Can we start 2018 again, please?
2018 has not got off to the best start to be honest.
New year's eve was great, we had a few drinks at home then stopped in a couple of pubs before heading to the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath. They had a couple of rooms of music on including a room playing cheesy 80s which is always fun. By around 3am we'd had enough though so we rambled home and Les played some music on his decks til we felt like going to bed. Didn't feel too bad the next day either!
It was going back to work when it all started to go wrong. I got out the house on time in the morning to find the tyre on my bike half deflated. I hadn't used it since before Christmas so it could have only been a slow puncture and I calculated that I was better off inflating it in its damaged state just to get me to work on time and so I could then deal with it once at work. I forgot about it until home time when I again decided it was less hassle to cycle on a half deflated tyre than to mess about getting a wet, muddy tyre of my bike in the dark and the rain. I made it home, Les helped me change the innertube and I we diligently checked for anything stuck in the inside of the tyre, but by lunchtime the next day my tyre was half deflated again and I hadn't replaced the innertube in my kit. Another arduous rumble home and another replacement (luckily I had an extra innertube stashed away in a cupboard) and this time when we checked we found a few tiny chunks of glass that were hopefully the cause of the punctures.
My bike has been fine since, but the combination of the weather and bike problems, added to the shock to the system I always feel getting back to a full working day, meant I've starting back at work this year challenging!
This was only a little demoralising compared to the pretty devastating news I received yesterday regarding the house purchase.
It had been left before Christmas with everything ready to go but the seller being strangely reluctant to commit to exchanging. We'd been in limbo over the festive period but as soon as this week kicked off, me and all the professional parties involved (two lots of solicitors, a mortgage adviser and a estate agent - sounds like the start to a bad joke...) were straight on it, sending emails and making phone calls trying to get things moving. The sticking point remained the seller and I'd concluded following a conversation I'd had with my mortgage adviser yesterday lunch time was that she was probably stalling so that she could find a property to purchase herself instead of moving into rented accommodation like she had promised she would. It still seemed it would all happen at some point though, and my adviser was on the case in putting pressure on her solicitor to move things along.
Then, I got a message from the estate agent asking me to call her and when we spoke she broke the news that the seller had decided to pull out. She hadn't given any other explanation except for "personal reasons" and explicitly asked her solicitor not to give any further reason. I get the impression there may have been some medical issue, which would explain this weird reluctance and slow pace there has been throughout this process - why she's been saying all along she wanted to move but was extremely slow to take action when something was required of her.
I first put the offer in at the end of July. The house had been on the market since the previous summer and when we'd challenged the estate agent and the seller herself on why this was, they were adamant it was because they'd only received offers below asking price and she wouldn't budge on the price at all. So I offered the asking price and it took her three days to respond (another warning sign!) but it was accepted.
A large part of the delay between then and now has been caused by my bank requesting extra surveys on the house. It had been badly damaged by the tornado that hit Birmingham in 2005 and had to have some of its walls rebuilt and a new roof put on. It meant that for a Victorian house, it was actually in good condition and had fairly new wiring and a new boiler and had been decorated to a modern standard. I felt I'd found a bargain, but paid a small price for this as I ended up paying over £1,000 for surveys before the bank would confirm my mortgage offer. Still, that's less than you'd pay for a new roof, right?
That was all done and the solicitor's searches instructed by the second week of November. I was concerned that the seller didn't seem to be in the process of making a house purchase of her own but was assured that she would be willing to move into rented accommodation. So in theory, we could have moved in December. Then we heard the sound of heels dragging and more warning bells. I tried to put it down to everything winding down for Christmas but it didn't look good. In a final attempt to bring things to a conclusion, there was the suggestion of exchanging (i.e. legally committing) before Christmas with a completion date (i.e. actually moving) in late January to allow the seller time to get out. I wasn't going to kick her out of her house just before Christmas but I needed the security of knowing the move was actually going ahead. Everyone involved agreed this sounded like a good idea. And the seller said no.
No one could understand why but it was a pretty big indicator of what was coming so I wasn't exactly surprised when I heard the news but it didn't stop it being any less disappointing. Mostly regarding the cost, which including solicitor's fees comes to around £1,600, which is not a small amount of money. I don't think I even own anything that is worth, my car is only worth a few hundred quid! I am in a comfortably paid job but I'm not wealthy and I scraped together a 5% deposit for this house purchase. The money I've paid for surveys is months and months' worth of savings for me, money I could have spent on holidays or used to live more comfortably or put towards another house purchase.
And then there's the time spent waiting for this to go ahead, and the anticipation and expectation we would move to this house, making plans with Les about what we were going to do to the place, collecting cardboard boxes ready for packing stuff, not replacing our dilapidated sofa or raising multiple issues regarding the flat to the landlady because we thought we'd be moving soon. On an emotional level, I feel a little heartbroken about it all.
I am also now critiquing whether I could have done things differently or foreseen what would happen. The seller's behaviour has been weird from the start and both the mortgage broker and my mom had commented on it as things were going along. I felt she was just an oddball though and that the house was worth the wait as most other properties I could afford were just not of this standard. At every step of the way, before shelling out for these surveys, I had checked with the seller's estate agent that they definitely wanted to go ahead with the sale and was assured they were a little laid back with the way they went about things but that they definitely wanted to move. But there were warning signs and gut feelings, and I am wondering now if I should have heeded them. All the professionals involved have been very kind and sympathetic to me and assured me I've done everything right. The estate agent, who is meant to be on the seller's side, sounded more gutted and upset than I was.
At the end of it all, I can only chalk it up to experience and try to put things in perspective. Money is replaceable and many people have had worse things happen to them. Speculating on what's really caused the seller to move out seems pointless but imagining it is something serious makes me feel sympathetic rather than simply angry (and I have been very angry!) and reminds me that there are worse things to lose than money.
Mostly now I'm trying to be positive. I've already scoured Right Move and Purple Bricks and am itching to go view more properties although Les has suggested we leave it for this weekend. I am hopeful the house we end up in will be even better than this one would have been.
New year's eve was great, we had a few drinks at home then stopped in a couple of pubs before heading to the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath. They had a couple of rooms of music on including a room playing cheesy 80s which is always fun. By around 3am we'd had enough though so we rambled home and Les played some music on his decks til we felt like going to bed. Didn't feel too bad the next day either!
It was going back to work when it all started to go wrong. I got out the house on time in the morning to find the tyre on my bike half deflated. I hadn't used it since before Christmas so it could have only been a slow puncture and I calculated that I was better off inflating it in its damaged state just to get me to work on time and so I could then deal with it once at work. I forgot about it until home time when I again decided it was less hassle to cycle on a half deflated tyre than to mess about getting a wet, muddy tyre of my bike in the dark and the rain. I made it home, Les helped me change the innertube and I we diligently checked for anything stuck in the inside of the tyre, but by lunchtime the next day my tyre was half deflated again and I hadn't replaced the innertube in my kit. Another arduous rumble home and another replacement (luckily I had an extra innertube stashed away in a cupboard) and this time when we checked we found a few tiny chunks of glass that were hopefully the cause of the punctures.
My bike has been fine since, but the combination of the weather and bike problems, added to the shock to the system I always feel getting back to a full working day, meant I've starting back at work this year challenging!
This was only a little demoralising compared to the pretty devastating news I received yesterday regarding the house purchase.
It had been left before Christmas with everything ready to go but the seller being strangely reluctant to commit to exchanging. We'd been in limbo over the festive period but as soon as this week kicked off, me and all the professional parties involved (two lots of solicitors, a mortgage adviser and a estate agent - sounds like the start to a bad joke...) were straight on it, sending emails and making phone calls trying to get things moving. The sticking point remained the seller and I'd concluded following a conversation I'd had with my mortgage adviser yesterday lunch time was that she was probably stalling so that she could find a property to purchase herself instead of moving into rented accommodation like she had promised she would. It still seemed it would all happen at some point though, and my adviser was on the case in putting pressure on her solicitor to move things along.
Then, I got a message from the estate agent asking me to call her and when we spoke she broke the news that the seller had decided to pull out. She hadn't given any other explanation except for "personal reasons" and explicitly asked her solicitor not to give any further reason. I get the impression there may have been some medical issue, which would explain this weird reluctance and slow pace there has been throughout this process - why she's been saying all along she wanted to move but was extremely slow to take action when something was required of her.
I first put the offer in at the end of July. The house had been on the market since the previous summer and when we'd challenged the estate agent and the seller herself on why this was, they were adamant it was because they'd only received offers below asking price and she wouldn't budge on the price at all. So I offered the asking price and it took her three days to respond (another warning sign!) but it was accepted.
A large part of the delay between then and now has been caused by my bank requesting extra surveys on the house. It had been badly damaged by the tornado that hit Birmingham in 2005 and had to have some of its walls rebuilt and a new roof put on. It meant that for a Victorian house, it was actually in good condition and had fairly new wiring and a new boiler and had been decorated to a modern standard. I felt I'd found a bargain, but paid a small price for this as I ended up paying over £1,000 for surveys before the bank would confirm my mortgage offer. Still, that's less than you'd pay for a new roof, right?
That was all done and the solicitor's searches instructed by the second week of November. I was concerned that the seller didn't seem to be in the process of making a house purchase of her own but was assured that she would be willing to move into rented accommodation. So in theory, we could have moved in December. Then we heard the sound of heels dragging and more warning bells. I tried to put it down to everything winding down for Christmas but it didn't look good. In a final attempt to bring things to a conclusion, there was the suggestion of exchanging (i.e. legally committing) before Christmas with a completion date (i.e. actually moving) in late January to allow the seller time to get out. I wasn't going to kick her out of her house just before Christmas but I needed the security of knowing the move was actually going ahead. Everyone involved agreed this sounded like a good idea. And the seller said no.
No one could understand why but it was a pretty big indicator of what was coming so I wasn't exactly surprised when I heard the news but it didn't stop it being any less disappointing. Mostly regarding the cost, which including solicitor's fees comes to around £1,600, which is not a small amount of money. I don't think I even own anything that is worth, my car is only worth a few hundred quid! I am in a comfortably paid job but I'm not wealthy and I scraped together a 5% deposit for this house purchase. The money I've paid for surveys is months and months' worth of savings for me, money I could have spent on holidays or used to live more comfortably or put towards another house purchase.
And then there's the time spent waiting for this to go ahead, and the anticipation and expectation we would move to this house, making plans with Les about what we were going to do to the place, collecting cardboard boxes ready for packing stuff, not replacing our dilapidated sofa or raising multiple issues regarding the flat to the landlady because we thought we'd be moving soon. On an emotional level, I feel a little heartbroken about it all.
I am also now critiquing whether I could have done things differently or foreseen what would happen. The seller's behaviour has been weird from the start and both the mortgage broker and my mom had commented on it as things were going along. I felt she was just an oddball though and that the house was worth the wait as most other properties I could afford were just not of this standard. At every step of the way, before shelling out for these surveys, I had checked with the seller's estate agent that they definitely wanted to go ahead with the sale and was assured they were a little laid back with the way they went about things but that they definitely wanted to move. But there were warning signs and gut feelings, and I am wondering now if I should have heeded them. All the professionals involved have been very kind and sympathetic to me and assured me I've done everything right. The estate agent, who is meant to be on the seller's side, sounded more gutted and upset than I was.
At the end of it all, I can only chalk it up to experience and try to put things in perspective. Money is replaceable and many people have had worse things happen to them. Speculating on what's really caused the seller to move out seems pointless but imagining it is something serious makes me feel sympathetic rather than simply angry (and I have been very angry!) and reminds me that there are worse things to lose than money.
Mostly now I'm trying to be positive. I've already scoured Right Move and Purple Bricks and am itching to go view more properties although Les has suggested we leave it for this weekend. I am hopeful the house we end up in will be even better than this one would have been.