Be Excellent To Each Other

We are looking at a house today, it has no chain and has been left in a will to 2 people that live a few hundred miles away.

I have enough money to exchange on it whilst we sell our house (subject to survey and wife wanting to live there)

It needs a bit of work, new bathroom and the kitchen knocking out.

Any idea if its allowed for me to start the work before completion if I exchange and the fact house is empty? Or would I have to wait until I completed?

As far as I know, when you exchange it stops you from pulling out of the sale (without some serious penalties), but the house isn't yours until completion.

However, if you asked the people selling if you can get access once you've exchanged, you never know if they'll let you.

Got to say, I wouldn't.

That's what I thought but was thinking might be a chance of getting away with it as there are just 2 people waiting for a cheque at the other end

Guess their lawyer will say no, so best I can do is exchange early if we want it and take it off the market

It's possible to do, but you won't actually own the house until completion, and the current owners might be a bit funny about it. It'll be up to you and them to work out something on the side if you want access.
The delay between exchange and completion is usually a week or so though, and can be done on the same day if need be.

If you are thinking you can exchange, then sell your house and complete later, it's doesn't work like that You'll need to have sold your place if you want to exchange.

Also, bear in mind that any work you increases the market value, if you do a job that increases the value greater than the penalties for them pulling out, then why wouldn't they pull out and sell the house for the now increased value.

Really? I can't just send them the 10% whilst I sell?

If you exchange contracts you are promising to buy and complete on a certain date. If you are late, you start to pay interest on the balance. Compound interest I think, daily. Footballers are notorious for not completing on the right date.

If your place does not sell, then you are in trouble and it gets pricey very quickly.

Yeah, the sellers solicitor will not do an exchange unless you have proof of being able to complete on the agreed date. A house on the market but not yet sold isn't proof. As MaliA says, what happens if it doesn't sell?

We got our house valued today. Which is timely as we are looking at a house this afternoon. Hopefully we can shift this one on quick if needs be.

Has it gone up any? You've been in a couple of years now?

5%

Better than going down!

It was what I expected, at least.

Hope yours was better than mine, it was a big disappointment left me feeling much happier about where we live now

Will have extension drawings done for our current place this weekend so are going to see what that costs as well as how much chaos it brings

It was nice enough but I am not calling the bank to arrange things.

Looked at a few more but my wife has her foot down about area so they have all come to nothing

Our extension plan would involve us having to move out if we do the full scheme and with a baby planned for around the time we would realistically start work we are looking at doing part of it now.

We have a bungalow with 2 bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs so looking at increasing the upstairs bedrooms there so we have a room for baby number 2 and everyone is on the same floor

Then downstairs will be cosmetic changes and maybe a new kitchen or improve what we have.

Then do the extension part later.

Hoping we can get the upstairs stuff done this year and just live downstairs whilst that is going on.

Back to house looking again tomorrow

Money Pit

We looked at this (as in drove there) a month ago, I said no on cost and the fact the garden was smaller than ours is now

Agent tells me they have not had a single offer in 3 months, not surprising as they want 30K more that the Zoopla max price

If you look at the plan you can see they split the master bedroom in 2 so they can market it as a 5 bedroom place, also suspect that they want any buyer to suck up the cost of the bathroom and kitchen they have put in.

Wife really wants to live in that area, so will view it, think I will offer them 100K under asking as I don't really care that much about living there but would move if they bit at that price (which won't happen!)

The words Grade II Listed would be enough to put me off *anything*.

I looked a bit further and decided it is far to small for the 3 of us. Now we are going to look somewhere else which means we miss the cycling in York which has caused me annoyance.

Garden is really nice, is the space issue the ground floor or the bedroom access 2 floors?

It looks really nice, I would love as much space as that!

Downstairs space,really. 45 square metres.

We are extending now after a meeting re plans.

Subject to consent and costs within budget I can get such a better house for the money

Have to move out as I think there is only one wall in the whole house that will not been removed or altered

This was very nice.


the second place we looked around we might make an offer on. THe upsides are 4 bed detached old library. Downsides: small garden, no garage. The downstairs rooms though make up for that. I am conflicted.

Sounds interesting. And a lot of upheaval.

Its both!. Will have to start looking for places to live during the work and speak with some builders who have done work to friends houses

We will more than likely have a new born around the time work starts as well!

Hoping I can get some sort of home automation around lights and power sockets installed though!

We have exchanged, finally!

Whoop! Awesome news!

Looking forward to the house warming.

85% of asking price is a good starting point, isn't it?

Should be, around me (Berkshire) most people list expecting a 10% reduction

Would expect that they would give you 10% and maybe try and get 50% of remaining 5% back.

Of course if they are the type of seller I also have in my area that think of number and won't sell at any less or the house is really stand out and you have a fight over it things might not go to plan!

Ta. I am ummimg and ahhing over this place.

Depends on a lot of factors. how long has it been up for sale, what's the price of comparable property, how able are you to move quickly, are you a cash buyer, does the vendor need to sell, is there a chain, how annoyed would you be if someone outbid you, etc...
You can but ask though.

Check for the house and see if its listed on Zoopla

I find that Zoopla shows more detail like the amount its been reduced by (if applicable) and how long its been listed. This information is not always as detailed on Rightmove.

Also if its listed on Rightmove by more than one agent that will usually mean its been hard to sell or the seller wants a quick sale.

Hmm. We probably are not in a position to make a quick deal.

Aside from the first time buyer in you chain nobody else is really, and unless you are a first time buyer who is purchasing a house from probate or somebody emigrating is not that quick there either!

If you want to move, then best to get on with making offers etc, could be disappointment but you will get a house and move its all time!

Always stresses me then it just works out I find