Q: Hi,
Apologies his naiive, but I could really use some help from some buyers experience.
We are currently in the process of ownership for our first home. We are at the bottom of a chain – there is our supplier and one person above that – no idea if anyone even higher, but Im bullying the agent. So my questions are:
1) Should I establish a date this early Exhange? My lawyer seems reluctant at this stage due to the chain. I live in rented accommodation and all they really need an idea of notice.
2) Should I sort of building and life / critical illness at this stage even though I have not échange or end date? I have very mixed reviews so far and I am confused!
3) also have a few friends advised me to go beyond the research and have the electrics and the boiler checked prior to exchange. Has anyone done this, and if so, how much does it cost? On a very tight budget!
Many thanks in advance for your help, this forum really helps.
There is logic in this. I wouldn't really advocate being pessismistic because I believe that you can control your own fate to a great degree. But when you are buying and selling houses, people don't seem to realise that they actually have very little control over what happens. In that situation it is better to go with the flow whilst communicating regularly with your solicitor and estate agents.
Hassle your solicitor once a week, otherwise you'll never know what's going on.
Nothing is guaranteed until you have the keys in your hand, but once exchange happens you're in a much better situation. Up until exchange I try to stay a bit pessimistic as anything could happen (especially with a chain), although at the same time you need to be organised and prepared.
We have bought and sold once, both times with no chain at all, and the buying took 6 months because of a useless solicitor and we had one sale fall through when selling. The latest sale we didn't even know they were waiting for us to exchange as our 'sales progressor' at the estate agents went on holiday for two weeks and didn't tell us the buyers had paid the deposit.
With the buying we had a gap of about two months where we just didn't hear anything. Then suddenly we exchanged and completed in a week. If everyone keeps on their solicitor' backs a bit it helps the whole process go through a lot better.
This probably sounds very negative but I've found it's far better to assume the bad side of things to avoid disappointment if it does go wrong. Plus when it goes right it's a really good feeling.
I'm sure you're eager to get moving but we see so many FTBs on this board being put in stressful situations because they were too optimistic and gave notice.
As a conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful but I accept no liability except to fee-paying clients.
we're having a HB report, so thanks, will wait to see the results of that before doing anything else. thank you!
I'm sure you're eager to get moving but we see so many FTBs on this board being put in stressful situations because they were too optimistic and gave notice. It's impossible to know how long it will take you to get to exchange so just set yourself up sensibly so that you can't be disappointed!
2) I get building insurance in place from exchange day. There's no reason why you can't sort out your insurance now. My policies aren't linked to the mortgage, they just pay out if I'm sick/dead so having them set up a few weeks early won't exactly hurt and you'll be able to provide evidence to your lender if they ask for it.
3) What kind of survey have you gone for? If it's a homebuyers then your surveyor will flag if he thinks they need looking at. If you're only having a mortgage valuation – why?! I'd only say just go with a mortgage valuation if the property still has it's new build guarantee.