Anyone else having a nightmare trying to find a home?
Discussion
Possible? In a world of infinite possibilities it can be perceived. The chances you can get it drawn up and agreed upon are slim and the chances it would ever be enforced even less so. Yes, sometimes things go wrong or people change their minds but if it were me I'd just get on with developing trust and proceeding to exchange as swiftly as practicable. If you really don't trust the vendor to proceed to exchange at this early stage I'd consider another property, to be honest.
jason61c said:
Strange question....
I've made an offer on a place, if it does get accepted is it possible to generate a clause meaning if the seller pulls out of the deal they have to cover all my costs(solicitors/survey etc)?
Yes but the seller's solicitor will probably advise them against it. What is in it for the seller? It seems to be a seller's market right now, unless you are prepared to pay a premium to enjoy the benefit of a unilateral right to costs why would a seller agree? I've made an offer on a place, if it does get accepted is it possible to generate a clause meaning if the seller pulls out of the deal they have to cover all my costs(solicitors/survey etc)?
Matt.. said:
Accepted. Probably 10k (~4%) more than its worth, but means I don't have to wait months and months for the possibility of something else coming up! I've already been renting this flat for nearly 6yrs 
Into the long wait now.
The property's value is a little circular to be honest. You have paid what you think it's worth plus £10k. That is now what it's worth and what other similar properties on the street are worth. Into the long wait now.
Edited by Matt.. on Tuesday 11th March 13:18
Good news, Matt! I hope it all goes well from here on. Forgive me if it's already been answered but is the property an end of chain or do you have to wait for a chain to complete? Did you have to cross into the 3% stamp duty threshold? I'm guessing not as you probably would have made mention of it.
Anyway, congratulations. Another hurdle, er, hurdled.
Anyway, congratulations. Another hurdle, er, hurdled.
When we bought my current house, my wife and I were told by various agents that houses in the area we were looking at very rarely come to market. After two months of waiting, we letter dropped the area one evening (67 houses in total) and got 4 replies.
two of the hosues fitted and we bought one of them the following day, direct from the seller wthout agents involved. The deal was done within two weeks.
It pays to letter drop. pick a few streets you may be interested in, outline your situaion, especially if you can move quickly and go for it.
We printed the letters of but hand signed each one, making it clear we were not an agent making up a story to pick up stock.
two of the hosues fitted and we bought one of them the following day, direct from the seller wthout agents involved. The deal was done within two weeks.
It pays to letter drop. pick a few streets you may be interested in, outline your situaion, especially if you can move quickly and go for it.
We printed the letters of but hand signed each one, making it clear we were not an agent making up a story to pick up stock.
The private letter-dropping of potential homes for purchase has been the subject of numerous threads in this forum over they years. There was one only around Christmas time just gone. As someone who has contributed to many of those threads and has some experience of the activity from both a professional and a personal perspective I think it's fair to say the practice has mixed results. Returns are very low but, naturally, in the odd case where everything goes through swimmingly reviews are glowing. If it were me looking for a property and becoming disillusioned I'd definitely do it again but would do so with my eyes wide open.
If anyone is looking to do this sort of thing I'd recommend a few hours googling "Pistonheads" and "(something suitable)" to find the threads. I recall albeit a few years ago now an excellent thread containing advice from both punters and property professionals but also advice from a marketing dude that gave a crib sheet for potential wording of the leaflet with justifications and explanation in support. I'm sorry that I haven't made a better note of that thread as it would have been useful a number of times recently at a time when there is a severe imbalance of potential house buyers and avaiable stock. Maybe I'll go hunting tonight after work.
If anyone is looking to do this sort of thing I'd recommend a few hours googling "Pistonheads" and "(something suitable)" to find the threads. I recall albeit a few years ago now an excellent thread containing advice from both punters and property professionals but also advice from a marketing dude that gave a crib sheet for potential wording of the leaflet with justifications and explanation in support. I'm sorry that I haven't made a better note of that thread as it would have been useful a number of times recently at a time when there is a severe imbalance of potential house buyers and avaiable stock. Maybe I'll go hunting tonight after work.
We are under offer now, and were the last link needed in a chain which now has 5 properties in it. Hopefully things progress smoothly!
We are selling a relatively new build flat to a first time buyer, and are buying pretty much the polar opposite (in flat terms); a flat in an 1890s mansion block. The high ceilings and log burner roaring away did it for us (no doubt both signs that its going to cost a fortune to run).
So, aside from getting all of the info to our solicitor without delay, is there anything else we can do to help to help things along? I've never been part of a chain before and have only heard bad things!
We are selling a relatively new build flat to a first time buyer, and are buying pretty much the polar opposite (in flat terms); a flat in an 1890s mansion block. The high ceilings and log burner roaring away did it for us (no doubt both signs that its going to cost a fortune to run).
So, aside from getting all of the info to our solicitor without delay, is there anything else we can do to help to help things along? I've never been part of a chain before and have only heard bad things!
Our chain is even shorter, us to a first time buyer and our sellers are buying from a deceased estate but it's taking forever, probably looking at about 15 weeks which is ridiculous but luckily nobody is really desperate. Get everything you have about your house together, and I mean everything and send it to the solicitors. Even if you've sent it you'll still be asked stupid questions that they have the information for! Keep phoning them as well, more than once we've called them to see what's happening only to be told they're waiting for something from us...asking for it would be a start. Good luck and remain calm, expect it to go wrong and you won't be disappointed when it does.
Last place I bought I did through a buying agent....I'd spent a year looking whilst also being busy at work and was getting nowhere....this was 2000/1 before .com house hunting was really dominant. Having got nowhere I say an advert from a Buying Agent who worked on a "no success no fee".....won't bore you with the story but it definitely worked for me, it was a lesson in how to deal with estate agents and how they will work every single angle.
Maxf said:
Im selling at the moment - 8 asking price offers in the first 3 days and agents saying that we need to move to sealed bids this week. It all sounds like a massive faff and agents not being able to price properly (after arguing my valuation down to the current selling price).
That sounds like a great scenario to be in. The lower price has generated a fair bit of genuine interest, and the competition element may well invite a bid (or bids) higher than what you had intended on marketing the property on in the first place. So what happened in the end?
Yes, four houses in 12 months, two we were out bid on (the last one yesterday due to my sums being wrong) and two we had notes of interest in and the day before we were going to put an offer in, they told us that an offer too good to refuse had been accepted, checking the sold price it was less than we were going to offer. Just having such bad luck.
The Moose said:
To be blunt, you either need more money, a different location or live with a tiny garden/rooms.
In the day of the internet, it's easy for everyone to find out what something is worth (property/car/etc) especially when there's plenty of stock knocking about also either for sale or just sold.
I think you're missing the point. In many areas, there isn't lots of stock knocking around.In the day of the internet, it's easy for everyone to find out what something is worth (property/car/etc) especially when there's plenty of stock knocking about also either for sale or just sold.
Our road (suburban Surrey) is mostly Semis with a few terraces of four houses. In total, there are 138 on the road, and only four have sold in the past 12 months, with the most recent sale being seven months ago.
In those same 12 months, six more houses have started loft conversions. When we moved here eight years ago, there were maybe ten houses with loft conversions, whereas now it's closer to forty of them.
The only people moving out of are road are people moving a significant distance away from the area. People just don't move to larger houses any more, because the eye-watering levels of Stamp Duty mean it's just not worth it. We had a loft conversion (two extra bedrooms, one of which runs the whole length of the house plus en-suite shower room), single floor extension, new kitchen and complete rewire for £60k. We'd have been looking at something approaching £45k just in fees, taxes and other costs to move to a larger property, before we'd spent so much as a penny on the actual higher cost of a larger property!
This being the case, the very few properties that are available for sale are, as others are finding, going near enough instantly, often at over asking price. We had our property "valued" (one of my wife's friends is an Estate Agent, and she had a target to hit for numbers of valuations carried out!
) 12 months ago, and she put a price of £375k on it. The same woman did the same thing a couple of weeks ago, and she upped her view of an asking price to £495k. Ludicrous, but completely realistic because people are desperate for houses!If anyone is looking for an un-extended 3 bed semi in Surrey, btw, give me a shout, as we've got friends in the next street planning to move back to New Zealand in October.
monthefish said:
Maxf said:
Im selling at the moment - 8 asking price offers in the first 3 days and agents saying that we need to move to sealed bids this week. It all sounds like a massive faff and agents not being able to price properly (after arguing my valuation down to the current selling price).
That sounds like a great scenario to be in. The lower price has generated a fair bit of genuine interest, and the competition element may well invite a bid (or bids) higher than what you had intended on marketing the property on in the first place. So what happened in the end?
All parties were either investors (BTL) or first time buyers and the levels of deposits were staggering - £60k lowest, £200k highest.
Maxf said:
monthefish said:
Maxf said:
Im selling at the moment - 8 asking price offers in the first 3 days and agents saying that we need to move to sealed bids this week. It all sounds like a massive faff and agents not being able to price properly (after arguing my valuation down to the current selling price).
That sounds like a great scenario to be in. The lower price has generated a fair bit of genuine interest, and the competition element may well invite a bid (or bids) higher than what you had intended on marketing the property on in the first place. So what happened in the end?
All parties were either investors (BTL) or first time buyers and the levels of deposits were staggering - £60k lowest, £200k highest.
Maxf said:
monthefish said:
Maxf said:
Im selling at the moment - 8 asking price offers in the first 3 days and agents saying that we need to move to sealed bids this week. It all sounds like a massive faff and agents not being able to price properly (after arguing my valuation down to the current selling price).
That sounds like a great scenario to be in. The lower price has generated a fair bit of genuine interest, and the competition element may well invite a bid (or bids) higher than what you had intended on marketing the property on in the first place. So what happened in the end?
All parties were either investors (BTL) or first time buyers and the levels of deposits were staggering - £60k lowest, £200k highest.
Well done.
(out of interest, what was 'your' intended asking price?)
Kermit power said:
I think you're missing the point. In many areas, there isn't lots of stock knocking around.
Our road (suburban Surrey) is mostly Semis with a few terraces of four houses. In total, there are 138 on the road, and only four have sold in the past 12 months, with the most recent sale being seven months ago.
In those same 12 months, six more houses have started loft conversions. When we moved here eight years ago, there were maybe ten houses with loft conversions, whereas now it's closer to forty of them.
The only people moving out of are road are people moving a significant distance away from the area. People just don't move to larger houses any more, because the eye-watering levels of Stamp Duty mean it's just not worth it. We had a loft conversion (two extra bedrooms, one of which runs the whole length of the house plus en-suite shower room), single floor extension, new kitchen and complete rewire for £60k. We'd have been looking at something approaching £45k just in fees, taxes and other costs to move to a larger property, before we'd spent so much as a penny on the actual higher cost of a larger property!
This being the case, the very few properties that are available for sale are, as others are finding, going near enough instantly, often at over asking price. We had our property "valued" (one of my wife's friends is an Estate Agent, and she had a target to hit for numbers of valuations carried out! ) 12 months ago, and she put a price of £375k on it. The same woman did the same thing a couple of weeks ago, and she upped her view of an asking price to £495k. Ludicrous, but completely realistic because people are desperate for houses!
If anyone is looking for an un-extended 3 bed semi in Surrey, btw, give me a shout, as we've got friends in the next street planning to move back to New Zealand in October.
Our road (suburban Surrey) is mostly Semis with a few terraces of four houses. In total, there are 138 on the road, and only four have sold in the past 12 months, with the most recent sale being seven months ago.
In those same 12 months, six more houses have started loft conversions. When we moved here eight years ago, there were maybe ten houses with loft conversions, whereas now it's closer to forty of them.
The only people moving out of are road are people moving a significant distance away from the area. People just don't move to larger houses any more, because the eye-watering levels of Stamp Duty mean it's just not worth it. We had a loft conversion (two extra bedrooms, one of which runs the whole length of the house plus en-suite shower room), single floor extension, new kitchen and complete rewire for £60k. We'd have been looking at something approaching £45k just in fees, taxes and other costs to move to a larger property, before we'd spent so much as a penny on the actual higher cost of a larger property!
This being the case, the very few properties that are available for sale are, as others are finding, going near enough instantly, often at over asking price. We had our property "valued" (one of my wife's friends is an Estate Agent, and she had a target to hit for numbers of valuations carried out!
) 12 months ago, and she put a price of £375k on it. The same woman did the same thing a couple of weeks ago, and she upped her view of an asking price to £495k. Ludicrous, but completely realistic because people are desperate for houses!If anyone is looking for an un-extended 3 bed semi in Surrey, btw, give me a shout, as we've got friends in the next street planning to move back to New Zealand in October.
Most houses we saw up for sale in Surrey with a liveable amount of space for a family & a reasonable garden were due to older people dying/relocating and the buyers either with young kids or planning kids.The house I have bought had 25+ viewings on the Open Day, 16 bids with many at asking. Went to sealed bids and I put in 15% over asking and only just got it. The asking price itself was around 20% on what it would have been 15 months ago...
A combination of the now ending funding for lending, topped up with help2buy2 feckless with their 5% dreams and all the media press of foreign buying boom has made things ludicrous- in just the 5 months we started looking we were totally priced out from our 1st choice town.
Frankly it wasn't for us having a large deposit allowing a good long term fixed rate I would have bought a flat/resolved to leave London at some point- salaries in London maybe a bit higher but houses are getting 4-5 times higher meaning it is getting to a point where London will not make sense for adults looking to start a family home.
With Carney talking up interest rates rises today maybe things will settle, but frankly this weak economic recovery is built on housing gains so suspect not.
All this talk of x% above asking being insane - something is worth what someone is willing to pay. If anyone thinks there is any science in valuation, think again, it's marginally more than what I could do on zoopla so when stuff goes for more it makes little sense to attach any weight to what an estate agent out the place at.
I like kermit live in suburban Surrey and it's certainly a very fast and lively market.
I like kermit live in suburban Surrey and it's certainly a very fast and lively market.
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