How long to wait for seller to find a property?

b1gdeano

Just after some advice please

We have found a house, made an offer and had offer of mortgage made to us.

The vendor of the property we have offered on have not found anywhere yet and are still looking. The offer was accepted mid December.

I am holding off paying fees for searches and surveys etc until they have found somewhere - how long should I wait however?

We are first time buyers so not really sure? I am not keen on just hanging on and obviously need to get things moving.

When should I start applying pressure to them?

steeeb

b1gdeano wrote: »

Just after some advice please

We have found a house, made an offer and had offer of mortgage made to us.

The vendor of the property we have offered on have not found anywhere yet and are still looking. The offer was accepted mid December.

I am holding off paying fees for searches and surveys etc until they have found somewhere - how long should I wait however?

We are first time buyers so not really sure? I am not keen on just hanging on and obviously need to get things moving.

When should I start applying pressure to them?

With christmas/new year then mid december isn't really that long ago and it's usually a 'slower' time of year now anyway.

I'd be surprised if they found somewhere within the next month or two, and sometimes it can take 6+ months.

Don't start any searches or anything until the chain is established.

In the meantime perhaps keep looking at other properties. You never know, you might find something better that might be chain free.

saajan_12

Precise timelines can vary ofcourse, but I would ask for regular updates from the agent / seller to understand how hard the sellers are looking, whether they are being too fussy etc.

However I wouldn’t spend money on legals / mortgage until the chain is complete (i.e. everyone has somewhere lined up to buy / sell). In fact probably best to keep looking at whats available so if this falls through, you don’t waste too much time to get back on the market.

b1gdeano

I have already spent the money on the mortgage valuation fee as wanted to get the mortgage to offer stage ASAP in order to prove we are serious

I wont be spending on anything else however until they have had offer accepted and further down the line etc

Is it worth trying to stipulate a future date that we are happy to wait for before looking elsewhere?

We do like the house and want to buy it so dont want to overly push the seller, but at the same time we do want to get things moving and ideally move in before summer! (easter if I had my way)

lottie3000

I think we accepted the offer on our old house in late June, but didn't have an offer accepted on our new place until about mid September and then it took until mid December to move. This is the only time i've moved and because our equity/deposit was tied up in the property we weren't seen as serious buyers until we'd accepted an offer on our and it did take us a while to find the right place. Lots of things hold up house buying and moving so I really think your being over optimistic for Easter.

b1gdeano

lottie3000 wrote: »

I think we accepted the offer on our old house in late June, but didn't have an offer accepted on our new place until about mid September and then it took until mid December to move. This is the only time i've moved and because our equity/deposit was tied up in the property we weren't seen as serious buyers until we'd accepted an offer on our and it did take us a while to find the right place. Lots of things hold up house buying and moving so I really think your being over optimistic for Easter.

I do understand that - in an ideal world I would want to be in by Easter but appreciate its not my call!

My query is mostly to do with how long is too long to wait - I dont want to just sit for 3,4,5 months waiting for them to find somewhere to move to - We would look elsewhere if that was the case but how to handle this with the vendor?

forum_posts

Ask them if they are prepared to vacate the property and rent somewhere while they look for their next purchase. How eager are the vendors to keep your offer on the table?

Bonfire_Bride

This happened to us (although our sellers failed to tell us that they were no longer "chain free") until we had spent loads on searches/fees/surveys.

We pulled out in the end as I felt they were just stringing us along.

sparky130a

b1gdeano wrote: »

I do understand that - in an ideal world I would want to be in by Easter but appreciate its not my call!

My query is mostly to do with how long is too long to wait - I dont want to just sit for 3,4,5 months waiting for them to find somewhere to move to - We would look elsewhere if that was the case but how to handle this with the vendor?

What's their situation? Speak to them and the EA....

D00gie72

Your question really has a "how long is a piece of string" kind of answer. The time it's going to take your vendor to find a house - then have their offer accepted - then the house they're going to buy may be a chain too.... on so on and so on. There are really too many variables to put any kind of limit on the time it will take. Like others have said don't spend any more on searches etc etc until you know you are in a complete chain.
Ultimately the time you wait is down to how much you want this particular house - and if you find an alternative (which, of course, will also most likely be in a chain). Try to be patient - putting deadlines on to you vendor is unlikely to be helpful. Keep in touch via the EA so you know what's happening but other than that just try to chill.


Good Luck.

AlexMac

Even though Easter is late this year, and even if your vendors found a new house to offer on this weekend, I'd say it would be near impossible to complete by early April.

I have done an auction purchase within the 4 weeks required as a condition of sale, but my last freehold purchase was more typical in that it took exactly 3 months to the day, from my solicitor receiving the memorandum of sale.

And there was probably 3-4 weeks of viewing, haggling on price and appointing solicitors before the vendor accepted my offer and the Agent issued the written memo - so call it 4 months.

That conveyance went smoothly, and my solicitor's really fast; using email rather than snail mail for things like searches and standard enquiries. Most of my past purchases have taken longer- especially if they've been leasehold, or there were any glitches about tenure, leases or red-lines etc.

So you need to work out how long you'll wait before even threatening, or actually pulling out, but meanwhile maybe accept its probably not likely you'll move in much before early summer at best!