Do I sell or do I stay now????

yodaegghoover

My wife and I have landed in a strange situation. We have recently accepted an offer on our house and everything is in the hands of our solicitors. Unfortunately We cannot find a house to purchase to move into ourselves. So I have a couple of questions that I would likes answered:
1. How long should/can I make my perspective buyer wait?
2. If they pull out of the purchase would I still have to pay estate agent fees, especially if I decide to take it off the market at a later date?
3. If we tell the buyer that we want to pull out and stay where we are and therefore take the house off the market, would we still have to pay estate agent and solicitor fees?

I must mention that no contracts have been signed between ourselves and purchaser at this time.

Many thanks

sooz

If you have a buyer, find somewhere else to move to.

This doesn't have to be a new house to buy.

Find somewhere to rent in the location you like, & move in, wait for your sale to finish, & then you are in a great position as cash buyers.

You need to check your contract with your EA. You may well be liable for their full fees if you choose to pull out.

PasturesNew

Best thing to do is sell and rent, then you're ready to move fast once you do see something you want.

If you pull out, the buyer's spent up to £1000 already on fees etc - and you'd still have to pay the EA fees. If you did decide to do this it might be cheaper to pay the buyer cash to cover his costs on the basis he pulls out. Then you can hand your notice into your EA and say you found it stressful so now need a rest

Jenniefour

The suggestions you have received about renting seem very wise. Are you in an area where properties are harder to sell? And do you really need to move in the next year or so? The risk you may be taking, if you decide to pull out of this now, is that it may not be possible to get the offer you have now, if prices continue to fall and with the mortgage squeeze well and truly on and probably going to get even tighter. You would be in a great position if you rent - there's a shortage of 'proceedable' buyers in all areas. Good luck with whatever you choose to do !

pennychoices

Hi is there any more advice with regards to this? Myself & my husband are in a similar situation and we don't know what to do.
We sold our house with the first viewing and recieved the price we paid for it in jan 2008, £128,000. Bearing this in mind we're happy with the price but because it was all so sudden literally had to desperately start looking for our new house. Its now been 2 and a half weeks and we just can't find anything suitable. Our buyers haven't paid out anything yet as they were told not to pay/have a valuation done until we found which i'm very glad of. Our estate agents have said we have until tomorrow morning to decide if we are a; selling end of chain (we can move in with my parents until we find) or b; not moving at all (we wouldn't have any fees to pay).

Our dilemna is what if we don't find? Then we've lost our current house &, just to make it more complicated, are expecting baby no 2 in March! Or what if we say we're not moving & never get the offer we've recieved now?

Very very confused & stressed. Please help, any advice welcome, Thank you.

tootsmyboots

We were in exactly this position last year so we rented with a very young baby and a one year old! I treated it as an adventure in the end and it made us get rid of loads of clutter as we would be moving twice! We hired a removal van for the first move as it was to another town (where we knew we wanted to buy) and then when we did buy somewhere we could move things over ourselves in the car over a few days and just get a van for beds and wardrobes. It was so much less stressful as we didnt have to be out on completion day.

It was then easier to look for houses as we were cash buyers and we ended up grabbing a bargain which we were able to do up to our own tastes.

Renting might seem like a pain, but it means you dont lose your buyers and you can look without pressure. The house we actually ended up buying had been up for sale all along, but it needed too much doing to it to move straight in. Also it is nice for a short while to have someone else fix things if something breaks! I just never treated the rental house like my own home - I made sure I kept everything pristine so there would be no problems with the deposit and that 6 months passed so fast. In fact I am due number 3 in March and can honestly say it would have been no problem with a new baby in tow! COngratulations by the way! Go renting and then you wont have to worry about losing a sale.

flora48

Buyers are like gold dust in the present economic climate. If you have really decided to move I would hang on to the buyer and move into rented accomodation, a caravan, relatives anything. I am just coming to the end of a two and half year nightmare in trying to move on, I can't see things improving in the economic situation in the near future either. As chain free buyers the world will be your oyster, great position for negotiation or taking on a property for renovation whilst not having to live there.

beedeedee

Rent, rent, rent............even if you have to sign a 6 month lease still do it! You may find that you are able to move out before the 6 months is up and not have to pay for the unused months if you tell the Agent or LL in the beginning. They then can keep their eye open for new tenants. We've done this many times. Worst case scenario is that is could cost you a few months rent - but in the long term, it's got to be worth it. You'll not be in a chain for the next purchase and that can be worth so much - you'll be able to really negotiate downwards - very MSE!

pennychoices

Thank you everyone for your advice. Just to mix it up a bit i have another bit of a dilemna to throw in there; our mortgage (with Cheltenham & Gloucester) which we're porting only allows for 3 months to stop & re-start without losing the rate. We have to keep this rate otherwise we couldn't afford the repayments as its 90% LTV & the rate is 2.5% (standard variable) whereas it would go up significantly to get a brand new mortgage. I'm just panicky about not finding in time. I definitely agree with it putting us in a stronger position having nothing to sell. And of course i agree that buyers are few & far between so we've been very lucky to get one so quickly. We'd also be putting ALL of our savings into upgrading our property which is making me wobble on losing the security we have now. A part of me is so stressed thinking about it i wonder if its worth it!

Sorry my heads all over the place.

nell53

How about sitting down, having a cup of tea and reminding yourselves why you wanted to move in the first place. That should help to make your decision.

pennychoices

Ok cup of tea in hand, problem is we keep going in circles! :-)