not sure what to do, purchase fallen through

michele-p

Hi all, I'm hoping just gettign this down in an email will help me, but I'm having a very hard time deciding what to do.

We put out house on the market a few months back, and got a buyer within 2 days, very lucky us. The buyer it turns out works with my husband, though we still need to pay estate agents fees as we didn't know he was looking and he spotted it on right move.

So this was probably 2 months ago now. In the meantime we have been lookign for our ideal property to buy. We've offered on a few, viewed so many and are thoroughly sick of houses. We found one we both loved about 3 weeks ago, and pulled out all the stops to hurry it along to catch up with our buyer.

Last week the seller even tried to push us along, saying that she was worried we'd not had the survey done, we were waiting for the results of our buyers survey, which he had done last week. So we paid for ours and got them to arrange it for later this week.

Monday afternoon I got a call from estate agent to say he had a letter from the seller, saying she had changed her mind and didn't want to sell. We offered a few thousand more, as she mentioned she wasn't too happy at the price we'd agreed on, but we can offer no more. She has still said no.

The predicament now is, do we let our sale go though, and move into rented, which we originally said we would, before we found out we have such a good existing mortgage which we can port. If we move to rented we can't keep the good mortgage, so will end up paying a lot more interest, and subsequently be able to afford to offer less.

There's not much on the market that appeals to us, and we find that sometimes we turn up to viewings with 4 or 5 other sets of people, as we are after something a little bit "different".

It's driving us mad, and we really don't know what to do now for the best. The same thing happened last time we tried to move about 4 years ago, so we just stayed put, but the house really is too small!

Sorry for the long post!

Jowo_2

You've only got 2 choices.

Proceed and go into rented accommodation at the risk of your mortgage offer.

Or stall the buyer and hope they don't pull out and hope that the market doesn't tank due to a double dip recession which means you are stuck if you do find a property that you like.

Which risk do you have the most appetite for?

A few days ago, there was a post here from someone who had a buyer who lost patience with their reluctance to move into rented accommodation because they could not find a new property to buy, their buyer pulled out.

Twood

If it was me - I'd let the sale go through and end up paying the extra interest. If the house really is too small for you - you are better off not risking losing the buyer. Also when you do find the property you love you will be in a great position and will be able to beat off some of the competition and possibly offer a lower price because of your situation.

michele-p

Thanks for the quick replies, it does help to get it all down. One thing we did consider was offering to pay our buyers rent for a month while we try to find something else. The thought of moving twice isn't appealing, plus I work from home, and would possibly have to find an office to use in the short term if the internet isn't on in rented place straight away.

Doozergirl

I'd just tell the buyer what has happened and see what they say - do they want to push you along and out of your house or are they a bit more relaxed about it all? You don't want to move to rented if you don't have to, perhaps you could agree a timescale within which you need to find a new place - it's not your fault that your vendor has pulled out after all.

When you're honest with people you'll find that they are more accommodating than you might think.

SusieT

It may also be worth talkingto the mortgage provider to see if they will hold your current deal for a few months if you cannot go straight into a new house. I managed to do that but it was a good few years ago so things may have changed by now!

tyllwyd

michele-p wrote: »

.... if the internet isn't on in rented place straight away.

One thing you could do (although the speed in my experience is rubbish) is to look into a mobile dongle for broadband in the short term.

pawpurrs

Firstly see if your buyers will give you more time, if they wont and you have allready said you would go in to rented, then speak to your mortgage company a lot of them will hold your mortgage deal for six mths, for you to port over.
BB etc can be sorted, there are mobile dongles, wifi, nice neighbours, libarys etc.

MobileSaver

michele-p wrote: »

do we let our sale go though, and move into rented, which we originally said we would,

Certainly ask the buyer first if they mind hanging on a bit longer but if they do mind then there's little choice really. If you said you would go into rented then obviously you should unless there are some exceptional change in circumstances (the low mortgage rate doesn't count!)

It may be an old fashioned approach for people to keep to their promises but the world would be a much nicer place if more people did. I'm a firm believer in what goes around comes around.

On a practical note, several years ago my partner and I were in a similar situation. We moved out of our old house for three months to secure our dream home but instead of renting we stayed with different family and friends a month at a time.

There were obvious compromises in our lifestyle for three months but in the big scheme of things it flew by and was easily the best housing decision we've ever made.

P.S. You said you "pulled out all the stops to hurry it" but then also said you delayed getting a survey done. There's a bit of a contradiction there and it sounds to me like this was a factor in you losing the house you both loved, something to think about for next time.