offer accepted but could be a long wait!

sportbeth

We had our offer accepted two weeks ago on a place we really want.

At the time the vendors hadn't found something so we said we would give them a reasonable time to look as our flat is rented and the longer we stay there the more money we can save towards our wedding next year.

The estate agent has been really good with keeping us in the loop and updating us on them actively looking etc.

Today we had the usual Friday update from the EA. Apparently they are getting a bit stuck because they want a house on the same estate, 3 bedrooms and a garage for less than £250,000. There are approximately 1-2 houses coming up for sale on this estate every month as it's quite sizeable. (We live in the south east just outside london, hence the extorionate prices I'm quoting)

Seeing that we are buying their 3 bedroom house with a garage for £300,000 I'm a bit gobsmacked at this statement!!! If there was a 3 bed going with a garage for that price we'd be buying it!!!

As a Barrett estate there are pretty much 3 types of houses. 4 beds for £350,000, Town houses for £360,000 and 3 beds for between £285,000 and £300,000. They viewed a 3 bed this week for £260,000 and turned it down for not having a garage.

Should we start banging our heads against a brick wall now or wait until it dawns on them that they can't have what they want by just asking for it and waiting for it to appear?

The EA insists they are moving and it's not going to fall apart as they're looking to downsize and really do need to make this move for financial reasons. But has anyone else ever heard of this? Do we just have to wait for the penny to drop?

Jorgan_2

Are they looking to move from a 3 bed detached to a 3 bed semi? Keep your options open, if something similar comes along, go & take a look.

People downsize for all sorts of reasons, they may be totally blinkered in their approach though.

silvercar

There is always the danger that people decide not to move. In this case, once they calculate the moving costs including stamp duty they may decide not to move. I would look for another property and don't spend money on surveys etc until you have some indication they are going to move.

lynzpower

I agree with Silvercar. If they are wanting something that doesnt exist there is every chance they just stick where they are. Doesnt relaly sound like proper downsizing to me if they want a similar bedded property

i take it what they really want is 50k for little effort. Sos but it dont work like that - or does it

sportbeth

Jorgan wrote:

Are they looking to move from a 3 bed detached to a 3 bed semi? Keep your options open, if something similar comes along, go & take a look.

People downsize for all sorts of reasons, they may be totally blinkered in their approach though.

Yes, they're in a link detatched going to a semi. But from what we've seen on that estate is that the difference is only £15k.

I think they're being totally blinkered in their approach, if I had made the decision to downsize, I'd have got an idea of what I was doing before I put my house on the market, and theirs has been on the market for 5 months!!

sportbeth

lynzpower wrote:

I agree with Silvercar. If they are wanting something that doesnt exist there is every chance they just stick where they are. Doesnt relaly sound like proper downsizing to me if they want a similar bedded property

i take it what they really want is 50k for little effort. Sos but it dont work like that - or does it

Well 50k for a Three bed down to a two would work out about right. But from a 3 detached to a 3 semi it doesn't!!

I guess we'll have to wait. But I know that when my OH and I started looking we had really high expectations purely based on the amount of cash we were spending. Then we realised that the market has naff all to offer for £300k where we are so we started our list of compromises! Hopefully they'll think on that soon if they're serious