Who to sell to?

mrsc_

Hi everyone, first time poster and new to the whole house selling thing! 

We began the process of selling our house back in May. We found a buyer quickly and made an offer that was accepted on our next house. Last week our buyer pulled out unexpectedly, apparently after a few issues with the survey - this buyer offered 15k over asking price and we were more than happy to negotiate a price reduction however the seller ignored calls and emails from EA and they haven’t heard from him since, despite us asking to purchase his survey to prevent this happening again. We only bought the house 3 years ago and have covered a lot of things that the survey brought up so we aren’t too sure what the issues were. 

Roll on to this week: the house went back up and we had a lot of viewings with a few offers, however we are unsure who is best to go with. We would like to proceed quickly so we don’t lose the house we are buying. I realise that we are very fortunate to be in the position to pick from 2 fantastic options but we are so cautious of it falling through again.

Option one: Investor cash buyers who have offered £25k over asking price (seems too good to be true?!) 

Option two: FTBs who initially offered 10k over asking and then upped it to a massive 40k over asking price after learning there was a cash buyer. They have a 35% deposit and a MIP. 

Part of me thinks we should go with the cash buyer to proceed quickly however I’m worried they could pull out very easily, part of me wants to go with the ftb as even though I’m sure that price will come down after their mortgage application/survey they must really love the property and will be more emotionally invested therefore less likely to pull out. What do you think? 

Apologies for the long post! 

babyblade41

Both could be problematic, Investor could go right the way through until exchange then drop the price drastically at the very last minute 

FTB can be very cautious and a survey can completely unhinge them and then retract the offer or pull out entirely 

Newnoel

Get your EA to check the financials of both buyers, and assuming they are both procedable then tell the FTB to get a survey booked within the week. You need to chivvy this along.

mrsc_

Newnoel said:

Get your EA to check the financials of both buyers, and assuming they are both procedable then tell the FTB to get a survey booked within the week. You need to chivvy this along.

Thank you, they were checking it on Saturday so hopefully we will hear today about that. Do you think potential buyers would be interested in purchasing a survey done 3 years ago from when we bought it? Not sure if that could be an option

Slinky

mrsc_ said:

Newnoel said:

Get your EA to check the financials of both buyers, and assuming they are both procedable then tell the FTB to get a survey booked within the week. You need to chivvy this along.

Thank you, they were checking it on Saturday so hopefully we will hear today about that. Do you think potential buyers would be interested in purchasing a survey done 3 years ago from when we bought it? Not sure if that could be an option

Not a chance. Anything can have happened in the meantime and the document has very little value. You could pass it on for their interest, showing anything you've done to resolve any issues raised, but don't expect any money for it.

lookstraightahead

Was the house valued at the price your previous buyer was willing to pay and obviously everyone will have their own surveys so the same things will come up again.

yes it all does sound too good to be true and no one will be happy with a survey from three years ago - why would they? 

MaryNB

The risk with the FTBs is if they get spooked when their lender downvalues it (which is highly likely given they're offering so much over asking).  With such a high deposit it's unlikely they'll be turned down for a mortgage as a result but it could affect their interest rate. More importantly they might get cold feet if they're worried about paying over what their lender thinks it's worth and risk making a loss if they plan to sell in a few years. 

I'd check with them that they won't pull out or reduce their offer if it's downvalued. I mean you can't hold them to it before exchange but at least they'll be aware of the concept of downvaluing and will have thought about it early in the process

Newnoel

MaryNB said:

The risk with the FTBs is if they get spooked when their lender downvalues it (which is highly likely given they're offering so much over asking).

This is the risk with selling to FTBs. The best situation is to go back to the investor to see if they can match the price offered by the FTB, and set them a tight timeine for survey and exchange.

To the OP's suggestion of selling the 3 year old survey... As others have said, you are unlikely to get much benefit from this. I actually see it as a big risk for engaging with a twitchy FTB as it may flag issues their own survey did not pick up on.

mrsc_

Newnoel said:

MaryNB said:

The risk with the FTBs is if they get spooked when their lender downvalues it (which is highly likely given they're offering so much over asking).

This is the risk with selling to FTBs. The best situation is to go back to the investor to see if they can match the price offered by the FTB, and set them a tight timeine for survey and exchange.

To the OP's suggestion of selling the 3 year old survey... As others have said, you are unlikely to get much benefit from this. I actually see it as a big risk for engaging with a twitchy FTB as it may flag issues their own survey did not pick up on.

Newnoel said:

MaryNB said:

The risk with the FTBs is if they get spooked when their lender downvalues it (which is highly likely given they're offering so much over asking).

This is the risk with selling to FTBs. The best situation is to go back to the investor to see if they can match the price offered by the FTB, and set them a tight timeine for survey and exchange.

To the OP's suggestion of selling the 3 year old survey... As others have said, you are unlikely to get much benefit from this. I actually see it as a big risk for engaging with a twitchy FTB as it may flag issues their own survey did not pick up on.

Thanks for the advice! One of the people looking round asked if they could buy the survey which is why I thought of it, but we don’t really want any money from it so wondered if it was worth passing on to speed things up but I guess you’re right 😊

lookstraightahead

mrsc_ said:

Newnoel said:

MaryNB said:

The risk with the FTBs is if they get spooked when their lender downvalues it (which is highly likely given they're offering so much over asking).

This is the risk with selling to FTBs. The best situation is to go back to the investor to see if they can match the price offered by the FTB, and set them a tight timeine for survey and exchange.

To the OP's suggestion of selling the 3 year old survey... As others have said, you are unlikely to get much benefit from this. I actually see it as a big risk for engaging with a twitchy FTB as it may flag issues their own survey did not pick up on.

Newnoel said:

MaryNB said:

The risk with the FTBs is if they get spooked when their lender downvalues it (which is highly likely given they're offering so much over asking).

This is the risk with selling to FTBs. The best situation is to go back to the investor to see if they can match the price offered by the FTB, and set them a tight timeine for survey and exchange.

To the OP's suggestion of selling the 3 year old survey... As others have said, you are unlikely to get much benefit from this. I actually see it as a big risk for engaging with a twitchy FTB as it may flag issues their own survey did not pick up on.

Thanks for the advice! One of the people looking round asked if they could buy the survey which is why I thought of it, but we don’t really want any money from it so wondered if it was worth passing on to speed things up but I guess you’re right 😊

My vendors gave me the structural engineers report they had done prior to our surveyor doing a L3 survey. It helped as the house had been underpinned and the surveyor could see the outcome, so it was useful.

I think anyone would be twitchy if the house is 'down' valued. Don't count your chickens (or the extra money). 

NameUnavailable

Cash buyers have a knack of suddenly deciding they want to get a mortgage or other form of funding, and any potential 'speed' benefits are lost.

FTB's can be difficult because it's all new to them and most survey reports would freak them out.

Unless you know for certain that this cash buyer is going to proceed quickly and given the amazingly high offer from the FTB's I'd go with them but be prepared to find that their lenders don't agree with the buyers valuation (before dealing with anything the survey may bring up).