Will our chain ever end!?

Dan-Dan

emilyjanes wrote: »

We are the bottom of the chain...Our buyer is a first time buyer who is happy (at the momnent) to wait and as soon as she isn't we will move to my parents. The problem is though is that there are 2 couples in the chain ABOVE us. We could end up living at my parents forever if the people at the top of the chain don't ever find anywhere. Hope that clarifies things...

Not really....i dont think you understand the great position your in

Ivana_Tinkle

Probably stating the obvious, but if the people at the top of the chain haven't found anything, three months after accepting an offer, then obviously they've seen everything in their area/price range and are waiting for something new to come on the market. It may well be that their expectations are unreasonable and their perfect house doesn't exist (or they can't afford it), so the chain will never be complete and they'll eventually pull out.

I'm not at all patient about such things, and if you really love the house then you might be more willing to wait, but I'd be inclined to proceed with your sale while starting to look at other properties in earnest. I wouldn't pull out of your purchase as such, but I would try to emotionally detatch from it and embrace the opportunity of being a chain-free buyer.

Apart from anything else, even if your chain was complete tomorrow, you're probably looking at 3 months to completion, at a minimum. Would your buyer be willing to wait that long?

moneyistooshorttomention

Ivana_Tinkle wrote: »

Probably stating the obvious, but if the people at the top of the chain haven't found anything, three months after accepting an offer, then obviously they've seen everything in their area/price range and are waiting for something new to come on the market. It may well be that their expectations are unreasonable and their perfect house doesn't exist (or they can't afford it), so the chain will never be complete and they'll eventually pull out.

I'm not at all patient about such things, and if you really love the house then you might be more willing to wait, but I'd be inclined to proceed with your sale while starting to look at other properties in earnest. I wouldn't pull out of your purchase as such, but I would try to emotionally detatch from it and embrace the opportunity of being a chain-free buyer.

Apart from anything else, even if your chain was complete tomorrow, you're probably looking at 3 months to completion, at a minimum. Would your buyer be willing to wait that long?

Must admit - this is where I would be asking/trying to work out what the house is like that these sellers are looking for and where its likely location is and keeping an eye myself on properties matching that criteria. This would be in order to check the likelihood that what this vendor wants will turn up on the market soon. But that's the way I personally operate.....

I am certainly seeing the difficulties second time buyers have in finding what they want at first hand now. As a FTB back all those years back it was just such a relief to be able to finally manage to get my starter house at last that I really wasn't being very specific in my requirements at all in many ways (suspect today's FTB'ers are probably being a lot more particular than my generation was though in their requirements).

As a second-time buyer I'm being very "fussy" as to what I want and ruling out whole swathes of locations. It's a different mindset second time round - in that I know my own particular "take" on this (don't know how common it will be with other "ladder climbers") is that "I want to keep whatever advantages I currently have - and get a lot more advantages as well". But location is THE biggie that I won't be compromising on at all - and I suspect that most "ladder climbers" are also being most particular about that aspect.

So - I would certainly agree that if someone hasn't found "theirs" three months after agreeing the sale on their original property that they are indeed waiting and praying that someone somewhere in "their" chosen house will hurry up and put it on the market.

If my buyer of starter house takes so long to turn up and offer that I have lost all my houses matching my criteria whilst I wait for them - then I will "race round houses" again when they eventually put in an offer and if nothing matches or exceeds the ones I lost waiting for them - then I will be just sitting and praying for something new to arise myself.

Personally, I tend to think that sellers who are "moving on" might well get influenced in how firmly they will hold to getting exactly what they want by how long theirs has been on the market. If they have been kept waiting for their buyer to arrive on the scene - they might be fussier in their requirements. If the buyer turns up pretty promptly after their house goes on the market then they are likely to feel more "obliged" to get a move on and find their next one iyswim. But a buyer who has known their house was for sale for some months, but only just put in an offer might be one they didn't feel very sympathetic towards...and didn't mind keeping them waiting in turn...

emilyjanes

Ivana_Tinkle wrote: »

Probably stating the obvious, but if the people at the top of the chain haven't found anything, three months after accepting an offer, then obviously they've seen everything in their area/price range and are waiting for something new to come on the market. It may well be that their expectations are unreasonable and their perfect house doesn't exist (or they can't afford it), so the chain will never be complete and they'll eventually pull out.

I'm not at all patient about such things, and if you really love the house then you might be more willing to wait, but I'd be inclined to proceed with your sale while starting to look at other properties in earnest. I wouldn't pull out of your purchase as such, but I would try to emotionally detatch from it and embrace the opportunity of being a chain-free buyer.

Apart from anything else, even if your chain was complete tomorrow, you're probably looking at 3 months to completion, at a minimum. Would your buyer be willing to wait that long?

I completely agree with you. I am not patient either. I also think that we have nothing to lose by giving deadlines because if they are going to pull out eventually then we'd rather they did it now than later on!

We are definitely going to have to emotionally unattach ourselves which will be hard but it is getting silly now!

Thanks for your post.