor. Find one, research then find shocking reviews. It seems the same for all, or that they are part of some massive group that outsources everything.

Can anyone recommend an online that they have used recently?

I have a headache :(
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The absolute best advice is don't use on online conveyancing factory they are all useless and if anything comes up that is even slightly out of the ordinary they will collapse in a heap of uselessness.

Ask for recommendations on a local Facebook group for real solicitors with real offices and then get quotes from a few, the speed with which they respond to you quote request is a useful indicator of how they will respond in general in my experience. Lastly before you sign on the dotted line check that they are actually in the current century and willing to communicate with the other solicitor(s) involved in the chain using email, shockingly our current buyers solicitor is insisting in doing everything via snail mail which is a nightmare given the current state of Royal Mail!
 
hyperseven said:
Helping my parents in trying to purchase a bungalow and never realised what a headache it is trying to find a decent conveyancing solicitor. Find one, research then find shocking reviews. It seems the same for all, or that they are part of some massive group that outsources everything.

Can anyone recommend an online that they have used recently?

I have a headache :(
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We're first time buying at the moment and we ended up going with Lockings solicitors. They have a physical presence, but aren't local to us or the property we're buying so it's been fully online for us.

Can't fault them at all. After all the horror stories everyone has about solicitors being useless we were pretty worried, but they've been very attentive for us. Frequently had replies in under 10 minutes to simple enquires, and maybe an hour or two for complex ones (all via email - never felt a need to call directly). While we were waiting for the other parties solicitors to answer enquires they'd email us once a week to tell us they were still waiting for an update and we're chasing, then reply promptly once they had an update. Hell, they even emailed us to tell me our mortgage offer was ready before the bank called me to tell me. Genuinely been quite impressed!
 
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Macky said:
Ha! Ain't that the truth. Definitely take the report within the context of the surveyors remit and liability and not as a detailed description of the property.
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Exactly this. I nearly didn't bother with a survey as I did most of it on the 2nd visit. But gave in and did one just to be sure. Still a waste.

t2na said:
When we had the survey on the house bought in 2018 there was genuinely a note that said 'historic evidence of woodworm' - so obviously we were a little concerned and asked them expand on it.

'As the property is over 120 years old, there is evidence that there may been woodworm around 100 years ago'. Brilliant.
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Hahahaha, sums it up really. You never know though, they could be proper OG Woodworms that can survive centuries.

We had historic woodworm in our place in Scotland, but had a friend of our joiner spray it a few years after we moved in to be sure (he had mixed up chemical left over from a big job just completed). So confirmed all good and deaded.

I forgot to cover the old flight holes up in the loft, so the surveyor saw it (stupid me). But being in Scotland, us as sellers paid for the survey and it was attached to the advert online for everyone to see. So we had to get it sprayed again just to get a cert to say "yeah, dead, 25yr guarantee". Doh!
 
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DarkBahamut said:
We're first time buying at the moment and we ended up going with Lockings solicitors. They have a physical presence, but aren't local to us or the property we're buying so it's been fully online for us.

Can't fault them at all. After all the horror stories everyone has about solicitors being useless we were pretty worried, but they've been very attentive for us. Frequently had replies in under 10 minutes to simple enquires, and maybe an hour or two for complex ones (all via email - never felt a need to call directly). While we were waiting for the other parties solicitors to answer enquires they'd email us once a week to tell us they were still waiting for an update and we're chasing, then reply promptly once they had an update. Hell, they even emailed us to tell me our mortgage offer was ready before the bank called me to tell me. Genuinely been quite impressed!
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There is a difference between communicating online with a real solicitor and using an online conveyancing factory having done both in recent times! There is little to no reason to actually physically see a solicitor when purchasing or selling a house the issue with the online only factories is 99% of the work is carried out by minimally qualified people following a script and as soon as anything goes even slightly off the predefined path they loose the ability to do anything and you get bogged down having conversations with people who don't know what they are talking about and waiting on escalations to the 'legal team' and other such nonsense. We had an online firm assigned by the bank for a recent transaction and it got to the point where they said it was impossible to proceed, we switched the process to a local solicitor who completed the process within a week no issues as they didn't have to tick all the boxes on a computer screen in order to make a decision!
 
had a few quotes for the brick-and-mortar solicitors and online only
online solicitor was £600-800
quotes for brick-and-mortar was anywhere between £1400 to £1800
All inclusive of the fees to draw down on my LISA as well.

i was a FTB, seller was a probate, no chain, late 1970s semi-detached house
so it was simple enough and went with the online only £600 solicitor
submitted all my documents on time and heard nothing back for first couple of months (silly me for not calling)
started chasing part way through month 3.
Got the whole process done by month 5 and a bit.
Because it took so long I got to benefit from Ms Truss' increase in FTB stamp duty threshold and saved myself an extra £4500.

(Your circumstances may vary but in my case I was paying very cheap rent with bills included so was in no rush to move in...I mean...wanted to move asap but not because I had to)

Best £600 ever lol :cry:
 
Had 2 local agents come out today, both of them seemed to value it around the £340-£350k mark which is at the higher end of what i expected which was good to hear.

Now i'm a bit torn. I've been debating recently whether a local agent would be better than an online one, purely due to how unique our house is. Here's an old link to a previous advert.

There's nothing like it around. The second agent had done extensive research on houses within a 10mile radius and still only found 6 and even then she admitted they weren't great examples. Usually she said she'd like at least 8 options and usually only goes within 1mile.

The main factor is we want to get this sold and moved to Spain, so whilst it might be fine on Purple Bricks etc and sell eventually, i don't know if it's worth stumping up the £4k to just maximise the chance of it selling quickly. The terms with Strike is exclusivity for 13 weeks, so not like i could just test the water for a month.
 
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Martynt74 said:
Had 2 local agents come out today, both of them seemed to value it around the £340-£350k mark which is at the higher end of what i expected which was good to hear.

Now i'm a bit torn. I've been debating recently whether a local agent would be better than an online one, purely due to how unique our house is. Here's an old link to a previous advert.

There's nothing like it around. The second agent had done extensive research on houses within a 10mile radius and still only found 6 and even then she admitted they weren't great examples. Usually she said she'd like at least 8 options and usually only goes within 1mile.

The main factor is we want to get this sold and moved to Spain, so whilst it might be fine on Purple Bricks etc and sell eventually, i don't know if it's worth stumping up the £4k to just maximise the chance of it selling quickly. The terms with Strike is exclusivity for 13 weeks.
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A good house and the right price in a decent area will sell pretty easily no matter which estate agent you go with, I'd look to go with a good local agent if the property/area are more challenging. Our sale which is going through currently we went with the cheapest of the local agents, don't be afraid to ask them for a lower percentage there is a shortage of housing going to market all over the country at the minute and most agents are desperate to get stuff on the books.
 
tamzzy said:
had a few quotes for the brick-and-mortar solicitors and online only
online solicitor was £600-800
quotes for brick-and-mortar was anywhere between £1400 to £1800
All inclusive of the fees to draw down on my LISA as well.

i was a FTB, seller was a probate, no chain, late 1970s semi-detached house
so it was simple enough and went with the online only £600 solicitor
submitted all my documents on time and heard nothing back for first couple of months (silly me for not calling)
started chasing part way through month 3.
Got the whole process done by month 5 and a bit.
Because it took so long I got to benefit from Ms Truss' increase in FTB stamp duty threshold and saved myself an extra £4500.

(Your circumstances may vary but in my case I was paying very cheap rent with bills included so was in no rush to move in...I mean...wanted to move asap but not because I had to)

Best £600 ever lol :cry:
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a rare occasion of both the useless of online conveyancing firms and Liz truss both benefiting someone, you should have got a lottery ticket and gone for the full house!
 
a1ex2001 said:
A good house and the right price in a decent area will sell pretty easily no matter which estate agent you go with, I'd look to go with a good local agent if the property/area are more challenging. Our sale which is going through currently we went with the cheapest of the local agents, don't be afraid to ask them for a lower percentage there is a shortage of housing going to market all over the country at the minute and most agents are desperate to get stuff on the books.
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Yeah, i think that's part of the sell in that it's the expensive house in an otherwise relatively low value area. Probably by around 100k, not to say it's a rubbish area. Just that it's surrounded by bungalows/semi detached cul de sacs from the 70's.

However i'd say the house has superb curb appeal and so is likely to attract virtually anyone who's scrolling down Rightmove/Zoopla. I think the decision is whether £4.5k is worth the increased chance of the house selling quickly.

I did question fees. The 2 agents were a local one called Ben Rose who sold our previous house and have a good local reputation and Bridgefords who are obviously a big chain.

Ben Rose were 1% + VAT with no movement
Bridgefords were 2%+vat but i've heard a lot that they'll drop to 1%+VAT at the lowest
 
@a1ex2001
it was just meant to be :cry:

the mortgage submission was literally a couple of days before the April 2022 rate rise when loads of low % long-term mortgages got pulled, but the application got approved anyway
saved myself a hefty chunk both at the time of buying and for the lifetime of the mortgage
and the mortgage product fee was just £35 :cry:

(was playing it close though...because the solicitors took so long the vendors were bitching at the EA to move the sale along)

a1ex2001 said:
I'm still kicking myself for taking a 5 year fix in Jan '22!
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you'd have got sub-2%? until 01/27 is reasonable (hopefully)
 
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Update to previous message. We've decided to go with Strike. Their online platform seems decent and the saving of £4000 more than made up for the small chance we miss out on a potential buyer from lack of footfall. One agent also suggested there were issues getting in touch with them to make a viewing. However i made a fake viewing both online and via the phone and both were seamless. I did feel a bit bad cancelling them again but made sure i'd booked well in advance so no-one would've cleaned/tidied.

Photographer booked in for the 19th.

Agent made a decent point. To limit viewing times per week rather than show as available all the time. He suggested it helps weed out time wasters as anyone genuinely interested will make them selves available at those times.
Plus it groups multiple viewings and so people will see other interested parties and feel more pressured to make an offer. Obviously doesn't work if you only have 1 person, but it also saves having to constantly clean/tidy if they get booked multiple days in a row etc!
 
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