Going to try putting the flat back on the market

There has been no news at all so I have told the agents that I would like them to remarket the flat. They are going to try and get the buyers to exchange without the other sale but I think the delays are simpy here to stay so I need to protect myself.

I did try and have a bit of a go at the agents for bringing me buyers who do not buy. Doesn't really sound as though they perform many checks on buyers. They asked the buyers IFA to confirm the financial situation and thats about it as far as I can see.

Did not exchange on Friday

The buyers buyer had not sorted out their deposit so nothing happened. There was a suggestion it will happen today but I suspect it will take a couple of days to sort out the deposit.

I am currently planning to put it back on the market with a different estate agent. I may have to suggest that I will charge my buyers an extra couple of grand if they do not exchange in the next two days.

I am planning to change estate agents as I am unhappy that I accepted a buyer on a basis on which they changed their minds at the last moment. I was advised by my agents to stop marketing the property which I also think was an error. I could have had much better buyer and have completed by now.

Turning into a teensy bit of a nightmare

Yet again supposed to be exchanging today. Already they are messing me about. Earlier in the week I was told we would be completing next Friday, now they are saying we will be completing in two weeks. Not sure why it is all as confused as this. Surely three solicitors talking to each othe can manage a simple date agreement.

I have already told the solicitor and estate agent that any requests for me to drop the price will be met with a very definite "No!".

Needless to say I am a jumpy bag of nerves.

Heavens to Betsy! Actual dates at last!

My solicitor has just been in touch to say that they have heard that I should exchange within the next couple of days and complete next Friday.

Hooray!

And there I was about to ask the estate agent to remarket the property. Thank heavens I don't need to do that at least.

No response from the buyers solicitor

We are currently waiting for the buyers solicitor to confirm that ew can exchange and have been since last Wednesday (now it is Monday). They are not returning calls or giving any information. Strangely they did send a fax this morning saying that they will not be exchanging today.

My solicitor is now beginnign to feel that they are hiding something and I am getting increasingly suspicious and nervous. I don't particularly want to start getting heavy but I think I will have to ask the estate agents to re-market the property. I might not have viewings but it may pressurise the buyer into going quicker. I jsut pray that this one doesn't fall through as my contract at work only lasts till the end of the month.

Still no exchange

The solicitors spoke to each other this morning and the story seems to have reverted back to the buyers wanting to delay until the sale of their flat completes. My solicitor had been given a completion date of two weeks after exchange.

But still nothing has happenened, both my buyer and their solicitor are not answering or returning calls. I have a horrible feeling it is all going wrong and maybe they are going to pull out. I feel sick I have had a headache all day and I have not slept well for three nights.

But there is nothing I can do. I am ringing my solicitor and estate agent every two hours but its mainly to make me feel like there IS something I can do. But there isn't. I just have to wait for lots of people I can't contact to do something.

Exchanging contracts or swearwords?

OK, its been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster.

I came into work fully expecting that I would exchange contracts today.

At 11.00 I received a call from the estate agents to say there was a change and they had decided to tie in this purchase with the sale of another flat. Bearing in mind this had never been mentioned previously and I had chosen them because they were not in a chain, I was surprised to say the least. After swearing at the estate agent for about fifteen minutes and havigna bit of a cry in the toilets I carried on at work. I would like to say "I carried on bravely" but given the way my colleagues were avoiding me I suspect " carried on like a psycho on day release" would be closer to the truth.

At 15.00 I received another call from the estate agent. Apparently the buyers solictor has just request contract release from my solicitor. This apparently means we are going to exchange after all. Apparently we are still on for completion in a week.

Having spoken to my solicitor they have not heard a thing so still no closer, or maybe we are, or maybe we're not... Heaven only knows. I am a bit of a wreck and desperately in ned of a lie down in a dark room.

Information flooding in

OK so I am now getting daily calls from the estate agent. The buyers has returned her contract to her solicitor and has asked the solicitor a few questions and apparently been satisfied with the answers.

I am now waiting for her solicitor to receive the contract and communicate with my solicitor to arrange exchange and completion. I believe she will be paying her deposit by bankers draft. I have no idea really what this means and what other payment options there are.

Finally I am beginning to feel that maybe the sale will finally go through.

The process without my ranting

These are an outline of the standard stages when going through the house selling or buying process.

1. The buyer has a mortgage agreed
2. The buyer makes an offer on he house
3. The seller accepts the offer
4. The buyer contacts the mortgage company who then books in the survey
5. The survey is carried out and a report is produced. This is either sent directly to the mortgage company or to the buyer (depends on type of survey and mortgage)
6. The mortgage is finalised based on the outcome of the survey (conditions may be applied)
7. The buyers solicitor undertakes searches with the land registry and various other bodies
8. The sellers solicitors sends documentation to the buyers solicitor (deeds, leases, guarantees on any work carried out)
9. The buyers solicitor responds with any queries (and then the sellers solicitor responds until queries are dealt with)
10. If the buyers solicitor has any queries not fully answered they may report to the mortgage company to confirm that the mortgage company is happy to proceed on this basis.
11. Contract exchange and completion are scheduled in.
    
    

There is no fixed time between each stage. The survey will take up to a month depending on the workload of the surveyor. They should produce the survey within a week and mortgage companies should take around 2 weeks to receive and respond (but have been known to take three months).

Query communication may take around a week for each round of questions but this is dependant on how long it takes for the solicitor to receive, address and respond to queries. Some information may need to be sent to the seller to answer or collate paperwork (details such as the location of services in the house, for example, where the stopcock is or which companies are currently used for utilities). The number of queries will be unique to each sale and depends on the idiosyncrasies of the property and how it is approached by the solicitors involved.

9 and a half weeks

It does amuse me though that it has been nine and a half weeks since I accepted my offer. Same time, much less fun. Although not having seen the film I am not sure if I should assume its all fun.

9 weeks...

After being told by the estate agent that my buyer should have recieved and reviewed the contracts etc at the end of last week I am today informed that my buyer is reading through the information today! I am still not sure whether it is the estate agents just telling me anything to get rid of me or my buyer has a mystery life that stops her doing mundane things like sorting out the house she is buying.

Oh well. I am just going to have to spend another week hoping they do not come back with any more queries.

Contract sent out

My estate agent (who has become strangely proactive in the last two weeks) has just called to say that the buyers solicitor has sent out the contract and the responses to the queries to the buyer.

This is so that they can review the points and the contract (and hopefully sign it without any problem). The estate agent reckons I will get an exchange date next week. My solicitor was a bit more cautious but still thinks it shows signs of movement.

I am currently at eight weeks after I accepted the offer.

Queries returned

I returned the queries to my solicitor on Tues 2nd May. My buyer is now getting their searches and checking through our responses. I am really hopeful we will hear back from them this week.

I am trying not to call my solicitor every five minutes to see if they have heard back from them. The buyers solicitors will need to check through the responses and the searches, and report back to the buyer and then contact my solicitor. In my head this should take about five minutes but obviously they have to do everything in writing so it takes ages.

At last, some serious house sale action!

I got the queries through on Friday. My solicitor reckons they seem fairly straight forward.

They are mainly about utilities, is there water? Are there any odd restrictions on the lease? Can I send a copy of the buildings insurance and when was the central heating installed.

They have also sent the contract so I can sign it and also the document I filled in last time about the fixtures and fittings. Luckily it is all the same situation as last time so I don't need to fill it in.

I am trying hard not to get too excited. At least I am finally ahead of the schedule from last time. It took two months to get to the stage of solicitors queries.

Mortgage agreed at last

Finally got some news back from the long awaited survey. Last week I found out that the survey had been completed by calling the surveyors directly who told me they had sent it on to the mortgage company so at least I knew it was being processed.

I am keeping everything crossed that this means that they haven't got any gripes. The estate agent has said their solicitor is sending queries over to my solicitors so hopfully they won't be too scary.

I nearly feel like it might be ok but will wait until I have seen the queries.

Survey has been sent to mortgage company

OK thorugh my machinations I have at least found out that the survey hs been completed and the report has been sent to the mortgage company. I decided to call the surveyors to find out how long it would take to write up who cheerfully told me that they had sent it on.

So now it is with the mortgage company how long will it take? I am setting myself up for another two weeks before I hear. At least I know who to get the estate agent to chase now.

Some explanation of survey delays

Thank you to the lovely posters at moneysavingexpert.com!

After getting all agitated at the estate agent (again - well its so easy to harrass Claire) it seems that it just takes longer to do buy to let valuations as they need to check possible rental incomes etc. The agents have assured me that the other bits are coming along. And maybe they are.

Survey at last!

They have finally had their survey carried out at exactly four weeks after the offer. My solicitor has sent over all the information so hopefully their mortgage application will go through and they can do their searches.

Over three weeks and still no survey

Today I have had to chase the estate agent for the fourth time for a survey date. Apparently I may have been "a little bit stroppy" one of my colleagues told me. I don't like shouting at people but if noone gives me any information I get rather nervous.

Well, they called me back and are still assuring me that the survey will happen this week but nothing has been booked in at the moment. At least the girl from Ocean (estate agents) used her initiative enough to go to the buyers financial adviser and try and get more information.

Yesterday I had an email from someone who had seen one of the free adverts I posted. I got the fear that it was my buyer checking up on me and that they might pull out but I don't think it was.

Getting jumpy

I am now getting a bit fed up. I have chased the buyers survey three times and still no dates. Who do I blame, is it the buyer dragging their heels, their mortgage company failing to get something booked in, or a failure by the estate agents to chase effectively?

I reckon that if I don't hear anything by Friday then I will have to look at putting it back on the market and maybe with another estate agent.

Still no survey....

So I am currently running at just over two weeks and still no sign of the survey. I rang the estate agent to chase and they have chased the buyer, who has chased their financial adviser. I am now wondering at what point I would have to put the flat back on the market in order to avoid more delays. I don't want to be left high and dry again. Nor do I want to scare off my buyer.

Useful websites

Really useful site to check property prices in an area:
http://www.ourproperty.co.uk/guides/simple_step_by_step_guide_to_the_buying_process.html

Advice and support (chat forums are very good):
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/

10 days after the offer

I got the notices through last night. This is a letter that the estate agent last night. This is a leter that confirms the offer and also has the details of both parties estate agents.

My letter also has a paragraph abut how my estate agent will try and ensure that the sale goes through quickly. Do I believe them? Not massively but I am sure they will when I start calling them every day to hassle them to do things. Still waiting fof the survey to be booked in.

So you accept an offer, what next?

So I accepted an offer just over a week ago. What happens next?

The first thing that happens is to get the house surveyed. This can take a week to ten days depending on who your buyer is going through and what sort of survey.

The other first thing is that the official notice of the sale is posted which tells both parties what the others solicitors details are.

The "other sale" - what happened

It was a long and stressfull process. In October 2006 I accepted an offer from a lovely first time buyer with a huge £40 grand deposit on my one bedroom flat in Bristol. He offered £123, 500. He came round with his parents, we all got on, it seemed like it would be lovely.

There were a few delays in the run up to Christmas. His survey came through fine and he seemed happy and then my mortgage company lost my title deeds which took a few weeks to sort out. All the time my solicitors secretary was not giving me effective deadlines and kept saying that I might exchange next week, and next week.

Then Christmas got in the way. I moved all my possessions to Edinburgh being optimistic and believing it could not take much longer. Cos the title deeds went missing my solicitor had to take out a couple of indemnity policies in case the flats had been converted before 1983 (or something, they hadn't been but because we didn't have the deeds we couldn't prove it) there was another one which was to do with the flat being on parish land and future owners needing to be protected in case the church wanted money for repairs.

Then..... my buyers solicitors started coming back with queries..... They sent about six rounds of queries through. Each one was responded to by my solicitor in three days and faxed back. My buyers solicitor would then take a week to "put the details on the system" and then around a week to respond. All this took ages and they were asking stupid things like change the building insurance arrangement and what is this space on the plans (it was a hallway - why?)

So it all took aged and we all got fed up. Eventually my solicitor suggested that we say they have to buy the flat as it is or pull out. They sent a very stroppy letter and said they would report to the mortgage company and they were unhappy we would not do everything they asked.

My buyers mortgage application got rejected. Apparently it came down to the fact that my downstairs neightbours (there are two flats in the property) patio was not registered with the land registry. Not sure why this causes a problem for me but there you go. They also didn't like the fact that the buildings insurance has joint liability so both flats insure for 50% of the rebuild value.

Interestingly the same mortgage company originally accepted my mortgage when I bought the place so I can only assume that the report my buyers solicitor sent was so strongly worded that the mortgage company were scared off.

That was the end of that. Four months, lots of stress and nowt to show for it. Also I had moved out of my flat and packed in my job. Luckily I have been lent lots of furniture and got a three month contract to tide me over. I wonder what will happen this time...?

House Nightmares - an explanation

Well, I went through four months of one house sale and it all fell through. I kept wondering if there was an easy explanation somewhere of what happens when houses are bought and sold so now I am back at square one and have accepted another offer I thought I may keep a detail of what happens.