How long is a reasonable amount of time to make a buyer wait?

akorn77

I am going to be accepting an offer on my house soon to a FTB. I've started viewing houses this week, but there is nothing on the market that I like. I'm hoping stock will increase in February/March. 

I've never sold a property before. Wanted to ask how long people on this forum have waited or have made their buyers wait? Thanks. 

Mineral1

We waited 7 months while our sellers waited for their new build to finish. It was infuriating. 

I'd suggest of all people first time buyers won't want to hang around for long if you haven't even found a house you like the look of.

Why are you selling if there are no houses you want, just out of curiosity?

Emmia

Does the FTB have an agreement in principle? Are they tied to rental contracts etc., which means they need to move by X date, or is it a rolling periodic one?

Personally I think you should look to find a property as quickly as possible, and you should tell your buyers that you're still hunting - the FTBs might decide that perhaps they'd rather somewhere else as a result. 

Basically, if you were in their situation how would you want the seller to behave? How would you feel about your seller being in your position? How long would you give them?

FTBs are often denigrated on here, but the fact is if we're not renting we were all FTBs once...

desthemoaner

We accepted an offer from our buyers in mid-August, and they waited almost five months for us to find the property we wanted. During those five months we had two failed purchases, and that, along with a general failure by our solicitor to communicate important information to us, led to them pulling out. We've just started again with a different conveyancing firm, having accepted another offer just over a week ago. 

akorn77

desthemoaner said:

We accepted an offer from our buyers in mid-August, and they waited almost five months for us to find the property we wanted. During those five months we had two failed purchases, and that, along with a chronic failure by our solicitor to communicate important information to us about the sale just before Christmas, led to them pulling out. We've just started again with a different conveyancing firm, having accepted another offer just over a week ago. 

What was the situation of your buyer? FTB? 

Flick85

It’s really very tricky atm on all sides. I can’t even get viewings on the very few properties that are available in my price point and location because my place hasn’t sold.

The town I’m moving to has a lot of new build though, and they’re cheaper than existing properties at same size. So I expect I’ll be going for one of them, which won’t be available til Oct/Nov, but am planning on being super open with buyers about this. And, will only accept an offer from someone who is prepared to wait for me to find somewhere to move to which is not likely to be quick based on current stock, or will exchange quickly and wait for new build to be finished. But, I did manage to lie my way into viewing one property, but those sellers are buying a new build themselves! If I’m going to get into a chain with someone buying a new build, given they are cheaper in this location, then that person is better being me!

If absolutely necessary, I can drop the price by up to 10k to accommodate this because I know it’s less than ideal. But, that strategy is going to form part of the negotiation and how I choose the buyer.

And before anyone suggests renting, it’s impossible to get short term (ie 6 month) rentals in my locations if you have pets. I have no family or friends I can move in with, so only option is to stay put until I find something to move to. That is, unless I sell to an investor and rent back from them, but I would rather sell to a FTB knowing how hard it is for them to buy atm.

So, my plan is to put this place on the market in next fortnight (just doing some repairs first) and see where I end up. But, for me at the moment, buyers need to understand that at all levels of the chain it’s difficult to find places because there’s so little available. And, waiting for the stock isn’t a solution, because it goes before you are able to view!

Chris_English

akorn77 said:

I am going to be accepting an offer on my house soon to a FTB. I've started viewing houses this week, but there is nothing on the market that I like. I'm hoping stock will increase in February/March. 

I've never sold a property before. Wanted to ask how long people on this forum have waited or have made their buyers wait? Thanks. 

I don’t think it’s reasonable to accept an offer if you may be waiting until March to even spit something.

In my opinion you’ve done this the wrong way round, and ought to have at least found a place before marketing yours.

If you do it your way round the decent thing is to be willing to move into temporary accommodation to avoid delaying your buyers’ move, if necessary.

Snookie12cat

akorn77 said:

I am going to be accepting an offer on my house soon to a FTB. I've started viewing houses this week, but there is nothing on the market that I like. I'm hoping stock will increase in February/March. 

I've never sold a property before. Wanted to ask how long people on this forum have waited or have made their buyers wait? Thanks. 

I don't think it's a matter of how long to make them wait, it's they will have to wait until you find something and if they do not then you just have to start again. 
If there is nothing situable then there is nothing, worrying about how long they are having to wait isn't going to help you.

Snookie12cat

Chris_English said:

akorn77 said:

I am going to be accepting an offer on my house soon to a FTB. I've started viewing houses this week, but there is nothing on the market that I like. I'm hoping stock will increase in February/March. 

I've never sold a property before. Wanted to ask how long people on this forum have waited or have made their buyers wait? Thanks. 

I don’t think it’s reasonable to accept an offer if you may be waiting until March to even spit something.

In my opinion you’ve done this the wrong way round, and ought to have at least found a place before marketing yours.

If you do it your way round the decent thing is to be willing to move into temporary accommodation to avoid delaying your buyers’ move, if necessary.

I think you find this is the only way you can do it at the moment. Most agents will not let you view anything unless you have a buyer and you definitely can not offer on something. They go so quick that by the time you saw it and sold yours it would be gone anyway.

It's a backwards system but it's the system that is being used at the moment.

MaryNB

Chris_English said:

akorn77 said:

I am going to be accepting an offer on my house soon to a FTB. I've started viewing houses this week, but there is nothing on the market that I like. I'm hoping stock will increase in February/March. 

I've never sold a property before. Wanted to ask how long people on this forum have waited or have made their buyers wait? Thanks. 

I don’t think it’s reasonable to accept an offer if you may be waiting until March to even spit something.

In my opinion you’ve done this the wrong way round, and ought to have at least found a place before marketing yours.

If you do it your way round the decent thing is to be willing to move into temporary accommodation to avoid delaying your buyers’ move, if necessary.

It's all about proceedable buyers these days. It's a seller's market, most won't accept an offer from someone who needs to their their own property to move but doesn't have a buyer in place. They'll probably have plenty of offers from other people who ready to go. 

I bought in late 2020 when it was a buyer's market and agents were checking if people were proceedable. Any agent I dealt with asked this upfront.

googler

"We waited 7 months while our sellers waited for their new build to finish"

"they waited almost five months for us to find the property we wanted."

Any Scottish reader looking at this will be aghast. That 'thud' you all heard was my jaw hitting the desk.

I've said this before here, but the E&W system needs to be modified, with much of it being brought in line with the Scottish system. 

The crucial elements, to my mind, are; 
1. Offer in writing, in a standardised form
2. Offer includes; price, all contract terms (in standardised form), and an Entry Date

Once accepted, all parties have an agreed Entry Date to work toward.  Offer is accepted with all terms, price and date. Whilst these can be varied before final sign-off, the simple act of agreeing these upfront, in writing, as you accept the offer, naturally increases the commitment of all parties.   

If and when the E&W system includes these provisions, I confidently predict that you will all find entry dates of 6, 8 weeks or so from offer acceptance, and the whole thing will tick along, with 7-month elapsed times being a thing of the past, or at least the very, very rare exception to the rule. 

Happens every day in Scotland.