Buying a house- advice is much appreciated

Good luck...we are in the process of buying a new place and selling our current one and we are three months in and it's not going as quickly as it could. But such is life, patience and lots of crossed fingers I'm so done with London...want out ASAP.

 

Hope everything continues to go smoothly for you @Selleri . It helps when all the people involved are helpful and informative.

I wish you luck @amancalledgeorge, and hope you eventually get there too. I've moved several times, and most of the time it's been fairly straightforward, but we're in the process of buying a flat [younger daughter] and the speed of it all is dire. I'm not impressed with how slowly information is being passed to us from the solicitors, and because there's two sources of money no mortgage] they haven't been clear about what info we've had to give them. One says one thing and another says something else. Daughter got a reply to her recent query yesterday afternoon [after we'd taken in the requested documentation] at five to three, and the recipient was finishing work at three, so she couldn't respond. It'll now be Monday before she can do that, and exchange is meant to happen on Thursday

I don't remember it being so difficult when I bought the house I'm in [also no mortgage] and it wasn't that long ago. They're cutting it very fine....

 

That was May 4. Have you thrown over your shoulder a pinch of salt, Selleri?

How have tricks been since May 4?

 

I'm now a happy owner of a slice of a small island in Northern Atlantic. Looking forward to see if King Æthelred (or any available king would do) is coming around to make an offer

I have learnt a few things during this journey.

Firstly, money buys happiness, or at least lessens the stress.

I paid a month of extra rent/ double council tax/water/utilities to have time to move things slowly. Definitely worth it, considering the horror stories of my friends who had to swap over in one day.

Also, having the cash to for example replace the boiler if needed is a very good stress reliever.

Secondly, I learnt to take the first reasonable offer rather than trying to find the best deal. Comparing and comparing is very time consuming and there is the growing feeling that you might miss out the best deal....

When the estate agent called to confirm my offer was accepted and asked for my solicitors' details, I asked (fully aware that they work for the seller) if they could recommend one. They did, I said yes, and the solicitors did the job at a price that was reasonable according to my previous searches on the interweb. No long nights of comparison websites or reviews. I probably didn't get the best deal, but got the one that got things done at a price I was willing to pay.

Thirdly, pay for the professionals.

I'm very capable of installing a washing machine, but felt very much more secure to get a professional to check the plumbing stuff, get the Beast lifted in, installed and tested. Just because things look ok to me doesn't mean they are actually right. (And if anything blows up or leaks, at least I have some documentation for the insurance company).

The boiler is checked and certified (and the installer took me to the corner shop to buy batteries for the CO detector, and to pet his dog Laura ), the ancient electricity box has been replaced by a professional so the basics are ok.

Fourthly, most businesses are genuine and reliable. There are so many horror stories of cowboy this and that that we are all becoming a bit paranoid. As long as the business and the price look reasonable using a common judgement (and a bit of googling), just go for the first option.

And finally, I'm very happy that I managed this journey. Buying a house is a big thing, and doing that alone in a foreign country was quite scary.


But here I am, settled, ready to plant my crab apple tree.

 

Glad to hear you're happy and settled Selleri.

 

@Selleri
Great stuff. Makes for really good reading! A few photographs of your new domain?

 

@LawnAndOrder
Occupation: Dilettante

I didn't know the meaning of Dilettante, so I asked Mrs C.
You should know that -- because you are one.

Buying and selling properties;
We bought our house in 1972, no survey - no estate agent involved - No problems.

No advice intended

 

Congratulations on your new home @Selleri !
Do we get to see pics of the garden, in due course? Is it already in good nick, or have you got "a project" ahead of you?

 

Congratulations @Selleri - your first home is so exciting.

 

Well, yes, I retired when I was twenty-seven (the vagaries and mysterious meanders of life); but one’s never so busy as once retired; dilettante is really a euphemism for “enjoying oneself” – I’ve never liked the idea of “working”: find something you love doing and it will never feel like … “work”, oh, the very idea! In addition to this, one of the gateways to a happy life is a joyful marriage (and stay well away from Mishcon de Reya!).

 

I think @Selleri posted some pix on one of the threads a while ago - maybe the 'what are we doing in the garden' one?

 

I'll do a thread of the garden journey once I get past the "before" stage

I find that kind of threads awfully interesting, showing the transformation over time. There are a lot of very good ones indeed in this forum, some spanning over years.

However now we are still at stage of "slightly less established weeds cover of the bare rectangle, some dug up parts waiting for fresh onslaught of weeds, and a dusting of fresh weeds on areas that were freshly dug last month" so perhaps not tremendously interesting yet

 

Why oh why is buying and selling houses South of the border so complicated. In Scotland your lawyer does everything but everything for you? All you have to do is sign documents and as for rates in Scotland one SO or whatever covers the lot. Moved to the South coast to be near our son and daughter and grandchildren. After this horrendous experience we are not going to move again

 

There are not that many things which are superior/ different regarding law between Scotland and the rest of the UK ( not too sure about NI. and property selling) but buying and selling houses is definitely one which is far far simpler north of the Border.
Unless you have an extremely good excuse once your offer has been made, strictly speaking, even verbally, then you are bound to purchase. If you withdraw the penalties are severe. I have never had the experience of being gazumpt or gazundered and don’t know anybody who has up here but know quite a few friends in the south who have had hellish experiences.
I have bought and sold quite a few properties in Scotland over the years and while the process can be a bit slow ( usually allow 3 months for completion but it can be speeded up if both parties want to move quickly) there have never been any real hitches. Nowadays, the seller has to have a survey done and pays for it. This stops multiple surveys being done on the same property. This I suppose could be open to abuse but not heard of any horror stories. Once, about 25 years ago I had a survey done on a property which was really nice, 37 other people thought the same and therefore the ridiculous situation of the house being surveyed multiple times occurred, bonkers.
How people south of The Border cope with the uncertainty of property purchase/ sale is beyond me whereby a buyer or seller? can withdraw from a sale minutes before the exchange I believe. I well remember my late Mum who was Scottish having a very very nervous wait for the sale of our house down south going through. She had booked the removal lorries the following day, taking all our worldly goods back up to Scotland. Luckily the sale went through.
Most property is advertised as offers over, you note an interest if you wish to bid for it and if lots of notes of interest are received by the seller’s solicitor, a closing date is set and you put your offer in by a certain date. At midday usually, on the closing date the offers are opened and the seller then asked which if any offer they wish to accept. This might not be the highest depending on the likes of a quick exchange as an example.
You can make an offer prior to closing date to try and close a sale then it is entirely up to the seller to accept or otherwise.If a property is not selling often a fixed price is set to hopefully attract buyers who then know what the seller will accept.
Another thing different up here is there is very little leasehold property. I think it is virtually only flats that are leasehold nowadays but could be wrong. I certainly have never bought a leasehold property up here far less paid a feu (feu duty on leasehold).
I intend to come out of my home in a box so I am hoping to never have to go through the world and his wife traipsing through my house and having to be on permanent “ hoovering and dusting duty” ever again.