Offer accepted but vendors still havn't found a house 4 months later

desthemoaner

Being elderly and retired, the vendors may well be extremely fussy about the choice of their next property because it could be their forever home. They won't want to make the mistake we nearly made, by rushing into a purchase without doing due diligence because we sold our property far sooner than expected. Property has been flying off the shelves in recent months, as we all know, and your buyers may well have found something on more than one occasion and had it snatched from under their noses by speculators, by those cursed over-stretchers, or just by someone with greater assets at their disposal. 

We felt under pressure to move to rented property when our sale moved rapidly and overtook a stalling purchase by a matter of several weeks, but my wife isn't in good health and the prospect of moving twice just wasn't an option. So we waited, and eventually our purchase collapsed for reasons which may be explored at a later date.

Meantime, and about three months after first accepting an offer we MAY have found something else, also with vacant possession, so I just need to persuade our buyers to continue being patient. Its a virtue, you know ( patience), and could well pay dividends in your case. Good luck. 

Flugelhorn

desthemoaner said:

Meantime, and about three months after first accepting an offer we MAY have found something else, also with vacant possession, so I just need to persuade our buyers to continue being patient. Its a virtue, you know ( patience), and could well pay dividends in your case. Good luck. 

Presume you mean "chain free" - I think vacant possession implies there are  no tenants but there still may be a chain. 

The OP is struggling as there is a deadline on the mortgage offer, if  you haven't got a mortgage it doesn't seem important but it could be the deal breaker for many

desthemoaner

Flugelhorn said:

desthemoaner said:

Meantime, and about three months after first accepting an offer we MAY have found something else, also with vacant possession, so I just need to persuade our buyers to continue being patient. Its a virtue, you know ( patience), and could well pay dividends in your case. Good luck. 

Presume you mean "chain free" - I think vacant possession implies there are  no tenants but there still may be a chain. 

The OP is struggling as there is a deadline on the mortgage offer, if  you haven't got a mortgage it doesn't seem important but it could be the deal breaker for many

 Yes, it's vacant possession and no chain.

Certainly, not being certain of still having a mortgage offer is a pretty serious matter.  

lookstraightahead

What do vendors think buyers do with their time-restricted mortgage offers? Where do they live in the meantime? 

Flugelhorn

lookstraightahead said:

What do vendors think buyers do with their time-restricted mortgage offers? Where do they live in the meantime? 

I wasn't aware until reading this forum that mortgage offers were time restricted - I have applied for one for quite some time and it is quite possible that the vendor of the property that the OP is looking at hadn't come across this before 

Slithery

Flugelhorn said:

I wasn't aware until reading this forum that mortgage offers were time restricted.

So you mean I can apply now and then when the interest rates have jumped to 10% in a decade or so I can still take them up on their offer?

Fantastic!!!

fullah25

Thank you everyone for all of the useful advice and insight! 

Yes we soon learnt that maybe we had been too hasty in spending lots of money on arranging a homebuyer's survey, instructing solicitors and applying for a mortgage. But we were under pressure from the estate agent to do these things otherwise they would not take us seriously or take the property off the market and label it as 'Sold STC'. I regret spending £600 on a survey but luckily most of the money I spent on instructing solicitors can be transferred to a new property if needed. 

We have viewed a few other homes and now I'm keeping a keen eye out for anything that is chain-free as that would likely be a very quick purchase for us. I'm not optimistic the property market will pick up again until after Christmas. 

I do not think the vendors are being selfish. Maybe a bit too choosy as the EA informs me they are seeking a 3 bedroom detached bungalow in the same area and there are not many of those! I have even done my own searches and sent a list of nice bungalows to the EA to forward to the vendors. They are aware our offer is time-limited but the sad truth is that this is a seller's market and if the house was to go back on the market it would be sold to someone else in a matter of days but the vendors would still have the same problem! 

I did also suggest if they would consider rental accommodation but as some have posted that is highly unlikely given their position, and we would certainly not offer to contribute towards their rent given we are purchasing their house for £625k as FTBs with a 15% deposit that we have saved completely by ourselves! We are facing HUGE expenses and don't need anymore! 

We will look into trying to get our mortage offer extended if it comes to that - I just hope that they will accept our circumstances! But for now we will continue to wait for this property whilst actively looking at others that have a complete or no chain! 

Flugelhorn

Slithery said:

Flugelhorn said:

I wasn't aware until reading this forum that mortgage offers were time restricted.

So you mean I can apply now and then when the interest rates have jumped to 10% in a decade or so I can still take them up on their offer?

Fantastic!!!

LOL! Good thought - ho ho doubt that would happen. Mind you remember a colleague who was very chuffed with his 10% fixed rate when we were all on 12.5%... he started to get a bit stressed though when the fixed rate period was coming to an end

lookstraightahead

fullah25 said:

Thank you everyone for all of the useful advice and insight! 

Yes we soon learnt that maybe we had been too hasty in spending lots of money on arranging a homebuyer's survey, instructing solicitors and applying for a mortgage. But we were under pressure from the estate agent to do these things otherwise they would not take us seriously or take the property off the market and label it as 'Sold STC'. I regret spending £600 on a survey but luckily most of the money I spent on instructing solicitors can be transferred to a new property if needed. 

We have viewed a few other homes and now I'm keeping a keen eye out for anything that is chain-free as that would likely be a very quick purchase for us. I'm not optimistic the property market will pick up again until after Christmas. 

I do not think the vendors are being selfish. Maybe a bit too choosy as the EA informs me they are seeking a 3 bedroom detached bungalow in the same area and there are not many of those! I have even done my own searches and sent a list of nice bungalows to the EA to forward to the vendors. They are aware our offer is time-limited but the sad truth is that this is a seller's market and if the house was to go back on the market it would be sold to someone else in a matter of days but the vendors would still have the same problem! 

I did also suggest if they would consider rental accommodation but as some have posted that is highly unlikely given their position, and we would certainly not offer to contribute towards their rent given we are purchasing their house for £625k as FTBs with a 15% deposit that we have saved completely by ourselves! We are facing HUGE expenses and don't need anymore! 

We will look into trying to get our mortage offer extended if it comes to that - I just hope that they will accept our circumstances! But for now we will continue to wait for this property whilst actively looking at others that have a complete or no chain! 

This is extremely generous of you, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, it sounds like it's going to be years before they move. Irrespective of all of our discussion and debate, they've put themselves in an almost impossible position because they aren't willing or able to actually sell. Waste of time for everyone, including themselves. It's just a pipe dream to them.

Suseka97

lookstraightahead said:

This is extremely generous of you, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, it sounds like it's going to be years before they move. Irrespective of all of our discussion and debate, they've put themselves in an almost impossible position because they aren't willing or able to actually sell. Waste of time for everyone, including themselves. It's just a pipe dream to them.

Every comment on this thread I've read of yours leads me to believe you been in a similar situation and are quite bitter about the experience.

Whilst it appears it is a sellers market in current times.. its also pretty impossible to find rentals, just to break the chain for the benefit of the buyers.  We tried in 2020 to do just that and we were constantly told that there were numerous people on the list ahead of us.  Because we were looking for a shorter than 12 month rental, were told that it would be impossible to achieve. 

We took the risk and moved into an AirBnB at higher than average rental costs for a month or so and were lucky our vendors followed through with the sale.  Had they not goodness knows what would have happened next!  These are an elderly couple and they shouldn't be put in that position.  If the buyer moves on... so be it... but patience is a virtue (as has been said already).