escapedtonz

So. Finally after 14 weeks of bullshit solicitor rubbish we have exchanged contracts and completion is set for this Friday.
Thank Christ!

quiltman

Took us less than 6 weeks from agreeing sale to completing. buyer was cash buyer and their solicitor asked stupid questions as well. Our solicitor told their solicitor to read the paperwork we submitted as all the answers were there - did we have FENSA cert for windows, what warranty was left on the new boiler, was it properly installed etc , etc.
mind you, our solicitor was on a fixed fee, other than disbursements so wanted to get shut of the sale ASAP otherwise it cost him money!(Oh, buyers survey occurred less than 1 week after we agreed the sale!)
Glad you finally made it!

Snap Shot

So, even with your buyer en-situ it still took from 26th June to what will be mid October to complete on the sale.It must be a weight off your mind now it's a done deal. 

escapedtonz

Yip. 14 weeks, even though our buyer is the tenant!!!
The buyers solicitor came up with so much rubbish it's a wonder it's "only" taken 14 weeks.
Chancel agreements, tree preservation orders, adoption of roads, section 106 and section 35 agreements yada yada - all unwarranted in our eyes. We didn't have any of these issues when we bought it in 2007 and nothing has changed on the estate or with the house. They even came back saying it was in a flood risk area....WTF!!! It's 2 miles away from the nearest river and if that river flooded and took out the house, the whole of Preston city and surrounds wouldn't even exist.
Anyway, glad to say it's nearly done and dusted. Just the rest of the week to go and it'll be gone.
Offer on an NZ property will be going in this week :-)

MrsFychan

well you wont have all that hassle over here, onus is on you to get the due diligence done within the 10 (sometime 15) working days. Make sure any offer you make has as few conditions attached to it as possible, its not always the highest offer that gets the house but those with less conditions attached to the purchase.
Make sure you have your finance sorted, you have visited the local council and checked the property and surrounding area out, you can do it at the council office or you can pay a small fee to get it as paperwork/cd. You have sourced a local building inspector - if you want an inspection and you know what your insurance payments will be.

escapedtonz

Ah the vendor won't be that lucky to have multiple offers.
We won't be competing with many people (if any) for the house we are looking at. It's more rural and a lifestyle property with a too high price tag. It's been on the market 12 months and due to the over inflated price tag, hasn't had much interest. Went to auction last week without even so much as a stupid opening offer. We didn't bid as we were flying back to NZ at the time of the auction.
It's also a lot to take on. It's a big section and not flat, with many levels, lots of fruit trees, grass terracing down to a stormwater stream and ponds covered by a council easement and the covenants prevent grazing, fencing, more than 3 pets (cat and dog only) etc so the covenants sort of rule a lot of people out as most people who wanna live rurally have many pets, a few sheep on the land to keep the grass down and chickens where we aren't really interested. We just want a big garden for the kids to go wild

We're going in to it very cautiously with all the conditions required. If we don't get it then it wasn't meant to be.
It just has so much potential we can't let it go for the moment. We are of the opinion though that the owner will just not let it go for the price we can afford to go up to. It'll come down to how desperate they are to move and from what we have heard they are very desperate but only time will tell.
We do know they've spent at least $60k in the past couple years on the land so expect he's trying to claw back some of that money, but unfortunately for him it was money not well spent unless he was staying there for many years. Good for us though

We also aren't in a rush so we won't be pushing the process hard to become the owners in 4 weeks. We're fine to stay in our rental as long as we need and that is in the school zone for our boy so we're happy to stay until he's started school which will be mid Feb 2016. The current owners also have to find somewhere to live. They're moving to Wellington to be with family so we can work with them which will be in favour with them.

Finance is already sorted. Deposit money will be in the UK account on Friday after we have completed and it only takes a week to be transferred to NZ. NZ mortgage offer has already been pre-approved. We've already got the council file on the property and have been through it with a fine tooth comb
Only things we will need is the LIM report, a building inspection report and an engineering report on the land which can be done as and when and if we reach some agreement on price.
Need to sort out a solicitor but we have a recommendation.

Cheers

jmh

Just wanted to give a heads up in case your bank is as crap as mine. I had to transfer the money from my Halifax account (where it was deposited by my solicitor) to Moneycorp for sending here. Moneycorp were fine, but Halifax would only let me send GBP20k at time, so it took 10 days just to get it to Moneycorp's UK account (and 24 hours to get it to NZ). They said I had to actually go into a branch if I wanted it all transferred at once. Fortunately in that 10 days the exchange rate moved significantly in my favour, but it was a close call meeting my completion date here.

My UK house took 2 weeks to get an offer and 8 months to get to completion (freehold property with no chain on either end). It was only when I threatened to put it back on the market that someone moved and I got to exchange of contracts in one week. Pathetic.

escapedtonz

I've already asked the question.
I've secure mailed the bank via my internet banking account and told them a large sum will be deposited this week and I'll want to transfer it out in ONE payment at some point in the future.
Told them to do whatever they have to so it all goes smoothly

MrsFychan

hope it all goes smoothly, yes jmh has a point for anyone else with deposit money in the UK. I had a limit of 10K a day so took me a 8 days to get our deposit over but least we had not costs attached to the transfers.

escapedtonz

Completion happened as planned and without any issues.
Woke up to an email from our uk solicitor........Yay!!!

So, all we need now is the offer to be accepted on the property we like :-)

allyokay

Don't want to steal anyone's thunder but we've only gone and exchanged bloody contracts! Completion 23rd October, flying out to Chch 24th November. We'hey

escapedtonz

No worries. Anyone else ???

Congrats. Took 14 weeks for us to exchange contracts and then the nail biting time until completion. So glad to say it's all over.
Heap of money in the bank now burning a hole.....just need to buy a property and we'll be made up

allyokay

The nail biting bit for us was getting to exchange, kind of feel like its in the bag now! Its a good position to be in, money in the bank (as you say, burning a hole) Hope you get what you want! By the way took us around about the same length of time to exchange. Madness!

escapedtonz

Yeah absolutely ridiculous amount of time. Uk government need to do summat for the situation but I'd guess that's never gonna happen.
Takes around 4 weeks here so I'm told.

escapedtonz

Latest update since completion of the UK home sale on the 10th October.....

Our offer wasn't accepted by the vendor. Decided he wanted way more so put the price up another $50k - IDIOT!
It's still for sale now ha ha!

We were interested in a couple of other properties afterwards but again the vendor wanted way more than it was worth for one of them and the other sold to the family walking out of the door when we arrived at a private viewing. We passed them on the driveway....wondered why he had such a smug face on him ;-)

Anyways a couple of weeks ago we spotted a 4330 square metre - 1.06 acre section for sale, went to view it and fell in love with the idea of building our own home. Did a lot of research etc, got a builder down to give us some ideas of build costs to see if we could do it within budget and after a week put in an offer.
One wee later and this morning the vendor agreed to all our conditions and our offer price so we are now conditional WooHoo!!!

AWESOME!