Vendor won't exchange, advice

Voyager2002

Tixy wrote: »

Don't make the mistake of thinking the estate agent is doing anything other than acting only in the interest of the vendor. The vendor is their client and it is very unlikely that they are not passing along everything you say in detail.

He was most likely straight on the phone to the vendor to say 'I've already got the buyers to up the offer by £1k, I think you could probably push them up another £2k or so as they are desperate'.

Personally I'd start looking at alternative houses to buy. If you want to look at another house with the same estate agent as the current vendor then just say to them that whilst you are still interested in the first property you feel you have no choice but to consider alternatives due to the vendor's change in stance.

Arrange some viewings with the same Estate Agent: that will give the EA a clear message that if the vendors cannot meet your timetable for exchange you are no longer committed to the deal. Allow the EA to put on the pressure rather than attempting to 'blackmail' the vendor yourself (and don't waste money on a solicitor's letter, which would probably not help).

And actively develop Plan B, which would be to rent (for at least six months) close to the school.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Tixy wrote: »

Don't make the mistake of thinking the estate agent is doing anything other than acting only in the interest of the vendor. The vendor is their client and it is very unlikely that they are not passing along everything you say in detail.

He was most likely straight on the phone to the vendor to say 'I've already got the buyers to up the offer by £1k, I think you could probably push them up another £2k or so as they are desperate'.

Personally I'd start looking at alternative houses to buy. If you want to look at another house with the same estate agent as the current vendor then just say to them that whilst you are still interested in the first property you feel you have no choice but to consider alternatives due to the vendor's change in stance.

Perhaps, however I get the distinct impression that EA just wants to close out the sale. An extra £1-2k makes little difference to their commission versus losing the sake entirely.

When I spoke to the EA I said it was a take it or leave it offer, it wasn't a negotiation. It was his suggestion that he present it as "what if I could get them to up their offer".

Honestly, I expect them not to go for it but if the EA came back to me and said they would exchange next week for another £2k, we would give it serious consideration. But I'm not going to tell the EA that. Our accepted offer was £9k under the asking price so I don't feel we would be losing out too much financially and we have just saved ourselves £4k on our SD bill too.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Arrange some viewings with the same Estate Agent: that will give the EA a clear message that if the vendors cannot meet your timetable for exchange you are no longer committed to the deal. Allow the EA to put on the pressure rather than attempting to 'blackmail' the vendor yourself (and don't waste money on a solicitor's letter, which would probably not help).

And actively develop Plan B, which would be to rent (for at least six months) close to the school.

That might be a more subtle way of doing it, I agree.

I'm not sure we can really face renting and then having to start the house hunt all over again. It took us 6 months and 50+ viewings to find this one.

silvercar

LAs can get as suspicious as they like, if you have followed the rules they are obliged to consider your application genuine.

Dan-Dan

The chances of getting in anywhere , if not rented , quicker than the house your currently knee deep into buying , are remote , so that kind of threat isn`t going to wash with vendor nor EA

TheCyclingProgrammer

Dan-Dan wrote: »

The chances of getting in anywhere , if not rented , quicker than the house your currently knee deep into buying , are remote , so that kind of threat isn`t going to wash with vendor nor EA

The point is we would have to give up on moving and focus on getting into a good school locally, or rent in the new location which is certainly doable.

Thrugelmir

TheCyclingProgrammer wrote: »

Perhaps, however I get the distinct impression that EA just wants to close out the sale. An extra £1-2k makes little difference to their commission versus losing the sake entirely.

The EA has no say in the matter. The vendor is unlikely to move until they find a property.

rosie383

If I were the vendor in this case and genuinely couldn't stick to the proposed completion or exchange date, I'm not sure that an extra grand would change things significantly. I'm not saying that you should offer more, just that I'm not sure if it helps to offer this extra money. If they haven't found anywhere to buy, then if they had to rent for six months that money would go nowhere near to covering their expenses.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Thrugelmir wrote: »

The EA has no say in the matter. The vendor is unlikely to move until they find a property.

Of course. I realise that. I think the EA is frustrated with the situation too. They are doing everything they can to convince the vendor but as you say, it's their decision.

It's just annoying that initially they were open to the idea of moving into rented or with family and now they don't want to.

rosie383

Being open to the idea of renting is not the same as committing on paper to doing it. We initially said to potential buyers at the start of this process that we would be prepared to do so, but that was without realising that the minimum would be six months so we would prefer to lose our current buyer rather than throwing away six months in rent when we know that another buyer would come along while we wait to buy somewhere else.
Thankfully we didn't offer that to this current buyer or I would have felt obliged to follow it through.