Help can anyone offer advice please! (first post)

sophora

Our buyer, a 25yr old FTB, has been quite unpredictable from the start. He couldn't decide between ours and one other house and proceeded to bid on both properties with ridiculously low offers in the hope one of us would crack first and make his decision for him! In the end he decided on ours and stopped bidding on the other.

We accepted an offer from him which was about £3.5k less than we really wanted but £1.5k above our minimum accepting price. We would have held out for a bit more but (long story) we needed to sell quite quickly and get moving and we also didn't want to lose the house we had already seen and viewed a couple of times. So we offered on our wanted house same day and had offer accepted. We feel he got a very good price on our house.

Fast forward 7 weeks and things are going along fine, all to schedule. We and our sellers have kept paperwork going quickly and are in good, friendly, almost daily contact with our shared EA. Meanwhile our FTB is getting fed up despite the fact he's been told time and again that all is well and conveyancing takes 8-12weeks on average and we are totally on target.

We are approaching exchange this next week which is exactly when our EA predicted - she had pencilled in exchange by 23 July. As it is we may all be ready by 21st. Move day was suggested as possibly sometime w/c 2 August (our sellers can't do week before so that is the earliest and would suit us fine). Last Thursday our buyer rang the EA and spoke very rudely to her and said he wouldn't go beyond 2 Aug, he later rang back and said he wouldn't go beyond the 26 Jul!! As we are only going to be ready to complete the 21st at the earliest (probably) we think he is being very unreasonable. It is not like its been dragging on forever, its been totally normal AND he hasn't got the commitments (namely packing a house - he lives with his parents, children, other half, utilities etc) that the others in the chain have AND (and this is the biggie) he WON'T be moving in straight away, has absolutely no intentions, its just the principle !!!!!!?! He says if it can't be done by then he'll pull out! He said all this before he's even got his deposit in place or signed his contract!

We don't want to lose the house we want to buy. Luckily they are being lovely and are just as cross. They would be prepared to wait up to a month longer if we had to get another buyer (and the EA has one lined up who is very likely to offer given the chance - but she only wants to view if chain collapses). Our sellers are moving into an empty property whose owner has moved to Germany so there shouldn't be an issue at top of chain.

We are considering letting him have the house on 26th or thereabouts and completing with him separately and then moving into our parents house and putting our stuff in storage for a week before completing with our sellers to move on the day we both want 3 Aug. Is this a feasible option do you think? any more advice to offer?

Just so cross because he really doesn't need to be causing this stress for the sake of one week and when he has no intentions of moving in and when the whole process is still only 7.5weeks in!!

thank you
S x

motherofstudents

It depends if he means what he says or if he is just trying to speed things up. We had a similar thing happen and we moved in with my parents just so we could complete on the sale and know that it could no longer fall through. We then had a few delays which meant we had to wait longer than we expected but at least we heaved a huge sigh of relief that it was sold. Can you speak to anyone, EA or solicitor to have words with him ? He sounds like an absolute pain - I hope it works out for you

clutton_2

is this a manifestation of his stress..... does he Really want the house... is he m aking excuses to pull out later on .... have you seen proof of his mortgage offer and deposit.. has he had a survey done and all that ???

sophora

Thank you to you both for replies

He has been into the sols today to arrange deposit and sign his contract and has spoken with the EA and was much calmer. The subject of dates wasn't raised but hopefully if we can exchange this week, sooner rather than later, things will be ok.

G_M

clutton wrote: »

is this a manifestation of his stress..... does he Really want the house... is he m aking excuses to pull out later on .... have you seen proof of his mortgage offer and deposit.. has he had a survey done and all that ???

has he paid for a survey? Buyers rarely pull out in dispute over a few weeks dates for Exchange once they realise they'll lose the cash they've already invested.

sophora

It was only a basic mortgage type survey as the house isn't that old but will have paid something. He would also be liable for his solicitor's fees I would think as the whole job is done up to the exchange part now. Its just completion dates he's going to be hard to please on we think.

LisaLou1982

Just go to exchange and arrange the completion date for the original date that you wanted. When the solicitor calls him to exchange, they'll let him know the date that the rest of the chain want.

Its perfectly normal for some people to spout off - never had anyone pull out on exchange that threatened to because they couldnt complete yesterday!

Curveygirl

In the past, we were in a (shortish) chain where all the people further up all spoke to each other without EA or solicitors (or us!)and 'decided' a date, before it was physically possible to complete, then our vendors would ring us up and shout at us 2 days before the 'move' date because they had just realised it wasn't going to happen. They all had booked their removal vans and were fully packed! For some reason, & even now that I'm more experienced, I still don't get this, the entire chain did this THREE times, before we actually completed. We moved on the 4th date, which was (I thought) a not unreasonable 11 weeks after the 1st viewing.

I know a lot of people disagree on this point for valid reasons, but I would never have discussions with others in the chain about anything. Panic spreads. Make the EA work.

tbs624

Sophora - you sound very stressed by it all, but from the very start of your post you seem to be demonstrating a clear dislike of your buyer and getting way too personal about it all.

There is nothing wrong with a buyer having offers in on more than one property at any one time and regardless of what you think your house is worth, it has found its current selling price. You say "We feel he got a very good price on our house" but then also say that he is paying 1500 quid above your min selling price.

Perhaps it would have been better had you a had a three way decision on completion/exchange, with both your buyer and the owner of the house you are buying, rather than fixing everything with one party and presenting it almost as a "fait accompli" to your buyer.

Your EA seems to be fanning the flames somewhat and perhaps needs to be a tad more professional. Perhaps his "rush" has something to do with his particular financing of the purchase? Maybe he has a heavy work commitment or an operation coming up, for example ? Everyone gets stressed during house buying/selling and sometimes you do have to step back and realise that its not all about you.

Your EA should be working hard for a compromise that is acceptable to all, with the minimum of fuss.

sophora

of course I'm a bit stressed - moving house is stressful and even more so when working and taking care of four kids and all their needs!

We don't dislike our buyer, he was lovely when he came to view, brought his boyfriend with him and they were a really nice couple. Its just been hard work since.

We know we have accepted less than we could have for the house because our neighbour in a 4 bed detached a few doors down from us, a house exactly the same as ours, sold for £12k more a couple of weeks before us. We could have held out for more but need to move quickly because of my husband's job. We will be moving 120miles away so its a big change for us all.

I'm guessing it'll work out in the end.