How long to wait?!

pickles13

So we had our offer accepted on a house on 1st December. Since then, we have not heard much from the EA except that the person selling us the house is "still looking for somewhere to buy". We are FTB so aren't in a chain. We accepted that we may have a little wait but it seems that nothing is being done- the EA "strongly" suggested that we do not book our survey (we have paid for it) as he says that the seller is looking for "gold dust". When I said that that doesn't sound too encouraging, he backtracked and said the market is very slow at the moment. I know it is down to us to decide how long we wait until the seller finds somewhere but am I being impatient, especially at this time of year? She hasn't even viewed a property yet (she has only had one booked in but it sold before she saw it).

There are a few other houses on the market that I would like to look at, some with the same EA, but I am not sure if that would be frowned upon?

nubbins

I have been in your sellers position and if there is nothing on the market that they like you could be in for a long wait.It sounds like the EA does not believe they will find somewhere soon and I would take their advice and not spend any other money on this transaction.

I would not worry about being frowned upon, you have to look after number 1 and I doubt the seller would be having too many sleepless nights if they decided to take the property off the market in a few months time because they cannot find anywhere to move.

cte1111

I'd be booking viewings on other properties ASAP. It's unreasonable for the vendor not even to have viewed any properties in all this time, so you can't be blamed for restarting your search.

rosie383

Get looking elsewhere. If they haven't even viewed anywhere it could be months before they see something they like and then it could take more months for an upward chain to form. You will be doing nothing even remotely unethical and I have to say I applaud the EA for advising you not to part with any money at this stage. That says a huge amount about what the EA thinks of the chances of the vendor actually proceeding.

Hoploz

I have been in the same position as your sellers, looking for something particular while keeping my buyer waiting. (the house we wanted when we accepted their offer was then taken off the market)
It is very frustrating as you know you can't do anything to speed up the market, desperately searching yet nothing suits. They will realise you can't rely on them, so do keep looking. If you find something else before they find their house they will understand the situation. If they are not prepared to sell and move out (as I wasn't) there's little that can be done. Frustration for everybody.
In the end we found our perfect house, our buyers patiently waited 6 months ... while prices were rocketing and we were stuck with their offer which was considerably lower than we could have got if we had remarketed, so they got a bargain!