Buying a house

[syl]

Buying a house is a PITA!

Travel 100 miles, stay for the weekend in a hotel and trog around looking at houses. Then do the same again two weeks later (but get stuck on motorway for 2 hours after nipping on to it to go one junction down the road). Every single house has something about it that seriously puts me or the wife off (postage stamp sized garden, lack of garage, bedrooms like a matchbox, railway running 10 feet from side of house, needs 50k of modernisation, etc).

Has anyone got any good stories to tell about buying a house? Or any absolute horror stories?
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Current bike: Kawasaki Z750S

[Whosthedaddy]

In short no.

Looking at houses is worse than selling yours in my opinion, what an experience or waste of time it can turn out to be.

We have never managed yet to sell or buy a property without some sort of problem of one kind or another.

After losing our buyers 3 times and losing the property we had our hearts set on we are now selling our property as no onward chain and we will move into rented.

Anything for a quick and painless sale.

So far so good, lets hope we exchange soon
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Current : MSX 125 Past : CBR 900RR Monkeybike : c50 LAC : ZXR750 H2 : FZR600 : ZX7R P3 : YW100 : TRX850: Trophy 900 T309 : GSXR 600 L0: Monkeybike : XJ6S Whosthedaddy

[Ste]

[Paivi]

Started to look early June, saw one place Thursday, 14 June, made an offer the next day, approved Monday, 18th. Mortgage approved Wed, 20th. Survey booked for next Wednesday, 4 July, with delay caused by the flat not having been finished yet, as it's in a new development. Exchange and completion expected the week after.

You've got to be fast in this business!
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My other bike's a Monster...

[yambabe]

Similar story to me then Paivi.

I saw my house empty and up for sale as I walked the dog past it one Sunday afternoon.

Got the stuff from the estate agent the next day and realised I could afford it, arranged an appointment to view on the Friday. Estate Agent rang me on the Thurs to say a couple had been to see it on Wed and made an offer but it was below the asking price so the seller wasn't happy. Went on Fri, looked at it, offered the asking price there and then which was accepted the next day. This was the first week in November.

Sorted mortgage & survey within a week, did searches, slight hiccup because despite the house not being in a mining area one of the previous owners had tried to claim it had subsidence through one of these "no win no fee" law firms who had knocked on his door, sorted that eventually, exchanged contracts on the 2nd Dec and was all moved in by the 6th, so the whole process took 5 weeks start to finish.
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Sod falling in love, I wanna fall in chocolate.

[Annabella]

As first time buyers we were able to move fairly quickly and viewed a house, had the offer accepted and were a week away from exchanging when the vendors pulled out.

We had paid for a buyers' survey which was particularly expensive and Jon had put notice in on his rented house.

So that left us in a bit of a pickle. Luckily we managed to rent a room with a friend of Jon's and look for somewhere else. There was an empty house just around the corner that was cheaper and the advert had a bike on the drive ("it's a sign").

Had the asking price offer accepted and thought we'd be able to move pretty quickly because of it being empty... oh no. One half of the separating couple had disappeared to America and was proving difficult to contact. It looked like we would have to go through court, a process that could take anything up to six months.

Miraculously he made contact and after some irritating mistakes made by our mortgage lenders we were in within two weeks \o/
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Avast! Pirates ahoy!
I did Cadwell!
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[owdamer]

uying my house was pretty straightforward, The couple who lived here previously had px'ed the house for a new one with some developers. The only problem we had was getting a date for moving in. They were waiting for their new house to be completed, but no one seemed to be able to give a positive date. 10 days before xmas I was told I could probably be able to move in at the end of the week, but they wouldn't promise it. They didn't manage to give me a definate yes until the day before. I was told that the money would be transferred and I could have the keys at 1.00pm.
My g/f was still sharing a house with her ex at the time, and to avoid him doing anything stupid she didn't tell him she was moving out. We just went in after he had left for work and loaded all her possesions up in a van, then drove to the house I was buying expecting to be able to start unloading. So much for that idea. The couple who were moving out hadn't even bothered to have the day off. Just the afternoon. They hadn't even packed. When we arrived all their furniture was stil in the house!. tossers. We ended up having to move our stuff in as they were moving theirs out.
To make matters worse they had a woman helping them who had just come from some stables, she trot all straw and shit into the carpet, and just to piss us off more they even took away the doormat that the stupid cow had not wiped her feet on.
They couldn't get their kingsized bed down the stairs and as I wouldn't let them remove the bannisters they first offered to sell me the bed for £50 then eventually decided to leave it in the spare room until the next day when they said they would come back and dismantle the bed.
The next 2 days they kept saying they were too busy, so I sawed the bed into pieces and phoned them to tell them I had managed to get it downstairs. The guy turned up withing 30 mins to collect it. His face was a picture when he saw what i'd done. He said the bed cost him £600 and he wanted paying for it. i pointed out that the mattress he had removed looked like it was stained with piss, and that he had offered to sell us the bed for £50. He then said he wanted £50. I informed him he could go fuck himself and he stormed off saying that he was going to speak to his solicitor.
We did get a phonecall a few days later from the developers, they said that he had complained and that I would have to compensate him. I pointed out to them that it was none of their business and if they wanted to push the matter then I was going to speak to my solicitor about some internal damage that had been done between me viewing the house and actually moving in. Never heard anymore about it. The developers went bust about a year after.

[Louise]

OH has just brought a modernised bungalow.
Wasnt keen on the 'bungalows' but this was pretty nice through out.
They were house hunting for weeks. Looked at over 30 places, I went and had a look at 2 (Then got bored and went home)
Some of the houses were so small but the price was so high.
Finally went with the bungalow £227K - top end of the budget, both her and Stu will be skint for a while
All went through ok except the brokers buggered up on the DD sheet. Had 24 hours before the deal was to be closed, if they hadnt got the sheet back in time the whole thing would of been called off to a later date. They only had a week left in the old place, so had to travel some 60ish miles to sign the sheet.

[pa_broon74]

Buying a house?

Where is this mythical affordable object of which you speak?



(I went to B&Q yesterday, I couldn't even get a garden shed )

[pwntifex]

227k for a bungalow!
Christ almighty.
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the warped one: This is a follow up from the thread 'my willy hurts'

[Mal]

Sian and I are in the process of buying a place. She accepted an offer on her place on the 8th June and put an offer in on a no-chain house the following week. This was accepted, so we started organising solicitors etc. Then Sian's buyer phoned on a Saturday lunchtime to say she was going to have to pull out as she couldn't get the deposit together. Notified the person we were buying from and then started phoning estate agents to get the house on the market. Monday afternoon she phones back, having managed to source the money from elsewhere.

All goes smoothly for a couple of weeks, mortgage is agreed no problem, start looking for prices to hire a van and try and work out when we want to move. We were hoping to move the end of July, but were told this week that our solicitors still haven't had all the searches etc back yet, so we're not likely to be able to. Then the person whose house we're buying calls to say he's now found a house he wants to buy but it's not going to be finished (new house) until the end of August!

Oh well, at least we haven't told the solicitors there's no rush, so they can do all the work asap and we can exchange contracts nice and early so I can actually organise a van, cancel bills etc.....

[flat spot]

Buying my house was straightforward. It's my family home, and as the old dear had moved to Oz, I was the seller. I sold it to myself.

[WildGoose]

no chain for ours, but there were still any number of annoying cock ups which delayed everything

mostly unhelpful solicitors on the side of the seller, both our estate agents and solictor were top notch, and couldnt do enough for us

survey was a generic one, knowing a bit about them now, unless you go the full whack for a survery, they arent worth a toss. Anyone with eyes and basic common sense can do just as good a job, we have since found lots of stuff that needs sorting that the survey didnt even mention, bear in mind a survey is only interested in assuring that the house is worth the asking price, and that the mortgage company want to know they can get their money back on it. Anything for the buyers peace of mind needs to be paid for above and beyond.

mortgage was sorted in a few hours one evening, although the advisor didnt make a good impression, she did what was needed, all happened far too quickly

told our landlord that we were looking, and gave him the full notice. When we were getting closer and closer to moving, he got more and more shirty, started demanding this that and the other.

so we moved out the first evening we got the keys for the new place and didnt tell him, moved our stuff in two cars slowly over the rest of the week, and rented a van for the big stuff at the weekend. Paid him the amount of rent to the day, that we had occupied the house for that month. I don't agree with paying anything more than you have used, and our tenants contract was 6 months out of date, so despite getting shirty he didnt have a leg to stand on.

Physically moving your stuff, and fitting it in etc etc is the most stressful part.

Funniest moment..Installing the washine machine in the new place, realised the tap valve was nackered so couldnt stop the water, and not knowing where the master water stop cock was, I had to do a kind of 'combat' switch from the old machine that came with the house, onto our own with high pressure water pissing out everywhere. Got it on without filling the kitchen up with water, just. Still gave everything including myself a good soaking in the process though.

Definately my finest moment.

In truth, the OH sorted most of the house moving paperwork and the like. I was very lucky to have someone who had already been through the whole process many times before.
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So in other words, he stopped you for being flagrantly in posession of a motorcycle in direct contravention of the Hippies, Darkies and People Whose Face I Don't Like The Look of (Police Powers) Act. 1976

[greatmoorred]

My sale went through pretty quickly as i was a 1st timer, so i had no chain with me.
The only problem is the house next door is owned by a couple who are VERY NOISEY in the mornings, and make strange noises at weekends, so once i kil them it'll be great.

[syl]

Well, haven't found one and have to move, so I'm going to rent one instead.

Selling a house is a PITA too. And it's all so f*cking expensive! I'm apparantly fairly well paid, so I really don't know how some people manage.

At least one benefit of not having sold the old place yet is that I can just hire a van and make several trips myself over a weekend. That'll save a couple of thousand (yes, that's what they wanted).
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Current bike: Kawasaki Z750S

[thegubner]

What the fuck is PITA?

[Mr.Everready]

[thegubner]

Ahhhh.

[scorps]

put mine on the market on the thursday, got an offer on monday, took 8 weeks all together as the buyers were on holiday for a couple of weeks in that time, at the minute we are renting, fab views right on the coast but no garage and a smaller cottage complete with garage and conservatory and garden is empty 3 doors down and the owners who have seperated are coming here tomorrow to talk about renting it to us, we have to let the agency here know in 2 weeks if we want to continue renting so if the price is right we can just move into that place on a long term rent, the deal is we are wanting to buy here and will be keeping our fingers crossed that after a while the owners will want to sell as part of the divorce settlement so we will offer hopefully, if not then we re happy to rent till we have to leave or something else comes up
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Do not presume that I am male.

[MarJay]

[Itchy]

What buy a house are you kidding? , home owners have their feet glued to the ground, I am actually virtually in a position to buy a house myself as I'm finally climbing out of the crap wage zone.

Though not an average house ie 229K probably one of those 75K ones which DO exist btw just in some less scenic parts of town which I have seen quite a few.

But as said feet glued to the ground and I've seen far too many people work deadly unpleasant jobs just to keep paying the mortgage.

Call me an arse but I seriously can't see properly prices x15 average pay sustainable, I was doing some accounts this woman was paying £2900 a month off her 200K mortgage, they added £860 of interest every month, she barely made a dent in the mortgage at the end of the year. And £2900 a month is no small pocket change £34800

OK the alternative isn't great either ie renting, but some of the sums involved are unbelievable.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[LeeR]

Frankly I'm amazed anyone can afford to buy a house...
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My claim to fame: Austin Vince nicked my pen...

[Duckyboos]

Hmm.... I work for a law firm and this is my day job. I was expecting there to be some serious slagging-off of solicitors but seemingly not

It's can be a sh:t job from my end too, I often think I'll probably die from a work-related heart attack. It's hard to keep some people happy and 99% of what we get the blame for is out of our control *sob*

I call my office the Hotel California... you can check out any time you like...

[trevoriv]

Finding somewhere decent to live on your own is proving to be a bit of a pain, im not on megabucks but I get a decent wage but even in the sh!thole that is Bolton i'm struggling to find anywhere that i'd like to live that is within my maximum potential mortgage.

If I was buying with someone else on a similar wage then i'd / we'd be looking at nice quarter of a mill houses, which in Bolton gets you quite a lot of house.

Depressing :/
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Past: '96 Thundercat, '02 ZX636R (A1P), '58 KTM 690 SM LC4 Current: '06 ZX636R (C6F)
Mudskipper wrote: Someone just has to sig that...

[Paivi]