Numpty question - when am i procedable?

Katgrit

Hi all,

First of all I'd like to apologise because I'm one of those people who viewed a house before mine was on the market. Not just for a nosey though, I was VERY interested in it.

Within 10 days from viewing and making my inital offer I have fitted a new kitchen in my house, done the gardens, painted and tidied and tarted up, and it went on the market on Satuday afternoon. Its only Wednesday now but I have had one offer on mine (good for first offer, but would like more as I priced my house realistically to sell, not to be knocked down!) and 2 more viewings booked, and it also went in the local paper for the first time tonight. Theres a lot of interest because its a shared ownership in a lovely area and they're usually snapped up round here.

The vendor has accepted my 2nd offer but understandably wont take hers off the market until I am in a position to procede. Now daft question but when exactly is that? I have a extra borrowing on my mortgage agreed in principle , a good chuck of equity and a squeaky clean credit record. I have had an offer on mine which I am certain they will increase (they went for a more expensive property round the corner last year and were gutted when beaten to it) even if no-one else offers. Am i proceedable yet? Or should i wait until I have a definite price agreed and know exactly who my buyer will be? I can easily afford to buy the house I want so the actual agreed price will not affect whether I can carry on.

The couple who put the offer in yesterday have a mortgage in place and are getting married in 3 months and need to move in asap. I'm in a lucky position that know my house will sell, in fact I can envisage a situation where interested parties are wrestling in the garden for who gets it!!

So can anyone explain when I'm classed as proceedable - I'd cry bucketloads of someone else walzed in and bought the house I want while me and my various viewers haggle over the price.

Could i start the mortgage process/agreement/valuation/etc ball rolling now or would that be chancing my arm far too much?

Any advice appreciated, thanks in advance and apologies again for being a tyre kicker!

Doozergirl

You are proceedable when you have accepted a firm offer on your own house and anyone below you is in that same position until you hit someone who has no house to sell.

So you can sell to FTBs or people who can afford to buy your house with nothing to sell and be proceedable. If you accept an offer from someone else who is selling then they also need to be under offer and so on down the line until you get to the point that there is a FTB or someone with nothing to sell. This completes a chain at the bottom and makes everyone proceedable.

You would be insane to even consider starting the ball rolling on this purchase until you have a complete chain at both ends - FTB at the bottom; someone who is selling without needing to buy again at the top.

It does not speed anything up by starting now, it justs costs money and heartache when the chances of things collapsing is high. Your offer has not even been formally accepted - at this point you are still window shopping, they are still marketing.

Katgrit

Right, cheers for that. It will definitely be first time buyers buying my house. I could accept the offer i already have if needbe but I'm holding out for more, especially as its only been on since Saturday. Wasn't sure if i could chance telling the vendors EA that i was proceedable even though i didn't know quite what my final selling price would be. As soon as I am "proceedable" she'll take it off the market for the price we have agreed.

I'm certain it'll all work out, and within a week too, but like you said, dont really want to risk losing money for no reason. I'm just impatient to secure the house!

Katgrit

Ps. The house I'm hoping to buy is vacant and has been for several months. The vendor is desperate to sell so its all proceedable at her end of the chain too. Just her, me and hopefully one of my many interested FTB's!

Richard_Webster

If you are selling shared ownership then do the terms require you to offer it first to the HA or other body that owns the freehold?

If you intend buying in the remaining percentage and the selling normally does the SO lease allow you to do this "back to back" or do you have to wait 3 months between a purchase of the remaining percentage and any sale of it? A lot of modern SO lease shave this "booby trap" in them.

botchjob

Seeing as you are under offer I would fib a bit and tell the vendor’s agent you have actually accepted an offer. By the time it matters, it’s sounds like you will have done.

They will currently still be showing the house and will be using your offer as a means to put pressure on other viewers. The fact that you have an offer on the table puts some considerable heat under the sale, which the agent will be VERY grateful for. Fib a bit. Get the house off the market asap.

We recently went through the same thing as you. We agreed a price for a house - higher than we would perhaps have agreed if we had been under offer - on the basis that it would be taken off the market the moment we accepted an offer on our flat. We then moved heaven and earth to get our flat on the market and sold. We accepted an offer two weeks later – again, perhaps slightly below what we would have accepted if we hadn’t have been chasing the house – and went back to the agent in the expectation of them saying “Great, it’s off the market”.

We then discovered that they’d used our offer to drum up interest with the result that we were now in an auction situation with two other buyers and it was going to best offers. Everyone actually ended up offering the same – the same as our original offer – and they then suggested going to a contract race. At which point we told them exactly where they could stuff their contracts.

Fortunately, a few months further on, our buyers dropped out and we found other buyers and agreed a higher price than originally. And we found a much nicer house. And the cherry on the cake was that the low-life agent got in touch to say that the winning buyer had pulled out and were we still interested

My advice is either to fib a bit or withdraw your offer until you have accepted an offer. Leaving an offer on the table is only of benefit to the seller/agent.

Katgrit

Richard_Webster wrote: »

If you are selling shared ownership then do the terms require you to offer it first to the HA or other body that owns the freehold?

No, they didnt even bother checking to see if they had anyone on their waiting list. Its just highest bidder wins, who then has to qualify under certain criteria. Such as be first time buyers, recently separated, blah blah blah.

Botchjob, I like your style. Another couple came tonight and I think they'll put an offer in tomorrow too. The housing association have a 2 week backlog of applications to work through and I cant just sit and chew my nails for that long!! As soon as a price is agreed I'll say I'm ready to proceed and just fingers crossed the housing association get through their backlog quickly!