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

Crashy_Time

GDB2222 said:

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.

They are likely to be smarter about value and know how much power they have, many people posting don`t like that as they may be challenged on asking price and don`t like to have that number up for discussion. Thankfully the banks are now challenging those numbers as well as cash buyers.

Mickey666

Our cash buyer certainly pushed back on our asking price but we held firm and eventually agreed a price.  Once agreed there was no more discussion about price.  His terms were that we immediately took the house off the market (fair enough) and exchange within two weeks, though he was completely flexible about completion, and he paid our solicitor a 10% deposit a few days after his accepted offer.  As there was no chain we agreed to do everything possible to aim for a 2 week exchange but wanted one month for completion, which was not a problem.  In the event exchange took about a month, mainly because of delays at their end getting searches etc, but there was no messing about with revised offers because of this or that or any threats to pull out.  It was all very business-like.

NatNat77

Apparently there is an issue with his credit file that is not his fault, and which they're trying to resolve with experian. But they've been told it'll take up to 10 working days and then it has to be looked at again by the lender. So we went back live again yesterday as even then there are no guarantees and if he comes through then all well and good.

I wish I'd found these boards before we started this process as this is a first for me, I just moved in with my husband over 20 years ago, and I didn't really have a clue. I've now researched a lot and read many of these threads which has been invaluable and I definitely won't take it off the market so soon this time. We have our first viewing at 2pm so fingers crossed! 

Hannimal

Carl2510 said:

A cash buyer won’t mean a speedier process, I had a cash buyer after first lockdown and it still took from offer in 16/07/20 to complete on the 03/10/20 and that was chain free.

I put an offer on a house as a FTB. They rejected as they had a cash buyer, even though they offered less. During the two weeks between me exchanging and completing on the house I now own with mortgage, that house was listed again. 

Hannimal

NatNat77 said:

Apparently there is an issue with his credit file that is not his fault, and which they're trying to resolve with experian. But they've been told it'll take up to 10 working days and then it has to be looked at again by the lender. So we went back live again yesterday as even then there are no guarantees and if he comes through then all well and good.

Entirely possible. It is absolutely mad that companies like experian have so much power over things like this even though they've no obligation to make sure the details they hold of people are correct. One of the agencies (can't remember which one) noted that I wasn't registered to vote - which wasn't true and the two other credit agencies had this correctly on their file. It would have taken months to sort that out but luckily my lender didn't use that agency.

lookstraightahead

From a buyers perspective I get really cross when other buyers beat us to it with stupid offers and then they can't get a mortgage. Buyers should have their ducks in a row - op, the buyers should have checked the Experian file prior to any DIP - I presume they had a DIP before you accepted their offer? 

Thrugelmir

lookstraightahead said:

From a buyers perspective I get really cross when other buyers beat us to it with stupid offers and then they can't get a mortgage. Buyers should have their ducks in a row - op, the buyers should have checked the Experian file prior to any DIP - I presume they had a DIP before you accepted their offer? 

Sounds as something has come out of the woodwork. 

NatNat77

I was told that they did have a DIP, but I don't know if our EA saw it. But are they really worth anything anyway? and funny you should say that as the people that viewed yesterday saw it when it was first listed in September but when they called up it had already gone, our buyers were the first and only people to view it and it sold the next day. I really hope they offer! 

And yes, something definitely did come out of the woodwork Thrugelmir! I wasn't sure whether to say too much in case they saw it but now I've decided I don't care, so here goes:
I messaged the EA on Weds to say I think we need to think about relaunching, and can you call me. 
Gave him until lunchtime on Thurs before calling him. No reply. Same again at 4pm ish. He called back shortly after with the bad news. 

Apparently (also on Weds), after the lender did a hard credit check, there was a default payment on his file. I'm told its from a 2018 unpaid water bill, on a property they've never lived in, from when their identity was stolen. He said he'd sent the police reports etc to experian but they would take up to 10 working days to sort it out and then of course it has to go back to the bank to reassess. We told the EA to relaunch as the wait would put us too close to Christmas and by now I have serious doubts he'll be able to get the mortgage even if this issue is sorted out. 

Because even if it is true there are definitely some fishy circumstances - 
He hadn't ordered his searches as he wanted to get his offer first, despite the EA advising him to, due to how long they are taking, so did he know all along he'd have this problem but if so why didn't he start sorting it out sooner!? And why string us along.

Is it really possible in this day and age that you can have an issue with your credit file for over 2 years and not know about it, especially after having your identity stolen. Surely it would flag up if taking any kind of credit, and most people take out some sort of credit don't they, every now and then. Do the banks do a soft search when they do a DIP? 

Santander sent someone to value our house on 6 Nov - I find it hard to believe they'd pay an external company to do that without performing a hard check first, something that can be done in house, online, quickly and cheaply. But if they had, and the default showed up, then surely they wouldn't have sent someone round? 

And this all came to light the same day I messaged the EA, unfortunate timing or too much of a coincidence? It could just be my EA seeing my message on Weds and scrambling around for info before calling me back as he's done that before. I'll be keeping an eye on that this time and putting on more pressure. 

The EA then spoke to our buyer on Friday to let them know, who then said if he was to order the searches would it change our minds and the EA told them yes! I was like er, no! They should have done that weeks ago and it's too little too late. So we relaunched Friday afternoon. Please wish us luck! 

You can often only go by what people are telling you but I want to learn from my mistakes and hope the same thing doesn't happen again. Therefore can you advise what we should be expecting from or telling any other buyer at offer stage, should we get one? I want to say:
We won't take it off the market until ? 
Must order searches straight away and start the legals, and deal with all paperwork in a reasonable time frame. 
We won't renegotiate the price under any circumstance (not sure this would put some people off but I'd rather be upfront from the start, we need a certain amount for our onward purchase. We know the valuation was fine and wouldn't expect there to be issues from any survey that my husband couldn't fix, and can't see the searches returning anything sinister as we've lived here for over 20 years). 

And what proof of funds is it reasonable to expect them to provide?

If you've read this far, thank you! Grateful for any advice really but please be kind! 

MFWannabe

NatNat77 said:

I was told that they did have a DIP, but I don't know if our EA saw it. But are they really worth anything anyway? and funny you should say that as the people that viewed yesterday saw it when it was first listed in September but when they called up it had already gone, our buyers were the first and only people to view it and it sold the next day. I really hope they offer! 

And yes, something definitely did come out of the woodwork Thrugelmir! I wasn't sure whether to say too much in case they saw it but now I've decided I don't care, so here goes:
I messaged the EA on Weds to say I think we need to think about relaunching, and can you call me. 
Gave him until lunchtime on Thurs before calling him. No reply. Same again at 4pm ish. He called back shortly after with the bad news. 

Apparently (also on Weds), after the lender did a hard credit check, there was a default payment on his file. I'm told its from a 2018 unpaid water bill, on a property they've never lived in, from when their identity was stolen. He said he'd sent the police reports etc to experian but they would take up to 10 working days to sort it out and then of course it has to go back to the bank to reassess. We told the EA to relaunch as the wait would put us too close to Christmas and by now I have serious doubts he'll be able to get the mortgage even if this issue is sorted out. 

Because even if it is true there are definitely some fishy circumstances - 
He hadn't ordered his searches as he wanted to get his offer first, despite the EA advising him to, due to how long they are taking, so did he know all along he'd have this problem but if so why didn't he start sorting it out sooner!? And why string us along.

Is it really possible in this day and age that you can have an issue with your credit file for over 2 years and not know about it, especially after having your identity stolen. Surely it would flag up if taking any kind of credit, and most people take out some sort of credit don't they, every now and then. Do the banks do a soft search when they do a DIP? 

Santander sent someone to value our house on 6 Nov - I find it hard to believe they'd pay an external company to do that without performing a hard check first, something that can be done in house, online, quickly and cheaply. But if they had, and the default showed up, then surely they wouldn't have sent someone round? 

And this all came to light the same day I messaged the EA, unfortunate timing or too much of a coincidence? It could just be my EA seeing my message on Weds and scrambling around for info before calling me back as he's done that before. I'll be keeping an eye on that this time and putting on more pressure. 

The EA then spoke to our buyer on Friday to let them know, who then said if he was to order the searches would it change our minds and the EA told them yes! I was like er, no! They should have done that weeks ago and it's too little too late. So we relaunched Friday afternoon. Please wish us luck! 

You can often only go by what people are telling you but I want to learn from my mistakes and hope the same thing doesn't happen again. Therefore can you advise what we should be expecting from or telling any other buyer at offer stage, should we get one? I want to say:
We won't take it off the market until ? 
Must order searches straight away and start the legals, and deal with all paperwork in a reasonable time frame. 
We won't renegotiate the price under any circumstance (not sure this would put some people off but I'd rather be upfront from the start, we need a certain amount for our onward purchase. We know the valuation was fine and wouldn't expect there to be issues from any survey that my husband couldn't fix, and can't see the searches returning anything sinister as we've lived here for over 20 years). 

And what proof of funds is it reasonable to expect them to provide?

If you've read this far, thank you! Grateful for any advice really but please be kind! 

Usually quite a bit of this is sorted by the EA I believe? Making sure buyer has a DIP and are able to proceed 
Reference negotiation of price; covered by when you get an offer. Potential buyer offers X You turn it down and say No; won’t accept anything less than Y 
Also make sure your EA understands this! 

BikingBud

NatNat77 said:

I was told that they did have a DIP, but I don't know if our EA saw it. But are they really worth anything anyway? and funny you should say that as the people that viewed yesterday saw it when it was first listed in September but when they called up it had already gone, our buyers were the first and only people to view it and it sold the next day. 

Isn't this part of the problem it didn't sell. The terms used are all incorrect, people use this phrase all the time and it only applies upon completion.

Someone made an offer to purchase, they have not bought it!