How long is it acceptable to give buyer to obtain mortgage before putting house back on the market?

GDB2222

Clearly, your buyers have a problem that they are not sharing with you. Of course, you should put the property back on the market.

Given how long searches are taking, you may want to get searches ordered on your house, ie the one you are selling. That may be a waste of a few hundred pounds, but it may make the difference between meeting the stamp duty deadline, or not.  

NatNat77

Thanks all, no call from the EA yet. If their app was on hold due to furlough I'd have thought they'd tell us that, but could be a possible reason. And agreed, if they were being proactive with everything else I wouldn't be so concerned. I can understand not wanting to pay money out unnecessarily but the searches aren't too expensive and would at least confirm their intentions. 

It's also annoying that I don't have the buyers number so I'm relying on the EA, and he's not the greatest at contact - I know they're busy and to be fair there hasn't been much to update us about but it is frustrating. I asked him a few weeks ago to give my buyer my number but he advised against it as they've seen so many sales collapse when things have started to go wrong/get contentious, which I can see the sense of but I do have my sellers number and we update each other regularly so we're not completely in the dark. At least she can tell me what's going on at the top of the chain and I can tell her about the bottom. I'll see what the EA says today anyway and update this thread... 

NatNat77

GDB2222 said:

Clearly, your buyers have a problem that they are not sharing with you. Of course, you should put the property back on the market.

Given how long searches are taking, you may want to get searches ordered on your house, ie the one you are selling. That may be a waste of a few hundred pounds, but it may make the difference between meeting the stamp duty deadline, or not.  

Sorry, our posts crossed. I did think of doing that when I realised I could a couple of weeks ago, it just didn't occur to me but I saw it on a post on here I think, but it was just after our house was valued and I thought the buyer was literally about to get their mortgage so they'd be imminently ordering them. I may do that though.

I've been understanding so far as I also post on a santander mortgage timeline thread where I've seen several people who are still waiting several weeks after valuation for their offers so it's not completely abnormal, sometimes the lender requests further evidence and they go back to the bottom of the underwriting pile, but if they're hugely complicated cases that might ultimately get declined then I'm just wasting time. It's a fine balance though as the next buyer could be starting from scratch and I'll be no better off

Crashy_Time

Should have been back on the market before now IMO.

NatNat77

It's going back on, just told the EA. Apparently there is an issue with the application that could take 2+ weeks to resolve, and even then there are no guarantees. Gutted

Thrugelmir

Perhaps currently on furlough. 

NatNat77

Thrugelmir said:

Perhaps currently on furlough. 

No, sadly it's more complicated than that although I'm not sure I buy the story 

Crashy_Time

Can you share?

Mickey666

I wouldn’t take a house off the market until a prospective buyer can confirm they have the funds in place.  Without funds it’s all just wishful thinking.  

I had an offer on my last house from a ex-professional footballer and was initially delighted as I figured that funds would not be a problem.  I was wrong.  After about 10 weeks of delays the EA discovered they could not get a mortgage and it all fell through.  The eventual purchaser was a cash buyer who sent a bank statement to confirm funds were immediately available and the sale then went through very quickly.

GDB2222

Mickey666 said:

I wouldn’t take a house off the market until a prospective buyer can confirm they have the funds in place.  Without funds it’s all just wishful thinking.  

I had an offer on my last house from a ex-professional footballer and was initially delighted as I figured that funds would not be a problem.  I was wrong.  After about 10 weeks of delays the EA discovered they could not get a mortgage and it all fell through.  The eventual purchaser was a cash buyer who sent a bank statement to confirm funds were immediately available and the sale then went through very quickly.

And, yet, people often post here that they don't like all-cash buyers. They feel that the cash buyer will be fickle, as they won't have to invest money in a mortgage application fee, etc.  Maybe, but OTOH they are actually able to go ahead as promised without being beholden to someone else.