Buyers slowing chain down, what can you do?

MrsBrush

Before we listed we knew that we were about to get to the end of the fixed rate, so we sorted that out by fixing again with a portable mortgage, committing to the same lender and not pay the redemption penalty. The additional cost of fixing and then having to reapply for the mortgage to be ported was still cheaper than paying the standard variable rate for a few months. Not that this will help the OP now, but might be a consideration if you have to re-market and stay put for a few more months.

[Deleted User]

HopeAndDriftWood said:

Oh man, @Deleted User, that sounds SCARILY like our buyer.

We did the cash buyer, then the estate agent doesn't know where the deposit is coming from, then mortgages have been slowed down because of Covid lines of excuses, too... 

Then finally got a bit stroppy and was told that he needs to remortgage his house for the deposit, which was taking longer than expected... 

Then the valuation finally took place on the 1st, so mortgage offer should be within 48 hours... then that it'd been referred to the underwriters so would be a week... then last week that the wrong valuation had taken place, so it all needs to happen again. Allegedly the new valuation is this week. 

12 weeks is so long. Our mortgage offer took 4 days in late July. I'd push your estate agent, so you at least know what you're dealing with.

It’s frustrating because whenever I speak to the agency I feel like I’m being impatient, then I come on here and it clearly seems an unnatural amount of time! 

I think I need to call the EA and have a proper talk with them regarding how fobbed off we feel and suggest re-marketing. It seems rash, but how long is long enough?!

TripleH

This is a pet hate of mine.

Oh yes, buyer has secured a mortgage, no issues there then silence.

Turns out the buyer has changed jobs / issue / etc so you get fobbed off until everything is sorted. If there is a problem or will be a delay I wish people would be honest. It helps control people's expectations better.

We had an issue, we sorted it in 10 working days but the vendor (or their agent) was fully briefed. If I had to face silence I'd assume the worst and start taking alternative measures.

HopeAndDriftWood

Deleted User said:

HopeAndDriftWood said:

Oh man, @Deleted User, that sounds SCARILY like our buyer.

We did the cash buyer, then the estate agent doesn't know where the deposit is coming from, then mortgages have been slowed down because of Covid lines of excuses, too... 

Then finally got a bit stroppy and was told that he needs to remortgage his house for the deposit, which was taking longer than expected... 

Then the valuation finally took place on the 1st, so mortgage offer should be within 48 hours... then that it'd been referred to the underwriters so would be a week... then last week that the wrong valuation had taken place, so it all needs to happen again. Allegedly the new valuation is this week. 

12 weeks is so long. Our mortgage offer took 4 days in late July. I'd push your estate agent, so you at least know what you're dealing with.

It’s frustrating because whenever I speak to the agency I feel like I’m being impatient, then I come on here and it clearly seems an unnatural amount of time! 

I think I need to call the EA and have a proper talk with them regarding how fobbed off we feel and suggest re-marketing. It seems rash, but how long is long enough?! 

How long have you been waiting? Our buyers are holding us up from exchange now so it’s incredibly frustrating 

Yeah, same. They make it seem like we've got really weird expectations! 

I'd definitely call; and suggest that they're not proceedable. I'd expect that they'll go into damage limitation mode and offer to get an update before you have to suggest remarketing, if I'm honest. 

He applied for his mortgage 8 weeks ago this week. The rest of the chain was ready when we stepped in, so they've been waiting a while... we've been ready to exchange for 5/6 weeks now, but we can't do anything until they've got their offer, and their solicitor confirms that their lender has no further enquiries. 

The only reason that we're still waiting is that I'm 28 weeks pregnant, so if this falls through, we may well stay here until after baby is born... and we have had updates, including his financial advisor contacting us directly last week, so I know he is trying now. I wish it'd been a few weeks ago, but we do at least know what's happening! You deserve that too. 

MaryNB

Deleted User said:

HopeAndDriftWood said:

Oh man, @Deleted User, that sounds SCARILY like our buyer.

We did the cash buyer, then the estate agent doesn't know where the deposit is coming from, then mortgages have been slowed down because of Covid lines of excuses, too... 

Then finally got a bit stroppy and was told that he needs to remortgage his house for the deposit, which was taking longer than expected... 

Then the valuation finally took place on the 1st, so mortgage offer should be within 48 hours... then that it'd been referred to the underwriters so would be a week... then last week that the wrong valuation had taken place, so it all needs to happen again. Allegedly the new valuation is this week. 

12 weeks is so long. Our mortgage offer took 4 days in late July. I'd push your estate agent, so you at least know what you're dealing with.

It’s frustrating because whenever I speak to the agency I feel like I’m being impatient, then I come on here and it clearly seems an unnatural amount of time! 

I think I need to call the EA and have a proper talk with them regarding how fobbed off we feel and suggest re-marketing. It seems rash, but how long is long enough?! 

How long have you been waiting? Our buyers are holding us up from exchange now so it’s incredibly frustrating 

The average time for a house purchase to go through is 3 months - although that's pre covid, with covid issues and the SDLT holiday it's safe to assume the average time increased in recent months. That's the full process, not just the mortgage offer. 

If it was this time last year I could maybe understand why a mortgage offer might take that long. There was a lot more uncertainty then and lenders were pulling a lot of their products and making their criteria stricter. There were huge delays for buyers who needed 90LTV mortgages because so few lenders were providing them. Now 5% deposits are back and things are a back to relative normality so I would be very concerned about a mortgage application taking that long. Has someone called over to do a valuation for the buyer? I think you are very much entitled to feel fobbed off. If I were you I'd be putting it back on the market. 

[Deleted User]

Thanks everyone for your advice.

I’ve had a long chat with the EA and despite another chaser to the buyer and their lender, there is still no update on their application or explanation for the delay.

We’re now looking at remarketing in parallel. Not thrilled about it as basically starting again, but 3 months have gone by with 0 progress and can’t afford another 3! 

MaryNB

Deleted User said:

Thanks everyone for your advice.

I’ve had a long chat with the EA and despite another chaser to the buyer and their lender, there is still no update on their application or explanation for the delay.

We’re now looking at remarketing in parallel. Not thrilled about it as basically starting again, but 3 months have gone by with 0 progress and can’t afford another 3! 

Best of luck! Make sure your EA does a proper financial check this time! Seems like they really dropped the ball last time.

Thrugelmir

Buyers often turn out to be good actors. Shake the tree. Give them an ultimatum. Take control of the situation. 

HopeAndDriftWood

Deleted User said:

Thanks everyone for your advice.

I’ve had a long chat with the EA and despite another chaser to the buyer and their lender, there is still no update on their application or explanation for the delay.

We’re now looking at remarketing in parallel. Not thrilled about it as basically starting again, but 3 months have gone by with 0 progress and can’t afford another 3! 

Ah, I'm sorry. It makes sense to start remarketing, though - hopefully they'll pull it out of the bag, but if they don't, at least you'll already be on the road to finding someone else. 

Our estate agent is still convinced it'll come off... although we're going into Wednesday with no repeat valuation booked 👀

[Deleted User]

HopeAndDriftWood said:

Deleted User said:

Thanks everyone for your advice.

I’ve had a long chat with the EA and despite another chaser to the buyer and their lender, there is still no update on their application or explanation for the delay.

We’re now looking at remarketing in parallel. Not thrilled about it as basically starting again, but 3 months have gone by with 0 progress and can’t afford another 3! 

Ah, I'm sorry. It makes sense to start remarketing, though - hopefully they'll pull it out of the bag, but if they don't, at least you'll already be on the road to finding someone else. 

Our estate agent is still convinced it'll come off... although we're going into Wednesday with no repeat valuation booked 👀

The amount of weekly updates I had that could have just said “there is no update”! 

Every week the EA just found another way to say they still didn’t have an offer and the valuation still hadn’t taken place!

With our mortgage, the offer took 2 weeks from the time of our valuation. Overall it took about 4 weeks so I just don’t believe the EA when they excuse the 12 weeks our buyers have had over lenders having such a large backlog! 

We’re facing something similar with our onward purchase! 

They applied for their mortgage back in June and the valuation still hasn’t taken place! 

Basically either side of the chain is just driving us mad :-) 

I hope yours gets sorted! I dread the thought of our mortgage expiring and having to start the whole process again!