House Buying Is More Stressful Than Divorce, Death or Bankruptcy

[Beena]

We'll have to stump up an extra £10k out of savings, which somehow doesn't feel ridiculous enough in the grand scheme, but it's what I'd mentally earmarked to fix any issues. The survey hasn't been done yet and to be honest, I'm not sure I want to throw hundreds at that, knowing there's no negotiating on price if it finds anything (there's definitely an issue with the floor/joists in at least one room). We'd have no choice, but to walk away and we've already lost over £1200 in fees on a previous purchase that fell through.

I really don't know. I don't love the house, but it is the most practical one we've seen. It ticks pretty much all the boxes.

[Starry]

If there are issues and there’s no room for negotiating on price, I can understand why you aren’t enthusiastic Beena.

We have a date for completion. Two weeks from
Now. The mad eejits we are buying from wanted to close next week, after delaying things for weeks.

[Beena]

How long has it been since you first offered, Starry? It feels like an age ago.

We're going to do a second viewing and work things out from there. House buying really is insanity, isn't it?

[Starry]

We accepted the offer on our house on February 26th, our sellers accepted our offer on March 5th. And then a week later, everything started to shut down.

It really is madness. I do not want to do this again for a very long time.

[speedy gonzalez]

I can remember when we bought this house we found it in February and it took until August to move in. We were first time buyers and the seller had already moved out. It's madness during normal times as well!
Photography has been done.
There's was also a property that came up in ideal location but's awful - really awful. The owner looks like he's done a lot of stuff himself - badly.

[Beena]

Avoid, avoid, avoid, Speedy! Something will come up.

I might need to rant. Our sellers' agent is taking overbearing to a whole new level. After viewing the property at the weekend, we decided to take the hit on the 10k difference, pending the results of the survey. If there is any major work uncovered by that, and the seller can't cover the costs of repair, then we can't proceed. We explained the situation to our solicitor, who agrees that we should hold off incurring any additional costs until after the survey and to the EA office. The surveyor was booked in as soon as we got back from the viewing so now it's just a case of waiting for that to be done.

We've had 2 emails and assorted answerphone messages from the EA since Monday, all varying degrees of officious. She's also telephoned our solicitor to suggest she gets on with the searches (the solicitor rang us - I don't think she was very impressed). The EA has also called the surveyor, to stress that her clients are very anxious and could 'we' speed things up (he wasn't impressed either).

It's been a few years since I last bought a house, but that isn't normal, is it?

[Mayday]

That sounds really, really pushy Beena. I would be a little suspicious between that and the 10k difference, whats their rush?

[speedy gonzalez]

Don't worry we're avoiding that one. I think Mr Speedy has his heart set on that area more than me so I was dreading him replying to my text with "well there's things we can do with it" . Luckily he replies with "it's grim " and my sister thought it could belong to a mass murderer as the outside looked normal and the shower room looked like it had been used to drain away bodily fluids.
She sounds very pushy Beena.

[Starry]

Beena that isn’t normal in my experience. She sounds overly pushy, and overstepping in instructing your solicitor. I would suspect she is looking for her commission ASAP.

We have signed and now I live in a house of boxes.

[Ella77]

Hurrah!

[Rosa]

Congratulations!

[Beena]

Congratulations Starry! it's painless from here.

Pushypants was very politely told to wind her neck in and so far has done. Everything is all booked in so we'll see what happens.

[Chicky]

Fingers crossed Beena. And Starry! Wow!

We’re still frigging waiting for the lease issue to be resolved. I’m going to lose my shit very soon.

[Jupiter]

Congratulations, Starry!

[speedy gonzalez]

All the best Starry and fingers crossed Beena.
Ours is finally up for sale. Still plenty of bigger and smaller houses appearing at the moment but no medium sized ones. I keep thinking surely some must appear soon by people either wanting to move to one of the bigger houses or one of the smaller houses.

[speedy gonzalez]

Two viewings for Monday. Went on Rightmove yesterday evening and not doing viewings this weekend as Mr Speedy's birthday.

[emma_p]

That's good going, speedy. Good luck!

Well done Starry, do you have a move date?

Everything crossed for you Beena and Chicky

I realised that next week will be one year since we first viewed this house. It seems like it's gone so quickly and I have pretty much forgotten all the effort it took to get here.

[Starry]

Fingers crossed speedy!

We close on the 13th so all going well we will move that day and now I live in a house of boxes. Post for our buyer has started arriving here already.

Happy one year house-versary emma!

[speedy gonzalez]

Not long Starry. Must be such a relief to see the end in sight.
Did my usual wander round our preferred area yesterday. There's parts which are lovely and parts which are grim and you can't tell until you walk round. There was a stc which we liked the look of but when I walked round it was like the the two roughest estates in our town combined.
Then I found one which had a for sale board outside so discovered the road name and made a note of the house number.
Got home to find it was stc. Needs some painting and decorating & new flooring to make it look more youthful. Has a 35 metre long garden. However, loo is in a separate room from basin & bath. Really not sure about that. Although Mr Speedy has fallen for the garden and sent off an e-mail to the estate agents to contact us if it falls through as he's massively keen on it. Not very good at keeping his cards close to his chest!

[emma_p]

Are you on estate agents lists, Speedy? Pop in and talk to them as they know what’s coming on the market, or chains that have fallen through so will give you a heads up.