I'm sale agreed - yay - now what the hell do i do?

Peace

How's it going folks,

I'm a first time buyer and myself and partner are sale agreed on a house. The booking deposit is down on the house so its techincally off the market.

Due to the time of year (coming up to xmas) i want to move fairly swiftly to get contracts signed before everyone goes to ground for the xmas break. So wft do i do now?

I believe a valuation and a survey needs to be carried out. Then contracts go to solictors and then assuming eveything is clear we sign. Does the 8% deposit get paid at that stage?

I was told last night that the surveyor can filll out some form with suffices the valuation as well. Does anyon know about that?

I have been talking to the real estate agent but I find it hard to believe anything a real estate agent says to me. After all they are only out to make money at the end of the day.

Any comments suggestions welcome guys... I'm kinda flying in the dark

daveg

Hi Kev. We sold our house this year so I can give you advice from the buyers side. The best advice I can give you is keep on at your solicitor, estate agent etc. From experience these guy's will just sit back and take their time unless you hound them. As you have paid booking deposit only you can pull out anytime and not loose your deposit. However once the next deposit is given to the solicitor and you sign the contract you and the buyer are tied in to the sale.

Our sale was drawn out and took from sale agreed in March (ish) to sale complete and keys handed over in late August !!! This was down to mix-ups between our solicitor and the auctioneer and the buyers changing solicitor midway through the sale. We took the buyers phone number when they came to measure up the house and kept in touch with them rather than going through our solicitor to their solicitor to them. If you can do this (and it will not always work) it is worth while.

From memory the steps are:

Pay initial booking deposit.
Contracts are drawn up (by sellers solicitor)
House is surveyed by buyers Engineer - usually for bank loan etc.
Contracts are sent to buyers solicitor and signed by buyer.
Contracts are returned to seller solicitor and seller signs.
There was a closing contract that the buyer had to sign on our sale and then the keys were given over and sale was complete.

Depending on the competence of the 2 solicitors and all professionals involved it should move quickly.

If you haven't picked out a solicitor for the sale yet check our Prima Finance who will do all solicitor fee's for €499 if you get your mortgage through them (http://www.primafinance.ie/PrimaFinance/specialdeals.asp)

Bluehair

Peace wrote:

I believe a valuation and a survey needs to be carried out. Then contracts go to solictors and then assuming eveything is clear we sign. Does the 8% deposit get paid at that stage?

Just to point out something I didn't realise until this point in my own sale. You don't get access to that deposit money so i hope you're not counting on it for Christmas. Your solicitor hangs onto that until the sale is completed.

Whatever you're being told it will take to close, double it and add a month

I wouldn't count on getting it done before Christmas but as DaveG mentions you do have to hound some people to get off their arses and get things done. Don't sit back waiting for it to happen.

whippet

as everyone has been saying it is down to how quick your solicitors are.

I just bought a new house from the plans, paid 10K as a deposit in march, was told that the house would be finished by end of october (I took that to mean january), but in the first week of october I could see the house was just about finished and fireplaces, tiling etc was being done.

About the 20th I got a call from our solicitor that he had the notice to close from the builder's solicitors. I got the house valued (for the banks) and snagged and three days later we signed the final contract and got the keys on the 25th.

grumpytrousers

The 'impetus' for want of a better word - will always be with the vendors solicitor. He has to do more 'work' than your fella. Your solicitor will look at the contract - and once him/her and the opposity number have had their wee pissing contest over certain conditions, most (although not all) of the running is done by the vendors side. Declarations regarding planning and all that.

From a purchasers perspective, ensure that (and check this with your solicitor) that you've done ALL the paperwork you can do as early as possible. By that I mean the forms that the bank will need (deed of charge for a mortgage etc) and also all the things that the bank will need in place, such as life insurance, house insurance etc. These things not being there when it comes to closing will mean that monies won't be released and you're liable to pay interest.

Other than that - to echo the other posters, keep on your solicitors back, but without being neurotic . Best of luck with it!

MorningStar

From my experinece it is always down to what is missing. THe mortgage company inevitably losing something even though they swear all they need is the valuation. The surveyor turns up something that might effect the price. THe solicitor can slow down things but you have little control over that just make sure you have everything done you should have done is really the only way.

It's the lack of control that is so frustrating. It takes between 8 and 12 weeks to complete a sale from agreed price normally so remember that and don't hope for anything more. Around christmas, which I did 2 years ago, I would say 12 is most likely. I was sale agreed in September but it was January before completion but I was out of the country for 2 weeks.

Sleipnir

Yeah I have to agree with MorningStar, it's the lack of control that nearly drove me around the twist.
Any request I got had a response in the post the same day I recieved it but with the solicitor. Mine was alright, purchasers was brutal.

They cost me about 600 euro as the solicitor forgot to send contracts out so I had to pay extra for storage and also rent the Merc Sprinter for an extra two days.
I very much doubt you'll be in before Christmas, sorry.

Peace

Thanks for all the responses... And you're right the lack of control will kill me.

That said i did get a call from the estate agent saying that the seller will be leaving the cooker & the contracts will be posted to my solicitor this evening (or tommorow evening, i can't remember exactly). Considering we only paid the booking deposit yesterday this seems nice and quick.

When i spoke to the estate agent yesterday he did say that the seller wanted to move quickly as she has a place lined up already. He said a closing date would be perhaps Feburary. This would suit us fine as its time to get a little more cash together for our bits & bobs.

If we get contracts signed before xmas we will be delighted as we will be able to sit back over the merry break and relax knowing things are coming together.

So tommorow I'm gong to get the name & number of a surveyor and get that sorted and out of the way.

Victor

Peace wrote:

I was told last night that the surveyor can filll out some form with suffices the valuation as well. Does anyon know about that?

Not every surveyor can do a snag list and not every surveyor can do valuations.

Peace

Victor wrote:

Not every surveyor can do a snag list and not every surveyor can do valuations.

Sure if the guy can do it then great, but yeah it might have to be two different steps.

Culchie

Ask them to take the sign down and off any websites etc....

Just in case the sellers might get tempted with a higher offer before contracts are signed.

Peace

Got qutoed for a survey of 280 euro which seems an ok price. Also to get the valuation report done at the same time will cost an extra 75euro as opposed to 150euro if it were seperate.

How does this stand up to quote anyone else got?

Victor

Peace wrote:

Got qutoed for a survey of 280 euro

Sounds OK.

MorningStar

Peace wrote:

Got qutoed for a survey of 280 euro which seems an ok price. Also to get the valuation report done at the same time will cost an extra 75euro as opposed to 150euro if it were seperate.

How does this stand up to quote anyone else got?

Any time I have got a valuation and survey in one there was no extra charge as basically it is a simple signature on a mortgage company form. 2 years ago a survey only cost €200

Peace

MorningStar wrote:

Any time I have got a valuation and survey in one there was no extra charge as basically it is a simple signature on a mortgage company form. 2 years ago a survey only cost €200

Yeah i was thinking it was just a fill out a form jobby as i have the form at home. I'll get it done anyway at the same time.

Sponge Bob

Peace wrote:

I'll get it done anyway at the same time.

Thats sounds fine price wise but make sure you discuss the survey with the surveyor afterwards, 10 mins on the phone, to see if there is a show stopper like subsidence / cracking or something else that would make you walk away because its too much hassle or costs too much to fix.

Victor

Oh, make sure your surveyor / valuer is on the bank's approved list or can get approval.