When should you give up on an offer to buy your house.

Cris1970

I am in process of selling my house.
After 3 months with the estate agent I received an offer which was just about acceptable which I accepted.
The buyer was wanting to buy to let and was saying he wanted to move quickly.
5 weeks later he has not surveyed my house. In that time I have surveyed the house i want to buy and have quotes for work.
I have repeatedly asked estate agent to chase buyer. Estate agent rarely gets back to me. When it does i get told they have had not contact with buyer. Buyer has recently instructed a solicitor.
My gut is telling me buy has got cold feet. My question is at what point do I say the buyer is wasting my time and give up on him?
I am also thinking of sacking estate agent? Any advice how to do this? I get no feedback and have had no more viewings since offer?:(

Thrugelmir

Cris1970 wrote: »

5 weeks later he has not surveyed my house. (

Ring the EA and tell them to put your property back on the market.

See what reaction this causes.

EA has no control over the perspective buyer.

thriftylass

Same happened to us. Buyer didn't have the right mortgage, didn't contact us for while, more excuses and in the end didn't even have the money. Also had our house we wanted to buy surveyed etc. Eventually after 3 month we said enough is enough. Dropped the buyer and estate agent and sold within 4 weeks with the new one. Luckily our house to buy was still available. Dont wait any longer, let him go or set him a deadline till you readvertise.

I think we had a clause in our contract with EA about cancelling and what fees that would cost etc. Just told them their efforts weren't good enough and we want to change EA.

dominoman

Tell the agent you want it back on the market within 24 hours. That will shake the buyer if he is serious.

Prices are rising so if he is delaying it is probably because he has offered on more than one house and is still looking for the perfect one. Don't be messed about.

hazyjo

How do you know he's even having a survey done?

Forget the EA, ask your solicitor what their solicitor is saying. Where do things currently stand.

Jx

hazyjo

PS An investor bought a house off me and took 5 weeks to get a survey. And he was the one saying he wanted to exchange within something like 3-4 weeks!

Jx

mrsmchapman

It took my buyer 6 weeks to get his survey done, partly due to him being away for one week, and also it was a new mortgage so there were lots of letters and bits I guess he had to submit. My survey was ready to go within two days of informing our mortgage provider however we held off until our buyers had theirs booked in with us, so that they were aligned with dates if mortgage offers, also I wanted him to put his hand in his pocket before me to prove he was wanting to buy.

belt_and_braces

Not necessarily a flakey buyer, but I do think the EA needs to put effort in and find out what is going on.

I am buying at the moment. My mortgage was approved very quickly by First Direct who told me to expect the survey (via Countrywide) to be carried out within a couple of weeks.

However, despite numerous phone calls and some feet stamping the earliest date I could get is at the end of the month - 4 weeks after the mortgage approval. This is 6 weeks after my offer was accepted.

The sellers were getting understandably nervous. The EA has been good at allaying their fears and I am in frequent contact, feeding every little detail back so that they know everything else is progressing well (eg searches are all back, mortgage offer received by solicitor).

I am very serious about buying, but can understand from a sellers' point of view that it may appear otherwise. I have also been in a very similar position as a seller (also waiting for a Countrywide surveyor I believe!), but all went well in the end.