How Long do I give my Seller?

yorkshire_terrier_owner

When I sold my old house last year, having lost a house as my buyer pulled out, I hadn't even looked again. Within 2 days of accepting another offer, I found a house and had my offer accepted.

The vendors of the house I bought hadn't even started looking either when I put my offer in. I made it clear I didn't have time to mess about as I had my buyer to consider. To be fair to them, they got straight on it, found a chain free property and had their offer accepted within 3 days of accepting my offer!!

5 days and we had a complete chain. We were all motivated which was why it happened quickly. 4 months is taking the mick, IMHO.

Paul_the_Painter

Start viewing other properties, including with the agent selling the current one you have an offer with.
Always remember that the agent DOES NOT WORK FOR YOU. The agent is paid by and works for the seller.

Okydoky25

I would be worried that while you are sat there waiting house prices are going up.

brenda10

koneko wrote: »

We are in a similar boat at the moment. We put out offer in in October too, although a bit later in the month. We are the 2nd buyer our seller has had as they lost their last one when one of the buyers got made redundant. When we put our offer in, the chain was complete as our sellers had a property lined up to buy with offer accepted (which was no chain) but that fell through a couple of days later.

Our sellers then went on holiday a week later and ours dreams of everything moving quickly fell apart from there really. The agents have been good about calling every couple of weeks but there has been no progress and we are keen to move quickly. The agents keep saying that our sellers are really motivated and really want to move, but we are not seeing this reflected in the updates.

Any progress at all or did you give up and go for another house?
We are in same position.

dominoman

We are in the same situation - though not so long as you.

If I were you I would start looking elsewhere now. The longer the wait the higher the risk they will decide to stay, or will decide the market has moved and they need to pay more for their next place, so will decide to relist to get more for theirs.

No need to tell the agent you are looking. Wait until you find another place and make an offer. Then tell them. You don't want the existing house to remarket yet as it could all still go ahead just fine.

Good luck!

pinkteapot

Agreed. We accepted our buyer's offer in August last year but didn't find a new place until October. We then had to wait for the chain to form above us (another month).

We knew all along that our buyers could give up and find something else before the chain was complete. Keep looking until your chain is complete. Don't bother putting a deadline on your offer - if it gets to that date and you haven't found anywhere else, are you really going to pull out? If you want to apply some pressure, let the EA know you're looking at other houses that are in a proceedable position.

To anyone waiting around in an incomplete chain - don't bother spending any money until the chain is fully formed (top to bottom). We didn't instruct our solicitor or pay for our mortgage application and survey until the chain was complete above us. Absolutely no point.

polarization

I agree with pinkteapot. If I were you, I will keep looking and see if you can find something similar or even better. The cons of waiting for the completion but not keep looking for other opportunities is you may be priced out if anything goes wrong in your original offer.

My friend had the same experience. After she put in an offer, she stopped looking at the market. After 4 months, she started feeling the vendor is not wanting to sell the house. She then start looking again, but the houes price is already 10% higher than the time she made the original offer.

Of course, the price difference depends on your location. But I will keep my eye open.

koneko

We are back on track now, vendors found a vacant property to buy and the only hold up now is how long our full mortgage app is taking thanks to the extra paperwork that the MMR regulations have generated, still waiting for survey to be booked and the app was put in a couple of weeks ago.

Gwhiz

OP, how will you feel when 19 weeks becomes 38?

As others have said, get looking for another property - be pro-active rather than waiting for that watched kettle to boil!

mp86

Sorry to hear nothing has moved forward.

We waited 7 months for a house which ended up at a dead end, then wewaited 6 months for another house we fell in love with but the seller couldn’t findanother property. In the end we started looking again for a property but didn’ttell the existing EA. When we found another property, we let them know thateither they go into rented or we have to pull out. We pulled out as they weren’tprepared to go into rented, and in this market with them being able to find anotherbuyer quickly, I don’t blame them.

My advice is, don’t say anything to the EA but look around. If youfind something you like, put an offer in, if accepted then tell the EA that youfound another property and you are pulling out.