Is anyone moving now?

[Flooble]

Chris Type R said:

For people who have moved recently, what has been the experience of signing up for utilities - mainly gas & electric - has this process been difficult / expensive ?

We're acquiring a second property behind our primary residence so, in theory we could run an armoured cable, water hose & data as needed for renovation - but this will probably create further problems down the road...

We're on a fixed rate for electricity and have solar panels - also, we don't want to commit to a billing period as we might either be renting or selling this in the near future.

For me, it was a PITA. Tried to do as much as possible online, but meter readings were problematic. Call centres were the usual state of affairs - the permanent "unexpected" high volume of calls and continued "covid is affecting our ability to function".

Expensive - well yes, but that's just the way it is now.

[grudas]

exchanged on friday, finally! completion set for 30th June. We've started packing to get ahead of ourselves.

First house so landlord has been informed of us moving out. Exciting! years and years of saving I can finally say we're very very close to having our own property.

[Greendubber]

Flooble said:

Greendubber said:

caymanbill said:

Greendubber said:

Poking my toe back in into this thread after we moved in Jan 21.

We live on a fairly new development and now our best friends have eyes on a house that's just gone on down the road. It was sold 6 months ago after being advertised at OIRO £350k. Our pals hadn't got their house on the market so missed the boat, it's a fairly nice 3 bed detached and £350k was at the high end for a house of that type in this area.

It's now back on at offers over £390k with another agent and it appears someone who had originally purchased it when it was last for sale was all over our estates Facebook page slagging the vendors off as they pulled the plug due to the house price increasing in the 3 months since they accepted the offer.

My mates want to view it, love the area but I doubt it's risen £40k in 6 months? Also surely the vendors tactic of agreeing an offer and then wanting more money whilst their conveyancing was holding the process up is a proper red flag to me and think the original purchasers ended up in the hole for quite a bit of cash due to having the rug pulled out from under them.

I've said to avoid it but they're sadly keen to get it. They had a viewing this evening but it was cancelled at the last minute as the owners want an open house type affair on Saturday to create a 'bidding frenzy' according to the agents.

Is cancelling a sale to relist for more money a thing these days? Seems like a bit of a stty thing to do IMO...

Very stty thing to do, and i would avoid a vender who behaves like that as they can not be trusted. We waited over a year for our place and the vendor didnt even think about increasing the price - although to be fair it was her fault everything took so long!

By all accounts it was the sellers that were holding things up, the buyers were all set to go but they got a load of radio silence before the bad news landed.

I keep telling my mates to ask the agent why they've relisted it for £40k more when all they've done is paint the living room (badly)

There are some solicitors who will work on no-sale no-fee, which could be one way to limit the exposure to costs. You say new build so can probably skip surveyor. I think that's the only way you could approach it - minimise any costs incurred. But presumably your friends can't just buy a house without selling their own, so they will likely end up disappointing someone further down the chain if they also get the rug pulled out from under them.

I'd say its quite gutsy to try for a load more cash in the face of rising interest rates and an economy in recession.

They've sold their place (went on the first day!) to some first time buyers and have their own mortgage etc sorted so they're in a good position. We didn't bother with a surveyor on our house due to its ago so I'm sure they'll do the same.

For me it just seems full of alarm bells but I'm not as personally invested as my mates who are desperate to find their perfect house in the right area. I'll be watching the sold price closely as we it got our 4 bed detached on a bigger, better positioned plot for £360k at the start of last year. I know things have probably gone up a bit but it's a lot more money for a much smaller house.

[Chris Type R]

grudas said:

exchanged on friday, finally! completion set for 30th June. We've started packing to get ahead of ourselves.

First house so landlord has been informed of us moving out. Exciting! years and years of saving I can finally say we're very very close to having our own property.

Congratulations, exciting times. With the first house you can set yourself the challenge of having sex in each room.

[grudas]

Chris Type R said:

Congratulations, exciting times. With the first house you can set yourself the challenge of having sex in each room.

great idea! I'll run it past the misses..

[Greendubber]

grudas said:

exchanged on friday, finally! completion set for 30th June. We've started packing to get ahead of ourselves.

First house so landlord has been informed of us moving out. Exciting! years and years of saving I can finally say we're very very close to having our own property.

Awesome, enjoy! It's hard work but a great feeling when you finally get to sit down in your new house after a day of removals, boxes and hopefully only minor drama!

[BigBen]

Question for those that have bought more than a few houses. On Exchange and payment of the deposit are the vendors committed to a completion date? I suspect the answer must be yes or they could stay indefinitely......

[rah1888]

BigBen said:

Question for those that have bought more than a few houses. On Exchange and payment of the deposit are the vendors committed to a completion date? I suspect the answer must be yes or they could stay indefinitely......

Yes, they certainly are.

[Lady_Beefmaster]

Greendubber I have a feeling you live on a development across from our development! Does the house in question have blue panelled walls and a garden sloping upwards to the houses behind which are massively overlooking the plot by any chance?

If not we had an identical scenario in our local FB group a month or two ago and a property has come up for £40k more a few days ago.

Greendubber said:

Flooble said:

Greendubber said:

caymanbill said:

Greendubber said:

Poking my toe back in into this thread after we moved in Jan 21.

We live on a fairly new development and now our best friends have eyes on a house that's just gone on down the road. It was sold 6 months ago after being advertised at OIRO £350k. Our pals hadn't got their house on the market so missed the boat, it's a fairly nice 3 bed detached and £350k was at the high end for a house of that type in this area.

It's now back on at offers over £390k with another agent and it appears someone who had originally purchased it when it was last for sale was all over our estates Facebook page slagging the vendors off as they pulled the plug due to the house price increasing in the 3 months since they accepted the offer.

My mates want to view it, love the area but I doubt it's risen £40k in 6 months? Also surely the vendors tactic of agreeing an offer and then wanting more money whilst their conveyancing was holding the process up is a proper red flag to me and think the original purchasers ended up in the hole for quite a bit of cash due to having the rug pulled out from under them.

I've said to avoid it but they're sadly keen to get it. They had a viewing this evening but it was cancelled at the last minute as the owners want an open house type affair on Saturday to create a 'bidding frenzy' according to the agents.

Is cancelling a sale to relist for more money a thing these days? Seems like a bit of a stty thing to do IMO...

Very stty thing to do, and i would avoid a vender who behaves like that as they can not be trusted. We waited over a year for our place and the vendor didnt even think about increasing the price - although to be fair it was her fault everything took so long!

By all accounts it was the sellers that were holding things up, the buyers were all set to go but they got a load of radio silence before the bad news landed.

I keep telling my mates to ask the agent why they've relisted it for £40k more when all they've done is paint the living room (badly)

There are some solicitors who will work on no-sale no-fee, which could be one way to limit the exposure to costs. You say new build so can probably skip surveyor. I think that's the only way you could approach it - minimise any costs incurred. But presumably your friends can't just buy a house without selling their own, so they will likely end up disappointing someone further down the chain if they also get the rug pulled out from under them.

I'd say its quite gutsy to try for a load more cash in the face of rising interest rates and an economy in recession.

They've sold their place (went on the first day!) to some first time buyers and have their own mortgage etc sorted so they're in a good position. We didn't bother with a surveyor on our house due to its ago so I'm sure they'll do the same.

For me it just seems full of alarm bells but I'm not as personally invested as my mates who are desperate to find their perfect house in the right area. I'll be watching the sold price closely as we it got our 4 bed detached on a bigger, better positioned plot for £360k at the start of last year. I know things have probably gone up a bit but it's a lot more money for a much smaller house.

[Greendubber]

Yep that sounds like the same one, good spot!

As it goes I walked past it this morning as I took our dog over the fields on Hill Top and saw the meter cupboard door hanging off and the garden was really scruffy. If they want £40k more then they need to get busy tidying it up!

[Lady_Beefmaster]

I wasn’t a fan of how overlooked they were from behind. We had a wander around when being built and they just seemed to be towering over the houses below.

We’re currently sold and moving from the area, just dealing with various delays on our purchase and chain. At one point I thought we’d be going back on the market this morning 😩

[Greendubber]

Lady_Beefmaster said:

I wasn’t a fan of how overlooked they were from behind. We had a wander around when being built and they just seemed to be towering over the houses below.

We’re currently sold and moving from the area, just dealing with various delays on our purchase and chain. At one point I thought we’d be going back on the market this morning ??

Agreed, we're further into the estate and not overlooked at all and it's great, just near the green with the big oak tree on.

I hope your sale goes through OK, if it doesn't let me know and I'll point our friends in your direction!

[Lady_Beefmaster]

Greendubber said:

Agreed, we're further into the estate and not overlooked at all and it's great, just near the green with the big oak tree on.

I hope your sale goes through OK, if it doesn't let me know and I'll point our friends in your direction!

Thanks, it’s a waiting game for us now, but it’s out of our hands. Luckily our buyers seem patient,

I know the bit you’re on about, nice down that end! We’re the older development by the mini roundabout.

[Jefferson Steelflex]

Fun and games on our move, our vendor is no onward chain (turns out they are separated) and when originally going through the purchase we were told they’d be flexible on dates etc.

Per last update, they asked if we would agree to complete 7th July and I took this down the chain and everyone was happy. Roll forward to last week and due to to Exchange when my solicitor informs me of radio silence from the vendor solicitor so i call the agent and ask WTF, and i then get told, “sorry, been a change and they can’t move out until end July…” I sort of rolled with it, we are still flexible but it was their date originally and we made all of the arrangements on that basis.

Anyway, it turns out our buyer and the guy further down the chain are not willing to do delay as both have mortgage offers expiring and one of them is on holiday first two weeks of August. I took a little bit of pleasure from telling the vendor agent yesterday that their client caused this issue, said they’d be flexible, and now have to suck it up or it all falls through.

There’s definitely some shenanigans going on with the vendor, probably a lot of beef between them (we know of them through friends of friends so are aware of their situation) and i’d guess whatever party is still living there is trying to delay as long as possible. They don’t have that option sadly.

As an aside, i’m reading about more interest rate rises and recession looming and wondering if spunking a lot of money on a house is a good idea…

[Chris Type R]

Jefferson Steelflex said:

As an aside, i’m reading about more interest rate rises and recession looming and wondering if spunking a lot of money on a house is a good idea…

I think you're unlikely to be alone in wondering this... whether the risk/financial exposure is worth it, whether the equivalent property will be 10-15% cheaper in a year. Something which might be propping up the current chains are the mortgage offers at comparatively decent rates.

I expect to hear from our EA that demand has reduced when we come to market our second property. It might then be a case of BTL'ing it for 5 years.

Some would argue that having a large chunk of (fixed-rate) mortgage debt in inflationary times is good - provided your income can rise at or about the inflation rate... and subject to property prices not collapsing in a massive way.

Edited by Chris Type R on Thursday 16th June 08:29

[Shnozz]

Chris Type R said:

I think you're unlikely to be alone in wondering this... whether the risk/financial exposure is worth it, whether the equivalent property will be 10-15% cheaper in a year. Something which might be propping up the current chains are the mortgage offers at comparatively decent rates.

I expect to hear from our EA that demand has reduced when we come to market our second property. It might then be a case of BTL'ing it for 5 years.

With the further regulation being introduced in favour of tenants, and increasing obligations already to come in regarding EPC’s on let properties, surely the BTL market isn’t looking particularly attractive? Particularly if bond markets are rising and interest rates generally where you can obtain a half decent yield.

Reading this today I am glad I am out.

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/plan-to-ban-no-faul...

[Chris Type R]

Shnozz said:

With the further regulation being introduced in favour of tenants, and increasing obligations already to come in regarding EPC’s on let properties, surely the BTL market isn’t looking particularly attractive? Particularly if bond markets are rising and interest rates generally where you can obtain a half decent yield.

Reading this today I am glad I am out.

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/plan-to-ban-no-faul...

No, I really don't want to be a landlord - but if the choice is between renting the property out or letting it stand empty while I wait for the market to recover, I'll likely choose the former.

The property in question is one I've bought with the purpose of splitting the garden to add to our primary residence. Drama here https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[monkfish1]

Shnozz said:

Chris Type R said:

I think you're unlikely to be alone in wondering this... whether the risk/financial exposure is worth it, whether the equivalent property will be 10-15% cheaper in a year. Something which might be propping up the current chains are the mortgage offers at comparatively decent rates.

I expect to hear from our EA that demand has reduced when we come to market our second property. It might then be a case of BTL'ing it for 5 years.

With the further regulation being introduced in favour of tenants, and increasing obligations already to come in regarding EPC’s on let properties, surely the BTL market isn’t looking particularly attractive? Particularly if bond markets are rising and interest rates generally where you can obtain a half decent yield.

Reading this today I am glad I am out.

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/plan-to-ban-no-faul...

Im kind of stuck with it for 12-24 months yet. One wonders if leaving it empty until i can sell it might be less risky.

[C70R]

Jefferson Steelflex said:

As an aside, i’m reading about more interest rate rises and recession looming and wondering if spunking a lot of money on a house is a good idea…

I wouldn't stress too much. We're unlikely to have a full-blown economic meltdown.

If you need to move, buy a house. If you don't, hold on and see what happens.

[Chris Type R]

monkfish1 said:

Im kind of stuck with it for 12-24 months yet. One wonders if leaving it empty until i can sell it might be less risky.

Aren't you then exposed to paying double council tax, bills for other services, as well as mortgage interest ?