In chain(ish) but Cash buyer offering above asking price- What do we do?

jvint1

Hi All- Need some advice please.
Background- Originally accepted asking price offer from our buyer around 6 weeks ago. Last week they then broke the chain as their buyer pulled out because it was found our buyer had previous neighbour issues and when she declared this her buyer pulled out. This obviously left us having to put our house back on market. New interested party viewed a few times in last week but in between our original buyer has re sold and says the new buyer has no problems with the neighbour issue. So we are sold and back in the chain however this time the chain is longer as their is a leasehold sale attached to our buyers buyer. I get a phone call this morning from the agent saying the other interested part has made a cash offer over the asking price and can move forward straight away- we are obviously desperate to move to our new house and so need some thoughts of others about how they would handle the above? Thanks

-taff

Go with the cash buyer if you're certain there won't be any immediate problems.

jvint1

So I have asked the agent to ask for proof of funds as thought that was correct first step? Is there anyway I can ask them to put down some kind of holding deposit through our solicitor or something like that to guarantee they cannot pull out? I am really concerned we say yes to them then in 3 weeks they pull out and I lose both my potential buyers- the house we are purchasing will only wait so long for us if that makes sense?

getmore4less

A fast moving genuine cash buyer should be able to be ready to exchange contracts in a very short time <week if both solicitors are on the ball.

jvint1

Wow ok they can really go that quickly? Everything is done and signed at our end and the property we are buying is empty as is a probate and if chain hadn't originally collapsed we would have probably have been in by now- we are very tempted- Our house originally sold for 280 and they are willing to pay 290 so obviously that 10k is a huge chunk of money for us- we just don't want to get stung that's where the original deposit idea came from

HouseBuyer77

Perhaps you can ask them for their solicitor to provide your solicitor with a letter confirming they have the funds in place ready to go? Give them a short deadline to do this. If they're the real deal this shouldn't be an issue.

dragonsoup

jvint1 wrote: »

Wow ok they can really go that quickly?

In theory but only if they don't bother with the searches. We were cash buyers on our recent purchase and it still took 5 weeks from offer to completion, most of the delay being waiting for the searches to come back. We also had a survey but that was done and reported to us within 7 days of our offer being accepted.

You could ask I suppose for your former buyers to allow your new ones to use their searches but I can't see why they would agree to that unless you paid for them ( and even then they would probably say no under the circumstances)

Hoploz

A cash buyer can certainly move quickly, but the likelihood is they will still want to do many of the same things someone buying with a mortgage does, such as searches and surveys. They don't have to, but they probably will do at least some of it, so I'd be very surprised if it took less than 3-4 weeks.

The other buyer on the other hand may still encounter difficulties down the chain, so with the extra money as well I think I would give the new person a whirl.

jvint1

thanks for the replies- so 4 weeks is more likely time scale depending on what they want to do search and survey wise- in that instance im even more inclined to get some kind of deposit contract written up so they couldn't drop out- anyone out there ever done anything like that before?

Dan-Dan

You are at the point where you need to get as much good info as possible , then your going to have to go with your gut and hope it pans out

No one is going to commit to any sort of deposit contract , cash buyer very keen or no.....

jvint1

So the whole deposit piece is a no go then? That doesn't happen today? Thanks for that info- so it really seems that if they can show proof of funds to our solicitor then I will have to take a chance if I want to go with them- same rules apply as normal I choose to go with them and they could pull out tomorrow and in the meantime iv pulled out on our current buyer and killed our sale- tough one