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Selling a house is ...
 

Selling a house is like pulling teeth!... 🙄

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r as well if any other mayor faults come to light

I suppose they could result in a broken chain.....


 
Posted : 21/09/2022 4:02 pm
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stcolin, Karma may help you with a stamp duty holiday, you'll know by Friday.


 
Posted : 21/09/2022 4:29 pm
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Update?


 
Posted : 22/09/2022 4:06 pm
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I'm not really sure if I want to talk too much about it. Basically we are exchanging and completing tomorrow.

I'm done. I'm so utterly exhausted and stressed, sat in a house that is pretty much packed up.


 
Posted : 22/09/2022 6:12 pm
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stcolin...

Hopefully you are far too busy today to be looking on here! But just wanted to say good luck! 👍👍👍😱

...that beer tonight will be one of the best you've ever tasted!


 
Posted : 23/09/2022 9:12 am
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Stcolin well done! Once you've unpacked and unwound you'll soon forget all the stress and aggro. Bugger the alcohol thread, get some in!


 
Posted : 23/09/2022 9:27 am
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Good luck for today @stcolin

We're selling MIL's house after her death. Got an offer agreed by the first and only viewers (big family 4 bed detached, but it's just off a council estate and most folk there haven't moved in over 20 years, so some weird valuations). All agreed months ago, but we're just waiting. The buyer's surveyor only turned up last week.


 
Posted : 23/09/2022 9:42 am
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Yep, fingers crossed for you today stcolin. What a horrible and ridiculous business it all is.


 
Posted : 23/09/2022 9:49 am
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It's been a marathon. Hop everything goes well today stcolin!


 
Posted : 23/09/2022 10:33 am
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Another well-wisher for a smooth move, stcolin! Enjoy that brew later.


 
Posted : 23/09/2022 10:59 am
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Hope it's going well sir.


 
Posted : 23/09/2022 1:38 pm
 hels
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I think that we are all hoping that Colin is too busy moving boxes to post! I have bought two houses in my time (Scotland, so WAY less stressful) and I have noted that lawyers have very high tolerance for getting things done at the last possible minute, but it always comes together and they don't get that you find it excruciating. I paid for an expensive one for my house purchase in 1998, from offer to living there in three weeks! My last one I went for The Only Lawyer in Town and that was only a month, but I had sold my house already and had the cash waiting.


 
Posted : 23/09/2022 3:23 pm
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I wonder if you qualify for any stamp reduction? Your solicitor could submit the paper work next week.


 
Posted : 23/09/2022 5:49 pm
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Now Colin - this is unacceptable!! We can’t got to bed tonight without knowing if you moved or not!! 🤣🤣🤣


 
Posted : 23/09/2022 7:12 pm
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Last I heard he was sitting outside the new place waiting.
I've pinged him a WhatsApp


 
Posted : 23/09/2022 7:26 pm
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Winner winner chicken dinner


 
Posted : 23/09/2022 8:58 pm
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Hope that means it's all gone through? If so, congratulations and enjoy the next few months of recovery!


 
Posted : 23/09/2022 9:03 pm
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🎉🎉🎉🥳🥳🥳

…hopefully!!


 
Posted : 23/09/2022 9:29 pm
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And.... We're in. What an unreal couple of days. Thanks for all the messages over the last 24 hours. We ended up exchanging and completing yesterday, and got the keys around 2:30. We're both so happy with the house and after a trip to IKEA (it's the law) we finally got into bed around midnight. I'm still exhausted but a huge weight of my shoulders from the stress of it all. Removals guys were great too, they took away the stress of that part of the day.

Good luck to anyone still in the process. I've never, ever doing that again by choice.

Oh, and we do qualify for a stump duty saving. We'll get about 25% back which is great news.


 
Posted : 24/09/2022 7:21 am
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👍👍👍


 
Posted : 24/09/2022 9:01 am
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Awesome!!!

How is the morning coffee?


 
Posted : 24/09/2022 9:09 am
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Nice one Colin - but after all that stress you went to bloody IKEA!!!

…it’s hard to have sympathy for some people!! 🤣🤣🤣


 
Posted : 24/09/2022 9:47 am
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Nice one! 👍


 
Posted : 24/09/2022 10:23 am
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We're 8 months in to buying our house and still jot complete, and We're xash buyers and no chain....


 
Posted : 24/09/2022 10:40 am
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We moved back in February 2021. At the time,we were advised to exchange and complete on the same day to avoid COVID related complications.

We had a very, very stressful few hours on the day when our (previously very pushy) buyer was refusing to exchange as he was querying a £300 charge he had to pay (even though he'd signed the contract to say he needed to), and saying he'd look into it when he got back from work that evening! It was 5pm on moving day before we exchanged... I remember spending a lot of time with my head in my hands, convinced it was all going to fall through on the day.

Fortunately we happened to know our sellers and they naively very kindly allowed us access to the house on the day before exchange had taken place, so we had managed to make use of the new garage and move some items over earlier. If we hadn't known our sellers there's no way we could have moved in on the scheduled moving day.

It all worked out in the end, but speaking to the estate agents and solicitors afterwards, they were furious on our behalf. Apparently the buyer had been even more of a PIA than they'd let on, and they reckoned the delay on moving day was simply a power move on his side.


 
Posted : 24/09/2022 11:16 am
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Good morning. Sorry for the lack of posting, it's been a very manic few days. Thankfully back at work this morning and a return to normality.

Thanks again for all the messages. So happy we got there in the end. I did get a couple of drinks on the Saturday night to help build a new TV unit, but I crawled off to bed after that was done. Good bit of unpacking done, but there's a lot of work to do. Including going back to IKEA to change an incorrectly ordered wardrobe that won't fit.

I genuinely feel for anyone going through the process. We only actually found out on Wednesday that we would actually be completing on Friday, and then we exchanged on the same day too. It was so stressful packing a truck and not even knowing if it would happen. We were in the middle of the new house tour with the site manager and sales person when we got the call to say we'd completed. After that my mind went blank and I switched off. We were very lucky though, it was about 8 weeks from putting our house up for sale to completing. Must be a record these days! And it was nice to get a bit of money back with the stamp duty announcement.

And most importantly, the bikes now have a proper home in a garage 🙂


 
Posted : 26/09/2022 10:32 am
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We've (my partner and I) have just agreed a sale and had an offer accepted on our current house. We're porting what's left of her very cheap existing mortgage and paying the rest in cash, from the proceeds of my previous sale and her current sale.

Three weeks down the line, the people we are purchasing from haven't seen the inventory forms yet as they've been on holiday. So, we decided to investigate. It turns out they haven't been anywhere and their solicitor hasn't bothered to send them out yet.

We are using our financial advisor, the estate agents and both solicitors against each other. it turn out they're all lying! We've drawn up a plan to hassle them, I'll ring one day and she'll ring the next until they realise we aren't messing around.


 
Posted : 26/09/2022 11:50 am
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Haven't read the whole thread, glad you got sorted. For what it's worth, I feel your pain.

I’ve never, ever doing that again by choice.

... is pretty much my thoughts also. Short of a catastrophic event, they're taking me out of here in a box. What should have been relatively straight forward was "whatever next?" by the end. The day we were supposed to complete I got official confirmation at 4:20pm, the solicitor normally finishes at 4pm, that was one of the longest afternoons of my life. Other highlights included me busting a solicitor for systematically lying to us for months, I haven't been as angry in years. My partner said "I've never seen you like this." My heart goes out to people who have to do this when it _is_ a complicated exchange.

Two years on, it's the best thing I ever did. But I genuinely spent the first six months waiting for a phone call or a knock on the door telling me there'd been a terrible mistake and I was back at the old house tomorrow.


 
Posted : 26/09/2022 12:25 pm
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We’ve drawn up a plan to hassle them, I’ll ring one day and she’ll ring the next until they realise we aren’t messing around.

My stance here was that if I ring them up and go "hi, it's Alan" and they reply "Alan who?" then I'm not ringing them enough.


 
Posted : 26/09/2022 12:27 pm
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Sam, we’re putting ourselves through the process of moving for the first time in 29 something years and have encountered a similar “not much response from the vendor” scenario, but think in our case the seller had actually waited to for the completion of a survey on the house they are buying before pressing on with the detail of their own sale. It’s fully justifying itself as one of life’s most stressful events, but when we worked out what had gone on, we think the vendor had actually been quite smart in delaying the main spend on solicitors’ fees had the thing they had been buying turned out to be a dud. Or they could be ****less liars.


 
Posted : 26/09/2022 1:12 pm
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We bought and sold three properties and moved twice during lock down, lovely.


 
Posted : 26/09/2022 3:33 pm
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@nasher

We’re 8 months in to buying our house and still jot complete, and We’re xash buyers and no chain….

Blimey 8 months! What's the hold-up?


 
Posted : 26/09/2022 3:48 pm
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Let's hope that today's news regarding companies dropping mortgages sold at a lower rate doesn't cause any further delays to anyone's purchases/ sales.


 
Posted : 27/09/2022 12:27 pm
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I think it probably will, just to add to the stress of it all. I have a work colleague who like me just got it done in time. I know the affordability test is gone, but the stress test for many will probably look to see if you can afford your mortgage at well over 10%! Our was 9% or there about on the mortgage offer.

But I genuinely spent the first six months waiting for a phone call or a knock on the door telling me there’d been a terrible mistake and I was back at the old house tomorrow.

I already have imposter syndrome. Feel like a bit of a fraud, after renting all these years and at almost 40 getting a mortgage. I feel way more responsible now, even though not much has changed. I'm hoping that passes over time.


 
Posted : 27/09/2022 3:56 pm
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So our second attempt at a purchase this year is about to fall flat on its face at the 11th hour. So far we've had: the non-communicative solicitor; the replacement non-communicative solicitor; the fall-through of our sale; the firing of the replacement solicitor, the related fall-through of our purchase and its subsequent withdrawal from the market, the truly amazing solicitor from a new firm who is thoroughly exasperated with the other parties; an amazing estate agent who found another buyer within three days of the sale falling though; us finding a new place to buy, us stupidly agreeing to break chain and move into temporary accommodation; the original house annoyingly returning to the market; our solicitor finding issues with the septic tank; the vendor's solicitor burying the bad news about the tank to their client as if it was a general enquiry; our mortgage company doing the slopey shoulders trick; my motorbike being nicked from the temporary accommodation; the seller's onward purchase looking increasingly shaky; our 1.77%/5yr mortgage offer expiring on the 31st October and being offered an extension, but only on a different product at ~6% (that's £700pcm more!). On top of all this I stupidly decided to update my life insurance to cover the new liability. Failed the frikkin medical as I'm so stressed out by it all.

Really, at this stage, I'd like everyone involved to board the B-Ark and just clear off.


 
Posted : 27/10/2022 9:25 pm
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Shitting hell - that's properly shitting shit!! 😱😱💩💩

On a positive house move story. My niece got the keys to her first house on Wednesday - under 3 months from offer to completion and no hitches. So it can be done. The first purchase is always a lot easier though.


 
Posted : 28/10/2022 11:06 am
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Complete on Friday, in theory.

Need to move our equity to our solicitor’s account tomorrow. That can only go well.


 
Posted : 14/12/2022 12:23 am
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Cash moved, anti fraud stuff done then pedalcover go and screw things up today by declaring their underwriter don’t cover barn conversions. FFS!

New insurance now arranged. In 12hrs or so I’m hideously in debt again.


 
Posted : 16/12/2022 1:08 am
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