Help with the difficult situation we are in (seller has pulled out)

TranceNRG

wannabe_a_saver said:

TranceNRG said:

Pepod said:

Just because someone has a good salary doesn't mean 2 grand is nothing to be concerned about... This perception seems to be really common and until you start to earn mega money then if 2 grand is 6 months groceries to someone on 15k  it's still (roughly) 6 months groceries to someone on 150k. Not to mention that if 2k is coming out of deposit money then it's likely closer to 20k in value house-budget value.

To the OP - your situation sounds really messy. I don't think you should have got so involved/sucked in regardless of who asked for help or what the reasons were. I think you need to take a step back, take a breath and have a good think about what the best way to proceed will be for you and your girlfriend. Letters round doors might work, but I would caution against rushing to buy a property just to try and beat the stamp duty holiday, as saving ~20k right now may seem foolish in the future if you end up in a money pit that you find out you don't really like.

Yes in hindsight we shouldn't have got involved with the lady at all as there were warning signs from the begining but ignored them and decided to help.

person, would you go 'oh well' and forget about it like that? Or would you try to contact them? 

Uh, no, she should never have got involved with you!  I can’t believe you honestly think you were right and she was wrong here! 

Yeah she's the victim here. She asked us for help and we helped her despite our EA warning us she wasn't reliable. She then changed her mind about either the flat she was buying (didn't even have the decency to let the person know and they had to contact me to find out) or selling her house and wasted our time and energy. Yeah she's clearly the victim here.

Octothorpe

We are considering waiting it out. Have a buyer but no houses on market to buy - all over priced if they come on and people still buying them!

We have calculated  SD in our budget so may let down or buyer, sell for less later, but will save a fortune in the property we buy!

babyblade41

I have put off selling until the SD holiday is over, prices have been inflated because of it .
As said before  it's purely business and I never give my email address or mobile number to buyers . Landline is not so bad but only if totally unavoidable 

My solicitor is there to deal with everything and I have had my solicitor for many years both personal and business 

If you go through with your sale then rented or air bnb until you find something you like .

Buy in haste repent at leisure 

AnotherJoe

TranceNRG said:

UnderOffer said:

We received a leaflet through our door asking if we were thinking of selling - it was a polite short note, confirming they had sold and were looking for a home in our area with parking, no. Of bedrooms etc. Gave mobile number and email address. They successfully bought around the corner, so it can work. 

Thank you. We've never done anything like this and not sure how people will react to us dropping leaflets. Also not sure how many we need to print (probably 100s if we are going to drop them for houses in a few nearby streets). 

99%+  will react by throwing your leaflet away. If you are lucky, 1 will contact you and you'll buy their house.

If printing two or three hundred leaflets (which you could pay a print shop to do) is a big job for you, then  you are just scratching for excuses.

TranceNRG

Octothorpe said:

We are considering waiting it out. Have a buyer but no houses on market to buy - all over priced if they come on and people still buying them!

We have calculated  SD in our budget so may let down or buyer, sell for less later, but will save a fortune in the property we buy!

I think there is no gurantee that prices will come down after the stamp duty holiday. Things are improving economy wise so prices might just stay as they are. 

But this is the dilemma we have at the moment. Need to speak to our EA.

Tiglet2

I actually wonder if your sale will complete before the stamp duty holiday ends, at least by 30th June.  You are selling a leasehold property and conveyancing takes quite a bit longer than for a freehold property.  It is already half way through April.

Savings for your Buyers:
Purchasing for £520,000 up to 30th June - Stamp duty £1000
Purchasing for £520,000 up to 30th September - Stamp duty £13,500
Purchasing for £520,000 after 30th September - Stamp duty £16,000

Savings for you:
Purchasing for £800,000 up to 30th June - Stamp duty £15,000
Purchasing for £800,000 up to 30th September - Stamp duty £27,500
Purchasing for £800,000 after 30th September - Stamp duty £30,000

GDB2222

TranceNRG said:

wannabe_a_saver said:

TranceNRG said:

Pepod said:

Just because someone has a good salary doesn't mean 2 grand is nothing to be concerned about... This perception seems to be really common and until you start to earn mega money then if 2 grand is 6 months groceries to someone on 15k  it's still (roughly) 6 months groceries to someone on 150k. Not to mention that if 2k is coming out of deposit money then it's likely closer to 20k in value house-budget value.

To the OP - your situation sounds really messy. I don't think you should have got so involved/sucked in regardless of who asked for help or what the reasons were. I think you need to take a step back, take a breath and have a good think about what the best way to proceed will be for you and your girlfriend. Letters round doors might work, but I would caution against rushing to buy a property just to try and beat the stamp duty holiday, as saving ~20k right now may seem foolish in the future if you end up in a money pit that you find out you don't really like.

Yes in hindsight we shouldn't have got involved with the lady at all as there were warning signs from the begining but ignored them and decided to help.

person, would you go 'oh well' and forget about it like that? Or would you try to contact them? 

Uh, no, she should never have got involved with you!  I can’t believe you honestly think you were right and she was wrong here! 

Yeah she's the victim here. She asked us for help and we helped her despite our EA warning us she wasn't reliable. She then changed her mind about either the flat she was buying (didn't even have the decency to let the person know and they had to contact me to find out) or selling her house and wasted our time and energy. Yeah she's clearly the victim here.

You really, really should not have kept on trying to contact the lady. That was never going to be productive, and it was rather cruel, however let-down you feel.

Good luck with your search. There's no real chance of buying before the end of the SDLT holiday, so I suggest that you factor that cost into your calculations, calm down a bit, and look for something really suitable. 

ChasingtheWelshdream

TranceNRG said:

Sorry I know it was a long post but basically wanted to see anyone's been in a similar situation where the seller has pulled out and what they'd recommend.

I haven't read the rest of the thread yet, but wanted to say yes, we were in a very similar situation and I do empathise. But things do often work out in funny ways. It might seem the end of the world now, but there will always be other houses. Always, and sometimes better.

An elderly vendor selling the only house she'd ever lived in, which her grandfather had built. She was surprised to sell her house quite so quickly and wasn't quite sure where she wanted to live, so had suggested all the way along that she would either rent or move in with her friend. We accepted this, drove up a few times to measure up, had lots of lovely chats. She only mentioned once that she wasn't looking forward to finding places to store her furniture, but shrugged and told us how pleased a family would be living in the (large) house again.

 We were relocating a couple of hundred miles away and finally had jobs/schools lined up. On the day we were supposed to exchange, her EA rang to say she was looking at bungalows in the next village but hadn't found anything, but was sure it wouldn't be long. (First we'd heard of any hint of a chain). Then her son rang to say his mother wasn't going to move and certainly wouldn't be forced into sofa-surfing, the intimation being we were somehow forcing her to move out! 

It transpires she hadn't actually told her family she had put the house on the market (family living a long way away), and really had no clue how any of the process worked. They thought we were forcing her to move out whereas we had simply taken everything at face value. If we'd known she wanted to form an onward chain, there wouldn't have been a problem - we would all have just waited like most chains. But the son was now adamant this was a no-go and she didn't want to move at all. (She still hasn't).  We were completely devastated at losing our dream home - I think I cried pretty much non-stop the whole of the next day.
 
Panicking about losing our buyers/jobs/schools, we discovered an empty house we had previously viewed and discounted (price), had now been massively reduced. We were buying without a mortgage, so jumped straight in, took a risk on some of the searches, got a lighting-speed survey and exchanged within 2 weeks. 

Although it wasn't our first choice, and at the time seemed a poor relation emotionally, with hindsight this house is actually much better for us - better location, better potential and better re-sale. We now walk past the 'one that got away' and think - meh.

What I'm trying to say, is something will come up, and no matter how emotionally invested you are at the moment, once you do move, this will all be a distant memory.

Good luck!

NameUnavailable

TranceNRG said:

Sorry I know it was a long post but basically wanted to see anyone's been in a similar situation where the seller has pulled out and what they'd recommend.

Yes, happened to me. I was a bit annoyed but ultimately if someone decides not to move then that's their choice, stuff happens. I just started looking for another place.

Even if she was 'a friend' would you expect her to move just to suit you? If you're a friend to her you'd surely understand she's changed her mind and not start turning up on her doorstep trying to convince her to move.

Obviously she felt bad about it and didn't want to face you. Just leave it at that.

getmore4less

What price level was she looking at my first thought was why not swap?


There seems to be few 4 bed plus  houses up to  £800k near you.