House sale agreed - buyers getting impatient

bingobangobongo

Looking for some advice here, our property has been sale agreed since June and our buyers are getting impatient looking for a completion date (who can blame them).

The estate agent rang and said they would be looking to move in the next 2-3 weeks, or they might pull out.

We have sale agreed on a property we are buying. Two things have held it up:

1. Post Office mortgage delays, taking a long time. Should be sorted in a couple of weeks.

2. The couple we are buying off are moving to a smaller house, and they are saying End of October before that house is available.

Our estate agent said we should consider moving out anyway, regardless of the house we are buying. And move in with family - or else risk losing the sale.

But we don't really have anywhere to go, no one we know has any room. My wife is 6 months pregnant and we have a 2 year old also.

Not sure what we should do here. Surely this is a common scenario?

Doozergirl

bingobangobongo wrote: »

Looking for some advice here, our property has been sale agreed since June and our buyers are getting impatient looking for a completion date (who can blame them).

The estate agent rang and said they would be looking to move in the next 2-3 weeks, or they might pull out.

We have sale agreed on a property we are buying. Two things have held it up:

1. Post Office mortgage delays, taking a long time. Should be sorted in a couple of weeks.

2. The couple we are buying off are moving to a smaller house, and they are saying End of October before that house is available.

Our estate agent said we should consider moving out anyway, regardless of the house we are buying. And move in with family - or else risk losing the sale.

But we don't really have anywhere to go, no one we know has any room. My wife is 6 months pregnant and we have a 2 year old also.

Not sure what we should do here. Surely this is a common scenario?

It's pretty common. Stand firm. People have to wait. And please tell your EA to butt out and get realistic. First time buyers in particular can want everything done quickly. If the end of October is the likely date then send the message down the line. Sometimes hanging on without an end date is worse than being given a realistic end date that is further away.

It's pretty selfish when there's a pregnancy involved. I've been in that position myself with a baby and we moved. We shouldn't have. Being mid chain is a really stressful place to be without crazy hormones and without being bullied.

Most people will not pull out so it's far better for you to call their bluff. Even if you think fatalistically - if these people are going to pull out, it is better for you that they do so now. Ultimately people fall innlove with the house and while they throwntheir toys out of the pram, it's still about the house for them. It's going to takenthem longer to start looking again, go through the whole process and still be at the mercy of the chain.

phill99

You need to be putting pressure on the people youare buying from if they are saying October. They seem to be the fly in the ointment and are holding everyone else up.

vw100

If you have had a sale agreed since June, then naturally the buyer is getting impatient. Such scenarios are common, however each has to try best accommodate each other in a house buying chain. Other people are not directly responsible for each others personal circumstances as such and your buyer I say has been reasonable waiting since June. Imagine if your buyers wife is pregnant, and they wanted to move in quickly? You may or may not lose your sale, however think how it will impact you if the sale drops. Some people don't mind starting their house hunt all over again, no one knows if the purchase is their dream house, it could be a short term thing, or a investment, or a gap filler.

G_M

Buyers always get impatient.

And property deals always take longer than people want or expect.

If they pul out, it will take them another 2? 4? 6? weeks to find another property, then they'll need to pay (again) for mortgage application, survey, legals. And that will all take months.

Are they really going to do that........?

DRP

Another option is to exchange on your sale with a long completion date (say, end of October to match your vendors). That should keep your buyers fairly happy as everyone is committed.

Then you can either complete your purchase at the same time as your sale (be it October or earlier by arrangement) and/or you have plenty of time to organise rented accommodation, if your vendors are still playing silly beggars in October.

duchy

Doozergirl wrote: »

It's pretty selfish when there's a pregnancy involved. I've been in that position myself with a baby and we moved. We shouldn't have. Being mid chain is a really stressful place to be without crazy hormones and without being bullied.

.

Who is selfish ?

The buyers offered in June and the OP either didn't know or didn't tell that their buyer didn't want to move til the end of October ?

It's not the OP's buyers fault that the OP is pregnant- that's an added stress but one of their making. They could have chosen to enter the home buying selling lunacy earlier or later.

I don't see any bullying but I do see a first time buyer who is getting cheesed off and a chain with someone who always intended to delay the chain til October. The OP is stuck in the middle but the pregnancy timing was their choice.

I don't see bullying but yes I do see hormones making a standard delay with a chain adding to the drama.

Instead of getting miffed with their buyer the OP needs to be getting some solid commitment from the October movers -and seriously consider how much risk there is in not moving forward and possibily moving into temp accomadation if they might lose their buyer at this point rather than have to start all over again if the FTBers do pull out.

bingobangobongo

I have contacted the EA of the house we are buying to see if I can get a firm commitment on a completion date from them.

He is going to contact the the EA of the house they are going to buy, to see if it would be possible to complete earlier.

I just hope they can complete a few weeks earlier - part of me thinks our buyers just want a firm date, and I really don't blame them.

jbainbridge

Do your buyers know about the October completion date? ... a lack of communication generally causes most problems in the buying / selling process.

For us it was the other way round. We we're in the middle and the FTB's buying our house delayed everything ... still to this day I have no idea why it took them so long - we constantly worried they would pull out.

Batchy

OUr sale has just gone through, started beginning of April Completed 8th August... over 4 months... sometimes, you just have to tell them what they want to hear, and keep bending over backwards to keep everyone together, in our instance then vendors we were buying off were a pain in the bum and changed properties a couple of times.

We really wanted the house and so too did the rest of the chain, so everyone stayed patient... stick with it, however, with pregnancy looming october doesn't look a good time to move.

DRP

bingobangobongo wrote: »

I have contacted the EA of the house we are buying to see if I can get a firm commitment on a completion date from them.

He is going to contact the the EA of the house they are going to buy, to see if it would be possible to complete earlier.

I just hope they can complete a few weeks earlier - part of me thinks our buyers just want a firm date, and I really don't blame them.

As I posted above, why not exchange?