Breaking the chain

AdrianC

<shrug>
You want to do 17th, and can't do 24/31st.
They can't do 17th.

It's all a discussion and agreement. Nobody has priority. Somebody compromises.

"I can't possibly do any date for two months" is... well...

Look, you don't need to actually DO anything on completion date. Not. One. Thing.

onwards&upwards

It doesn’t even need to be you who picks up the keys.

I was working when I completed on my first home, I arranged for a friend to pick up the keys from the estate agent on the Friday then I moved in at the weekend.

You are making this unnecessarily complicated and causing yourself extra stress that you don’t need!

AnotherJoe

nherbert92 wrote: »

How am I doing that? And no you don’t understand my circumstances perfectly at all. There are many other personal factors that I wish not to delve into on public websites. My question was simply asking if it could be possible. I wasn’t saying I was going to do it. I wanted some polite responses which I got maybe 1 or 2 and that’s enough for me. Again thanks for your time

"How are you pushing yourself into a corner" ? - by insisting that you cant complete for two months when as said it's not actually necessary to do anything on completion day . Not even collect the keys. You wanted the time to clean, and do work, well this would give you tons of time.

aries_163

People can be very direct on this forum but I think they are just trying to give you the benefit of their experience.
As you are a FTB is probably hard to see how an overlap between renting and completion can be so beneficial, as you are probably primarily concerned about the idea of the extra cost. Try to see it as a benefit that you can pick up the keys, do some cleaning/ work over any free time, and move in gradually. Trust us when we say you will never get such an easy move ever again (compared to when selling and buying concurrently).

Also, please have it in the back of your mind that at this stage the 24th or 31st are still just days being aimed at. If your sellers enquiries are just being raised and answered then even more could arise that could push the date further out.
I know it’s tricky and feels stressful when you find it hard to arrange leave at the last minute, etc. But you kinda just have to go with the flow! When I was selling, it was all done, we are going to exchange contracts in the next day or so, and then my (cash) buyers decided they wanted to put the purchase in their daughters name and not theirs! So contracts, ID checks, etc all had to be re-done, and my sale (and onwards purchase) then all got delayed by a week. My vendors were not at all happy! And we had to make sure the moving company had availability on the new date before we could confirm anything with the rest of the chain, and that we could get the days off (partner couldn’t get the 2 days we off we had wanted so enlisted my parents to help instead), etc. There is a reason they say that buying a house is one of the most stressful things you can do!

So after that ramble, my advice is try to thing about things in a different way, try to see the positives and work around things. Otherwise you are just gonna work yourself up too much.

Albala

nherbert92 wrote: »

Thanks. I only wanted some advice, that is all. I think I’ll stop using forums for advice as I don’t think you are understanding my circumstances correctly. But thank you for your time

To be fair, some of the confusion is because people didn't know things you didn't identify very specifically in your original post, like the fact that you usually have to work Fridays and your seller will only complete on a Friday. But it's true that some other posters would have come over rather better if they had asked why a specific matter was an issue rather than assumed there was no reason and then been unpleasant about it. I'm afraid that's not uncommon on here, but equally there are also kind and helpful posters who are not like that. I'd try to tune out the ones trying to make themselves look clever and just read the stuff from people who are genuinely trying to be helpful.
As to your original query, if a seller or a seller's seller is being a pain, sadly, there is often little you can do. If you're in rented, it would cost you a lot less to have a short overlap than it would cost others in the chain to have to find a rental (which you can't easily do in five minutes) move out, rent/store, and move again, so they are not likely to be very keen to do all that, especially if they have kids. If you did have an overlap, might you be able to use it to get any work done before you move in that needs doing? It's often cheaper to get work done (like rewiring) on an empty house; you might even break even over it and not have the disruption of work when you're living there as a bonus (disruption which, given your jobs, I imagine you could well do without).
Anyway, good luck with it.