well, looks like my sale fell through

[definitelynotanagent]

Random anecdote from myself.

Agreed sale of the current house at end of lockdown (london suburb) - 500+k, to a buy-to-letter who apparently had a mortgage in place (already agreed in principle, allgedly). Agreed purchase of other place, and have so far spent roughly 3k on legal fees (sale + buy + home buyers survey + mortgage valuation).

 

Unfortunately it seems the buy-to-letter now can't get a mortgage because they had furloughed themselves through lockdown (director), so I think they lied re the mortgage in principle...

We didn't have any problems getting approved for another mortgage, but the furlough stuff presumably has put the buyer's lender off. House we were buying would have been 60% LTV and a mortgage of 2x combo salaries.

The annoying thing is we went with the BTL'er because they offered full asking price, and turned down an over asking price offer (+5k) from a FTB, because they sale was agreed 2 days prior to the FTB attempting to gazump, and it would have been morally bankrupt once sale agreed.

 

Going back on the market, but doesn't look like the market is as crazy as it was 7 weeks ago, for sure. If our purchase falls through, we'll probably move into rented for a couple of months (if we can find a buyer).

 

[qejunkie]

 

Random anecdote from myself.

Agreed sale of the current house at end of lockdown (london suburb) - 500+k, to a buy-to-letter who apparently had a mortgage in place (already agreed in principle, allgedly). Agreed purchase of other place, and have so far spent roughly 3k on legal fees (sale + buy + home buyers survey + mortgage valuation).

 

Unfortunately it seems the buy-to-letter now can't get a mortgage because they had furloughed themselves through lockdown (director), so I think they lied re the mortgage in principle...

We didn't have any problems getting approved for another mortgage, but the furlough stuff presumably has put the buyer's lender off. House we were buying would have been 60% LTV and a mortgage of 2x combo salaries.

The annoying thing is we went with the BTL'er because they offered full asking price, and turned down an over asking price offer (+5k) from a FTB, because they sale was agreed 2 days prior to the FTB attempting to gazump, and it would have been morally bankrupt once sale agreed.

 

Going back on the market, but doesn't look like the market is as crazy as it was 7 weeks ago, for sure. If our purchase falls through, we'll probably move into rented for a couple of months (if we can find a buyer).

 

What a pain. Sorry to hear this. 

The market in prime Herts has a very soft belly now. 

 

 

[PeanutButter]

Did the agent verify the mortgage in principle document? If not, the fault is with them. 

Either way, bit of a mess but plenty of rentals about if you do get another buyer. 

[definitelynotanagent]

 

Did the agent verify the mortgage in principle document? If not, the fault is with them. 

Either way, bit of a mess but plenty of rentals about if you do get another buyer. 

I'm assuming they didn't, where-as on our side we had to speak to the estate agent's preferred mortgage broker to verify finances (no pressure to take out mortgage with them, so I think it was genuinely a "check if they can afford it", vs a "let's get a kick back" type scenario).

There's no way our buyer would have got an agreement in principle having been on furlough, so I'm thinking they just made that bit up, because they had other mortgages already and assumed they could get another one.

 

[PeanutButter]

 

I'm assuming they didn't, where-as on our side we had to speak to the estate agent's preferred mortgage broker to verify finances (no pressure to take out mortgage with them, so I think it was genuinely a "check if they can afford it", vs a "let's get a kick back" type scenario).

There's no way our buyer would have got an agreement in principle having been on furlough, so I'm thinking they just made that bit up, because they had other mortgages already and assumed they could get another one.

 

Lesson in not to trust the word of BTLer I guess. 

[Hope_Prevails]

Sorry to hear that, I think EAs should be checking all funding is in place and fully validated before proceeding to best and final offers.

I am a cash buyer and was outbid (I offered asking price) by someone else.  I was not asked for proof of funds at any point.  I assume the other person has a mortgage they will be getting.

[GregBowman]

 

What a pain. Sorry to hear this. 

The market in prime Herts has a very soft belly now. 

 

 

Do you think so ? nothing much in my favoured spots Cuffley, Hertford, Brookmans Park not much on and what is very over priced

What would you call prime Herts ?

 

Edited September 25, 2020 by GregBowman

[goldbug9999]

Utterly bizzare that someone would buy for investment at what is obviously the top of the market. Dont understand why someone would buy now unless they had no other palatable option (which is the situation I am in).

 

[definitelynotanagent]

 

Utterly bizzare that someone would buy for investment at what is obviously the top of the market. Dont understand why someone would buy now unless they had no other palatable option (which is the situation I am in).

 

who knows - good things may still come of this if we manage to sell, and then go into rented until after stamp duty holiday ends (assuming no extension).

[TheCountOfNowhere]

 

Utterly bizzare that someone would buy for investment at what is obviously the top of the market. Dont understand why someone would buy now unless they had no other palatable option (which is the situation I am in).

 

They can save 3% on stamp duty

[goldbug9999]

 

They can save 3% on stamp duty

Makes no sense, prices are just bid up the extra 3%. Plus most likely the "holiday" will be extended indefinitely.

[TheCountOfNowhere]

 

Makes no sense, prices are just bid up the extra 3%. Plus most likely the "holiday" will be extended indefinitely.

I'm seeing 350K 4 bed houses ( worth around 200K when IRs are 5% ) from last year being listed for £600K this year!!!

[highcontrast]

3 hours ago, PeanutButter said:

Lesson in not to trust the word of BTLer I guess. 

Yep...selfish dodgy scum, the lot of 'em.

[PeanutButter]

 

Yep...selfish dodgy scum, the lot of 'em.

 *scratches at lizard skin*

[Will!]

 

Random anecdote from myself.

Agreed sale of the current house at end of lockdown (london suburb) - 500+k, to a buy-to-letter who apparently had a mortgage in place (already agreed in principle, allgedly).

 

Do you know what similar houses rent for?  If so then you can calculate what a maximally-leveraged BTL landlord could pay for it and thus what the likely ceiling on the price is.

[shlomo]

 

 *scratches at lizard skin*

Except you off course 

[mark hughes]

 

Random anecdote from myself.

Agreed sale of the current house at end of lockdown (london suburb) - 500+k, to a buy-to-letter who apparently had a mortgage in place (already agreed in principle, allgedly). Agreed purchase of other place, and have so far spent roughly 3k on legal fees (sale + buy + home buyers survey + mortgage valuation).

 

Unfortunately it seems the buy-to-letter now can't get a mortgage because they had furloughed themselves through lockdown (director), so I think they lied re the mortgage in principle...

We didn't have any problems getting approved for another mortgage, but the furlough stuff presumably has put the buyer's lender off. House we were buying would have been 60% LTV and a mortgage of 2x combo salaries.

The annoying thing is we went with the BTL'er because they offered full asking price, and turned down an over asking price offer (+5k) from a FTB, because they sale was agreed 2 days prior to the FTB attempting to gazump, and it would have been morally bankrupt once sale agreed.

 

Going back on the market, but doesn't look like the market is as crazy as it was 7 weeks ago, for sure. If our purchase falls through, we'll probably move into rented for a couple of months (if we can find a buyer).

 

Sounds like your property is reasonably priced if you had two offers, albeit one from an untrustworthy source, so with luck your property will again under offer again soon.

[definitelynotanagent]

 

Sounds like your property is reasonably priced if you had two offers, albeit one from an untrustworthy source, so with luck your property will again under offer again soon.

 

This is true, I don't think it's priced high compared to others in the area - if anything it's cheaper than some of the run-down houses it's in competition against. All the run-down houses sold as well, but no land registry data yet, so not sure how much they actually sold for.

 

[ebull]

Suggest you make sure the ftb is contacted. If you have their no or email diy. Logical to assume agent will make that 2 mins of effort. IME they will assume the ftb will see it on rm.

if the price is unchanged, it won.t be mailshotted so quite likely the ftb wouln.t notice. reducing price by 1k will get it sent to anyone with an alert set up too.

ea.s are often useless.

[Will!]

 

Sounds like your property is reasonably priced if you had two offers, albeit one from an untrustworthy source, so with luck your property will again under offer again soon.

Offers that can’t proceed mean nothing.

[definitelynotanagent]

Update on this again.

So we "SSTC" middle of November again, with the buyer being in a chain of two other properties.

Anyway, they've done surveys of our house, we've sent answers back to solicotors etc etc.

Sadly their buyer pulled out out of the blue, so now we're back on the market for round three (!!).

No chance of selling before SDLT ends, of course, but we're now keeping it on there anyway on the off chance that someone proceedable comes along. 

 

My feeling is that if prices fall (which I expect them to, but I've been proven wrong before), we will pull out of our purchase as well, as I don't want to pay bubble prices for the other house, and not get bubble price for my own.

 

So far we've spent IRO 3.5k on solicitors fees.

I'd have never thought it was this difficult to get a house sold tbh.

 

One point of interest is that rates on the loans offered are super low. 2 year fix at 1.29%, for LTV of 60%. The outstanding mortage would only be ca 2x combined income, but not sure if this affects the rates offered as such.

 

[definitelynotanagent]

Why can't I edit my post to fix the speling mistaix? Is it because i'm a newbie?

[winkie]

On 25/09/2020 at 11:27, Hope_Prevails said:

Sorry to hear that, I think EAs should be checking all funding is in place and fully validated before proceeding to best and final offers.

I am a cash buyer and was outbid (I offered asking price) by someone else.  I was not asked for proof of funds at any point.  I assume the other person has a mortgage they will be getting.

Nothing to do with EA....nobody has to give them any financial details, that is what the solicitors/ conveyancers do.

[Insane]

On 24/09/2020 at 17:12, definitelynotanagent said:

Agreed sale of the current house at end of lockdown (london suburb) - 500+k, to a buy-to-letter who apparently had a mortgage in place (already agreed in principle, allgedly). Agreed purchase of other place, and have so far spent roughly 3k on legal fees (sale + buy + home buyers survey + mortgage valuation)

All part of the disgusting way we buy and sell in this country. When I moved 2 years ago my place was under offer and I went looking for something new. There was not much about and viewing property is very time consuming. 

I agreed on a house that was on at £350,000 for £335,000 Barclays did a desk top valuation as I it was a 50% LTV mortgage offer was out in days. I had also instructed sols. Then I got a call from the agent saying that someone who had offered on the house prior to me but pulled out due to losing their buyer had come back and put a higher offer in , did I want to up my offer ?

After a heated conversation with agent I refused point blank and before slamming down the phone I said " I am ready we can do this in a few weeks let me tell you something that ex buyer will fall through again " Low and behold it did fall through. 

They eventually sold nearly a year later for £5,000 less than I was paying (checked on sold house prices) Karma. I did not spend much with sols or mortgage arrangements on that house I see you have lost £3,000 there should be something in place where if a sale is agreed and falls through the party that pulls out compensates the other party for lost money. 

[spyguy]

21 minutes ago, definitelynotanagent said:

Update on this again.

So we "SSTC" middle of November again, with the buyer being in a chain of two other properties.

Anyway, they've done surveys of our house, we've sent answers back to solicotors etc etc.

Sadly their buyer pulled out out of the blue, so now we're back on the market for round three (!!).

No chance of selling before SDLT ends, of course, but we're now keeping it on there anyway on the off chance that someone proceedable comes along. 

 

My feeling is that if prices fall (which I expect them to, but I've been proven wrong before), we will pull out of our purchase as well, as I don't want to pay bubble prices for the other house, and not get bubble price for my own.

 

So far we've spent IRO 3.5k on solicitors fees.

I'd have never thought it was this difficult to get a house sold tbh.

 

One point of interest is that rates on the loans offered are super low. 2 year fix at 1.29%, for LTV of 60%. The outstanding mortage would only be ca 2x combined income, but not sure if this affects the rates offered as such.

 

You are describing how the market in the North near me has been since ~2008.

Loads of buyers .... just very few who are liquid or lendable.