Vendors taking forever to find onward purchase...fed up

Hoploz

You keep referring to 'game' and 'play'. This is not a game.

We were in your seller's position last year. Two houses we wanted to buy were taken off the market when we attempted to buy them. We searched and did everything we could to find the right home, including putting signs up in our desired areas etc. We were not going to move unless we found the right house. Eventually one of the houses we wanted came back to market and we bought it, but we had had our buyers 6 months by then. We were surprised they hung on that long but they did. By that stage they were getting a huge bargain and we were paying through the nose, but at least we ended up with our dream home.

You cannot make someone sell. You just have to hang on in there with your fingers crossed. But if something else comes up, they will understand if you take it. Trouble is, you can't guarantee the same won't happen on the next house!

lavalamp1

In the exact same boat! I am chain free and waiting 9 weeks into the process for the vendor to find a house to buy. Luckily I havent spent a penny but my mortgage application will be expiring in around 6 weeks. As much as its easy to say to start looking for houses elsewhere, sometimes you get very emotionally attached to a house where it ends up being very difficult to let go. Plus nothing else decent has come up for me to let go.

It is becoming frustrating as the days and weeks pass as sometimes I wish I had more leverage :-(

Still waiting on my request for them to move into rented but as per usual I am having to do all the chasing!

reallyjammyjam

salop 12 agree that usually pushing for a deadline would be way to go however in this case given that they have already let go of 2 buyers before us, there is a huge risk of them pulling out. I really don't think they are bothered if they lose us or not. I would think it would make sense their end as then they have a 'fresh' start to look and it starts a timeframe again.








Thanks DRP - when you knew that they were looking at other houses, did you want to pull out?
alibean agree that's where we were first off - we totally were non-plussed about them not having found anywhere yet as we were going along the same train of though. FYI they are looking in a different area and upgrading so totally different market then us (but still doesn't help!)

reallyjammyjam

hoplaz I know it's not a game, believe me I'm certainly not having any fun! It was just a turn of phrase - as in you get sceptical when you have limited info to work with and we shouldn't but you can't help but speculate as to what is going on the other side. On my part, they weren't totally honest and up front about renting not being an option so that makes me now not trust anything else they might say. Once bitten twice shy! I might not have fully bought into it at the time but that's not the point.


lavalamp I feel your pain! If we were 10 years younger we would just have bought a flat anywhere to get on the ladder. However being in the position we are, we are looking for our 'forever' home and as such makes it difficult to accept to move into somewhere that you really don't like as much. Having rented for 12 years I can tell you I'm sick of moving and I certainly don't want to have to move into a new home to move again in a couple of years when something we actually like comes up!

Red-Squirrel_2

I instructed solicitors and starting proceedings on my sale before I'd found somewhere to buy. I suppose I was in a fairly straightforward position as I knew I definitely wanted to sell up and move, and I had somewhere I could stay for a bit if needed. Those two things aren't the case for everybody!

Some people will not be willing to move unless they find the 'perfect' house to move to. Fair enough, that's their decision, but the fact is that there is very rarely a 'perfect' house and when people have let two and now potentially three sales fall through due to the time they've taken, I'd question if they were completely unwilling to compromise and therefore likely to never move at all!

DRP

reallyjammyjam wrote: »

Thanks DRP - when you knew that they were looking at other houses, did you want to pull out?

No. In our case, they were still 'our' proceedable buyers, and we were continuing to look for a place to buy.

After they pulled out we took the place off the market (over the winter), and remarketed it in the Spring (+ some decor changes and new boiler!).

reallyjammyjam

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

when people have let two and now potentially three sales fall through due to the time they've taken, I'd question if they were completely unwilling to compromise and therefore likely to never move at all!

ha well yes. That is the most depressing route of all and trying not to go there but I'm afraid I am a bit of a negative nelly and I can't help but feel that there is a risk they might not sell at all, like ever lol. I know that if after all this we get the house, it will all have been worth it. However if we don't I will feel very miffed! Bit like going through the pain of childbirth but not getting a baby at the end to make it worth it!

pinkteapot

We were in your seller's position the year before last. It's not a game - we weren't messing our buyers about or playing at anything. We were honest with them from when they viewed that we were specific in what we wanted and we didn't know how long it would take us to find something to buy.

Had we had a high enough offer, we'd have taken the money and rented. But the offers we got were all at a level where we could easily replace the buyer with another one if they got fed up, so where was our incentive to move into rented?

We kept them informed. In the end we accepted their offer in July and found somewhere in October.

You've said yourself there's nothing else that you want to buy. Keep looking. If something else comes up, pull out and buy that instead. Until then, there's no point throwing your toys out of the pram.

Ultimatums won't work if they're happy to just sell to someone else instead. The only thing you could do is offer a higher price in exchange for a quick completion. The extra cash might get them out (as I said, it would have done for us). But whether the extra money is 'worth it' to you in terms of getting in faster is entirely up to you. You'd be spending money for nothing (apart from a bit longer in your new house). The mortgage valuation might also come up short of the agreed price.

As mentioned further up, to any buyers stuck in the same situation, don't spend any money on the purchase until the chain is fully formed. Don't apply for your mortgage or instruct your solicitor until there's a chain from bottom to top. You'll get pressure from the EA to start doing things but there is absolutely no point until there's a chain.

reallyjammyjam

thanks pinkteapot. Not quite throwing my toys out the pram yet. As I said we are very frustrated, and I think after 4 1/2 months of waiting I think we are entitled? Also as I said, I know it's not a game. Really was just a turn of phrase. I forgot how people pick things up very literally on these forums.

I do appreciate your input though, my original post was intended more so as I wanted to hear from anyone in similar positions and see if anyone had any ideas that I hadn't thought of. We know the risks of getting the mortage before the chain had completed, it was for our peace of mind that we just wanted to get a timeline and partly because we thought it might a) show the vendors we are serous buyers and b) might give them a bit of a push to get seriously looking.

Thrugelmir

We have been looking on RM etc. since we put in offer and we have no qualms about going in for another property however we haven’t found anything. We are being quite fussy aswell for various reasons and so this is THE house that we want. We just can’t find anything to match up to it.

Then be patient. Little point in applying pressure if you have no alternatives yourselves.