[sdm]

They're the ones saving £10k in stamp duty!

Not really. The stamp duty holiday is factored in to the market price.

[kac]

I wouldn't be to worried about one house selling for a lower amount. Say this sale fell through are there other properties you could buy at a price similar to the one 20k less. You need to have a look at what the average prices have been factoring in there looks to be a bit of a bubble at the moment. I also wouldn't worry too much about the agent not to taking it off the market, agents are often slow doing this. Presumably the worry is someone else would out bid you. In which case you would at least know you didn't offer too much! I think its hard to buy a house without having the horrible feeling that you might be paying too much. Id do a bit more research on other prices and perhaps whether the agent usually values high or goes to sealed bids. Good luck with it.

[remus]

PS I think surveys are shit.

Out of interet, why is that?

We're getting close to completing on a property and just realised we haven't had a survey done (cock up because of having to swap solicitors, had a survey through the first solicitors and didn't sort it with the second solicitors). I'd like to get a survey done but it could have a knock on effect on the completion date.

[spidermonkey09]

Presumably because they tend to justify their own existence by finding trivial things wrong with the house? Obviously there is a chance it might find something bad but if the house has been lived in consistently and isn't visible falling down anything it finds is more likely than not to be standard wear and tear, no? Full disclosure that I personally have not bought a house and so don't particularly know what I'm talking about, just experienced a lot of moves as a kid (8 houses before I was 18!), but my dad is a builder and is much more capable of assessing a house than most people (me included!) I suppose.

[mrjonathanr]

I have been impressed with the surveyors we have used, confident they did a good job. Always a full building survey by RICS surveyor or an engineer though, the extra cost seems trivial when you're spending  £100,000s

[dunnyg]

We had a survey, I thought they were pointless, but ours found a load of woodworm. Cost of treatment could vary from a few fuck alls, to many many fuck alls. Got a specialist going in this week to let us know the cost. If its big then I'd want to know that before completing the purchase. For the sake of <1k seems mad not to have one (unless you are a surveyor of some kind). I'm sure they will have missed something major, but at least we know about this thing.

Wear and tear is one thing, but replacing all the roof timbers would be fairly spenny....

Just to add, informal chat with the surveyor was also really useful.

[Sidehaas]

PS I think surveys are shit.

Out of interet, why is that?

We're getting close to completing on a property and just realised we haven't had a survey done (cock up because of having to swap solicitors, had a survey through the first solicitors and didn't sort it with the second solicitors). I'd like to get a survey done but it could have a knock on effect on the completion date.

In my experience surveys (at least on older houses) always raise issues and they are generally not problems. The surveyor generally wants to cover their back without going to too much effort if something is hard to investigate properly. I have never negotiated money off on the basis of one, nor would have considered reducing the price of my house for someone else's. Even when they tell you something is important, it is usually just the sort of thing that would be common to every single house on the street.  However, if you are lucky your surveyor might be willing to talk off the record with you about whether anything he recorded is something he would actually consider important if he were buying the house himself. That's what I did last time around and it was a really useful chat. The survey is also a good way to identify things you might want to keep an eye on if you plan on living there long term, even if you don't need to do anything about it in the short term.
If you are buying a new ish house then the situation might be very different.

[tomtom]

PS all surveys are shit

We may regret not getting a surveyor - but for our impending purchase we paid £5-600 for a local engineer to come around and give it a good look. He spent half a day going over the house and I was able to chat through loads of things/issues. He knew the local housing stock - and this type of (Victorian) house too.

Much more useful than a stuffy survey where if they’re not sure of anything they just say - get an engineers report....

He picked up loads of things about the construction - odd details on the wall cavities and- loads and loads of details that would normally be missed I suspect.

I did the same when I bought a house in Hull (with some ‘settlement’ in the foundations - that all the Victorian houses have there..). Cheapest survey possible to cover the mortgage - and £300 for a local engineers report.

[Paul B]

Presumably because they...

No, because they caveat everything to a point their output is barely of value IMO.

I'll caveat this ( ) with the fact we're both engineers so feel pretty comfortable with the risk involved.

[Bradders]

PS I think surveys are shit.

Out of interet, why is that?

We're getting close to completing on a property and just realised we haven't had a survey done (cock up because of having to swap solicitors, had a survey through the first solicitors and didn't sort it with the second solicitors). I'd like to get a survey done but it could have a knock on effect on the completion date.

Well technically the only survey you have to have is usually the one required by your mortgage provider  to value the property. Anything else is up to the buyer, so you could chance it.

Having recently pulled out of a purchase on the strength of the building survey, I'm in favour of them. Turned out to be a very good decision.

That's another point worth considering Ali - if you're worried about over-paying, but love the house, see what the mortgage and building surveys come back with as a valuation. If your offer is too high the mortgage provider is unlikely to want to lend unless the price is lowered.

[Sidehaas]

Bear in mind the mortgage provider is only really looking at whether the house is sufficient value to pay off the mortgage, not whether you are getting a good deal. So if you have say a 25% deposit from selling a previous house, you'd have to be overpaying by 25% before they pulled you up on it, very roughly.

[spidermonkey09]

Wear and tear is one thing, but replacing all the roof timbers would be fairly spenny....

Fair point! Hopefully he finds some sound wood up there for you...

I think the point about old houses is really relevant. If you aren't used to them I bet some people get scared shitless by a survey.

[dunnyg]

Yeah, the list of defects as pretty comedy, but the wood was the only real problem, the rest is just standard 60s house.

Slight aside, after the survey we enquired why there was tape on one of the window frames, thinking it might be knackered. Turns out the kid had a taped a rainbow up there 

[mrjonathanr]

Sorry if my earlier comment seemed unhelpful- having been thoroughly messed around by a dishonest buyer I have very little time for people who don't keep their word. Having a chat about the price if you feel you've pitched it too high isn't that though! Good luck with your purchase.

[Paul B]

Having recently pulled out of a purchase on the strength of the building survey, I'm in favour of them. Turned out to be a very good decision.

Can I ask what the issue was?

[Bradders]

Can I ask what the issue was?

In very simple terms we knew the house needed work, but the survey showed up a lot more than we'd bargained for (I.e. not just general wear and tear type renovations and modernisation), along with indicating we'd offered £10k too much based on the surveyor's valuation.

Biggest issue was very high damp levels throughout the whole house, but generally we just weren't prepared to take on a project.

It was a good decision because a couple of weeks later we basically found our dream house, with no work needed beyond minor redecorating, which I'm now writing this from 

[tomtom]

A former GF got the surveyors to pay for £3k worth of work post purchase as they'd missed something quite obvious (a hole in the cellar wall to the adjoining proporties!!)

[James Malloch]

We just moved into our first house, in Skipton, yesterday (YYFY!). We used Hornes Surveyors in Shipley who we were recommended and thought it was well worth the money for piece of mind. We got a few things fixed by the sellers off the back of it too.

https://hornes-surveyors.co.uk/

We also had the “we will take it off the market thing too”. They did cancel the viewings and didn’t take more but for us (if I remember right) they considered the offer to be when they had proof of mortgage in principle before they actually took the property off their website/Rightmove.

You could always get someone to ring up and try to book a viewing if you’re worried they’re still offering it out.

[Nibile]

Completely off topic. Today my parents moved out of the house that my brother and I spent our whole childhoods in.

Interesting thoughts. I feel completely at the opposite regarding my parents' house.
Years and years of problems with the other owners in the same building, led to broken personal relationships (with relatives...), bad blood, complete inactivity and lack of proper maintenance, even lawsuits.
And now I have to solve all this on their behalf.
I completely lost the little bond that I had with it, and I personally think that a house is much more than a pile of bricks only because of the people in it and their relationships.
If I could, I'd sell it tomorrow.

[tomtom]

Got to admit I have no emotional attachment to our childhood home....

[36chambers]

Can I ask what the issue was?

In very simple terms we knew the house needed work, but the survey showed up a lot more than we'd bargained for (I.e. not just general wear and tear type renovations and modernisation), along with indicating we'd offered £10k too much based on the surveyor's valuation.

Biggest issue was very high damp levels throughout the whole house, but generally we just weren't prepared to take on a project.

It was a good decision because a couple of weeks later we basically found our dream house, with no work needed beyond minor redecorating, which I'm now writing this from 

We went through a similar situation. Put an offer in on a house which needed quite a bit doing to it. Surveyor was like "this house is actually f**ked" (it had had major DIY extensions...), he even said to my partner something like "off the record, but if you were my daughter I'd advise you don't buy it."

Shortly afterwards we came across a house significantly better in every way, which we've been in for 2 weeks now

[RobK]

We went through a similar situation. Put an offer in on a house which needed quite a bit doing to it. Surveyor was like "this house is actually f**ked" (it had had major DIY extensions...), he even said to my partner something like "off the record, but if you were my daughter I'd advise you don't buy it."

If we're sharing bad survey stories, I once had a surveyor refuse to even carry out the survey and recommended I get a full structural engineering report. This then came back with the conclusion "there is a real risk that this property could fall down within the next 25 years". It was a 2 up 2 down end terrace and they had done the quite common thing of knocking the two ground floor rooms together. However, they had done no remedial work, literally just knocked the wall down. So the end exterior wall had such a lean on it that it was in danger of falling into the street.

[ali k]

Just to update for anyone reading in the future and to say thanks for recommendations and advice.

We ended up getting the mortgage through Habito - so far it's been a pretty smooth experience and got a decent rate with Nationwide and had the offer through in less than a week. Though it's only a 5yr fixed to pay it off and all the rates were much of a muchness to be honest (i.e. low).

Solicitor = Keely Moore at Eatons. They ended up being the cheapest, at just over £1k(!) (though will end up being more with using LISAs for some of the deposit to get the bonus). May update this if she's shit.

Survey is going to be with Hornes. Full building survey for £900 as it's c1900 and we're looking at potentially digging out the basement and putting another door for access down there so thought the drive-by home buyer one wouldn't cut the mustard. Hopefully not a complete waste of money full of caveats.

Most importantly...I was shamed by the UKB collective into not dropping the price  . After talking it through we decided the reason we'd offered asking straight away was cos we thought it was good value and didn't want to lose it. And on reflection looking more at the other house on the street we were comparing it with were happier as to why ours was worth the extra.

The vendors are buying a house with no chain so fingers crossed it won't all fall through. Thanks UKB.

[Paul B]

The vendors are buying a house with no chain so fingers crossed it won't all fall through. Thanks UKB.

Best of luck with it Ali, it sounds like a strong position / outcome!

[tomtom]

Nice Ali. Hope it goes well...

A Q for the UKB housebuying mind here....

We're close to exchange and completion on a do-er-upper that is being purchased from the executors of the deceased owners - no estate agent involved. Just in the final solicitors shizz about boundary queries and central heating certificates (etc..)....

The executors are keen to exchange asap (as in before Xmas) as are we for peace of mind, but they want to complete in about 4 weeks time (late/mid jan). I understand that this is because they want to get it 'signed off' before xmas, but will need a little more time for final bits of the house clearance etc... we have a good relationship with the executors/vendors. Google tells me this 4 week gap between exchange and completion is a tad on the long side, but not especially unusual.

Aside from us having to insure the house from exchange (£200..) are there any downsides or issues anyone can see here? I can't see one - but don't want to miss anything...