Longest chain

NaughtiusMaximus

Out of pure curiosity, what's the longest chain you've ever been in or were aware of?

In addition has anyone ever known of a chain that was actually a circle, ie where the person at the top of the chain is downsizing to the property at the bottom?

hazyjo

My current chain is 6. Not ideal, but could be worse I suppose...

davidmcn

NaughtiusMaximus wrote: »

In addition has anyone ever known of a chain that was actually a circle, ie where the person at the top of the chain is downsizing to the property at the bottom?

Wasn't that the plot of The Chain?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088898

seven-day-weekend

Bought three houses to live in, sold two, never once been in a chain.

The first one in 1976, we were FTBs and the house was empty because the people had already moved. We sold this in 2015 to FTBs and we had already moved out into our bungalow

The second, was our Spanish house - it was a Spanish person's holiday home so all they had to do was move the furniture out. Buying it did not depend upon the sale of our UK house. We sold it to another British couple who were buying it as a second home, and we had already returned to our house in the UK.

The third was our bungalow where we live now, which was a probate sale, so empty. We did not need to sell our house to buy it, so moved in first and then sold.

phoebe1989seb

Assuming you count every 'link' of the chain, our longest was a chain of five when buying our previous house -

1) house we were buying was empty (vendors already moved out into her mum's farm), 2) then us, 3) our buyers, 4) their buyers, 5) FTB at the bottom.

Considering there was a fire that gutted he solicitor's office of one of the links and their mortgage offer went up in smoke, the whole process only took ten weeks from putting ours on the market to completion!

Otherwise, in seven purchases we've only had short chains of three - as we've frequently bought empty houses and sold to people who were cash buyers with nothing to sell. Also, we've tended to move sideways, as opposed to up or down, price-wise. So -

1) our purchase, 2) us, 3) our buyer.

dpearson86

I was told our chain was complete at 6, found out yesterday that was a lie and is up to possibly 8.

I'm a FTB and me, the people I'm buying from and the next level up were lied to, there is now talk of someone breaking the chain but 12 weeks since the offer yesterday and was told after we found out about the chain lie we could be in "by the end of the year".....

silvercar

NaughtiusMaximus wrote: »

Out of pure curiosity, what's the longest chain you've ever been in or were aware of?

In addition has anyone ever known of a chain that was actually a circle, ie where the person at the top of the chain is downsizing to the property at the bottom?

We circled a chain in order to complete it. We didn't actually move into the bottom of the chain but rented it out.

lisyloo

Did have a colleague who had a chain of about 7. Was made worse by the fact that his nature was a highly-strung control enthusiast (control freak).


I would consider renting or moving in with friends in future to become chain free, but is difficult if you have a lot of stuff/kids.

ProDave

When we were selling, I made it clear we were downsizing so may buy a smaller property (to keep as a buy to let) in the hope that us potentially buying theirs may make our house more attractive.

Made no difference whatsoever.

theGrinch

Personally, 6 to 8 plus Brexit jitters along it - couldn't see the bottom and no one really knew when asked.

On a different point on another chain - a friend near the top of a chain stepped in to purchase a flat near the bottom to keep it alive.

hazyjo

dpearson86 wrote: »

I was told our chain was complete at 6, found out yesterday that was a lie and is up to possibly 8.

I'm a FTB and me, the people I'm buying from and the next level up were lied to, there is now talk of someone breaking the chain but 12 weeks since the offer yesterday and was told after we found out about the chain lie we could be in "by the end of the year".....

It will be a nightmare trying to get in by Christmas as they're mega busy and EVERYONE wants to be in by Christmas. Plus most EAs and solicitors will close for the festive period. Hope they get their finger out so you're in by late Nov/early Dec!


Watch your mortgage offer too. Most are valid for 6 months (some 3). Don't let it expire - or, if you're getting close, try to extend it (plenty of notice key here!).


Good luck!