The nervous wait to exchange....

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Joe Jones said:
What are the issues with buying a property in probate?

The only thing I thought is if there are multiple beneficiaries and they're trying to get a bigger pie to share and won't budge on prices.
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No, it’s HM Courts and Tribunal service taking their sweet time processing and approving probate. A process that should take a few weeks is taking months, utterly ridiculous service which you actually pay them for, it’s not like it’s free.

It got to the point where my wife was calling them daily after they missed their own processing target by 8 weeks. One day she finally broke and just told them she’s not hanging up until it was sorted. It got sorted, that day.

It nearly collapsed the transaction because the buyers mortgage offer was expiring within days and rates were shooting up.
 
Joe Jones said:
What are the issues with buying a property in probate?

The only thing I thought is if there are multiple beneficiaries and they're trying to get a bigger pie to share and won't budge on prices.
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Google it. Amongst the nonesense months long process itself, all sorts of crap can and does often comes out of the woodwork. The house I wanted is held up over brothers disputing the sale price and any offer needing to be agreed 5 ways, with one brother being in a different time zone.
 
Classic Blue Theme said:
Google it. Amongst the nonesense months long process itself, all sorts of crap can and does often comes out of the woodwork. The house I wanted is held up over brothers disputing the sale price and any offer needing to be agreed 5 ways, with one brother being in a different time zone.
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It depends on the will of the deceased, for example my nans estate is awaiting grant of probate at the moment.

The house is left fully and exclusivley to me with her savings and other assets split between me and a few other beneficiaries by percentage.
The house was valued as part of the probate application.
So in my case, whatever the house does or doesn't sell for is basically my choice to negociate in the sales process.

It's a different kettle of fish if the house is in probate and several people are due a percentage of the house value as inheritence, then you might get arguments over final sale price between siblings and parents etc.
 
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mattyfez said:
It's a different kettle of fish if the house is in probate and several people are due a percentage of the house value as inheritence, then you might get arguments over final sale price between siblings and parents etc.
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For sure - some people will just avoid like a barge pole though. You know what humans are like - some get totally worked up over small fish and others make it their lifes work to be principally put off by things like probate.
 
How often do/did you all chase your Solicitors/Estate agents? I feel like I'm nagging them by doing it once a week, but if I don't do it I never seem to hear anything/get updates and weeks go by.
 
Matt-Page said:
How often do/did you all chase your Solicitors/Estate agents? I feel like I'm nagging them by doing it once a week, but if I don't do it I never seem to hear anything/get updates and weeks go by.
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It was always continuos for me. They always needed a kick up the rear!!
 
Matt-Page said:
How often do/did you all chase your Solicitors/Estate agents? I feel like I'm nagging them by doing it once a week, but if I don't do it I never seem to hear anything/get updates and weeks go by.
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The Solictor I'm using for probate, (and I'll more than likley use them again for conveayance when I can sell, as I've used them before for conveyance) stipulate they give an update every 2 weeks as part of the fixed price deal, and to be fair, it's usually them chasing me rather than me chasing them.
They do say that if things go sideways for whatever reason, or if im calling them all the time, then that time will be 'put on the clock' so to speak.

Estate agents, on the other hand... give 'em hell.
 
Gone slightly against advice but verbally accepted an offer from the couple who had their buyer pull out. They'll be cash buyers when they find a new buyer and we have no onward chain so no issues there, if there's any slight delay. Can't formally accept on Strike as they're not ready to proceed, but i said i'd hold it for 5 weeks before accepting future viewings.

I can also tell that they love the house, and given the age of the house we'd already had a chat about what the survey would say and he works in the building trade and disagreed with most of what we said was raised. This is the kind of stuff which i fear could frighten someone else off. I've sent them a copy of our survey up front so that there's no surprises.

They clearly want it as i've had loads of messaged keeping me updated on any viewings and also mentioning they plan to be fairly agressive in dropping the price to get a buyer quickly. Even to the extent of getting one of those "Homes for Cash" companies to quote. I also suggested a bridging loan given it *should* be a short term so they're looking into that too as they have around 60% cash already.
 
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Stay clear of anything like "homes for cash"....they're vultures preying on the market conditions.

From what I've read they offer 85% of the market value up front and then once they start running surveys and you're part way down the process they start chopping off even more.
 
Just started the process of getting our house on the market.
We've had one agent round so far, you could tell they were trying to temper our expectations price wise, lots of "a year ago we could have put it on for x", I guess it's a buyers market these days.

What's a ballpark figure for solicitors fees for selling and buying? Does it vary by the prices of the properties?
 
Joe Jones said:
Stay clear of anything like "homes for cash"....they're vultures preying on the market conditions.

From what I've read they offer 85% of the market value up front and then once they start running surveys and you're part way down the process they start chopping off even more.
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Yeah, it's not something for me, just was a mention that the people wanting our house seem desperate. I mentioned bridging loans as it's not very common so they said they'd look into it. Probably more beneficial than selling too cheap.
 
nst68 said:
Just started the process of getting our house on the market.
We've had one agent round so far, you could tell they were trying to temper our expectations price wise, lots of "a year ago we could have put it on for x", I guess it's a buyers market these days.

What's a ballpark figure for solicitors fees for selling and buying? Does it vary by the prices of the properties?
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See i had the opposite where i don't feel like the agents priced in the downturn and went higher than i believed it was worth. Although i guess maybe it's just me thats wrong :D

As for fees, i think it generally does depend on prices. Then there's extra stuff like whether there's a mortgage/leasehold/number of sellers etc. The last time we moved i used Birchall Blackburn. They're by far and away the cheapest i found and were'nt too bad. Local to us, but presume they cover anywhere.
 
nst68 said:
What's a ballpark figure for solicitors fees for selling and buying? Does it vary by the prices of the properties?
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I'm using a local firm that we've dealt with before.
Their fee for handling either purchase or sale is about £1000 each.
Sale has a few minor extras like fee transfers but nothing major. The purchase has land registry fees and searches which add another £350 at least.
 
Martynt74 said:
Gone slightly against advice but verbally accepted an offer from the couple who had their buyer pull out. They'll be cash buyers when they find a new buyer and we have no onward chain so no issues there, if there's any slight delay. Can't formally accept on Strike as they're not ready to proceed, but i said i'd hold it for 5 weeks before accepting future viewings.
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Not to be rude but they are not cash buyers. A cash buyer = has the cash in the bank ready to go. Anything else = not a cash buyer. If you actually had a cash buyer, you’d be moving in 3-5 weeks.

A first time buyer with a mortgage agreement in principle is more attractive than your buyer is. Having a buyer contingent on the sale of their own property is basically the worst kind of buyer and is what you have.

I wouldn’t hold the house for 5 weeks while they try and find a buyer, in the mean time your house advert will get stale and encourage others to low ball you in the future.

I get they may want it, but their new buyer may have 6 houses in the chain below it or they may not get as much for theirs and come back and reduce their offer on yours in 4.5 weeks time.

They might sort it in a week but I would continue to take viewings in the mean time. You might get a batter offer and you can at least play them off against each other.
 
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Yeah i get all that. I'm just looking at potential failure points and this seems minimal vs what could otherwise unfold.

Their house is likely to be a first time buyer based on their selling price, and then someone not needing a mortgage feels like minimal risk given the current markets as i keep reading about people pulling out due to escalating rates. I also figured that looking to agree a price now "locks" it in. Whereas if they sold in 4 weeks and we still hadn't had an offer then they're more likely to go in lower.

That combined with them already being comfortable with the potential of the survey which very nearly scared us off creates an overall safer risk in my opinion.
 
Joe Jones said:
I'm using a local firm that we've dealt with before.
Their fee for handling either purchase or sale is about £1000 each.
Sale has a few minor extras like fee transfers but nothing major. The purchase has land registry fees and searches which add another £350 at least.
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Got a quote from a local solicitor.
£1100 to sell
£12,000 to buy :eek::confused:, but then realised that included stamp duty!
 
Martynt74 said:
Yeah i get all that. I'm just looking at potential failure points and this seems minimal vs what could otherwise unfold.

Their house is likely to be a first time buyer based on their selling price, and then someone not needing a mortgage feels like minimal risk given the current markets as i keep reading about people pulling out due to escalating rates. I also figured that looking to agree a price now "locks" it in. Whereas if they sold in 4 weeks and we still hadn't had an offer then they're more likely to go in lower.

That combined with them already being comfortable with the potential of the survey which very nearly scared us off creates an overall safer risk in my opinion.
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I get it but all I can say is that that you are doing goes against pretty much all of the advice long standing advice covering this scenario which is do t take your house off the market if the person isn’t in the position to proceed. By passing viewings for 5 weeks your house is effectively off the market.

The buyers you have an agreement with could sell their house next week and go and buy something else which came on the market in the mean time.

5 weeks is a long pause to have your house on right move but not accept any viewings. Most people joining the market in that period will probably not re-engage with your advert if you need to start searching for a new buyer. Those that do will see how long it’s been on the market and assume it’s overpriced for the size/condition.

I wouldn’t worry about mortgage rates, they they have an agreement in principle, that rate should be locked in assuming they were talking the truth when they got it. The rates have been high for awhile now, anyone coming to market now will not be hit by quickly escalating rates because they have already escalated.

At the minute you are just in limbo land which is the worst place to be. The agreement you have with them is no better than a pinkey sware.

Don’t get me wrong, it could all work out, but don’t kid yourself into thinking the agreement is worth anything.
 
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