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How long would you wait for a seller to find somewhere?

Hi everyone. Would love to hear if others have been in this situation and how it worked out.

My flat is going on the market on Tuesday. Been glued to Rightmove for about 5 months, but because I'm not yet 'proceedable' have only looked at a handful of properties so far, all in the last fortnight. However, have done lots of research and feel well-informed about prices, and the area I'm moving to.

Have seen lots of posts on these boards about sellers getting frustrated if potential buyers are not in a position to proceed. Some even say they instruct EAs only to do viewings if they can confirm buyers's proceedability. Fair enough. That's why I haven't been viewing much. Don't want to get anyone's back up.

But I've also seen posts from buyers agitated when they've had an offer accepted but the seller hasn't found somewhere else to live yet. Some wonder if the seller is motivated to move at all. Also fair enough in many instances, I'm sure.

Feel a bit stuck between a rock and a hard place. Am v. motivated to move, but a seller won't take any offer of mine seriously until I have an offer on my own place. But when I do get an offer, the buyer will undoubtedly become impatient while I try to find a place to buy (if indeed, they're prepared to wait at all).

I have a DIP, a solicitor lined up, and I know exactly what I'm looking for. I'm basically ready to go but the area I'm moving to has a much slower-moving property market than the town I'm leaving behind. For every 5 properties coming to market where I am now, the rate is probably 1 in the town I'm moving to.

Am porting my existing mortgage because I'm on a very low rate lifetime tracker, and I only have 31 days grace period between transactions so moving into rental isn't an option. (Even if it was, rentals in the area are 3 x more expensive than my v. low mortgage so I couldn't afford it).

Am I worrying about nothing here? Is this just the general reality of being in a chain? I would always be upfront with all parties, but how long would you be prepared to wait for your seller to find somewhere? (My market will be mainly FTBs I imagine).

Thanks all.

Comments

  • hazyjo
    hazyjo Posts: 15,474 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I think you've done the right thing in checking RM and getting to know the area and market.

    I did start viewing properties before an offer - I think it helps to say you've got somewhere in mind (but obviously haven't offered on yet) when viewers ask. I also think that once you do get an offer, you can ring up straight away and offer on the one you like without having to faff around with at least one viewing on something you might not end up liking 'in the flesh'.

    Trouble is, a lot of people want to move, put their houses up, don't look at anywhere until they have a buyer, then realise what they want and what they have to spend are miles apart!

    I think people are prepared to wait weeks rather than months.

    I did hang on for several weeks once before, but heard through the grapevine (no, they didn't bother telling us) that they had decided not to sell. I ended up losing my buyer and the chain collapsed.

    I wouldn't set a deadline as there might not be anything else on the market I like! So kind of pointless. But I would keep an eye on the market and if something came along that looked better than the one I was offering on, I would be letting the EAs know that I can't hang on for ever and if I don't hear anything within a week or so (would really depend on how long I'd waited up 'til that time), I'll have to start looking at other properties (knowing there was one I liked and could go and view).

    Jx
    2024 wins: *must start comping again!*
  • mummyroysof3
    mummyroysof3 Posts: 4,566 Forumite
    Our went up for sale this week and we have been looking already as we aren't going to have much to choose from. We have already lost one we hoped to buy but have another in mind and something else may become available in the meantime anyway
    Have a Bsc Hons open degree from the Open University 2015 :j:D:eek::T
  • DRP
    DRP Posts: 4,283 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    hazyjo wrote: »
    I think you've done the right thing in checking RM and getting to know the area and market.

    I did start viewing properties before an offer - I think it helps to say you've got somewhere in mind (but obviously haven't offered on yet) when viewers ask. I also think that once you do get an offer, you can ring up straight away and offer on the one you like without having to faff around with at least one viewing on something you might not end up liking 'in the flesh'.

    Trouble is, a lot of people want to move, put their houses up, don't look at anywhere until they have a buyer, then realise what they want and what they have to spend are miles apart!

    I think people are prepared to wait weeks rather than months.

    I did hang on for several weeks once before, but heard through the grapevine (no, they didn't bother telling us) that they had decided not to sell. I ended up losing my buyer and the chain collapsed.

    I wouldn't set a deadline as there might not be anything else on the market I like! So kind of pointless. But I would keep an eye on the market and if something came along that looked better than the one I was offering on, I would be letting the EAs know that I can't hang on for ever and if I don't hear anything within a week or so (would really depend on how long I'd waited up 'til that time), I'll have to start looking at other properties (knowing there was one I liked and could go and view).

    Jx

    I don;t think it is possible to generalise.

    in my experience no buyer of mine has got twitchy before at least a few months has passed (6 months on the last occasion).

    Given the timescales involved in finding & negotiating, if a vendor chooses to buy a house where a chain is required, then they have to be patient imo
  • Mr_Moo_2
    Mr_Moo_2 Posts: 320 Forumite
    I know it doesn't suit everyone, but maybe consider renting in your new area when (as opposed to "if" !!) you find a buyer for your flat?
    Update - forget that, need to read OP properly. Always a fallback though.....
  • Dan-Dan
    Dan-Dan Posts: 5,272 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Well , this is a subject close to my heart , we made the mistake of viewing having accepted an `offer` from a tyre kicking waster! (not bitter) as we were led up the garden path a bit , Wife fell in love with what does tick all the boxes ,now of course , we are 5 weeks down the line ,s till no offer , and the house we like is coming to the end of it`s 16 week contract with the EA ,i wont be surprised if they take if off the market , they arent going to wait for ever i`m sure

    Now , we take looks at RM but we DONT arrange any viewings as there just isnt any point until we have an offer

    Its disappointing but as you come to udnerstand the way it works , the more obvious it is that viewing without the finances in place is as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike
    Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
  • phoebe1989seb
    phoebe1989seb Posts: 4,452 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    When we last bought & sold (2011) we did start to sound out places first on RM, especially as we were moving to a new area (any one of several counties, so very vague) and had a very strict criteria (large-ish period project houses etc etc). We had also been stung on our last purchase as a result of not checking out the new area thoroughly, yet couldn't go into rented due to too much stuff and too any pets, LOL, so we wanted to be totally prepared the next time :o

    I'd made a short-list of potential candidates and areas that seemed suitable, but we didn't view any before going on the market/having an offer accepted on our house - not only because we would have been perceived as unproceedable, but 'cos we were moving a couple of hundred miles so couldn't just pop out to view any that grabbed our attention. Thorough online research and google street view etc did enable us to weed out a few unsuitable locations though.

    What we weren't prepared for was getting an offer we were happy with within the first two weeks - that area was moving incredibly slowly (some of our former neighbours still have theirs for sale two years on), but ours was a unique house - and that our buyers had a specific week in mind to complete as they were under pressure from further along the chain, which they made us aware of from the outset.

    As soon as we'd accepted their offer (Friday) we arranged to drive down to view a handful of houses over the weekend. As we were looking at such a wide area - E & W Sussex, Hants, Dorset & Wilts - we struggled to do many in one day, but within a fortnight had found somewhere that seemed to fit the bill. Long story short, that fell through and four weeks after accepting the offer on ours we'd still not found anywhere to buy. Browsing RM one evening I found an interesting house which we arranged to view the next day, leaving at the crack of dawn to fit in a full day checking out the location. We fell in love - more with the garden than the unmortgageable wreck of a house - and had our offer accepted after a bit of negotiating.

    We were very fortunate to still be able to tie in the purchase with our sale and completed on both about five weeks later.

    Throughout the process our buyers did keep referring to the week they hoped to complete and did, I think begin to doubt whether we'd find somewhere we wanted to move to, but despite their fears (and a solicitor's fire that destroyed their buyer's mortgage paperwork) we did complete that week as planned :D
    Mortgage-free for fourteen years!

    Over £40,000 mis-sold PPI reclaimed
  • hazyjo
    hazyjo Posts: 15,474 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    DRP wrote: »
    I don;t think it is possible to generalise.

    in my experience no buyer of mine has got twitchy before at least a few months has passed (6 months on the last occasion).

    Given the timescales involved in finding & negotiating, if a vendor chooses to buy a house where a chain is required, then they have to be patient imo

    Maybe the usual 'different markets'. I've been in London and Essex, and the longest I heard of anyone hanging on was around 4 months - that was two blokes who were trying to buy a house and were starting to get incredibly peed off with the whole thing as she'd still not found anywhere.

    Thing is, prices tend to change too in some areas. In a falling market, do you really want to be paying the same price you agreed six months later? And in a rising one, you risk the owner putting it back on at a higher price.

    Should have added a 'generally' to my sentence. I cannot imagine waiting over four months for someone to find somewhere to buy!

    Jx
    2024 wins: *must start comping again!*
  • DRP
    DRP Posts: 4,283 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    hazyjo wrote: »
    Maybe the usual 'different markets'. I've been in London and Essex, and the longest I heard of anyone hanging on was around 4 months - that was two blokes who were trying to buy a house and were starting to get incredibly peed off with the whole thing as she'd still not found anywhere.

    Thing is, prices tend to change too in some areas. In a falling market, do you really want to be paying the same price you agreed six months later? And in a rising one, you risk the owner putting it back on at a higher price.

    Should have added a 'generally' to my sentence. I cannot imagine waiting over four months for someone to find somewhere to buy!

    Jx

    You're right and I think it comes down to your bog standard normal distribution!

    a minority of people will be willing to wait 6 months and a minority will have zero patience and want things sorted over the weekend. There will be everyone else in the middle who will be willing to wait longer, depending on circumstance...

    It comes down to personality, location, specific context and probably a million other things... but i'd say 1-3 months is probably very normal.

    No doubt there's a database somewhere that could be used to plot the distribution from some figures somewhere.
  • Moonraker71
    Moonraker71 Posts: 190 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Thanks all. Feel a bit better after reading this. Just don't want to feel pressurised into making an offer on somewhere that's not quite suitable, but equally don't want to muck anyone around. Hopefully if I'm just completely upfront about it from the start, I can manage people's expectations.
  • We are in a similar situation at the moment. We sold and bought 10 weeks ago and the people we bought from bought a week later. However the people they are buying from still haven't found anywhere. We are getting to the point where we are thinking that their 'ideal house' must not exist and that they must have seen all of the properties in the area they are looking in. We are starting to get very frustrated and are starting to look at new properties.

    Hope that gives you a bit of an idea.

    Buying and selling is a bit of a chicken and egg sitaution but you have done well to research beforehand. Something which I don't think the people at the top of our change did!
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