House purchase/sale chain question

pinkteapot

The whole thing is a negotiation. Your vendor might be prepared to rent, they might not. It will come down to how easy they think you are to replace, if you pull out. If they're confident that they'll get another buyer to offer the same price as you, they won't budge. If they've got a better price than they expected out of you, they might go into rented.

We sold and bought in the middle of a chain a couple of years ago, when there were still awkward stamp duty thresholds. We marketed at £280k as there was a small chance we'd make it over the £250k threshold, but we didn't get any high offers. We had people lining up to pay £250k. Accepted an offer at £250k but were honest with our buyer from viewing that we needed to look for something, and we wanted a specific estate where houses rarely come up, so it might take a while. They were FTBs and happy to wait. In the end, we found something after a couple of months. Our vendor had already seen something, but their vendor then looked for a month and eventually decided to go into rented. So, just over three months for the chain to form up.

Had we managed to get say £270k, we'd have gone into rented to get the cash. At our £250k sale price it simply wasn't worth the cost or hassle, as if our buyers had got fed up and pulled out we could have had another buyer within days. As I said, we were open with the buyer from the start and told them not to spend money (mortgage/solicitor) until the chain was formed, although they ignored us.

As it's your buyer's buyer who is pregnant and hassling for quick completion, your buyer could go into rented. They're trying to get you or your vendor to break the chain because they don't want to do it themselves.

Someone will have to be inconvenienced - the pregnant person stays in a presumably less than ideal property, or someone in the chain has the faff and cost of renting. The person who caves is likely to be the one who's most scared of the chain collapsing.

Main tip to everyone - Don't spend any money until the chain is formed from end to end. Don't apply for your mortgage or instruct your solicitor. The EA for your vendor will apply all sorts of pressure for you to start work on the purchase, but there is absolutely no point unless everyone has found somewhere to go, to a chain-free property at the top. Keep telling the EA you're serious, give them the name of your solicitor (tell the solicitor to open a file but not do anything yet) and mortgage company that you've chosen. But stand firm.

eddddy

Like you, the vendor's EA wants this transaction completed.

The EA will probably be pleased that you are contacting them, it will give them an 'excuse' to contact the vendor to try to encourage them along.

Don't worry too much about the tone of the email to the EA. A good EA will know their client, and present the info in an appropriate manner.

And remember that the EA will try to 'manage' the situation by giving different messages to you and their client...

e.g. They might say to you that your requests are unreasonable and it's unlikely that the vendor would agree to them...

... whilst telling the vendor that your requests are very reasonable and they really should consider agreeing to them.

Guinness-Cat

Slouching_wolf wrote: »

There is a house we like, chain free in another part of the town. The house isn't as nice , but the area and schools are a lot better (we have a near 3 year old, so good schools are a must). Part of me feels tempted to to pull out and go for this other property.

ARGH decisions!!

Is there anything which could be done to this other house, over time, to make it comparable with the current house. I have a 3 and 4 year old - and the better schools would be a massive selling point for me.

Slouching_wolf

pinkteapot wrote: »

The whole thing is a negotiation. Your vendor might be prepared to rent, they might not. It will come down to how easy they think you are to replace, if you pull out. If they're confident that they'll get another buyer to offer the same price as you, they won't budge. If they've got a better price than they expected out of you, they might go into rented.

We sold and bought in the middle of a chain a couple of years ago, when there were still awkward stamp duty thresholds. We marketed at £280k as there was a small chance we'd make it over the £250k threshold, but we didn't get any high offers. We had people lining up to pay £250k. Accepted an offer at £250k but were honest with our buyer from viewing that we needed to look for something, and we wanted a specific estate where houses rarely come up, so it might take a while. They were FTBs and happy to wait. In the end, we found something after a couple of months. Our vendor had already seen something, but their vendor then looked for a month and eventually decided to go into rented. So, just over three months for the chain to form up.

Had we managed to get say £270k, we'd have gone into rented to get the cash. At our £250k sale price it simply wasn't worth the cost or hassle, as if our buyers had got fed up and pulled out we could have had another buyer within days. As I said, we were open with the buyer from the start and told them not to spend money (mortgage/solicitor) until the chain was formed, although they ignored us.

As it's your buyer's buyer who is pregnant and hassling for quick completion, your buyer could go into rented. They're trying to get you or your vendor to break the chain because they don't want to do it themselves.

Someone will have to be inconvenienced - the pregnant person stays in a presumably less than ideal property, or someone in the chain has the faff and cost of renting. The person who caves is likely to be the one who's most scared of the chain collapsing.

Main tip to everyone - Don't spend any money until the chain is formed from end to end. Don't apply for your mortgage or instruct your solicitor. The EA for your vendor will apply all sorts of pressure for you to start work on the purchase, but there is absolutely no point unless everyone has found somewhere to go, to a chain-free property at the top. Keep telling the EA you're serious, give them the name of your solicitor (tell the solicitor to open a file but not do anything yet) and mortgage company that you've chosen. But stand firm.

This is really good advice, thank you.

Our vendors house was on the market for 10k more and they reduced the price because it wasn't selling. It was on the market for 2 months in total. We made an offer 3k below asking price which was rejected & then had an asking price offer accepted. I certainly don't think there was a queue of people making offers, but in all honesty , I have no idea! I personally do not think they will break the chain and move into rented. The have 2 young children, so like us not overly practical. It's worth an ask though. Our buyer may be the best person to go into rented as she is purchasing alone, plus her youngest son is going to be renting a property very close to our current home with a baby due in December. According to our estate agents she is keen to buy our house and she is committed to the purchase. But I guess they could just be saying that to keep me sweet.

As for not spending money out until the chain is complete.... even only I knew that before now We've paid out £99 on a mortgage product and £225 for the survey. Not a huge amount, but still a reasonable sum nonetheless. We have instructed our solicitor not to do searches or anything until we say so, but we have given her the green light to proceed with the sale paperwork. I guess that's not a good idea in hindsight,

Hoploz

You cannot force these people to find their dream home,

You cannot force them to move out without an onward purchase.

If this is the house you want to buy you will just have to wait, either with your current buyer or with a different one.

We searched for two years. Our buyer waited 6 months. We were stunned he was still there when we found - we fully expected him to have gone elsewhere. If he had we would have totally understood. No 'pressure' from our buyers would have made us move out.

Slouching_wolf

getmore4less wrote: »

You got a buyer for yours without having a place lined up.
buyer wants a quick sale.

You then go find a house in the same situation just adding to the delays.

Should have found a house that was looking for a buyer because they had a place lined up.

As soon as you want to sell you should be working both sides of the chain from the start, you don't wait for a buyer before going looking.
you shortlist potentials till you are ready to make the next step and revisit.

We have been looking ever since our property went on the market. The area we want to move to is sought after and no sooner properties go onto the market, they are sold. It took us two months to get a decent buyer for ours, so how on earth could we have lined up a forward purchase ?

I am now full of regret over the whole thing. Because we felt under pressure from the start, we put an offer in on the property outlined above. We love the house, but it is not in our preferred area. Now a property that we really like has come up within budget in our preferred area , so we could have waited, especially as our buyer hasn't had the survey done on our place yet despite them putting the initial pressure on

I feel we've made huge mistakes already and we should have just waited it out until the right property came up in the right area and we now wouldn't be in this mess. It now seems both our buyer and vendor are in no rush, yet we're the ones who have paid money for the mortgage and survey, Feel incredibly stupid and naive now.

If nothing else, we've learnt some tough lessons.