How long do you wait for your seller to find somewhere?

youth_leader

Hello, my friend put an offer on a property  three weeks ago,  and according to the seller's EA, the seller is actively looking for a property and has expanded her area range.  My friend is waiting for the chain to be complete before instructing her solicitor/having her survey done.  

Unfortunately my friend's buyer is now putting pressure on her, she has completed and moved in with her daughter.

I am just wondering how long is it reasonable to wait?  

Gavin83

There's no right answer to this, it'll depend on the circumstances and how patient everyone is. If their buyer has already moved and is getting impatient they may well lose their buyer if they wait too long.

youth_leader

Thanks Gavin83, her buyer agreed to be patient last Monday, and a week later is impatient! 

My friend's seller is elderly and infirm, and hadn't looked at all whilst waiting to sell.  Unfortunately it now appears she cannot afford to buy near her son as she'd planned and she's had to have a rethink.

I had already suggested to my friend she move into a rental as she is moving to the south coast and kept missing out, but she wouldn't consider it before, perhaps she will now.  I went into rented so a cash buyer, and spent a leisurely six months looking, just wondered what the average wait was for a chain to form.  The difference in north/south rents are huge - I only paid £600 per month, she'd be looking at £1200 at least.  

Good luck to everyone with their chains, I don't think I could have coped selling/buying at the same time.

moneysavinghero

The seller is probably finding that everything on the market now costs a lot more than they thought it would, and all the decent stuff is being snapped up in days for large sums over asking price. Reality is probably that the seller is not that motivated to move, they already own a property so if they cant find something that improves their situation without costing too much then they are happy to stay put.

Answer to your question: Depends on how patient your friend is. If i was your friend i would be keeping one eye on Rightmove to see if anything else suitable comes up.

youth_leader

I wondered the same moneysavinghero.  I bumped into my surveyor this week, and he said he thought I was really fortunate to buy this bungalow for the price last October as prices have shot up.

My friend's seller lived alone and had to hold onto the furniture when she showed my friend around, she did have mobility issues, poor woman.

I do feel for my friend, she has been on and off the market since 2019 because of chain problems/lockdown.  I will suggest she keep looking, she might be lucky and find somewhere chain free. 

knightstyle

We gave up on a property after 7 weeks while the seller messed around, not going to booked viewings and lying to us about her progress.  The house eventually sold via a different agent nearly a year later.

HopeAndDriftWood

We've been waiting for four weeks this weekend... We haven't really heard anything from our estate agent since our offer was accepted, but we did all agree not to instruct solicitors or anything until the chain was complete. 

I think we'll probably call and enquire about progress after the weekend, if we haven't heard anything, because our buyer is getting a bit impatient now.

youth_leader

Thank you all, my friend has just phoned me, she received a letter from her seller saying she was doing absolutely everything she could to find somewhere.  

Keeping fingers crossed for everyone waiting for good news.

eidand

keep looking I would say and do not spend any money on this one.

Octothorpe

It's really hard at the moment so 3 weeks is nothing. 

I'd give her time.

We have only just found somewhere 3 odd weeks from accepting an offer,  but only because their chain collapsed so was relisted. Otherwise we'd still be looking.

We already said that if our buyers rushed us we'd be willing to lose them over renting in a rising market or buying something we weren't happy with.

Slinky

The impatient need to be reminded that they probably didn't start looking and find somewhere to move to in the same short period of time they are giving their vendors.

We were lucky that we bought our new house a year before selling the old one, but if we'd been looking to buy at the time we eventually sold our original home, we'd have struggled to find something we liked in a short time.