The nervous wait to exchange....

  • Thread starter Thread starter noj
  • Start date Start date
Seems my rant this morning was a bit unfounded lol. The estate agent also laughed at the criticism that it was too expensive and said he didn't even bother going back to her.

We've had 2 other offers and already above asking price - hopefully we have a nice selection and can go for the one with the easiest chain.
 
timmy222 said:
The wife and I are waiting for the paperwork to go through.
It should be a bit faster then normal as no chain and we are paying cash - no mortgage - we have worked so hard for this.
I do feel a smug contentment inside.
Click to expand...

It took us eight weeks in similar circumstances, no chain, cash buy. We exchanged and completed on the last working day before Christmas
 
We have been at our first home now coming up on 10 years

We would love to explore a move, and see what we can/can't afford.

What's the general process for just finding that out? Independent advisor, estate agent etc?

We should have a fair equity built up in our home, bought in 2014 on the help to buy scheme and they seem to sell fairly well around the same area so using that as a very rough guide too.

We have just over a year left on a good rate fix, but I feel now's the time to look into what we could be looking for

Thanks!
 
kinger8938 said:
We have been at our first home now coming up on 10 years

We would love to explore a move, and see what we can/can't afford.

What's the general process for just finding that out? Independent advisor, estate agent etc?

We should have a fair equity built up in our home, bought in 2014 on the help to buy scheme and they seem to sell fairly well around the same area so using that as a very rough guide too.

We have just over a year left on a good rate fix, but I feel now's the time to look into what we could be looking for

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Step 1 would be use your equity as deposit against some random numbers; stick that into a mortgage finder like nationwide and see if you're happy with the monthly.

Ideally no more than 80ltv as thats the first cliff edge.

E.g. equity is 200k as deposit against a 700k house equals a 500k loan
 
Last edited:
dlockers said:
Step 1 would be use your equity as deposit against some random numbers; stick that into a mortgage finder like nationwide and see if you're happy with the monthly.

Ideally no more than 80ltv as thats the first cliff edge.

E.g. equity is 200k as deposit against a 700k house equals a 500k loan
Click to expand...
Thanks, yeah I've had a look at a few of those short of putting extra details in but will give it a proper look.

Our current property was £189,000 in 2014. Our mortgage currently sits at approx £150,000 balance and our neighbour sold their same house (opposite hand, semi detached) for £280,000 a year or so back. I think that's likely to have come down some since.

So I'd put a rough estimate of 260,000 value for ours (hopefully more, but not sure), leaving us with like £110,000 in equity? Think that's the right idea!

Seems a promising start... Hopefully!

Wouldn't want to over stretch ourselves etc. partner has just started a new job, so I know we need to wait a few months to get some payslips behind her in that roll etc. but I'm hopeful that someone we speak to can just base it on us providing all that just so we know what we can be looking at price wise. We are both 35, so got many years of painful mortgage in us yet
 
kinger8938 said:
Thanks, yeah I've had a look at a few of those short of putting extra details in but will give it a proper look.

Our current property was £189,000 in 2014. Our mortgage currently sits at approx £150,000 balance and our neighbour sold their same house (opposite hand, semi detached) for £280,000 a year or so back. I think that's likely to have come down some since.

So I'd put a rough estimate of 260,000 value for ours (hopefully more, but not sure), leaving us with like £110,000 in equity? Think that's the right idea!

Seems a promising start... Hopefully!

Wouldn't want to over stretch ourselves etc. partner has just started a new job, so I know we need to wait a few months to get some payslips behind her in that roll etc. but I'm hopeful that someone we speak to can just base it on us providing all that just so we know what we can be looking at price wise. We are both 35, so got many years of painful mortgage in us yet
Click to expand...

Don't forget make sure your credit reports are "healthy" - try to clear anything outstanding, prioritising short-term stuff (Overdrafts, higher interest credit cards, then balance transfer cards, personal loans), just like when you were FTBs.

It's slightly less important now you've a decent chunk of equity to use as a deposit, with a lower LTV ratio (ideally), but it still helps in order to access the best rates...

We've been trying to buy our council house for nearly 3 years, so we've seriously struggled to keep our credit files clear for so long, despite a ton of surprise "You need to spend ££££ immediately" situations (emergency flights to Canada for my Wife to say goodbye to her gran, mother-in-law's terminal cancer diagnosis, replacing our eldest's car when she wrote it off with only Third Party insurance ((my ex-father-in-law's excellent financial advice, there :rolleyes:)), vet bills, solicitor fees for a couple of legal battles I'm in, etc) - life would have been much simpler if we'd used a credit card/overdraft, but we'd cleared everything once we moved in, just in case we needed a mortgage at short notice.

We had no idea the process could take as long as it has, but we've pretty much nailed the "living without flexible friends", bar the odd emergency (my folks have happily lent us a few grand, short-term, without impacting our credit), so if/when we finally get the go ahead to buy the place, we can mortgage it, do what we plan to increase value, then clear the mortgage when we're comfortably ready (I have a decent chunk from the Contaminated Blood Compensation scheme, that will more than cover the value of the house, but it's currently tied up in a 5 year fixed interest plan).
 
We've just pulled out of the house we were buying. The sellers all of a sudden became unresponsive. Didn't reply to my solicitors queries after searches, over a month or so ago now.

We had a survey done, just for peace of mind, im not one to try and drop the price on a house, it's the 3rd one I've bought and never done it previously. But this one had quite an extensive list of problems that needed urgent resolution. I said I was willing to forget about them all, but wanted the money off to get the roof that was leaking pretty badly, and looked like it had for a long time. There was damp all the chimney from the loft, to the ground floor living room. I was happy to even meet them in the middle.

But instead, they completely ignored their own estate agent trying to get hold of them for the last week or so, then said they dispute everything and won't drop the money.

We then got a call in the afternoon from our solicitor to say our buyer and their buyer wants to exchange at the end of the month!!

Luckily, I had put an offer in on a house we originally wanted, Monday afternoon, that sold before we could sell ours a while back, but came back up for sale a few weeks ago again, and it got accepted yesterday. For considerably less than what they had it up for originally, and 30k less than the one I was buying in the first place. And also 1 min from my current house.

His solicitors seem on the ball and know our situation, this house is also with the same estate agent, so they are keeping it on track so far. My mate is my mortgage broker and his PA has already got our mortgage application going again. Fingers crossed we'll have better luck with this one. No chain either after our seller!

I'm not a believer of fate, and "it was meant to be", but maybe it just was this time...
 
D-Ranged said:
We've just pulled out of the house we were buying. The sellers all of a sudden became unresponsive. Didn't reply to my solicitors queries after searches, over a month or so ago now.

We had a survey done, just for peace of mind, im not one to try and drop the price on a house, it's the 3rd one I've bought and never done it previously. But this one had quite an extensive list of problems that needed urgent resolution. I said I was willing to forget about them all, but wanted the money off to get the roof that was leaking pretty badly, and looked like it had for a long time. There was damp all the chimney from the loft, to the ground floor living room. I was happy to even meet them in the middle.

But instead, they completely ignored their own estate agent trying to get hold of them for the last week or so, then said they dispute everything and won't drop the money.

We then got a call in the afternoon from our solicitor to say our buyer and their buyer wants to exchange at the end of the month!!

Luckily, I had put an offer in on a house we originally wanted, Monday afternoon, that sold before we could sell ours a while back, but came back up for sale a few weeks ago again, and it got accepted yesterday. For considerably less than what they had it up for originally, and 30k less than the one I was buying in the first place. And also 1 min from my current house.

His solicitors seem on the ball and know our situation, this house is also with the same estate agent, so they are keeping it on track so far. My mate is my mortgage broker and his PA has already got our mortgage application going again. Fingers crossed we'll have better luck with this one. No chain either after our seller!

I'm not a believer of fate, and "it was meant to be", but maybe it just was this time...
Click to expand...

Potentaily a bullet dodged there with the first one...

So many people put houses up at 'market rate' but then the survey comes back with tens of thousands of work that needs doing...

...then they get all shocked when you ask for a discount.. i'm not talking about normal stuff a survey will pull up, dirty gutters and small stuff like that.

But some people and estate agents will keep quiet about big stuff whilst still asking 'top dollar' for that type of house for that area.

That's why level 3 surveys are usefull!

It might loose you a few hundred quid for the survey, but if it saves you £50k of repairs on a house that's a lemon, and not been maintained for 20 years, it's money well spent.

Why people are not more up-front about this sort of stuff, I dunno, I guess they are hoping you won't have an appropriate survey done and buy it anyway.
 
Last edited:
We're currently STC on the house we bought two years ago. Had a right nightmare with the solicitors (Premier Property Lawyers) and house nearly fell through which I posted about at the time. Since then we've started a family and we've decided that it isn't the right estate to raise a family for various reasons. Shame really as it's quite a big plot with no direct neighbours. Private garden etc. Just things let the estate down for us.

Sold after one viewing as we needed to be STC to reserve the plot in the development we're moving to. They initially offered £10k under which we rejected but then offered asking if we would accept it and make it STC.

Moving to a new development which is only about 10 mins away but will be closer to grandparents for child care. Plus we get a double drive, electric charging point, and solar panels none of which we have at the moment. Garage attached to the house rather than at the end of the garden which we'll look to convert into my home office and a play room for the little one at some point.

Learnt from our mistakes using PPL and have gone with a local solictor this time and things look to be on track which is good as we've been given December for when ours will be ready.
 
Last edited:
mattyfez said:
Potentaily a bullet dodged there with the first one...

So many people put houses up at 'market rate' but then the survey comes back with tens of thousands of work that needs doing...

...then they get all shocked when you ask for a discount.. i'm not talking about normal stuff a survey will pull up, dirty gutters and small stuff like that.

But some people and estate agents will keep quiet about big stuff whilst still asking 'top dollar' for that type of house for that area.

That's why level 3 surveys are usefull!

It might loose you a few hundred quid for the survey, but if it saves you £50k of repairs on a house that's a lemon, and not been maintained for 20 years, it's money well spent.

Why people are not more up-front about this sort of stuff, I dunno, I guess they are hoping you won't have an appropriate survey done and buy it anyway.
Click to expand...

I think we did, although a little sad as it had a huge garden. But no proper double garage, like the one we just had a new offer accepted on, so that would have been even more expense.

But yeah, youre right. This wasn't basic stuff usual stuff. It needed immediate roof repairs, which would have probably been the lead flashing around the chimney. But the scaffolding would have been most of the cost of the work. And there could have been more work needed once they were up there.

It has a badly built extension to the side of the kitchen that lead into the garden. The roof was absolutely screwed on that and the whole thing needed knocking down really.

There was water coming in through the corners of the window frames.

The garage extension only had a single skin wall at the back and was incomplete, even though it had been finished in 1976... There was condensation all over the place in there.

A few other things I've forgotten, but like i said, was happy to ignore everything, except the main roof.

The house was overpriced, and I didn't eventually get a few grand off, during the offer phase. But at first they were adamant they were going to get the asking price. And even changed the listing to "offers over", after our first offer. Then called back the next day and gave us a counter offer that we accepted.

The house already needed a TON of work internally, which we knew anyway. Most of it was half finished or barely started DIY work. So again, yeah I think you're right on dodging a bullet! The more I talk about it the more I realise it.
 
D-Ranged said:
I think we did, although a little sad as it had a huge garden. But no proper double garage............
Click to expand...

Yeah, walk away from that ...don't look back.

It's one thing driving a hard bargain over smaller stuff, but if there are roof and wall problems etc, etc... you are talking mega bucks to correct it, and that should be reflected in the asking price.
 
Now we are into the process - I'm already confused.

Conveyancers and Solicitors, are they not one and the same? We've had a conveyancing quote from the estate agent and it looks practically the same as the solicitors. We live in a 4 year old New Build, can't imagine any wacky legal things that could come up?
 
Junglist said:
Now we are into the process - I'm already confused.

Conveyancers and Solicitors, are they not one and the same? We've had a conveyancing quote from the estate agent and it looks practically the same as the solicitors. We live in a 4 year old New Build, can't imagine any wacky legal things that could come up?
Click to expand...

They are the same. A conveyancer is a solicitor who specifically deals with property.

Many wacky legal things come up with new builds, often the builders don't do things properly or get things signed off or the right paperwork and if it's the first time the house is being sold since new (where the builders solicitors will have handled the sale) then there may be things that crop up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom