How much of a benefit is flexibility when buying a house?

[Deleted User]

Happy Easter Monday,
I am hoping to put in an offer for a property (in Scotland) which is likely to go to a closing date next week (decision to be made tomorrow). My offer is about 12% over the valuation/ asking price and I'm a bit nervous someone else will offer more but I'm also unwilling to throw money at it.
The seller informed me that they are looking to move closer to Edinburgh but haven't found a property yet. Therefore, I imagine they might need some time to do so. The EA also mentioned they might have to go into temp accommodation once their house is sold. 
As a FTB, I have no chain and my housing situation affords a great deal of flexibility. I am renting on a month by month basis at the moment, and could stay for 6 months without any foreseeable issues (would rather not but if it means I get the house, I would be happy to do so). I'm wondering if I could use my situation to my advantage and to compensate for a potentially lower offer than some others may put forward. As a seller, would this be something you'd like to see in an offer letter? I will obviously discuss this with my solicitor but any advice would be much appreciated. 

plumberpaig

Yes definitely, it makes a difference. As an anecdote, my 42 year old neice is a buyer, chain free and no deposit. She bid on a £340K house and offered £335K which was accepted. We later found out that an offer by someone else for £342K was declined as the buyer only saw the property once (my neice twice) and they were also relying on a mortgage.

[Deleted User]

plumberpaig said:

Yes definitely, it makes a difference. As an anecdote, my 42 year old neice is a buyer, chain free and no deposit. She bid on a £340K house and offered £335K which was accepted. We later found out that an offer by someone else for £342K was declined as the buyer only saw the property once (my neice twice) and they were also relying on a mortgage.

Oh wow, this is good to read! Quite a significant difference too, thank you for sharing (and congrats to your niece!)

lookstraightahead

I'm not in Scotland but the bottom of the chain is always a fab position to be in.

AnotherJoe

Deleted_User said:

Happy Easter Monday,
I am hoping to put in an offer for a property (in Scotland) which is likely to go to a closing date next week (decision to be made tomorrow). My offer is about 12% over the valuation/ asking price and I'm a bit nervous someone else will offer more but I'm also unwilling to throw money at it.
The seller informed me that they are looking to move closer to Edinburgh but haven't found a property yet. Therefore, I imagine they might need some time to do so. The EA also mentioned they might have to go into temp accommodation once their house is sold. 
As a FTB, I have no chain and my housing situation affords a great deal of flexibility. I am renting on a month by month basis at the moment, and could stay for 6 months without any foreseeable issues (would rather not but if it means I get the house, I would be happy to do so). I'm wondering if I could use my situation to my advantage and to compensate for a potentially lower offer than some others may put forward. As a seller, would this be something you'd like to see in an offer letter? I will obviously discuss this with my solicitor but any advice would be much appreciated. 

Absolutely.  This may well make the difference with some sellers. Not all will take the highest bid irrelevant of any other considerations. 

AnotherJoe

plumberpaig said:

Yes definitely, it makes a difference. As an anecdote, my 42 year old neice is a buyer, chain free and no deposit. She bid on a £340K house and offered £335K which was accepted. We later found out that an offer by someone else for £342K was declined as the buyer only saw the property once (my neice twice) and they were also relying on a mortgage.

Did you mean no mortgage rather than no deposit?

amandacat

I sold and moved in with family before buying. I found when I contacted EAs, they were much more keen when I explained I had nothing to sell. I had initially planned to sell and buy simultaneously but found when I called to arrange viewings, some EAs weren't even calling me back to confirm the viewing with the market being so busy and I never heard back again!  My first offer that I put in on the property I wanted to buy was accepted without negotiation and I definitely think my chain free situation helped. 
I sold to a chain free buyer and was much more keen to sell to someone in this position, particularly as the first intended buyer dropped out after a problem with their buyer so when the second person offered and had nothing to sell, I went with them immediately for a more straightforward and less risky transaction. 

[Deleted User]

amandacat said:

I sold and moved in with family before buying. I found when I contacted EAs, they were much more keen when I explained I had nothing to sell. I had initially planned to sell and buy simultaneously but found when I called to arrange viewings, some EAs weren't even calling me back to confirm the viewing with the market being so busy and I never heard back again!  My first offer that I put in on the property I wanted to buy was accepted without negotiation and I definitely think my chain free situation helped. 
I sold to a chain free buyer and was much more keen to sell to someone in this position, particularly as the first intended buyer dropped out after a problem with their buyer so when the second person offered and had nothing to sell, I went with them immediately for a more straightforward and less risky transaction. 

Thank you, this is great to read. I have certainly heard of situations in which some part of the chain is preventing the sale from progressing so I'm glad a buyer with nothing to sell is unanimously seen as a positive thing!

AnotherJoe

Deleted_User said:

amandacat said:

I sold and moved in with family before buying. I found when I contacted EAs, they were much more keen when I explained I had nothing to sell. I had initially planned to sell and buy simultaneously but found when I called to arrange viewings, some EAs weren't even calling me back to confirm the viewing with the market being so busy and I never heard back again!  My first offer that I put in on the property I wanted to buy was accepted without negotiation and I definitely think my chain free situation helped. 
I sold to a chain free buyer and was much more keen to sell to someone in this position, particularly as the first intended buyer dropped out after a problem with their buyer so when the second person offered and had nothing to sell, I went with them immediately for a more straightforward and less risky transaction. 

Thank you, this is great to read. I have certainly heard of situations in which some part of the chain is preventing the sale from progressing so I'm glad a buyer with nothing to sell is unanimously seen as a positive thing!

I dont think you can move from a few anecdotes to "unanimously".

Others have posted here that they regard buyers with a chain less favourably since they can pull out of a sale easier because they arent jeopardising their sale.

I sold to someone with a chain rather than someone without since the ones with a chain seemed to be more committed, I suspected the one without was a would be landlord (though that was just a suspicion).

[Deleted User]

AnotherJoe said:

Deleted_User said:

amandacat said:

I sold and moved in with family before buying. I found when I contacted EAs, they were much more keen when I explained I had nothing to sell. I had initially planned to sell and buy simultaneously but found when I called to arrange viewings, some EAs weren't even calling me back to confirm the viewing with the market being so busy and I never heard back again!  My first offer that I put in on the property I wanted to buy was accepted without negotiation and I definitely think my chain free situation helped. 
I sold to a chain free buyer and was much more keen to sell to someone in this position, particularly as the first intended buyer dropped out after a problem with their buyer so when the second person offered and had nothing to sell, I went with them immediately for a more straightforward and less risky transaction. 

Thank you, this is great to read. I have certainly heard of situations in which some part of the chain is preventing the sale from progressing so I'm glad a buyer with nothing to sell is unanimously seen as a positive thing!

I dont think you can move from a few anecdotes to "unanimously".

Others have posted here that they regard buyers with a chain less favourably since they can pull out of a sale easier because they arent jeopardising their sale.

I sold to someone with a chain rather than someone without since the ones with a chain seemed to be more committed, I suspected the one without was a would be landlord (though that was just a suspicion).

I meant unanimously based on this thread. I'm sure there are exceptions. Anyway, it is neither here nor there now as a buyer came forward and offered significantly over the valuation, so I'm out of the running.