Unlucky Again

[cornmillgirl]

As some of you may remember we had a trauma selling our last property, our estate agent said it was the longest conveyance on their books, just over 7 months and right up until the last minute, we thought it would fall through.

Anyway during that seven months we have been checking out possible purchases, had an offer accepted just over a fortnight ago, organised a survey etc. The surveyor emailed to say he could not get in with the keys he had been given. Next minute we got an email from the lady seller to say their circumstances has changed and it was no longer on the market. Very strange as we have heard nothing from the chap seller who had been our only point of contact up until then. The for sale sign has gone as well (private sale).

We dont seem to have much luck with houses, the house we are house-sitting is like a meat locker, its warmer outside the heating is that useless, I had to blitz everything clean like the washing machine, dish-washer, extractor hood and oven before I could use it

I need to hear some happy house buying stories, so has anyone got any?????

[GillD46]

Gosh 7 months is nothing - we moved in December having had our house on the market for 17 months and lost over £100,000! Our new home was in a similar condition to your temporary abode, though is in the process of relieving us of many tens of thousands of pounds and will be very nice when we've finished - in about 4 months I'd guess.

Be positive, if you're cash buyers you're in a great position and I'm sure it will all come right for you eventually.

[Boris+]

Oh don't put me off - I'm trying to gather some enthusiasm for looking at another house in the not too distant future.

However, so far I've been so lucky that my heart just goes out to anyone who has hiccoughs.

Em

[Kenmo1]

Funnily enough Cornmillgirl, I was only thinking about you yesterday. We are in a chain of 3, received offer first week put on market in December and found bungalow we like. Should have exchanged yesterday but people buying ours have one more piece of paper to produce and hopefully we exchange today with the intention of completion on Friday 15th Feb. I am a wreck - goodness knows what you were like after 7 months. We are having to pack everything because of short completion notice. I feel like those hoarders you see on TV with all the boxes piled up. I keep joking that one day we will be found under a pile of boxes if they fall over. We need to start dismantling wardrobes etc but until we get that exchange phonecall we are not doing that. You have my admiration that you got through 7 months without a total breakdown. We have not moved for 33 years and I will never move again.

[cornmillgirl]

GillD46

Hope your renovations go okay. We were different to you in that our house was only on the market 7 weeks when we accepted an offer but the actual conveyance itself was 7 months, our buyers tried to gazunder us three times (tried to reduce our price) and right up until exchange we were unsure whether it would all go flat. We were also lucky in such a slow market but the area we live house prices are actually, IMO, inflated so we got a damn good price, more than the estate agent said we would. We are cash buyers in a very good position so its onwards and upwards.

Boris - dont be disheartened - sure all house stuff is not so frustrating, you do have to have nerves of steel though!

Kenmo1 - yes we held our nerve. You sound similar to us, I had boxes packed up all over the house, pictures and mirrors bubble wrapped since early Septbmer of last year (exchange was supposed to be early October, when we returned from a cruise, it was the day before Christmas Eve when it finally happened). Hope all goes well for you, let me know how things go for you next week, I will keep my fingers crossed for you.

[GillD46]

Ah, yes I see, my mistake.

On our last sale/ purchase, we exchanged and completed on the same day, that was pretty hairy. This time, the whole conveyancing took less than a month and we had a whole 2 days between exhange and completion, but we never pack ourselves, so all that part was taken care of by the removal company.

Good luck anyway.

[Kenmo1]

Hooray, hooray, hooray. We have just had the phone call to say exchange has taken place ready for completion on 15th. Mind you, have just read in local paper that roadworks are going to be causing traffic problems outside our new place from 24/2/13 for one month - that will teach us to move from a deadly quiet cul-de-sac to a main road on the Isle of Wight. Thanks for your good wishes, Cornmillgirl. Hope things soon sort themselves out for you.

[cornmillgirl]

Kenmo1
Isnt that a lovely phone call, relief sets in. Sure you will be able to put up with roadworks for a month at least you know when they end. All the best with the move, I will let you know how we fare in the future.

[Boris+]

Here's a plan - whilst the roadworks are busy being noisy get any noisemaking of your own done and dusted.

Meanwhile - congrats and hope you are happy in your new home.

Em

[The Invigilator]

Cornmillgirl I can't believe how much bad luck you have had, keep your chin up honey and will keep everything crossed for you that it all gets sorted soon xx

[cornmillgirl]

The Invigilator

Cheers for that, us northern lasses are made of stern stuff! mind you there has been a lot of commiserating followed by celebrating then back to commiserating with large glasses of wine

[kaymar]

That's the answer, cmg - plenty of good wine. And remember, everything will be all right in the end, and if it is not all right, then it is not yet the end.

[Romig1]

Hooray, hooray, hooray. We have just had the phone call to say exchange has taken place ready for completion on 15th. Mind you, have just read in local paper that roadworks are going to be causing traffic problems outside our new place from 24/2/13 for one month - that will teach us to move from a deadly quiet cul-de-sac to a main road on the Isle of Wight. Thanks for your good wishes, Cornmillgirl. Hope things soon sort themselves out for you.

Congratulations Maureen. Hope the move all goes well from here.

BTW...I didn't think there were any main roads on IOW??

[Kenmo1]

Thanks, Rob. Will send you details once we move. Can't take our phone number with us and will be without broadband for at least a week, so no forum, as we gave short notice to broadband supplier. The main road is one of those that leads into Newport and becomes one way when the pop festival is on. At least we won't be bored - we have found this cul-de-sac increasingly quiet as all the original occupiers get older and we see less and less of people. It needs some younger families moving in. But we have been extremely happy here for 33 years.

[Kenmo1]

GillD46 - re exchange and completion on the same day. All I can say is that you must have nerves of steel. There is no way I could have coped with that. Even up to the phone call on Friday, I was on edge waiting for something to go wrong. The only thing keeping me sane was that we have never been unhappy living here and if it had all fallen through, it wouldn't have been the end of the world. It must be awful for people who have to sell because of a move for a job etc. The only reason we wanted to make the move to a bungalow now was because we wanted to do it while we were healthy and secondly, we knew if we didn't do it soon we knew we wouldn't have any money left for old age because we keep spending it on cruises !!

[Wina G]

Good to hear that it all went well Maureen, it must have been such a relief to get the phone call

Hope the move goes smoothly, I think you'll then need a cruise to help you both recover have you any planned yet for this year? x

[Kenmo1]

Hi Wina - thanks for the good wishes. Once the move is over and we are reconnected, we might start looking around. We want to do the Baltic or the Black Sea this year. My sister is doing the Baltic on May 21st so might turn up and surprise her again but it just seems slightly early for the weather. I think we will probably look for one in June.

[Wina G]

We did the Baltic in early May 2010 & we had fantastic weather so don't let that put you off, do you think she'd be surprised again?

We're on Azura doing Western Med late April, we booked it to coincide with my birthday while we're away

[Kenmo1]

We did the Baltic in early May 2010 & we had fantastic weather so don't let that put you off, do you think she'd be surprised again?

We're on Azura doing Western Med late April, we booked it to coincide with my birthday while we're away

I think my sister probably has got wise to us now and it wouldn't be such a surprise but if it is the only way we can get to spend some quality time with her then we may well try do it. I don't see her now since she took her mother in law up to Sheffield to live with her so it may be our only chance to see each other. Good to hear that the weather is reasonable in May so that might encourage us to think about it. Hope you enjoy your Azura trip - a lovely way to celebrate a birthday. Maureen x.