Panic!

Quite rightly people have got better things to do than traipse round loads of properties. They would much rather be traipsing around shops that are jam packed with other husbands who also have no idea what to buy their wives. More likely, people are gearing themselves up for party season where the lunches get longer and the nights more glamorous as the mild mannered lady in the office who you never really noticed before turns in to a man-eater and Dirty Dancing star after the Tequila shots are passed around.

All that aside, there is some truth to this though as new enquiries, viewing and valuations get fewer and fewer as we get closer to the big day.

One part of the business that we dread this time of the year: Sales progression. Once a sale has been agreed, the job of the sales progressor takes over chasing mortgage brokers, surveyors, solicitors, other agents in the chain and of course the buyers and sellers making sure that everything is moving along at the correct pace and everybody is happy. Throughout the year people have dates in mind that they would like to move in or out by and they may try to coincide with things like children starting a new school, new jobs or even coordinating holidays. If these dates aren’t met because of inevitable delays then obviously, it can be irritating, but they usually get resolved and people move a week later or as soon as they get back from holiday.

When it comes to Christmas it is very different. It is an immovable date that everybody knows about and when people may have a decent amount of time off work to organise a new home and move. Quite rightly people want to move before Christmas to be settled in their new home with the decorations up and making sure that Father Christmas knows the new address in plenty of time. At the very least they would like the security of an exchange of contracts before Christmas even if the completion date is in the New Year. The uncertainty over the festive break and for a period of at least 2 weeks before most solicitors return to work in the New Year is to much to even think about.

People that agree to buy houses in December or even late November with the knowledge of how drawn out the sales process can be don’t really expect to be able to move before Christmas unless they are prepared to move heaven and earth so these sort of people tend to be quite relaxed and let the sales and purchases run their normal course.

Vendors and purchasers that have agreed transactions as early as October and into November can quite rightly expect to be in or have moved out if their homes well before Christmas, but one thing that 20 years of selling houses has taught me is that there isn’t ever a straight forward or easy sale. There is always a spanner in the works and you have to be able to roll with the punches and react accordingly.

As I have mentioned in blogs previously, the problem is the whole house buying system is barmy and so insecure! Probably the biggest transaction you will ever enter into in your life will be in the hands of dozens of other individuals that you will probable never, ever meet and they undoubtedly have completely different levels of urgency and priorities to you.

It may well be that you have found your dream house in October, agreed to purchase and had a very amicable conversation directly with the vendor that you would like to move in in the first or second week in December. This is great, everything will be ready for the big day and you wont bother even considering putting decorations up at your current property as you will be in the new one in plenty of time. As agents we encourage you guys to think about dates as early as possible as it focusses the mind and we will convey this to all of the solicitors and any other agents in the chain. Now though your case will be in a pile of many others that may all have exactly the same idea of moving before Christmas and you will become just another transaction passing over a desk.

Your transaction will pass through the hands of brokers, underwriters, search providers, bankers, case handlers, legal secretaries, solicitors, managing agents and insurers. That is if everything goes smoothly. If not you could also be calling on timber & damp surveyors, tree specialists, drain surveyors, asbestos removals, structural surveyors, flood assessors, freeholders and freeholder solicitors, neighbours consents, council planning departments, party wall specialists and probably many more that I can’t think of right now. Do you believe that all of these people will have the same sense of urgency as you and even if you are lucky enough that they do all of these people will probably be involved in any other part of the chain within your transaction that you will be dependent upon and they also have to be on the same wavelength.

There is something you can do though. Don’t just give up and think it will never happen. It does mean a bit of graft for you as the vendors or purchasers though. What you have to do is make a nuisance of yourself. Be the person that everybody wants to get rid of so they put your transaction at the top of the pile just to stop you calling. Ring everybody and anybody you can to get updates and chase things along, offer to pick up and hand deliver any necessary paperwork rather than post (don’t get me started on why some solicitors still don’t use e-mail!), if there is any paperwork you have to sign or fill in make sure you do it promptly and return it as quickly as possible and arrange for deposits to be transferred in plenty of time if notice is needed to transfer funds.

Basically, my advice, don’t be that link in the chain holding up everything and everybody else. The cut off this year seems to be the 16th December. That is the date that everybody wants to move by and the week after seems to be when solicitors are taking the opportunity to book in those long lunches.

We all have 2 weeks to get those transactions through and get everybody settled. Like I said, it may mean a bit of leg work and a pain for you, but just think how relaxed you will be on Christmas afternoon in your new home after a huge lunch, falling asleep in front of the the telly to a repeat of Only Fools & Horses or the Two Ronnies? It will be woth it.

This article is by Rob Kahl @ Scott & Stapleton
Tel: 01702 471155 

To read all of Rob's previous blogs please click the link https://www.leigh-on-sea.com/blog/tag/property.html