Buying a property on chain

kayfaz

I am looking at a property with a chain, the vendor still needs to find a house! I'm not.

Now my question is if I put an offer on his property, at what part of the process am I likely to see a delay.

Reason I ask is I won't have a problem if the vendor takes a while to find a property and start his process, as long as we can exchange quickly.

Apologies in advance if my question sounds stupid, but could not figure it out no matter how much I searched around

rosie383

The answer you will get over and over on this board will be 'How long is a piece of string?'
If the vendor finds a property in a chain, then it will be completely different than if he is buying one that is chain-free. So no-one can tell you and no amount of googling will tell you either. Sorry! And don't worry about whether your question sounds stupid. It's great that we have a forum like this that newbies can ask questions on for free!

pinkteapot

The delay will be in getting a complete chain. This is different to "completion" (the final point where the sale goes through and you move). It's about having a line of people, from a FTB or cash buyer at the bottom to someone at the top who's not buying.

Only at that point can everyone do their process, get the mortgages and legal work through, etc. You can't exchange contracts until everyone in the chain is ready to do so.

Tip - don't apply for your mortgage or engage your solicitor until the chain is complete. There is absolutely no point, and you'll spend money when there's a risk that you'll end up wanting to pull out because people aren't finding houses to buy quickly enough.

Our chain took about two months to form from our perspective. It would have been longer, but in the end the guy at the top agreed to go into rented rather than keep looking. As soon as that happened, and we had a line of people, we immediately applied for our mortgage and told our solicitor to start work.

From our buyer's perspective it took over three months. They offered on ours then we took over a month to find a house. Our vendor had already found something, but the person they were buying from then took a long time (but was the one who ultimately went into rented so the chain wouldn't collapse).

eddddy

kayfaz wrote: »

...
Reason I ask is I won't have a problem if the vendor takes a while to find a property and start his process, as long as we can exchange quickly.
....

From your comment, I'm not sure if you're thinking that the vendor might exchange contracts with you before he finds a property to buy...

If so, that almost certainly won't happen. Your vendor will need to find a property, get a survey, mortgage etc before exchanging contracts with you. (And everyone above him in the chain will need to do the same, before exchange happens. The whole chain will then exchange on the same day.)

Paully232000

kayfaz wrote: »

I am looking at a property with a chain, the vendor still needs to find a house! I'm not.

Now my question is if I put an offer on his property, at what part of the process am I likely to see a delay.

Reason I ask is I won't have a problem if the vendor takes a while to find a property and start his process, as long as we can exchange quickly.

Apologies in advance if my question sounds stupid, but could not figure it out no matter how much I searched around

potentially in all of it, but dont let that put you off a property that you like. If you really like it then is it worth the wait? possibly yes.

Just for an example, we bought a house that was vacant and our buyers were renting so nearly as small a 'chain' as you can get. We offered in the summer and moved in October, so about 4 months in total.
Someone in the chain may not be able to get a mortgage, may not find a house they like, delays in sending paperwork to various solicitors, slow solicitors. Many a reason there can be a delay.

Loopy28

We got an offer accepted on a property and the vendor needed to find somewhere, we waited 2 months and then she decided she couldn't find anywhere and withdrew from the sale.

When our property went sale agreed, we found the property above within a fortnight. When it fell through we managed to find another in a fortnight, although now we have lost our buyers so are back to square one.

It depends on how motivated the seller actually is and how many properties come up for sale in your area.

pickles13

We are in the same position as you. We had our offer accepted on 3rd December last year, and are now just sat around waiting until the seller fins somewhere. I really don't hold out much hope that she will as she is being very specific in what she wants. We can't decide how long we are going to wait around for.

kayfaz

ok so I went and had a look at the property and WoW, everything was just perfect about it, except the chain bit

In fact it was soo perfect that I'm willing to offer asking price, although a similar one was sold £8k cheaper 3rd Jan this year.

But even that didn't seem to motivate the vendor to make the property chain free and rent in the meantime.

They haven't even had a look at anything on Rightmove/Zoopla yet!

So gonna have to let this one go

pinkteapot

Don't let it go. Say that your offer is there for them if they get a complete chain. At that point, you'll do your mortgage and legals. However, you'll keep looking in the meantime and if you find a proceedable property before they sort the chain out then you'll buy that instead.

We as sellers were very upfront with our buyers that we hadn't found yet. We accepted their offer but said we needed to look and they were welcome to keep looking in the meantime. They wanted our house so they waited.

Don't pull out until you find something better. You may not. They may find something quickly, or they may take months. No point burning bridges yet.

rosie383

This ^^^^^^^^.
If it is the perfect property then don't just walk away because of a chain. The next few ideal properties you may find could also be in a chain. Keep looking in the meantime.

Also, please, please, please follow the advice on this forum. Organise your own conveyancer, surveyor and mortgage broker. Do NOT feel massive pressure from the EA to use their recommendations. All it does is to line the pockets of the EA. Despite what they may tell you, it does not make the whole process much easier or quicker. For the sake of a few phonecalls, do it yourself.

DRP

kayfaz wrote: »

ok so I went and had a look at the property and WoW, everything was just perfect about it, except the chain bit

In fact it was soo perfect that I'm willing to offer asking price, although a similar one was sold £8k cheaper 3rd Jan this year.

But even that didn't seem to motivate the vendor to make the property chain free and rent in the meantime.

They haven't even had a look at anything on Rightmove/Zoopla yet!

So gonna have to let this one go

This is all very normal, so you will have to get used to it. Having said that, a large chain of more than 5 would be more off-putting to me than a small one (our recent move had 4 'participants').

The majority of sales will involve a chain and you can't expect every vendor to the cost and commitment of rented accommodation.