House Buying Is More Stressful Than Divorce, Death or Bankruptcy

[Marth]

I wondered how much it would be.

Apparently I now need to have a fire risk assessment done. It's a legal requirement. Why am I only finding this out now, ffs?

It's not. Unless maybe you have a clad building?

[Toast]

It's not clad. It's a ground floor flat in a converted Victorian terrace. I can't find anything definitive but I've not done any proper looking yet.

[nineseven]

For flats I think the management company should already have one.

[Derek Nimmo]

Ah, makes sense for my large block of flats. I don't remember being asked for one 5 years ago when I sold my converted period place but times change I guess. Annoying to have it asked for later rather than sooner though.

[nineseven]

I seem to recall the flat owner who sold before me in around 2017-ish had to get one sorted when she sold, so fortunately it was already in hand.

[Marth]

I never had one or was asked for one.

[Estrella]

So many hoops to jump through. We’ve had to reduce our available credit as a condition of settlement (bank stipulation) so had to close two credit cards. That’s all sorted and our broker has confirmed discharge of our loan and settlement are booked in now.

Our new neighbours two doors up have just gone on the market for $250k more than what we have paid for a comparable property which is crazy.

MrE has been looking at what we need to do to dog proof when we get the keys too which wasn’t on my radar (we have electric gates which we will use to access and the fences are lower too).

[Skips]

I've reached out to a couple of mortgage advisers as I really need to be closer to work and J is getting worse so we're looking at flats within Gloucester. I don't know if we can afford to make it work as we were going to wait until 2024 when our help to save matures, but I figure putting the feelers out won't hurt.

[Skips]

That's good to know. We'd have a small amount of early repayment fees for our mortgage and also a loan I'd like to clear down as well as needing to pay for solicitors and moving so it may not be viable. But if we know what we could be loaned we can sit and play with numbers.

[Skips]

I've also booked for a property valuation to see what we could get for the house as it is. It would give us an idea of what we would be looking at in terms of deposit etc that's booked for next Monday which will hopefully mean we'll know if it's a yay or nay in a week or so.

[Lily]

Fingers crossed, Skips!

[Skips]

I think the mortgage chat went well, we're going to touch base after the valuation to see what's what and where we can go. I'm hoping for a two bed, but I think we're at the point if we can move to a one bed we will. My non negotiable is I want somewhere with parking.

[Edith Bacon]

That sounds positive, Skips. Everything crossed for a helpful valuation

[Estrella]

That does sound positive skips. I hope the valuation goes well.

We are pretty much set for everything here now. We’ve paid the “rent” for our early possession and that happens Friday. Removalists are booked for next week. We’ve packed pretty much everything except essentials. I need to do all our address changes but don’t want to organise that until settlement goes through but I have a spreadsheet

[Derek Nimmo]

I might be asking to have a squizz at that spreadsheet Est, as it looks like I could be in before Xmas I've just had the full final report from my solicitor today, have a couple of things to go through with her tomorrow, then we'll talk dates. I also had a call from my vendors' EA saying that they were almost there as well, so it's feasible that we can get this done before the end of the year.

It has genuinely been the smoothest process, and I can't recommend all of the EAs, my solicitor or surveyor enough - they've all just got on with it, and I've not had to chase anybody once. Remarkable!

(I still can't work out whether I'm excited or scared that I'm not going to like suburbia / taking on too much house for just me though Oh well, it'll all come out in the wash.)

[Livilla]

Congrats both of you! Fantastic to hear of two such smooth processes!

[Estrella]

That’s fantastic, Dez. Fingers crossed for a date soon. And more than happy to share the spreadsheet.

Today is pre-settlement inspection and early possession day (aka we get shown the house, how it all work, we confirm we are happy with condition and they hand over the keys)

[Derek Nimmo]

That's such a good idea - I'm quite sure I'm going to be bamboozled by the locks, the heating etc

Thanks Liv, I'm genuinely quite unnerved by the lack of stress so far!

[Toast]

I've exchanged! Almost! The vendor's solicitor wasn't available to fully confirm but we're really nearly there. My poor vendor's buyer is messing her about so she's going to move into her daughter's place so we can move on 7 December!

My vendor sent me an email this morning and as I was reading it I really thought she was going to tell me she was going to pull out because of what was going on but instead she said she'd get on the phone to her solicitor to get things in order for the 7th. I'm so relieved. And excited, too. I've just been going through the motions really not wanting to give it too much thought in case I jinxed it but I think I can relax now. I'm moving house in 10 days!

Great news for you, Derek. I'm glad I've only just read that though! It's taken me 15 and a half weeks to get this far!

And you sound like you're well on your way too, Est! Excellent work.

How are things going with you, Skips? I hope you've had some good news.

[Rosa]

This is an exciting thread right now!