Buying a home and don't know how anything works

[Elpenor]

I was “between houses” from December to March this year and did 2 spells of living in an Airbnb studio flat - at 39 my days of sharing are long gone

 

[miss direct]

I was “between houses” from December to March this year and did 2 spells of living in an Airbnb studio flat - at 39 my days of sharing are long gone

I'll be 39 soon too and can't stand it. I actually told myself when I turned 30 that I'd never share again but it hasn't worked out that way.

Perhaps I can look into Airbnb. May be worth it for my sanity, but I have quite a lot of stuff and I'm not sure I can face moving twice in the space of a few months. I've already moved four times in the last 9 months think I have to grit my teeth and get on with it.

The guy upstairs in the shared house has thought it out a little better. He's an older guy going through a divorce. His room is the attic and very big, so he's got his own cooking stuff up there and he doesn't make use of any of the shared facilities. And he's high enough to not smell any of the stink from the kitchen.

 

[Elpenor]

I should have added that most of my stuff was in a friends garage so I just had a suitcase of clothes and my laptop bag - what would fit in the boot of my car basically

 

[marty21]

Leasehold is alright if you can buy the freehold, which you can on houses - not flats. Our previous owners did this - it was about £5 a year and they paid £30 or £300 or something to end it, not much. You would need to find out how much it is.

You can have joint freehold on flats, we share the freehold with the downstairs flat. In effect I lease my flat to myself, and I need to extend the lease to myself as it only has 70 or so years on it. Downstairs extended her lease to herself last year as she was selling her flat.

 

[miss direct]

I should have added that most of my stuff was in a friends garage so I just had a suitcase of clothes and my laptop bag - what would fit in the boot of my car basically

Yeah that definitely makes moving a lot easier. I dont drive so always have to rely on other people helping me and I think I'd better save the favours for when I'm actually moving into my own place.

 

[marty21]

I bought my slightly "tired" house with masses of enthusiasm to do it up. After a nightmare summer with builders on site permanently (when it wasn't raining ) who eventually abandoned the project my enthusiasm waned significantly. I don't regret buying it but I think I should have been more realistic about the time scale in getting everything done. It's easy to get carried away with plans to do EVERYTHING so I'd definitely think twice and make sure I had trusted tradespeople to do the work I couldn't do myself before embarking on a similar project. And, be prepared to live in a "nearly there" house for much longer than you may think.

My new neighbours bought the flat downstairs just before Christmas , they've only just moved in as they basically renovated the whole flat . Which surprised the previous owner as she had renovated it a lot herself in order to sell it. She also had the hump as the estate agent pushed for completion before Christmas as they were desperate to move in

 

[miss direct]

Solicitor still hasn't received the contract pack from sellers solicitors. Being chased. Still. FFS.

 

[quiet guy]

The big problem with conveyancing is that it is usually the part qualified legal associate rather than a qualified solicitor who deals with it. The solicitor will then just sign all the legal gubbins to make it official.

 

[miss direct]

Emailed solicitor and estate agent again today. Also had a walk around the hopefully new neighbourhood. The garden looks empty compared to when I viewed so hopefully the sellers are starting to pack up.

My rent day is the 6th so looks like I'll definitely be here all April too. I have to give four weeks notice on my current place. Feeling really unhappy here especially now it's hot and I'm stuck sleeping and working in one room.

 

[miss direct]

Why does the estate agent insist on phoning me? She calls when I'm teaching and I don't have credit to call back. Why can't people just email when I've EMAILED asking questions?

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Why can't people just email when I've EMAILED asking questions?

i'll ring you and tell you

 

[bimble]

Why does the estate agent insist on phoning me? She calls when I'm teaching and I don't have credit to call back. Why can't people just email when I've EMAILED asking questions?

This drove me MAD , same thing when I bought this place. He would always only phone unless I told him Please Put That In Writing. He’d constantly leave messages to call him back, never saying what about. I think in my case it was a mix of his troubled personality (he was drinking a lot I think, it was the first lockdown and all estate agents offices closed) but also he could wind me up pressure me and tell me unthruths on the phone, with no record.

 

[Elpenor]

I suspect estate agents don't like to commit things in writing. Can you call back via Skype?

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Also, there is a mentality in some business sectors of 'just pick up the phone'.

Next time you email the estate agent, include a sentence along the lines of 'I'd appreciate it if you would respond to my queries by email, as during the day I am teaching classes and can't answer calls.'

Many of their clients will be stay at home mums or women office workers or people in jobs where they can snatch a few minutes to make and take calls.

Sorry to be so sexist, but it is often women who have to do this kind of household admin/domestic labour, and many estate agents will have adjusted their expectations accordingly, expecting women to be able to drop whatever they're doing and work at the convenience of others.

 

[moonsi til]

With my recent move the vendors estate agents would call me weekly for a check in so not always with any news. In fact for the most part it was not with any news but I accepted as part of the process & each time I just maintained that I was keen to proceed.

 

[bimble]

Sorry to be so sexist, but it is often women who have to do this kind of household admin/domestic labour, and many estate agents will have adjusted their expectations accordingly, expecting women to be able to drop whatever they're doing and work at the convenience of others.

I did feel that this was at play, in my purchase, my being a female and not even a wife at that, just doing it all on my tod.
I think the agent felt that this made me more available and also easier to exploit emotionally (you really should raise your offer as there's LOADS of people who definitely want that house even in the middle of lockdown when nobody has seen it cos you live in it etc).

 

[Elpenor]

It’s a while since I briefly worked for an estate agent chain in a back office role but I’m fairly sure that the agents will have targets on certain metrics and these will probably be recorded via a phone system. So they’ll be incentivised to call you too.

I had a really good sale progressor when I sold my house so I underlined to him my key points (in my case it was that I needed 2 weeks between exchange and completion) and he could then relay it down the chain. As for phone calls, I got a weekly update off the agent and didn’t bother to chase at all as I was in no rush and my lesson from previous transactions was chasing causes me extra mental burden but doesn’t really

 

[miss direct]

Emailed her telling her that I'm usually teaching and can't get to the phone but she can call this morning or er, email...

Not a great start to the day in my shared house. I started growing some things in pots in the kitchen (my room doesn't get enough sun otherwise I'd grow them on my own windowsill) and some twit keeps closing the blinds all the way down, squashing my carefully grown shoots. Came down today to see it had happened again and one shoot was completely destroyed. Are people intentionally spiteful or just completely oblivious? I tugged the blind to open it and I suppose I was a bit too rough as the whole thing collapsed. So I expect there will be an argument later. Ugh.

Can't wait to be in my own place where I can actually dare to grow something on a windowsill without it being destroyed.

 

[moonsi til]

miss direct how far along are in terms of weeks from offer being accepted?

 

[miss direct]

5 and a half...I know that's not long, but as I've been told searches are taking abour four and they haven't even been submitted yet, its going to be dragged out much longer.

 

[miss direct]

Relocated my seedlings to my bedroom. If they die because of lack of sunlight I can take that, but if they die due to a housemate being a tit I might hit someone.

 

[moonsi til]

So hopefully you are at halfway point. It’s my understanding the average house move takes 12 weeks so I think that’s where to be aiming time wise but to keep checking/pushing.

Why haven’t the searches been submitted? Is that due to the contract thing? In my experience (bought 3 properties) the searches have always been completed very quickly & with recent purchase which I remember better the search results came back quickly too which gave me a false reassurance that all was moving but I didn’t realise mine & the vendors solicitor were playing lets see who backs down first over a right of way issue that put a couple of weeks onto the move.

 

[miss direct]

My solicitor doesn't want to submit searches until they have the contract pack, which is being delayed for some reason (last I heard or understood was that sellers hadn't done the fixtures and fittings form but couldn't really understand what the delay was as estate agent said something different.)

Due to covid (which seems to be blamed for everything in the last year, including things which have nothing to do with it), there are delays with searches.

As far as I understand, once the searches are back (assuming they don't unearth any dramatic news), its time to get on with it.

 

[moonsi til]

I don’t quite understand your solicitors plan but must be for a reason. Both me & my vendors were not using solicitors who were using electronic forms so their fixtures & fittings were sent to them in the post & were completed by pen then sent back but they were incomplete so back they went in the post but second time round they hand delivered!

I’m still confident that you are at halfway point.

 

[miss direct]

I don’t quite understand your solicitors plan but must be for a reason. Both me & my vendors were not using solicitors who were using electronic forms so their fixtures & fittings were sent to them in the post & were completed by pen then sent back but they were incomplete so back they went in the post but second time round they hand delivered!

I’m still confident that you are at halfway point.

I wish I had known/asked my solicitors about whether they used an electronic system. To be fair, all my docs were sent by email, but they sent me something by post which was annoying as I have a flatmate who throws my post in the bin.

 

[bimble]

My friend here who had her offer accepted what seems like really ages ago is still having to hassle the solicitors constantly for any news of a completion date, it’s driving her a bit mad, and costing her rent obvs.
I think that everybody (both sets of lawyers and the estate agents) working from home is maybe part of the problem people just aren’t as engaged, possibly.

 

[miss direct]

That makes no sense to me. No one involved gets their cut of the money until the job's done, so I would have thought that would make them hurry up. It's so irritating slaving away six days a week for my hourly rate and then seeing the way some highly paid professionals perform. So disappointing.

 

[bimble]

That makes no sense to me. No one involved gets their cut of the money until the job's done, so I would have thought that would make them hurry up. It's so irritating slaving away six days a week for my hourly rate and then seeing the way some highly paid professionals perform. So disappointing.

It’s money already in the bag for them all, your sale though. I don’t know, in friends case the solicitors are apparently using Fax to send stuff, then nobody receives their fax, madness, just email ffs.

 

[miss direct]

Pressed wrong button on my phone and somehow came across a voicemail from the estate agent (had no notification that I even had a message...) Anyway, she was updating me. Apparently the sellers have completed the forms they needed to, but this took a bit longer than expected as they were struggling with the online forms (suspecting they're older...not to stereotype older people!) And apparently they're annoyed with their own solicitor. The sale of this property fell through twice before my offer and they'd already done these forms. Oh well. At least it's nothing I'm supposed to be doing. (Amusingly, EA also said "I'll drop you an email as well...")

She sounded pissed off herself and said she's been chasing as everything's ground to a halt. It's not a big commission for her and considering this is the third time this property has gone through the sale process must be frustrating. Not as frustrating as it is for me though living in a madhouse...

 

[Boudicca]

One thing you could consider is dropping a note through the door of the vendors with your contact details. Some people do prefer not to have direct contact, but it could speed things up.