Going on holiday whilst buying a house

firsttimeforeverything_2

Hi all,

So after the last house purchase falling through, our offer on a new place has just been accepted. As the first place delayed us, us buying will now be interrupted by our holiday (the best part of 2 weeks from mid September).

As we will be homeless in 3 weeks (well not quite, we have friends' spare rooms) and have been let down before, we are more than keen to get this done as quickly as possible, but I'm aware that we're working to a tight deadline if we wanted to complete before we go.

So, the question is: when do we tell the vendors? Early on, to spur them on to be quick (he's a developer, the property is vacant), or late on to make sure they're properly committed to selling to us. I would be more comfortable in being up front, but I'd appreciate your opinions- I don't want to be disappointed again!

Thanks.

carolineb23

We're in a similar position, going away on 10th sept for 2 weeks and we are going hell for leather trying to complete before then! we have a fighting chance I think as our vendors had a sale fall through and the top of the chain waited for them to find another buyer. Therefore a fair bit of work has already been carried out. Our buyer has appointed his solicitors and the survey is being carried out tomorrow. We have taken a chance and told our solicitors to go ahead with searches and I've already filled in all the paperwork and sent it back. We are just waiting for the survey to be booked on the house we want to buy then all the searches can start. We have made sure that everyone was aware we wanted a quick completion, everyone else does too which is helpful. I'd make sure you've told the ea and solicitors involved of your intention and make sure you chase everyone all the time! Good luck!

phoebe1989seb

Last time we sold (2011) our buyers told us at the outset (early March, 2nd viewing, when they'd already had their offer accepted) that their buyer was going on holiday in May and wanted to complete before a certain date (ie, before they went away).

At the time we went along with this, little thinking that date could/would actually be achievable, but despite various setbacks (including us pulling out of two purchases before settling on *the one* and said buyer's buyer having a fire in their sol's office days before exchange ), we did all manage (chain of five) to keep to roughly that date.....23rd May!

In a way it spurred things on as we were all aware of the holiday booked and kept pestering EAs and sols to work towards exchange/completion by then. So, whilst you may feel a bit reluctant to drop a proposed holiday into the conversation early in the proceedings, it's perhaps better to be upfront from the outset

firsttimeforeverything_2

Thanks both, we'll be up front with them. Our solicitor (RMNJ) is in for some serious project management...

pinkteapot

If you have a specific deadline, be upfront with all parties from the start. You never know, the seller might already know some reason why they simply can't meet that deadline, and it's better for you to know that from the outset so that you can plan accordingly.