Tactics for chasing slow buyer?

DaftyDuck

Windsorcastle wrote: »

Thanks olly. I am in London, so maybe that's it. The buyer did ask for my personal contact details but I didn't give them as I prefer to do things through the EA. I always have visions of a buyer phoning or emailing me 6 months down the line to moan about something!

I always set up a cheap PAYG phone for house buying and selling, and give that number to all parties, buyers or sellers, solicitors involved, and most definitely all agencies. Then, any call on it you know to be house-related. You can choose to ignore it. You are ready for what kind of call it is. Best of all, six months later a new owner isn't asking how to use the loft ladder, nor is an agent able to phone up with details of some hideous house that meets none of your requirements.

WC. I'd never suggest a bridging loan for buying a house before yours sells, but you could push for exchange as soon as possible, then get a bridging loan to pay back the charge, then complete to pay off bridging loan... there's still a risk here, but it might be worth investigation at this stage.
There's also no reason why you can't suggest the buyer starts the solicitor trail off, and gets the searches done, partly as a sign of good faith, so you feel less need to continue/restart marketing the house.
At the risk of causing yourself more stress, you might want to print yourself off a calendar for the next couple of months, and pen in (not pencil ) some hard dates you should aim at achieving.

The main thing is, I think, to get a sense of urgency across to the buyer, who should be encouraged to chase from his end, and chase on a regular basis. Politely encouraged, I agree, but encouraged nonetheless.

Windsorcastle

DaftyDuck wrote: »

I always set up a cheap PAYG phone for house buying and selling, and give that number to all parties, buyers or sellers, solicitors involved, and most definitely all agencies. Then, any call on it you know to be house-related. You can choose to ignore it. You are ready for what kind of call it is. Best of all, six months later a new owner isn't asking how to use the loft ladder, nor is an agent able to phone up with details of some hideous house that meets none of your requirements.
.

Thanks DaftyDuck. That is a genius idea!! I love it. I would really dread geting a call from the buyer as you describe after the whole thing is cut and dried, so I think I'll op out and get a cheap phone at lunchtime for this purpose.

As for your other suggestions, yes that's given me food for thought. I did think about taking out a loan to allow me to repay the second charge, but my fear is that the sale then falls through, and I'm left with an even heftier mortgage to pay every month until I find another buyer. Although I suppose this is a lot less risky once contracts have been exchanged. Thanks for the advice.

I was also considering offering to pay half the cost of the searched as long as the buyer's solicitor instigates them immediately, but would that be a crazy thing to offer? I don't want them thinking I'm a soft touch and then expecting me to fork out for this and that later down the line...

mrsmchapman

We are 6 weeks into the process so far, as I stated our survey was delayed by 3 weeks, however we had instructed our solicitor to do searches in the mean time, we didn't do this prior and waited for survey reports but as we are in rented I would like to leave here ASAP, we are hoping to complete 12th July. We haven't had any major hiccups either, so still 8 weeks to complete. I have completed before in 6 weeks.

The ea for the property I'm currently buying even asked for cancellation surveys but nothing came until the date that was booked. It just seems mortgage companies/surveyors are incredibly busy. However once the survey was done we had the mortgage offer 2 days later and the report within 4 days and all was well.

Best of luck

DaftyDuck

I wouldn't offer to pay for anything from the buyer... it might give him ideas.

If they know it would cost you £10,000 not to complete on August 12th, they might suggest they will complete on the 11th, but for £6,000 less.

An extreme example, but you want the pressure to be on them to act fast, not rebounded onto you and your selling price. This is London we are talking about, and there are other buyers knocking on your door, and other agents who didn't get the commission, all phoning you up, pressuring you to sell through them, as they have a buyer lined up. S'truth, and you know it.

yorkshire_terrier_owner

Now admittedly I'm in the Midlands, not London, but waiting 3-4 weeks seems ridiculous to me. I would be doing some major moaning over the phone. On my recent purchase the time scale was:
Wednesday lunch time offer accepted
Wednesday tea time, mortgage application done over phone with broker, all docs scanned in and emailed.
Thursday, application underwritten by lender, survey instructed.
Thursday afternoon - text received to say survey booked for following Tuesday
Tuesday morning - survey took place.
Tuesday afternoon, email received from lender with offer
Tuesday tea time - email received from surveyor with report.
NB it was a homebuyers
6 days, job done. Then just had to sit back and wait for conveyancing to happen.

Admittedly I was super organised and already had all documentation sorted and scanned in, broker lined up ready to go etc. was glad I did this as it made my life easy when it came to it.

Windsorcastle

DaftyDuck wrote: »

I wouldn't offer to pay for anything from the buyer... it might give him ideas.

If they know it would cost you £10,000 not to complete on August 12th, they might suggest they will complete on the 11th, but for £6,000 less.

An extreme example, but you want the pressure to be on them to act fast, not rebounded onto you and your selling price. This is London we are talking about, and there are other buyers knocking on your door, and other agents who didn't get the commission, all phoning you up, pressuring you to sell through them, as they have a buyer lined up. S'truth, and you know it.

Thanks again Dafty. I hadn't thought of it that way. I haven't explained why I need it to be that date, I have just insisted it is for personal reasons - I could even say I'm going on holday for a month so they will have to wait another month if it goes over that date! I used an online agent so I have to make arrangements to hand the keys over...

Windsorcastle

yorkshire_terrier_owner wrote: »

6 days, job done. Then just had to sit back and wait for conveyancing to happen.

Admittedly I was super organised and already had all documentation sorted and scanned in, broker lined up ready to go etc. was glad I did this as it made my life easy when it came to it.

Wow you were lucky!! I'm very envious! Well, I have chased the EA again today and they have contacted the buyer's solicitor who say they are waiting for papers from MY solicitor!! Here we all go on the conveyancing roundabout :mad: Needless to say I was straight onto my side - so far I'm not super-impressed by their speed in responding though...-

Windsorcastle

STILL no contact from anyone about arranging survey. Am very stressed now, as I have kept next week very flexible so that I could accommodate the survey, but the week after is very busy for me at work and can't really get the time off.

What things should I be hassling the EA about and what should I be hassling my own solicitor about?

Also, do solicitors use email to contact each other in these modern times or do the still use snail mail? I really hope it's email...

Tenyearstogo

Stop faffing with the EA.

Call YOUR solicitor and find out exactly what the delay is. Then get your solicitor to chase it up.

Confirm everything you discuss in an email.

Windsorcastle

Tenyearstogo wrote: »

Stop faffing with the EA.

Call YOUR solicitor and find out exactly what the delay is. Then get your solicitor to chase it up.

Confirm everything you discuss in an email.

Thanks Tenyears. I'm just trying to get hold of my solicitor now. The EA told me this morning that he has left 3 messages for my buyer yesterday and still hasn't had a response. Something feels very wrong...