Archived Entries - Moving House
Part 2: Confessions of a House Move - The Inside Story
After an anxious few days of waiting, our second offer has finally been accepted. The vendors initially rejected it, obviously hoping we would just keep on increasing our offer. We decided to leave it a few days and see what happened. Actually, we were so concerned that another potential buyer would view the house we had fallen in love with and offer more than us that we decided we would increase our offer to the full asking price. However, the waiting paid off and just before I called the agent to increase our offer, she rang me and asked in a worried tone if we were still interested. I read the signals and said that we were still interested but were not willing to increase our offer. Half an hour later she called back to say that the vendors would accept.
It's obviously a great moment when your offer is accepted, but it's best not to start celebrating until you put the key in the door as so much can go wrong. The first thing you have to do is chose a solicitor. In our case the estate agent recommended one that they use regularly. You could easily assume that this is because they get a cut of the fee which may be the case, but it is more than likely that they like to recommend one that they know from experience will do a good job. After all, they want the sale to complete smoothly as well.
It is worth negotiating on the solicitor's fee as in a tough market they will want your business. We told them we had received a much lower quote elsewhere (we hadn't) and they matched it immediately. Next begins the long process of waiting for all the searches to be done and signing documents. The other advantage we are finding of using a local solicitor is that you can easily drop off all the important documents by hand without having to rely on the postal service. The sale is unable to proceed any further until the solicitors have had some documents back so you don't want to be delayed by a postal strike. Our vendors have specified an exchange of contracts within 28 days of contracts going out which I am told is fairly standard. We will obviously be doing everything we can to ensure we meet this deadline.
Confessions of a House Move - The Inside Story
They say that moving house is one of the most stressful things that you do in your life. As a first time buyer trying to get on the first rung of the property ladder this year, I will be finding out if this is true over the next few weeks.
After spending years watching house prices climb every month at a rate faster than it would ever be possible to save, the recent property price crash probably came as a huge relief to most first time buyers. Initially as the market began to fall in 2007, some analysts said that it was not a property crash, merely a readjustment to realistic levels. As prices fell further and with the banking crisis and global economic downturn, the challenge became getting a mortgage agreed. In the height of the boom, banks were giving away mortgages to anyone who walked through the door, regardless of whether they were likely to be able to afford the repayments. Now they are far more cautious and most require a hefty deposit.
After spending several months looking on property websites such as Rightmove, my partner and I have finally found a house we liked the look of in the area we wanted. We went to the estate agent and arranged a viewing. We fell in love with the house straight away which I'd always been told you should never do as you risk lining yourself up for severe disappointment if things don't work out. Personally, I disagree with this and think that you should get a strong positive feeling from somewhere you're considering making your home and which is also the largest purchase you will ever make. The key is not to show the agent how keen you are.
We put an offer in the next day at a reasonable amount to show that we were serious but still a fair amount under the asking price. This was rejected straight away by the vendors who had no urgent need to move and were keen to get as close to the asking price as possible. The property has only been on the market 2 weeks and has already had several viewings. We were afraid that someone else would love the house as much as we did and better our offer so we got straight back to the agent with an increased offer. We now have the anxious wait to see if our offer will be accepted.
