Further viewings while 'under offer'?

DRP

hazyjo wrote: »

Consider going into rented if your buyer (when you have one) won't hang on.

Just don't accept an offer if you're not ready to move.

If you do accept, they will probably only want to give you a certain amount of time to find somewhere. Keep communication active. I lost a buyer as nobody kept her in the loop (useless EAs). We lost the house we were going for and found another within a few weeks but she scarpered.

Also, beware - if you do keep marketing your house, your buyers will no doubt keep viewing others. Do not presume you'll get another offer at the same level when you are ready to move. It could take months, or you could get lower offers.

Also, if your EA find you buyers (and you agree a price), then you pull out cos you can't find anywhere, you might find yourself responsible for their whole fee still.

Jx

But the seller isn't the one to pull out - the buyer will pull out after waiting for as long as they can. Therefore the seller won't pay the EA fee.

googler

StuC75 wrote: »

There are no ethics whatsoever in the process we have in England - Neither Seller or Buyer are contractually obligated until the point of exchange...

Which is sort of my point, since I'm in Scotland.

Are you happy with this lack of ethics? Would you prefer to see things done differently, perhaps with some legislation to enforce some ethics upon the public?

DRP

googler wrote: »

Which is sort of my point, since I'm in Scotland.

Are you happy with this lack of ethics? Would you prefer to see things done differently, perhaps with some legislation to enforce some ethics upon the public?

you do hear scare stories but in most instances, both sides of the deal act in a fair and reasonable way in my experience.

badgerbread

just read this and thought I would let you know about my experiences when I sold my house we had an offer took the place of the market as a survey was done etc found a property ourselves all seemed to be going well was told we should exchange contracts on a Friday only to be told on the Thursday that actually the person was unable to get a mortgage as they were not a british citizen I understand it was not the person who was buying fault as they obviously thought that they would be able to buy. The property went up on the market again and we had a similar problem again but it did not get as far as exchang only an offer was made. I personally will now always keep my property on the market until exchange as this confirms you will sell.

StuC75

googler wrote: »

Which is sort of my point, since I'm in Scotland.

Are you happy with this lack of ethics? Would you prefer to see things done differently, perhaps with some legislation to enforce some ethics upon the public?

After the last move, the next time I move will be in the box!

Difficult to see how can be improved; afterall as a buyer would want scenarios where can renegotiate \ pull out.. maybe should be a point where both parties put money in escrow to mitigate others loss should there an 'unjustified' change of mind scenario. Maybe revival of HIP's where the seller provides much of the searches so more is known upfront by the buyer. That way relevent to whoever buy the house, maybe surveys should be done prior to offers so prices 'Agreed' at the start with little risk of brinkmanship..

Guess it comes down to reading peoples personalities - Knew my Buyer was going to be a pain from Day 1, but wasnt much interest where selling...

usupnorth

Thanks to all.

For those who referred to stopping the marketing as soon as the buyer stumped up cash on a surveyor or solicitors... In our case, it is the likely gap between us accepting an offer and finding a property that could affect this usual test of a buyer's commitment.

They're unlikely to instruct any professionals until we've completed the chain, so we'd only be relying on our agreement and on them not seeing anywhere better before we found somewhere. They'd have made no financial commitment at that point, and it would not be unreasonable for them to pull out if we took too long. It would be nice to have back-ups, although we'd make it very clear that we would not let anyone gazump them.

Viewings though? I can see why that may offend the buyers from whom we have accepted an offer.

The Rightmove definitions are useful to know, and suggest that it would only be 'Under Offer', as long as we hadn't actually accepted an offer. But I don't see how a property is really 'Sold STC' until the seller has somewhere to go and can actual enter the selling process! Maybe a new term is needed, or the definition of 'Under Offer' needs to be revised.

fivetide

If you have a good offer in today's market it is worth acting on it now and doing nothing to change the situation. There are a number of threads on here from vendors having to reduce prices or struggling to attract offers as an example of that.

Good luck with the sale.

5t.

LisaLou1982

usupnorth wrote: »

Thanks to all.

For those who referred to stopping the marketing as soon as the buyer stumped up cash on a surveyor or solicitors... In our case, it is the likely gap between us accepting an offer and finding a property that could affect this usual test of a buyer's commitment.

They're unlikely to instruct any professionals until we've completed the chain, so we'd only be relying on our agreement and on them not seeing anywhere better before we found somewhere. They'd have made no financial commitment at that point, and it would not be unreasonable for them to pull out if we took too long. It would be nice to have back-ups, although we'd make it very clear that we would not let anyone gazump them.

Viewings though? I can see why that may offend the buyers from whom we have accepted an offer.

The Rightmove definitions are useful to know, and suggest that it would only be 'Under Offer', as long as we hadn't actually accepted an offer. But I don't see how a property is really 'Sold STC' until the seller has somewhere to go and can actual enter the selling process! Maybe a new term is needed, or the definition of 'Under Offer' needs to be revised.

OP haven't you been looking for a property whilst yours has been up for sale? If not, Why not?

Re: Under offer/SSTC - it depends on the EAs software as to how the property is shown. We never had the option of showing anything under offer when i was an EA although that might have changed since but i havent noticed.

I think your biggest issue will be finding something and not upsetting your buyer enough that they look for something else. Apologies if im wrong, but i cant believe that anyone would jepodise a sale by not even looking for properties whilst theirs is up for sale

googler

StuC75 wrote: »

Difficult to see how can be improved; afterall as a buyer would want scenarios where can renegotiate \ pull out.. maybe should be a point where both parties put money in escrow to mitigate others loss should there an 'unjustified' change of mind scenario.

We seem to manage fine in Scotland without that.....

Maybe revival of HIP's where the seller provides much of the searches so more is known upfront by the buyer. That way relevent to whoever buy the house, maybe surveys should be done prior to offers so prices 'Agreed' at the start with little risk of brinkmanship..

We have a head-start on that, too, since sellers have to provide a Home Report prior to placing their home on the market, containing a survey and RICS valuation.

Guess it comes down to reading peoples personalities

Personalities are out of the equation up here, since viewers view, then get their solicitor to put a written offer in. Selling agent accepts, declines or negotiates on that, and from there on, matters are in hands of solicitors acting for each. Solicitor acting for buyer is generally expected to ensure they are - a - keen on the house, and not acting frivolously, and - b - able to proceed if offer accepted (i.e. have finance in place)

No arguing over fixtures and fittings, that's all settled at the time the offer is submitted, and detailed therein.

usupnorth

LisaLou1982 wrote: »

OP haven't you been looking for a property whilst yours has been up for sale? If not, Why not? ...Apologies if im wrong, but i cant believe that anyone would jepodise a sale by not even looking for properties whilst theirs is up for sale

Oh yes... we certainly have been looking and still are, every day, though we are only interested in a particular small area (geographically) where there were only a handful of properties that sold there in the previous 12 months that would have been of interest, had we been looking back then.

Naturally, renting would be an obvious option, but we can only port our (now-unavailable) excellent mortgage deal if we buy and sell at the same time. I worked out the likely difference between that and the best deal we'd get now. It was pretty massive.

We've just got to be prepared to wait until we see a suitable house and have a buyer for ours at the same time, it seems. We're certainly not going to buy the wrong house, just because we have a buyer for ours! Luckily, there is no real time pressure on the move through work or such like.