A few house buying questions

[miniman]

We put our house on the market at 11:00 this morning, and sold it at 15:00 this afternoon. Credit crunch my arse. And our offer has been accepted on the property we have been trying to get hold of for the last 4 months, so all good really. A couple of questions for anyont that has done this recently:

- what are typical conveyancing fees (from a decent solicitor rather than a conveyancing shop)? can't remember from last time, which was several years ago in any case
- what are decent removals firms charging these days?

TIA!

[Superhoop]

When we moved last year, we paid £500 to sell and £625 to buy.

Edited by Superhoop on Tuesday 20th January 19:49

[rah1888]

Congratulations!

Conveyancing costs tend to vary depending on the sale price. But, say for a £250,000 place £6-700 is a rough guide for a sale. Purchase will cost a bit more, and if it's leasehold.

See if your agent has a couple of recommendations for a solicitor. (Always worth having a local firm if you can).

[miniman]

Selling 3-bed end-terrace property in a "nice" estate (seen locally as the nicest in town) 5 minutes from M4, 5 minutes from station with 1hr15 to London, 30mins to Bristol. Was on the market for £169,000 before Christmas, sold it for £159,000 cash to investor.

Buying 5-bed detached new build in Cotswold village 5 minutes from where we are now. Originally on the market for £390,000, reduced to £350,000, we got it for £300,000

So basically ours sold because we listened to the estate agent and put it on for what it is worth, not what we **think** it **should** be worth. And the developer was keen to get theirs off their books.

Identical houses to ours were just making £195,000 at the very peak of the market, so in theory we have "lost" £36k and "saved" £90k. But it's all relative.

Edited by miniman on Tuesday 20th January 20:38

[Racylady]

rah1888 said:

Congratulations!

Conveyancing costs tend to vary depending on the sale price. But, say for a £250,000 place £6-700 is a rough guide for a sale. Purchase will cost a bit more, and if it's leasehold.

See if your agent has a couple of recommendations for a solicitor. (Always worth having a local firm if you can).

Just be careful that the agent isn't giving you a recommendation because the Solicitor is giving them a referral fee!!! Try to get a Solicitor that will actually see you to go through everything and not just do it all by correspondence.
Price always depends on how much you're buying and selling for - and if it's freehold or leasehold. On the figures you've given, I reckon you'll have to look at around a grand for fees plus VAT and disbursements (make sure they do all the searches including enviro, drainage and local).
The key is to shop around and make sure you also get someone who knows what they are doing. Loads of Solicitors are getting rid of their Conveyancers so you could end up with someone who is just doing the odd conveyancing job that comes in. Check the small print for additional fees that get added on!
You can always e-mail me if you want to check anything/any queries.

[Mekon]

Ours goes on tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have similar luck. Was £220K at the peak, but we're going to put it on for £175K. The houses we're after were in the £250K range and are now around £200K.

We've gone for the lowest of the valuations from the biggest agent who has sold recently in our area. He claims that today another house like ours has just completed at our asking price, so we're hoping we'll get interest. The agent who said we should put it on at £190K was shown the door.

[miniman]

Will be using the same solicitor I used for the last two house purchases, he is a "real person" in a proper office. Last time I had any dealings with conveyancing shops was a frikkin nightmare.

[loafer123]

Mekon said:

Ours goes on tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have similar luck. Was £220K at the peak, but we're going to put it on for £175K. The houses we're after were in the £250K range and are now around £200K.

We've gone for the lowest of the valuations from the biggest agent who has sold recently in our area. He claims that today another house like ours has just completed at our asking price, so we're hoping we'll get interest. The agent who said we should put it on at £190K was shown the door.

With realistic price (which I assume that is) you'll be fine.

It is relatively easy to sell fairly priced houses at the moment as there is so littl competition out there and still demand. The trouble is very few people are as sensible as the posters in this thread and price properly.

[Piglet]

I love the optimism of "sold" it this afternoon... You accepted an offer, you have no real idea whether the person who made the offer is in any position to proceed regardless of what the Agent has told you.

Which "estate" - the one that Esporta is on? (edited to add just re-read your post and I think you are further out so not 30 minutes INTO Bristol but 30 minutes to outskirts?)

Good luck!

Edited by Piglet on Tuesday 20th January 22:11

[Deva Link]

First:

miniman said:

We put our house on the market at 11:00 this morning, and sold it at 15:00 this afternoon. Credit crunch my arse.

Then:

miniman said:

Selling 3-bed end-terrace property in a "nice" estate (seen locally as the nicest in town) 5 minutes from M4, 5 minutes from station with 1hr15 to London, 30mins to Bristol. Was on the market for £169,000 before Christmas, sold it for £159,000 cash to investor.

Are you a journalist?

Surely, the house has been on the market for a month and it's "sold" after you reduced the price by £10K? (Still good, by the way, compared to what's happening elsewhere).

[Geronimo]

Deva Link said:

First:

miniman said:

We put our house on the market at 11:00 this morning, and sold it at 15:00 this afternoon. Credit crunch my arse.

Then:

miniman said:

Selling 3-bed end-terrace property in a "nice" estate (seen locally as the nicest in town) 5 minutes from M4, 5 minutes from station with 1hr15 to London, 30mins to Bristol. Was on the market for £169,000 before Christmas, sold it for £159,000 cash to investor.

Are you a journalist?

Surely, the house has been on the market for a month and it's "sold" after you reduced the price by £10K? (Still good, by the way, compared to what's happening elsewhere).

[Deva Link]

I hope he doesn't read that before retiring for the night.

[VX Foxy]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

[37Flipper]

I'm actually 4 weeks into selling and we are almost at the point of setting dates for completion. Fortunately there isn't a chain other than the buyer and me as I have moved in with my partner and he has split up with his.... I will only believe its all sold when the money hits my bank account though, it has taken me about 6 months to shift it and on this occasion I will have a very pessimistic view until the equity hits my bank account as I would be very gutted if it all fell through at the last moment...

The costs for the solicitor for my house work out at approx £650 including all tranfers and charges. I would expect a few hundred quid more for you as you have a more expensive property.

Good luck

Flipper

[anonymous-user]

In the town you are talking of what is the renting market like. Just curios as i'm looking to rent there.

[cushT]

Good luck miniman. Its no fun at the moment selling houses. We have not long completed on ours, we moved in to our new house just before xmas.
Our sale took months to go through cos our buyer was dragging his heels a bit. I was expecting him to drop out or lower the price massively in the final stages, but he didnt. At the time of signing our house was worth aprox 15 to 20k less than he offered! We were very lucky. Every time the phone rang i was expecting bad news. It didnt help that i hated the house too! It was a rollercoaster ride thats for sure.

Proof though that you can do a good deal. Good luck again mate

[miniman]

kevr6 said:

In the town you are talking of what is the renting market like. Just curios as i'm looking to rent there.

There are certainly plenty of boards on my estate going from "To Let" to "Let", the rental income we could achieve for ours is in the £650-£700 region which is not enough to pay the mortgage, otherwise we would hang on to it.

Thanks to all you other wellwishers. A tin of Birds it is. Of course I'm not oblivious to the fact that it could all fall through today or at any point up until I have the keys in my hand, and that there's a good chance that my buyer will do an 11th-hour "actually I'll drop my offer by £10k" trick. On the basis that it is the 4th investment property she has bought through the same agent, I see it as a better offer than someone in a chain with no concrete sign of closing the deal. We're still very exited about the prospect of moving to a village we've wanted to live in for years at a sensible price. Bah humbug etc.

[anonymous-user]

miniman said:

We put our house on the market at 11:00 this morning, and sold it at 15:00 this afternoon. Credit crunch my arse. And our offer has been accepted on the property we have been trying to get hold of for the last 4 months, so all good really. A couple of questions for anyont that has done this recently:

- what are typical conveyancing fees (from a decent solicitor rather than a conveyancing shop)? can't remember from last time, which was several years ago in any case
- what are decent removals firms charging these days?

TIA!

Good for you. Ignore all the moaners and doom mongers. We're putting our place on the market next couple of weeks too.

[VX Foxy]

miniman said:

Thanks to all you other wellwishers. A tin of Birds it is. Of course I'm not oblivious to the fact that it could all fall through today or at any point up until I have the keys in my hand, and that there's a good chance that my buyer will do an 11th-hour "actually I'll drop my offer by £10k" trick. On the basis that it is the 4th investment property she has bought through the same agent, I see it as a better offer than someone in a chain with no concrete sign of closing the deal. We're still very exited about the prospect of moving to a village we've wanted to live in for years at a sensible price. Bah humbug etc.

Good on you It does sound promising.
Can you explain the "house on the market at 11.00/4 months ago" thing?

[scotal]

VX Foxy said:

miniman said:

Thanks to all you other wellwishers. A tin of Birds it is. Of course I'm not oblivious to the fact that it could all fall through today or at any point up until I have the keys in my hand, and that there's a good chance that my buyer will do an 11th-hour "actually I'll drop my offer by £10k" trick. On the basis that it is the 4th investment property she has bought through the same agent, I see it as a better offer than someone in a chain with no concrete sign of closing the deal. We're still very exited about the prospect of moving to a village we've wanted to live in for years at a sensible price. Bah humbug etc.

Good on you It does sound promising.
Can you explain the "house on the market at 11.00/4 months ago" thing?

Let em see.....

Had it on the market pre Xmas. Didnt sell.
Put it on the market 11 yesterday morning at a reduced asking price.
It sold.

Seems fair. Rightmove put out a pice earleir this week saying there are twice as many people looking at moving this january as there were last January.
The trouble is there's less property being marketed. Oh and everyone is a bargain hunter.