Jump to content
NEurope
Shorty

House buying is the worst

Recommended Posts

We're nearing the date for the takeover of our new house - September 1st officially but the seller believes he can be out next week sometime. I just got home from a meeting with him, he has like 10 chairs and a dining table left along with a few small things. I'm just thinking, I can swing by during the weekend and help him out if that means I can get the keys on Monday! How can he spend a week moving so little? XD 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Every part of this is so stressful. They seem to be asking for new details every other day and each one just gives me a pang of "they're (the mortgage company) looking for an excuse to back out". Someone did point out that if they wanted to back out, they would just say no and wouldn't bother with any of this, and that they're just checking everything which we know is in good order. 

 

Even so, my mental state is constantly flipping between "yes, we're getting a house" and "it's all falling apart".

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
21 hours ago, Cube said:

Every part of this is so stressful. They seem to be asking for new details every other day and each one just gives me a pang of "they're (the mortgage company) looking for an excuse to back out". Someone did point out that if they wanted to back out, they would just say no and wouldn't bother with any of this, and that they're just checking everything which we know is in good order. 

 

Even so, my mental state is constantly flipping between "yes, we're getting a house" and "it's all falling apart".

This is why we went with a broker, I cannot imagine how much more stressful it is without. But I agree! It seems like everything is stacked against you when buying a house for the first time. You'll make it - I am sure of it! Everyone I've spoken to (and reading through here) has had to deal with pretty much the same thing.

Good luck Cube, you're gonna make it! <3 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Got the keys to the house on Friday and have spent the time since then to fix it. Laying new floors, taking down stuff, removed a door opening, and getting the house ready for being painted. The painter starts (or maybe he even has started) now. So now the process has finally started and we are now packing down stuff. We got 100 moving boxes and I reckon we have filled about 30 or 40 now. I'm a bit worried that we didn't get enough! :D 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 20/08/2021 at 8:29 PM, Cube said:

Every part of this is so stressful. They seem to be asking for new details every other day and each one just gives me a pang of "they're (the mortgage company) looking for an excuse to back out". Someone did point out that if they wanted to back out, they would just say no and wouldn't bother with any of this, and that they're just checking everything which we know is in good order. 

 

Even so, my mental state is constantly flipping between "yes, we're getting a house" and "it's all falling apart".

Yeah, truthfully, they wouldnt be going through all that process without the $$$$ at the end of it.  Take a deep breath and keep calm.  Its all a load of red tape but you WILL get there!!!

 

A wise bird once told me that buying a house is one of the most stressful times of your life, and they weren't bloody wrong.  Especially first time round when youve never gone through the process!

Edited by Raining_again
  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Now it's signing loads of stuff via solicitors....all of which is done by an app, which is just strange.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

We've done it via app too! You haven't gone with O'Niell Solicitors have you? 

After a bit of faff once again, our solicitor is leaving the company. Found out from our broker, which now makes sense was she was being really slow to reply! All looking good to complete on the 17th 

FINALLY. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 03/09/2021 at 5:44 PM, nightwolf said:

We've done it via app too! You haven't gone with O'Niell Solicitors have you? 

It's with someone else.

We've just had a formal offer for the mortgage company (the part we were worrying about the most)!! Survey looks good (minor issue with the garage). We've had a list of contents which includes all the fitted blinds (vertical blinds on all windows except bathroom, which is a roller blind), CCTV, alarm system and some other things.

Got more stuff to sign then it's on to negotiating a date.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

First day at work after moving. Things have settled but phew, the days have just flown by, working on the house and getting everything ready for us to move in. It was exhausting and I'm glad it's mostly the fun stuff left now.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

We exchanged, completion is the 23rd! 

Buckle up kids its been a wild ride of a shitshow.

We had the drama with the mortgage that I think I detailed here previously with my partner's employer. That all got sorted and the mortgage deed was submitted, at this stage I thought nothing else could go wrong now. Hahahaha....! 

Once it was submitted, we waited...and waited and then I poked my solicitor, its been two weeks, whats going on? I kept being told it was with our lender, with no real information as to why. So I grabbed my broker, only to find out it was being stalled because my solicitor was adamant that our house was a green house (Nationwide will give you £500 cashback if you buy a house with a high EPC rating), yet after myself, my broker and TWO managers at Nationwide saying it was an EPC D rating, including the EPC doc I had got from the solicitor themselves, she wouldn't budge.

Then she went silent...oh fml. I then found out she had handed in her notice, so she went AWOL, another week goes by and with some serious pestering to other solicitors in her team we finally got them to drop the green cashback. 

At this point our estate agents from the seller were hounding me every single day, in some instances multiplte times a day, this past week its been nearly every hour. I begged my solicitors and my broker for help...for them both to be on holiday.

WTF. 

Finally managed to get some responses, spent the better half of three days emailing and calling various people in my solicitors to get them to assign a new agent to me. In the end my broker had to do work whilst on holiday to get them to shift, with emails all the way to the head of that particular branch to move it around.

Finally on Friday after threats from my seller we exchanged and we complete next week. 

OOFT. Considering we're first time buyers with technically everything "correct" its been a weird riot. The moving of items will be the easy bit after all. Long as the movers don't fuck us up. :laughing:

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Not about me, but a colleague at work has been selling her old house in Manchester she had with her ex. They got an offer on the asking which they accepted naturally and contracts have been signed. But the buyer then wanted to bring in some contractors to look at the roof/some damp - which has been stated a minor/whatever the term is on the survey report on the house, and apparently 4-ish tiles may need replacing. On the day some people were meant to go around, her dad and her ex went to the house to let them in but after 3 hours never showed up.

Naturally she's a bit pissed at this, you would've thought all this negotiating tactics would happen before putting in an offer, instead of getting the paperwork rolling and then trying to lowball after. They were meant to be coming at them with some offer on Friday, which they've already decided that they'll flat out refuse, and if the buyer walks from that they've got all their solicitors bills etc to pay, whereas she doesn't, as they only get paid upon sale.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

Not about me, but a colleague at work has been selling her old house in Manchester she had with her ex. They got an offer on the asking which they accepted naturally and contracts have been signed. But the buyer then wanted to bring in some contractors to look at the roof/some damp - which has been stated a minor/whatever the term is on the survey report on the house, and apparently 4-ish tiles may need replacing. On the day some people were meant to go around, her dad and her ex went to the house to let them in but after 3 hours never showed up.

Naturally she's a bit pissed at this, you would've thought all this negotiating tactics would happen before putting in an offer, instead of getting the paperwork rolling and then trying to lowball after. They were meant to be coming at them with some offer on Friday, which they've already decided that they'll flat out refuse, and if the buyer walks from that they've got all their solicitors bills etc to pay, whereas she doesn't, as they only get paid upon sale.

We actually had a very similar issue come up in our homebuyers. Unfortunately how it works from my understanding is that the surveys you do (and your solicitor does) come after the offer. So you do have to as a seller put up with re-negotiation. For us we just said that we would let it slide but instead they filled up the small pond in the back garden for us instead. 

To not turn up is rude as hell, but ultimately an offer doesn't mean a whole lot, its just an agreement at the time of it, there's no way to know as a buyer until those valuations and surveys happen that its actually worth the price. :eek: Though the sellers (until exchange) are totally fine to walk away at any point. So hopefully they are up for negotiating if another buyer notices it (because if they do their due diligence they will!) 
 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 19/09/2021 at 12:22 PM, nightwolf said:

Then she went silent...oh fml. I then found out she had handed in her notice, so she went AWOL, another week goes by and with some serious pestering to other solicitors in her team we finally got them to drop the green cashback. 

At this point our estate agents from the seller were hounding me every single day, in some instances multiplte times a day, this past week its been nearly every hour. I begged my solicitors and my broker for help...for them both to be on holiday.

WTF. 

Finally managed to get some responses, spent the better half of three days emailing and calling various people in my solicitors to get them to assign a new agent to me. In the end my broker had to do work whilst on holiday to get them to shift, with emails all the way to the head of that particular branch to move it around.

My nan is releasing equity in her house or something and it got delayed for the best part of a year because of Covid and also because the signatory from the bank (or something like that) left under a cloud and there was an ongoing issue there in which she refused to do anything and also refused to sign over any cases to anyone else until the courts got involved and took it away from her. 

One of those times you go "if that was me at my job I wouldn't be able to get away with that".

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 23/09/2021 at 12:20 PM, nightwolf said:

After 4 and a half months - we're finally off to go pick up the keys.

Thank fuck. 

yeah i was about 5.5 months in wait, thanks to a fuck up with the vendors solicitor not making sure the house was registered with land registry.  between both solicitors and land registry i swear, genuinely agree with @Ashley if i fucked up on that level in my job the best i could expect is a written warning, if not outright fired.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yup I bet. Honestly the ride we had with it was a mess, but we certainly aren't alone! 

We've managed to get in and get stuff done, they'd not even bothered to even remotely clean it, so it was fairly disgusting. I guess not truly surprised given we also then had to remove a massive bookcase they had bolted to the wall that was DIY'ed and covering up the sodding internet.

At any rate its now ours! So no more stressing over it. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 26/09/2021 at 2:50 PM, nightwolf said:

Yup I bet. Honestly the ride we had with it was a mess, but we certainly aren't alone! 

We've managed to get in and get stuff done, they'd not even bothered to even remotely clean it, so it was fairly disgusting. I guess not truly surprised given we also then had to remove a massive bookcase they had bolted to the wall that was DIY'ed and covering up the sodding internet.

At any rate its now ours! So no more stressing over it. 

Annoying that they didnt but at least its all done now.  I honestly dont think i could move anytime soon after what i went through with the legal process (and ive been in my house 5 years haha)

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
23 hours ago, Raining_again said:

Annoying that they didnt but at least its all done now.  I honestly dont think i could move anytime soon after what i went through with the legal process (and ive been in my house 5 years haha)

Yup! Its all cleaned now anyway and ready for us to do some of our own work to it. 

Its certainly better than my colleague who was supposed to exchange today and complete tomorrow and it looks like it hasn't been done. I was going spare having a week between exchange and completion! I can't imagine how they are dealing with that. It shouldn't be allowed for either party to go quiet when you're so close to the end. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The hassle of all of this really does sound like a nightmare. We’re currently looking into places and I’m really steering towards just buying a new build to avoid all of this chain nonsense. Seems like there are some really good options in the exact place we want to be so it might actually work out.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
4 hours ago, Will said:

The hassle of all of this really does sound like a nightmare. We’re currently looking into places and I’m really steering towards just buying a new build to avoid all of this chain nonsense. Seems like there are some really good options in the exact place we want to be so it might actually work out.

You'll get the issues of new builds and I would implore you to double check who you buy with. Dad has worked in the building trade for so long I could never think to buy one. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, nightwolf said:

You'll get the issues of new builds and I would implore you to double check who you buy with. Dad has worked in the building trade for so long I could never think to buy one. 

yeah i'd avoid a new build like the absolute plague to be honest.  built like cardboard boxes on the cheap.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah it’s what I always hear, and mostly agree with it. I guess it’s just kicking the pain further down the road and potentially in a bigger manner.

We’ve been looking at some online mortgage calculators and seems we can afford the type of place we’d like to live in pretty easily. Did you all find much change when you started speaking to proper advisors? I don’t want to get excited because a website tells me I can live in a great place only to find that the reality is we have to move into a shared studio in the basement.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Will said:

Yeah it’s what I always hear, and mostly agree with it. I guess it’s just kicking the pain further down the road and potentially in a bigger manner.

We’ve been looking at some online mortgage calculators and seems we can afford the type of place we’d like to live in pretty easily. Did you all find much change when you started speaking to proper advisors? I don’t want to get excited because a website tells me I can live in a great place only to find that the reality is we have to move into a shared studio in the basement.

If I remember right, we were offered about 15% more when we actually spoke to someone. Not sure if that's normal or if we didn't do the online calculator correctly.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wow, that’s quite a difference! We wouldn’t be able to have any sort of life but that sort of difference would push us up into the next bracket of property if we maxed out.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't know why people push to get the absolute maximum mortgage they can afford.

We have some friends who got a ridiculous mortgage on a 5 bedroom house that cost them the absolute limit of what they could afford, and aside from the fact that they have no money left each month to do anything, they have no flexibility at all with salaries, childcare etc. Both of them hate their jobs, but neither can do anything about it because they have no buffer at all.

My wife and I probably went too far the other way tbh. We live in a tiny hobbit hole of a house, but either one of us could lose our jobs and we'd be ok paying the mortgage on one salary.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

×