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Ear needed - may have to cancel house sale
glasgowdan
Posts: 2,968 Forumite
I just want to vent a little, maybe hear anyone else's thoughts on this.
We have been looking to buy a new house and had one agreed and going through the process. Meantime we sold ours and have a family looking to buy it and move in at the end of this month. The house we were hoping to buy fell through and since then, for the past 2-3 weeks, we have been trying to speed through the process of offering/buying two others, and having had sellers delay and delay we're trying to find a rental.
This should be easy, but I have now tried to view and apply for at least 5-6 rental houses, and every one has been snapped up quicker than I have been able to get in touch and arrange to see them. It's driving us nuts. We now have about 3 weeks until we are due to leave our house, another couple of rentals to view in the next 2 days but time is against us. I spoke with our solicitor today and she says she really needs to formalise things with the buyers tomorrow. If we want to withdraw the sale of our house, agree to move out at the end of the month as agreed, or try and delay it by a month (with due compensation offered to the buyers) we NEED to decide tonight so she can get the missives signed off tomorrow morning.
We are beside ourselves with stress and panic.
I had no idea that trying to get a house to rent would be so competitive! We've made 3 offers on houses, between 16-20k OVER the 'offers over' (Scotland) prices and not got them, or have sellers telling us they want to wait for closing dates etc.
We just don't have any more time and don't know what to do.
To add a bit of extra stress, my wife booked a 5 day holiday with her mum and sister back in January and flew out today, so it's just me looking after our toddler and trying to make decisions on all of this at the same time!
The way I see it, we have to:
1. Cancel the sale of our house, go back to square 1 and pay solicitor fees to date plus offer the buyers of ours something. Then, start to try and buy a house, get a firm offer accepted and then put ours on the market.
2. Ask the buyers to wait another 4 weeks (end May) in the HOPE that we can either agree an offer on a house in the next 1-2 weeks, or arrange a rental before then. However, they're a family that have had to squeeze in with relatives for a few weeks, and they've been pushing to get the sale earlier since the start... I don't think this would go down well with them at all!
3. Carry on, sign off the legally binding sale for the end of the month, and make sure we move out one way or another.
Now, we simply can't just live anywhere, as my business requires a driveway and garage at home.
I don't know what to do! We're trying to hide our stress from the wee boy but it's hard. I think option 1 is going to win sadly. There's a nice house we've tried to offer and agree but they are delaying and we don't know when they'll set a closing date. It'll be a shame to lose this, should our offer be enough.
We have been looking to buy a new house and had one agreed and going through the process. Meantime we sold ours and have a family looking to buy it and move in at the end of this month. The house we were hoping to buy fell through and since then, for the past 2-3 weeks, we have been trying to speed through the process of offering/buying two others, and having had sellers delay and delay we're trying to find a rental.
This should be easy, but I have now tried to view and apply for at least 5-6 rental houses, and every one has been snapped up quicker than I have been able to get in touch and arrange to see them. It's driving us nuts. We now have about 3 weeks until we are due to leave our house, another couple of rentals to view in the next 2 days but time is against us. I spoke with our solicitor today and she says she really needs to formalise things with the buyers tomorrow. If we want to withdraw the sale of our house, agree to move out at the end of the month as agreed, or try and delay it by a month (with due compensation offered to the buyers) we NEED to decide tonight so she can get the missives signed off tomorrow morning.
We are beside ourselves with stress and panic.
I had no idea that trying to get a house to rent would be so competitive! We've made 3 offers on houses, between 16-20k OVER the 'offers over' (Scotland) prices and not got them, or have sellers telling us they want to wait for closing dates etc.
We just don't have any more time and don't know what to do.
To add a bit of extra stress, my wife booked a 5 day holiday with her mum and sister back in January and flew out today, so it's just me looking after our toddler and trying to make decisions on all of this at the same time!
The way I see it, we have to:
1. Cancel the sale of our house, go back to square 1 and pay solicitor fees to date plus offer the buyers of ours something. Then, start to try and buy a house, get a firm offer accepted and then put ours on the market.
2. Ask the buyers to wait another 4 weeks (end May) in the HOPE that we can either agree an offer on a house in the next 1-2 weeks, or arrange a rental before then. However, they're a family that have had to squeeze in with relatives for a few weeks, and they've been pushing to get the sale earlier since the start... I don't think this would go down well with them at all!
3. Carry on, sign off the legally binding sale for the end of the month, and make sure we move out one way or another.
Now, we simply can't just live anywhere, as my business requires a driveway and garage at home.
I don't know what to do! We're trying to hide our stress from the wee boy but it's hard. I think option 1 is going to win sadly. There's a nice house we've tried to offer and agree but they are delaying and we don't know when they'll set a closing date. It'll be a shame to lose this, should our offer be enough.
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Comments
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My first thought after reading your post, and I don't want to add to your problem, but are you allowed to run a business from a rented house. I thought not but maybe I'm wrong.
It would be a shame to lose your buyer and start over again as presumably you need to sell in order to buy?0 -
Are you being too honest with the rental agents? If you're saying ".. rent ... sold .... buying ...." the landlord/agent will be hearing "short term" which is a lot of hassle for some of them, who prefer to hear "long term".
Maybe you're being turned down as they know you'll only want it for a short time.
You need, maybe, to more more candid about your plans and intentions. Honesty is marvellous..... but it has to be used sparingly when your back's against the wall.
I'd not cancel the sale, you've got a buyer, you want to move, so I'd at least put closure to that part of the jigsaw.0 -
I'm not running the business from home, just using the home facilities to park my van and put some tools in a garage. All of my work is offsite in other people's properties.
And I agree, it would be such a shame to start again. I want to be able to say to my solicitor to advise the buyer we need to cancel, but SHOULD we manage to find a rental we can continue. Obviously this isn't a great solution though.0 -
PasturesNew wrote: »Are you being too honest with the rental agents? If you're saying ".. rent ... sold .... buying ...." the landlord/agent will be hearing "short term" which is a lot of hassle for some of them, who prefer to hear "long term".
Maybe you're being turned down as they know you'll only want it for a short time.
You need, maybe, to more more candid about your plans and intentions. Honesty is marvellous..... but it has to be used sparingly when your back's against the wall.
I'd not cancel the sale, you've got a buyer, you want to move, so I'd at least put closure to that part of the jigsaw.
I've avoided saying we're between buying and selling, but have put 6months on the forms. The issue seems to be that rental for 3-4bed family homes are in super high demand around Glasgow and we just can't get in there.
I don't know if we can commit 100% to selling though... we don't have any family with enough space for us. It's a risk asking for another month from the buyer in case we still can't get something.0 -
if you give your buyer the option of delaying or losing the purchase which do you think they will prefer?0
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Put longterm on applications (not short term or six months). If you find somewhere sooner then just cite it as 'unplanned/unforeseen'.
Ring letting agencies and speak personally to letting agent, explain that you are selling and have to be out within 3 weeks and desperately need to find somewhere to move. Again stick to long term sales pitch for rentals else you'll be unattractive to them
Ask solicitor to also find out if buyers can delay 4-6 weeks due to issues moving on. If they can't then consider any friends or relatives you can bunk with or hiring a holiday let if that's an option0 -
Look at short term holiday lets and offer a bit less for a three month let. You will need to put your furniture in store but won't have the hastle of registering/paying rates, electric etc.0
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What about a holiday let?0
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Must be holiday lets for the short intervening period? Even AirBnB properties perhaps?0
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Can you rent a 2 bed instead? Remember it is just for a short period.
Where in Glasgow are you? We are in Glasgow and similar happened to us and we rented a house to allow the sale of ours to go through.
Have to signed up to the rightmove alerts for rentals so that as soon as a new one comes on you get an email. We done that as rentals were going fast. One came up that I knew would do us and I was happy to sign and take it without seeing it, but the agents wouldnt allow it! We viewed the first day it came up, were first to view it and we took it. You say you have another couple of rentals to view in the next few days.....if its like where I am then they will be 'let' already by the time you view! (sorry!)
I do not think you should pull out of the sale. Sell up and rent then you are in an even better position to buy and you will not feel so rushed as you are just now. A house purchase should not be something you are rushed to do.
Good luck and I hope it all goes well.0
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