Second thoughts about a house purchase - what’s the etiquette for changing? Opinions?

boldaslove

Hi everyone,

My partner and I are in the middle of purchasing our first home. Some enquiries have been raised during the legal process that have us concerned that it might not be the right house for us after all. The leasehold terms may make the house difficult to sell to buyers with a mortgage in the future and the house is on an unadopted road -we don’t yet know what costs we’d be responsible for. It’s a great house for us as it stands, but if it’s going to be difficult to sell in the future that’s a potential deal-breaker for us.

We have been keeping an eye on the market just to keep our options open, and have booked a viewing for a house we really like the look of. It’s in a particularly competitive area where prices are rising and houses in our price bracket are selling super fast. I’d guess they’d be asking for offers after the first lot of viewings.

Is it shady to put in an offer when we’ve got proceedings going on elsewhere? I’m not worried about putting an offer in itself, but if it gets accepted and we have to start giving solicitor details the cat’s gonna be out of the bag. Our vendors haven’t found somewhere to move to yet so we wouldn’t be affecting a chain, but they have offered to move in with family to help the sale go through and have been pushing our solicitors for a completion date so they’ve obviously keen to push ahead. They’ve been very responsive and helpful throughout so I don’t want to deceive them.

Of course we may go to this viewing and hate the house, but my partner is very keen to continue looking at other houses so the likelihood is we’re gonna keep having this dilemma until the enquiries come back!

Any thoughts? Is this an awful idea?

warwick2001

I always try to think in situations like this: Would you have an issue if the shoe was on the other foot? If, when you come round to selling later in life, this behaviour wouldn't bother you, then crack on. If you think this would annoying the living heck out of you, then re-assess.

HOWEVER, buying a house is not a moral judgement, its purely a business transaction, and you need to think of it as that. So, do what is best for you. You have to live in the house you buy, so make sure you buy the right one. It sounds like the house you are currently buying isn't the ideal one. Maybe that says everything you need to know?

bramptonbrew

We put in an offer on a house last year, it was accepted. A week later, we decided that we didn't want to move to that particular area (the house was perfect otherwise). We hadn't found our current house at this point - but simply rang the estate agents and explained that we would like to withdraw our offer, and wished the vendors luck with selling their property (I kept an eye on it via Rightmove and it sold pretty quickly once it was back on the market). 

You're the one going to have to live in the house - no point proceeding with the purchase if you don't think it's right for you - another buyer will come along for them, just as another house will come along for you. We don't regret pulling out of the first house at all - it had been redecorated to an excellent standard, and as I said, perfect for us other than the location - but we ultimately decided on a new build which gives us more space and a more rural setting.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

badger09

Its not unusual to have 2nd thoughts, especially as this is your first home.

What do you hope to achieve by putting in an offer on the yet to be viewed house? You can't buy them both!

If you're really concerned about selling on, I think you should pull out of the purchase now and inform the vendor. Then you can look at as many others as you want, without messing anyone around.

Good luck

andy444

Although it's not ideal to withdraw your interest during a house buying process, these things happen and it's best to inform the vendor before too long so everyone is aware of the situation.

tdawber

I would withdraw and keep looking. You are first time buyers, you have a lot going for you. 

Sistergold

You really don’t want to proceed if having second thoughts. It would be even better if you can aim to find a freehold property as less politics(with needing freeholder cooperation) when you want to sell. 

Section62

boldaslove said:

Of course we may go to this viewing and hate the house, but my partner is very keen to continue looking at other houses so the likelihood is we’re gonna keep having this dilemma until the enquiries come back!

What will you do if your offer on the 'new' property is accepted and you pull out of the current one, then down the line discover problems with the 'new' property (they almost always have something wrong) and/or your partner changes their mind again?

Or if the vendor of the 'new' property has a change of heart and decides not to sell to you after all.

Don't buy a property which isn't right for you.  But equally, there comes a point where you have to stop looking for something else, accept that perfection isn't possible, and then commit to the one you are most interested in.  A bit like with relationships.

boldaslove

Thanks everyone - we viewed the prospective house last week and it wasn’t for us, so we don’t have a decision to make yet! This is the first viewing we’ve booked since having the offer accepted on the original house, so there’s not been any serious action on our end till now. 

In terms of pulling out now - we have given this serious thought but we’d prefer to wait for the enquiries to come back before deciding this. Our solicitor seems to think they can get the terms of the lease changed but we don’t know how long that will take. When we made our offer we told the vendors that we weren’t in a rush but we don’t want to wait indefinitely either. I’m not sure what a reasonable time frame is to wait - we had the offer accepted over 3 months ago. I read that enquiries for leaseholds can be up to 16 weeks. We were hoping to move in before winter - is it reasonable for us to start pushing for answers soon?