BritishGuy36

Thanks all...yeah hope you get it sored Chartreuse. Just put it up cheap mate....otherwise it aint moving.

dzial67

Well done and good luck. Would you mind saying how much lower in percentage terms than your original fair market value you had to go to sell?

BritishGuy36

20%.

The surveyor who came for the buyer who pulled out said it was £10k too cheap.....since then I've had to accept an offer an additional £7k lower.....

Giantaxe

And down to $1.737 now. I have never seen such gyrations in the exchange rate. Whichever economy has had the most recent bad news from the credit markets seems to be getting hammered.

Giantaxe

Shows you how useless they are at valuing a house in the current market. After all, "fair market value" really is the price a willing buyer will pay a willing seller in an arm's length transaction.

Still I bet you look back on this down the road and think you got a good price! Hope it works out for you.

chartreuse

It's frightening. I'm kicking myself for not transferring our deposit when it was $1.86 a fortnight ago. Of course, at the time I was hoping the worst had passed...

lansbury

Hope all goes well and you get here before the visa runs out.

You should get here just in time for Mr Obarma changing everything for the better and creating utopia.

Catgirl

Congratulations BG36

We are still waiting for that one buyer but nothing even though we've dropped the asking price from 375k to 325k within 2 months. The neighbours hate me for "chasing the market down" but we need to sell and this is a bad time to do so.

BritishGuy36

Well, the memo of sale came this morning - and so did the phone call from the surveyors (that was quick!). Dunno if it's a problem but the buyer has paid for the 'proper' survey rather than the quick one the mortgage lender pays for.... not sure what he's going to find but apparently he may be here two hours. I don't know of any glaring problems but who knows what this guy will find.

TruBrit

sometimes loan companies/mortgage companies require the full survey besides their own quick one. fingers crossed all goes ok

MsElui

i wouldnt buy a home without that level of survey - the one the valuer does for the mortgage company is a 2 minute job and doesnt tell you anything of substance. I would want to know if there were any major issues brewing like damp or subsidence etc.

BritishGuy36

Yeah I suppose it makes sense. The guy who did the last survey a couple of months ago said there was no damp and the walls and floors were all straight etc...so at least that's ok. Not sure what other showstoppers there might be. He did say that they spend a bit of time in the loft on a full survey, last time he just went up the ladder and shone a torch around for a couple of minutes.

Jmaster911

Here is our little horror story

We have a 3 bed house in the UK and bought it right at the top of the market, at the time it really didn't matter because we expected to be in the UK for a significant amount of time. I then lost my job (2 months after buying the house), got a good pay off but was out of work all the same. A job came up in the US, I applied and got it and we then moved over here in Dec 06.

The house has been on the market since Aug 06 and we have dropped the price so far from 240,000 GBP to the now bargin price of 190,000 GBP and still no takers.

When we first moved over and for the first 6 months, I was sending over $2,600 every month to cover the mortgage and the insurance ( a lot in anybodies book). I then contacted the mortgage company, told them I have moved to the US and couldn't sell and then indicated that I may be forced into giving the keys back. They to be honest have worked with me and offered to half the mortgage payments and refinance any loss interest free and only ask for 250 GBP per month to pay it back. This is a great deal and I very much appreciated it. They also indicated to me on the phone that they don't want me to run and give the keys back (they still have no clue where in the US I am) and would prefer to work with me. They then employed a US style estate agent to sell the property and so far (4 months later) we still have not sold or even had an offer.

To be honest I don't think it will sell anytime soon and even if I sold today I would make a loss of around $50,000 which at $500 per month will take me 8 years to pay back.

I know some people will say "oh you shouldn't of moved until the house sold, blah blah blah" but at the time we had no idea things would get this bad. It was also the only job offer I had received and was a chance to good to give up.

My advice to people who are about to do this move and have a house to sell, if you get an offer, take it, even if you make a small loss. The housing market will take years to recover and you need to get on with your new life in the US.

BritishGuy36

Well the surveyor has been and gone....he kept his cards pretty close to his chest, but said he will forward his report to the lender this afternoon "so they can get on with arranging the mortgage", so I'm guessing that means that it's ok?

MsElui

he won tell you anything - he is hired by the buyer. In fact - unless there is a problem and the buyer wants to negotiate price you may not even get to see a copy.