Waiting for sellers to find a house since February

KSS84

Hi, I'm a first time buyer with no chain as I am currently living in a flat which comes with my husbands job. We had an offer accepted on a house in February but since the the sellers have found once house, had an offer accepted and those sellers then couldn't find anywhere and eventually pulled out. I'm starting to get anxious as we have to move out of the flat at the end of July and have our first child due end of September. Also our mortgage offer will run out in October and then I'm worried about getting another one as I will be on maternity leave.

We have told the estate agents our timeline in terms of moving out and the baby and they keep us informed of viewings the sellers have had but nothing is moving at the moment. Should we be more firm and suggest that if we can't move in by beginning of September then we will have to pull out? I'm then worried about them calling our bluff and pulling out themselves. They have 3 children themselves, is it acceptable to expect them to rent while they find somewhere? We have seen a couple of other places online but not quite as nice and they might have their own long chains so we could be waiting again!

Any advice much appreciated!

smallholdingsister

Have you expressed your position to them?
How long did you say you would wait?

SmlSave

You can ask the sellers if they would be willing to rent... but there's nothing stopping them from changing their minds at any time.

ellie27

In your position I would not have given them more than perhaps a few weeks to get an offer accepted on a place. I would have continued viewing other houses that came up that would have suited and made the agents aware of your situation.

You have to move out at the end of July- thats in just 8 weeks. Most house purchases/sales take way more than 8 weeks.

I would tell them I want to exchange and be moved in by end July, I wouldnt mention September because then September will become December!

Good luck.

Thrugelmir

KSS84 wrote: »

Should we be more firm and suggest that if we can't move in by beginning of September then we will have to pull out?

The vendors could agree. Though this offers no guarantee that completion will take place.

Sedge123

We were in your vendors position. I would not have been pushed into purchasing a house to suit our buyers timeline. If they had applied pressure I would have taken our house off of the market.

In the end we moved in with relatives for a few weeks to fit in with our vendors, we did ensure that we exchanged on our sale and our purchase at the same time though to avoid leaving ourselves homeless.

kinger101

The best thing you can do is look for somewhere else without a chain. If it's as good as or better than the one you currently have an offer on, buy that instead.

In the meantime, don't spend any money on surveys or legals in the absence of a completed chain.

You don't have a strong hand here I'm afraid. They'd probably be happy to stick their house back on the market and find another potential buyer to string along while they look for their Goldilocks home.

Dan-Dan

Sedge123 wrote: »

We were in your vendors position. I would not have been pushed into purchasing a house to suit our buyers timeline. If they had applied pressure I would have taken our house off of the market.

In the end we moved in with relatives for a few weeks to fit in with our vendors, we did ensure that we exchanged on our sale and our purchase at the same time though to avoid leaving ourselves homeless.

Sounds like you did do what your buyers needed you to do ?

dc197

Sedge123 wrote: »

We were in your vendors position. I would not have been pushed into purchasing a house to suit our buyers timeline. If they had applied pressure I would have taken our house off of the market.

In the end we moved in with relatives for a few weeks to fit in with our vendors, we did ensure that we exchanged on our sale and our purchase at the same time though to avoid leaving ourselves homeless.

Do you mean return it to the market?

HouseBuyer77

You need to do what's best for you. But your sellers also need to do what's best for them. It may be in this case there's too much difference between those two that you can't make the sale work.

Sadly house buying on a timetable is always going to be tricky and it doesn't sound like this one is going anywhere fast.

Personally I'd be asking them if they would be willing to move into rented and beginning to look at other properties.