is it normal for the buyer to wait

stolt

for the vendor to find a house to buy before carrying out searches etc on your house.

dunstonh

No. If they have sold their house and you have agreed to sell to them, they are now free to start the work on buying your house.

stolt

dunstonh wrote: »

No. If they have sold their house and you have agreed to sell to them, they are now free to start the work on buying your house.

Yes thats what I thought, there are first time buyers and it makes me think that they are not serious, although they have said to the EA that they dont want to spend money on survey, and then we could pull out and decide that we haven't found a hosue so we are no longer interested in selling ours.
I can understand there viewpoint, but I just thought it would speed the whole process up if they have had the survey on ours then when we find a house (got about 10 to view Saturday) they are already sorted and we can go ahead.

Obviously I cant force them to do it before we find a house just seemed a strange why to go about things, they have a mortgage in principle which the EA has said he has seen. makes me think that perhaps they are hedging their bets alittle and maybe they could be the ones pulling out (probably just when we find a house suitable)

dunstonh

Technically you could pull out any time so there is never really a good time to start but as first time buyers, the chain will start with them so they are really in the driving seat.

stolt

Yeah thats a point, still i cant force them, i guess I will have to hurry up and find a house so we get the ball rolling.
thanks for the replies

Worried

My mortgage advisor instructed the estate agent not to book in the survey on the flat I was buying last year, until the vendors had found a place to buy.

Skippyd00

When is it ever a good time to start searches? As a buyer I placed an offer on a house Oct 2006 - since then the vendors have placed 6 separate offers on properties and pulled out of each one approx 2 wks later. Their latest offer has been accepted, but state that vendor cannot move until Aug 2007 (so I should either pull out or wait until Aug! Do I trust them to proceed?).
If I pull out lose c. £1,500 (Mtg admin fee, survey and searches) - Each time I've offered to pull out the EA and vendors say 'Oh no, it's for real this time!' - My lesson is ask the vendor for some kind of comitment to sell (e.g. a non-refundable deposit if they pull out).