Seller has nowhere to move

chromoweb

Hi everyone,

Just looking for some advice here as to my current situation in attempting to move house, as I'm

My partner and I made an offer on a house back at the end of January on a house, whereby the offer sat on the table for a month or so. Initially, the seller was going after a sealed bid house which they failed to get - so they then didn't have anywhere to move to. This was fine at the time as we weren't proceedable so we just sat back and waited. We then had interest in our flat from an investor shortly afterwards, though initially not enough was offered.

Then (when on holiday!) we received a call from our EA saying that if we could accept a slightly increased offer from the investor to make ourselves proceedable, then we would be able to agree a purchase on the property we wanted to buy since the sellers had found somewhere and wanted to offer.

So, duly we became proceedable (our house had been on market for 4 weeks), with the understanding that the chain would then be setup. However, it turns out that the seller went to look again and decided they didn't want to offer. So now we have a buyer, an offer accepted, but the seller has no where to move to. Luckily, we haven't returned solicitors' forms yet so have spent nothing.

In the meantime (the above has taken 6 weeks total), we saw another house we liked as well and made an offer (thinking the other offer had stalled completely) which was initially refused. However, now we are proceedable, the seller in the second property has indicated that they have a property to move to (but are willing to be end of chain and move in with parents), and are willing to sell to us (though it is slightly more).

So, I guess my question is, how long is it reasonable to expect a seller to find a property to move into (given they have taken 5 weeks so far, and pulled out of offering after we made ourselves proceedable for them to be able to offer)? Equally, we don't want our investor to get bored and find another property and then be faced with no buyer and no property to move to! Has anyone else had similar and how would you deal with it? (this seems to be the wrong way around! Normally, people complain about their buyers!)

Cheers,

chromo

nrsql

>> Normally, people complain about their buyers!
Nope - both ways.

I would be concerned about the first house you are trying to buy and before going ahead would consider making it financially disadvantagous for the seller to back out. It doesn't sound like it would be problematic. Might also try reducing the offer as you have another option.

If you like the second property then I would go with that as they sound serious about the sale.

drowningnotwaving_2

We were in exactly the same position and eventually decided to go with the 2nd property - two days after we instructed our solicitors to proceed with 2nd property, 1st vendors found a house!

Typical!

It's a risk you take - if you like the 2nd property go with it. Vendors can be v tricky!