Accept an offer without a house to go to?

googler

usupnorth wrote: »

..... forget liability for agent's fees for a moment. If we accept an offer with nowhere to go, is that really any less frustrating to a buyer than simply agreeing a price that we will accept once we are in a position to sell them the house? Why would you have been any less inconvenienced, googler, if we had officially accepted your offer and then still have taken as long to find a place?

This idea that you accept an offer on your home from a buyer, and then have free reign to take as long as you like to find your onward move is totally alien to me, as I come from a culture where an offer is made with an entry date specified, and it's generally accepted that the entry date is held to.

You're essentially saying that you would accept an offer from a buyer with no real commitment to actually sell to that buyer, and no real commitment to complete the transaction in any other timescale than that which enables you to find the right onward move for you - regardless of how long it keeps the buyer waiting.

In Scotland, the form would be that I offer you £X to buy your house, with an entry date of dd/mm/yy, subject to any other conditions, and if you accept, and finalise the contract on this basis, then that's the date you'll hand me the keys, and you'll be moved out, and I'll be moving in. It's up to you to make your arrangements once that's settled, and should you be unable to find somewhere to buy as your onward move, you either rent somewhere or book into a hotel, or stay with family until you do.



I'm totally baffled at the vagueness that seems to accompany the buying/selling process in England & Wales. Offers aren't made in writing; offers are accepted without any firm commitment to an entry date; etc etc

People say here on numerous occasions that a house purchase is one of the major transactions in one's life - yet there's no apparent legally-set procedure that governs the process of making an offer, acceptance of same, commitment from parties, etc.

DRP

usupnorth wrote: »

Hi

A simple question, perhaps, though I will be elaborate!

We are waiting for a suitable house to come up in a particular area, while marketing our own property.

It states in our contract that if we were to pull out of selling our house to a buyer once we'd accepted their offer, we'd be liable to pay our estate agent some remuneration.

If we get an acceptable offer on our house before we actually have a house to buy, it seems to me we would be best NOT to officially accept the offer, buy simply to agree the price and say that we will officially accept the offer once we have found somewhere. We could, perhaps, offer some extra assurance that we were not trying to seek a bigger offer, and to clarify our position.

This would seem to protect us against liability for estate agent money in the unlikely event that we should decide to hold off on our move and pull out of a sale (perhaps because we simply could not find a decent property in a reasonable time - not that we have any thoughts of that at all right now). If our buyer pulls out first, of course, we have no liability for fees.

What do you think? Is that normal?

We sold to a ftb/cash buyer about a month ago. We haven't found anywhereto buy yet (stock is very limited ). The buyer had the survey done within a week, instructed solicitors and has recently had builders around to give quotes for work they want to do.

If at some time they get so impatient that they pull out, we are free to give notice to our estateaagent and I would not be liable for fees as they won't have sold our house as far as I'm concerned.

What I'm trying to say is that to avoid fees all you have to do is not find a place to move to. Eventually your 'buyer' will pull out and hey presto, no sale, no fee.

skivenov

Depends how you can live your life. My folks sold their house as soon as they got a buyer, rented a holiday chalet out of season and lived in there for 3 months while their new house was ready. Was actually a really good Christmas as I remember it :rotfl:

There's a bit of Romany in our bloodline, and it really shows in my and my brother at times. I was homeless for a month between houses, so I chucked everything I didn't truely need in a self store, hitched the caravan up and lived in laybys.

Mobeer

If I was making an offer, I would first expect it to be accepted \ rejected within a day or 2. If accepted, I would expect the property to be taken off the market and to get solicitors talking about a contract straight away. I would also want to discuss time frames for exchange and completion; not exact dates but an aim at least.

nic_santorini

Our local estate agents said that don't bother looking until you have an offer!! As that puts you in a strong position. My house goes on the market tomorrow and personally I don't want to look at other houses, get excited and never have an offer on mine!!

How can I offer on other houses, when I have none on mine. I think that as long as you are honest with your buyer then whats the problem.

Crazy_Diamond

It all depends on the circumstance of the purchaser - how keen they are on your house and how strong the market is in your area - how easy if will be for them to find something else.

I have experience from both sides. As a purchaser back in 2004 we had an offer accepted on a house in Cambridge where at the time property was being bid way above list price. We found out after having paid out nearly £1000 for a survey and a mortgage arrangement fee that the place the seller was buying had fallen through and they needed to find something else. Unfortunately after 5 months of looking they decided that they couldn't see anything else and took the house off the market. We cut our losses and ended up buying another house but later found out the original house sold 11 months on for another £50k.

As a seller in 2011 we were in a similar position to yours in that we wanted to port our mortgage and would have lost out on the mortgage rate if we had to go into rent. We accepted an asking price offer on our house the first week it went on the market but at this point had not found anywhere to move to. We were open with our purchasers about this but they were so keen on the house they were happy to wait. I think they were probably also reassured by the fact we had to move long distance for work reasons so were not likely to change our minds about selling. In the end it took us 2 months of searching (and one failed purchase) before we found somewhere and another 2 months before we completed. At the time I was contemplating offering our purchasers exchange with a delayed completion however luckily we did not need to do this in the end.

usupnorth

Thanks.

I think any buyer who comes along tomorrow is going to have to be prepared to be flexible. We are certainly being honest about the fact that we do not yet have a house to offer on, while making it clear that we are very actively looking.

nic_santorini wrote: »

My house goes on the market tomorrow and personally I don't want to look at other houses, get excited and never have an offer on mine!!

Just a word of warning: this is exactly how we felt to start with two months ago. After a while, we did end up viewing one house, which was the only obvious choice, and didn't bother viewing any more. Then we suddenly accepted an offer on ours and were due to buy that house. There weren't any others in the frame. When that fell through, but our buyer briefly remained, we suddenly wished we'd looked at as many more as reasonably possible, to have more benchmarks. You learn loads going around places - if only about what you really like and dislike: will accept, and wont accept. You just don't know what you will learn, at that time, even if you're quite experienced.

I think it's worth the emotional risk of getting excited and disappointed, to gain a better insight into properties you may buy. As our experience showed us, you can quickly regret not having looked around a good selection when you could - even if they don't look that brilliant on the brochure. Another one appeared on the market while our buyer was hanging on, but we found it hard to assess quickly having only looked around one before.

We have since looked around more, and rejected them (as we thought we would). However, we are much more certain now of our requirements and priorities, having seen them.

oldskoo1

I've mentioned this before on MSE but i sold my house recently after loosing 2 buyers due to not having a house to go to.

I leaflet dropped and found a great house who were willing to sell to us. Don't rule it out.

Go on google maps, scout the area, use street view to find the right sized house and use their compass to find the house orientation, we wanted a south facing property.

usupnorth

oldskoo1 wrote: »

I've mentioned this before on MSE but i sold my house recently after loosing 2 buyers due to not having a house to go to.

I leaflet dropped and found a great house who were willing to sell to us. Don't rule it out.

Go on google maps, scout the area, use street view to find the right sized house and use their compass to find the house orientation, we wanted a south facing property.

That is very interesting, because it is the next thing we are going to do. Great to hear that it worked for you. Please would you be kind enough to recall what you actually put on the leaflet, ie the way you phrased it? We're not quite sure what to put, or how much detail. Please PM me if you'd prefer.

InMyDreams

usupnorth wrote: »

In accepting an offer without a house to go to, we wouldn't be taking it off the market anyway.

If you accept an offer ('officially' or otherwise) but refuse to take it off the market (to cover your back) you have to also accept that even if your buyer is OK with this, they will also be morally free to continue to look at (and make offers on) other houses (to cover their back).

I don't think it's reasonable to accept an offer, but leave the house on the market until your buyers spend money on searches/surveys etc, if the only thing holding them back is that *you* haven't found a house. I totally get why tying in your purchase and sale is so crucial for you, but really, that's not your buyer's problem.