Buying A House - Is Offering More Money To Move Into Rental/With Family A Thing?

KittiesGOMew

Hi all

So I’m looking for a little advice or thoughts on my current situation of buying a house. Firstly, I’ll attempt to explain the start of the process and the current progress.

I’m a first time buyer/chain free and also a cash buyer. I live in Cornwall and admittedly don’t have a massive budget – about £190k.

In March, we put in an offer on a house for 5k more than the listed and it got accepted. It took the vendors about two months to find a house for them. We’re now in September so 6 months on and their vendors still haven’t found a place and by the feeling of things, are quite particular about what they want so I’m worried this could drag on for ages.

In the beginning I’d say that our vendors were really keen to keep us on side as they had been trying to sell for a while and had a few people pull out. They said they definitely would consider renting, but there isn’t much rentals out there. Fast forward to about a month ago, the estate agent said apparently our vendor’s vendors were going to view a property they were excited about and that they would be in contact with me a week later to let me know how it would go, and that our vendors possibly could move into their mother in laws if nothing happened with the viewing as the estate agents are encouraging them to break the chain. A week later I didn’t hear anything so I assumed nothing much happened. I eventually heard from the estate agents which told me the vendor’s vendors were up against another couple, but lost out. They’ve put themselves down as a backup in case that sale falls through. I mentioned to the estate agent about whether our vendors are thinking about moving into their mother in laws now, but they said the vendors now don’t want to do this until their vendors find a place. It feels like the longer this goes on and the more I hang on, the less they feel the need to break the chain. Is it unreasonable to be getting a little frustrated at this point?

I’ve already started keeping an eye out on other properties, especially no chain, but in our budget there isn’t a lot that come up all too often. Looking daily.

So the question really is, I’ve seen in some other places that some people offer more money for vendors to move into rental or break the chain somehow. Is this a thing? And how much approximately should one offer as an incentive?

 

Many thanks!

TripleH

You can offer more as an incentive  but there is no guarantee you'd get in any quicker as they can kick their heels about the work to sell in the first place and you end up overpaying for a house (paying for an incentive that they receive but do nothing to 'earn'). If you offer it in advance, there is no guarantee you'd get the house and you've given money away for no reason.

It is a potentially good idea but hard to actually enforce.

KittiesGOMew

TripleH said:

You can offer more as an incentive  but there is no guarantee you'd get in any quicker as they can kick their heels about the work to sell in the first place and you end up overpaying for a house (paying for an incentive that they receive but do nothing to 'earn'). If you offer it in advance, there is no guarantee you'd get the house and you've given money away for no reason.

It isxa potentially good idea but hard to actually enforce.

Thank you for your response! Basically, if their vendor decided to just give up looking for a property, I'm quite sure they'd have no issues putting it back on the market. And honestly, if they did, I'm pretty sure they'll get more than what our offer is (even if it's over asking) because house prices are just going up and there's no way they wouldn't know this.

So I guess offering extra as an incentive would also maybe be inline with what they could possibly get now for their house. I have no idea how this would be done, but of course I wouldn't be happy to give the money away until there was an exchange etc.

TripleH

The issue would be that getting to the point of exchange could still take a long time.

They may say they would move out but if you are offering extra, you are telling them you are prepared to pay more regardless. I'm not saying if definitely won't work but there is a good chance they won't want to move into rental accommodation short term (for an undetermined period) when it's easier for you to rent (if you are renting currently and also easier in their eyes).

KittiesGOMew

TripleH said:

The issue would be that getting to the point of exchange could still take a long time.

They may say they would move out but if you are offering extra, you are telling them you are prepared to pay more regardless. I'm not saying if definitely won't work but there is a good chance they won't want to move into rental accommodation short term (for an undetermined period) when it's easier for you to rent (if you are renting currently and also easier in their eyes).

You're right of course. It probably would be easier in their eyes. I think rental would be out of the question as there isn't much around, but they did say about their mother in laws. Equally though, even if it's easier in their eyes not to break the chain, don't they risk us pulling out in favour of a non chain property? Which honestly, I would probably do at this stage (have two to view this week). I still like the house, but I'm by no means attached to it as in that's simply the one I must have.