The nervous wait to exchange....

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Dynix said:
With that in mind, does anyone have experience with Taylor Wimpey or know of any other builders we could check out in the Midlands area? Barratt Homes are another we've come across but been told to avoid them.
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Barratts are not bad, it all depends on the site. Their more expensive range (David Wilson) are required to have a higher standard.
Taylor Wimpey are similar.
Persimmon, Redrow, Charles Church are other national developers and you may have more local developers.

In my time working in the industry, I found Barratts to be more accommodating overall than Taylor Wimpey (who caused me to bury my face in my hands constantly).

I'd be surprised if you couldn't tell them what you want and see if its possible, no matter what plot you were interested in.
 
I looked round some Taylor Wimpey ones in Cardiff a few weeks back and out of the three town house designs, each of them had a major flaw. Whether it was the layout of the bedrooms that meant there was zero storage space for the sake of fitting in a box room or the downstairs bathroom being off the kitchen... :confused: None of them made any sense yet if the positives of the three had been combined it would be an absolutely perfect house. Seems odd that starting from scratch they would build things with such obvious flaws. And it wasn't like I was being overly picky, I went round as 1 of 3 couples and we all had the same thoughts.
 
Ding Ding! Round 2!!

Offer accepted this morning, solicitors instructed and were off (again)! Just praying this one works out, I don't think I could suffer (or afford) to go through all this again!
 
Bickaxe said:
In my time working in the industry, I found Barratts to be more accommodating overall than Taylor Wimpey (who caused me to bury my face in my hands constantly).

I'd be surprised if you couldn't tell them what you want and see if its possible, no matter what plot you were interested in.
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Can you give some examples of that please? I'm currently thinking about a new build, and of the choices, Taylor Wimpey and Barratts are essentially building a whole estate together where I want to buy, but I'm leaning more towards TW at the minute though.
 
Bickaxe said:
Barratts are not bad, it all depends on the site. Their more expensive range (David Wilson) are required to have a higher standard.
Taylor Wimpey are similar.
Persimmon, Redrow, Charles Church are other national developers and you may have more local developers.

In my time working in the industry, I found Barratts to be more accommodating overall than Taylor Wimpey (who caused me to bury my face in my hands constantly).

I'd be surprised if you couldn't tell them what you want and see if its possible, no matter what plot you were interested in.
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Thanks for that - I'll check Redrow and Charles Church out to see if they have anything near by. Others that that I found are Bovis Homes and Kier Homes (I did find David Wilson last night too).

We're booked into view some houses at Barratts and Taylor Wimpey on another development this weekend so will be interested to see how they compare.

Skillmister said:
I looked round some Taylor Wimpey ones in Cardiff a few weeks back and out of the three town house designs, each of them had a major flaw. Whether it was the layout of the bedrooms that meant there was zero storage space for the sake of fitting in a box room or the downstairs bathroom being off the kitchen... :confused: None of them made any sense yet if the positives of the three had been combined it would be an absolutely perfect house. Seems odd that starting from scratch they would build things with such obvious flaws. And it wasn't like I was being overly picky, I went round as 1 of 3 couples and we all had the same thoughts.
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We actually said this from the three that we saw at the weekend - the three bed we saw was ok but too small for us, but the two four beds had some weird things going on which didn't make any sense - or at least I couldn't see any reasoning behind it. My biggest gripe was why wasn't there any interior access to the integrated garages - I forgot to ask but that might be something you can get added in (door from the kitchen or utility to the garage) if you reserve early before they've built that far.
 
Mucky_Pup said:
Can you give some examples of that please? I'm currently thinking about a new build, and of the choices, Taylor Wimpey and Barratts are essentially building a whole estate together where I want to buy, but I'm leaning more towards TW at the minute though.
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Like I say, it depends on the site. I worked in South Wales and it was mostly at head office level where you would wonder what they were playing at half the time. Rather than wait for a response, it was easier to speak to sales at each site.
This is the view from a supplier side rather than a customer.

Builders busy periods are Summer and December so keep that in mind in regards to completion dates as weather and supplier issues can cause delays.
 
Almost 5 months to the day since we have had our offer accepted (9th October), we have started to get some movement on our house buy. Our vendor has found somewhere and had an offer accepted.

Up to now we have been waiting, not had any surveys or searches done yet as we were advised not to until the vendors had sorted somewhere.

This is our first house buy, should we keep waiting until the chain is complete? The estate agent said she would be the memorandum of sale to our solicitors tomorrow.
 
Dynix said:
My biggest gripe was why wasn't there any interior access to the integrated garages - I forgot to ask but that might be something you can get added in (door from the kitchen or utility to the garage) if you reserve early before they've built that far.
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My girlfriend was told by one of the sales people that they can't do that now due to regulations changing or some such.
 
Mucky_Pup said:
Can you give some examples of that please? I'm currently thinking about a new build, and of the choices, Taylor Wimpey and Barratts are essentially building a whole estate together where I want to buy, but I'm leaning more towards TW at the minute though.
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I've just bought a new build from Persimmon - so can't comment on those two companies. If your experience is anything like mine though expect there to be a constant battle between their Sales, Legal and Building departments with you in the middle. I reserved my plot on the day their sales office opened yet I was told I couldn't have half the options I wanted because they'd already got past that stage of development - what? Their legal dept were a right pain, imo deliberately slowing the process down I think, and because of that their Sales department got all uppity and threatened to pull the plug at one point because I couldn't exchange contracts by their deadline, even though we'd been waiting for their side to send us some info for weeks.

Not trying to put you off though, once I was in I was very happy - sure there are snags including a quite big one in the garage, plus my estate is still a building site for the next few months which is inconvenient (pneumatic drill going off outside my house at 08:30 on Saturday morning grr :mad: ). I thought buying a new build would be easy and stress free compared to buying in a chain - it ain't! It is a really nice feeling being the first person to live in a new house, and you can kit it out how you want. Expensive though.
 
T-Minus 6 days!

Flat looks like the last scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark... but cardboard instead of wood.
Had to unpack some stuff yesterday to do some work. It was at the bottom of the largest box.. typically.

Sky, BT phone line, plumber, electrician and carpet people booked. Just need to arrange broadband now and look at getting a nest/hive setup and that's me done. :D
 
Lol, were not off to a great start. The solicitors sent us out a Sellers Pack not a Buyers Pack. First task and they are already demonstrating incompetence :rolleyes:.
 
It was always on the cards from the get go and caused a few issues.

Essentially the vendor wanted to wait until their new place was extended... fine for us, two person chain (we rented while relocating and they'd bought about a year ago) and a great house.

Getting started on the decorating tomorrow!
 
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Mucky_Pup said:
My girlfriend was told by one of the sales people that they can't do that now due to regulations changing or some such.
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A friend of mine has just exchanged on a new build which will be completed in June, one of the options was to have an internal garage door (which he has chosen). I think it's with Taylor Wimpey but I'll ask him.
 
Will be exchanging next week even though persimmon wanted to exchange back at the start of February.

Completion date is 1st may - 30th June so hoping as the build develops, the window of completion will get smaller :)

Andy
 
Well we're on attempt number 2 for a better home than the first one that we pulled out of (unsurprisingly the house we were going to buy is still on the market - it's been over 1 month, so I guess people have realised that the planning permission is not up to scratch - I think they also have to declare it now.).

Just hoping everything goes through quickly as it is a probate sale the chances are good for a quick completion so far. Fingers crossed etc... It's going to be a few weeks of anxiety!
 
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