Is our buyer too slow?

mahsa

Hi

we accepted an offer from a couple about 10 days ago. We exchanged solicitor details through estate agents and didn’t hear anything since. We called EA and they got through to them after calling for 2 days to find out that they’ve decided to buy the house under the name of one of them now rather than both people, which is fine I guess. The EA also asked them for status on arranging their survey and they said they have a meeting with their mortgage advisor next week and the bank will send a surveyor to the property… 

Does this mean they’re not arranging a homebuyer survey, or are then planning to book that after next week? 

The progress of the buyers feels like really slow progress to me. We had an offer accepted on our next property this week and we’ve already booked our survey and we have a mortgage in principle. Should we be worried about our buyers? 

They’re not first time buyers and they’ve progressed far in their current property sale. 

Tiglet2

mahsa said:

Hi

we accepted an offer from a couple about 10 days ago. We exchanged solicitor details through estate agents and didn’t hear anything since. We called EA and they got through to them after calling for 2 days to find out that they’ve decided to buy the house under the name of one of them now rather than both people, which is fine I guess. The EA also asked them for status on arranging their survey and they said they have a meeting with their mortgage advisor next week and the bank will send a surveyor to the property… 

Does this mean they’re not arranging a homebuyer survey, or are then planning to book that after next week? 

The progress of the buyers feels like really slow progress to me. We had an offer accepted on our next property this week and we’ve already booked our survey and we have a mortgage in principle. Should we be worried about our buyers? 

They’re not first time buyers and they’ve progressed far in their current property sale. 

How long ago did you return your Property Information Form, Fixtures & Contents Form and any other paperwork to your solicitor?

anselld

In my book nothing starts until the chain is complete to the top.  You only had an offer accepted this week.  Do your vendors have an onward purchase or is that the end of it?  Why should the bottom link of the chain be expected to commit expenditure before everyone else is proceedable?

twoLou

I think you need to give them a chance, after all they have an appointment to see the mortgage advisor booked in although how the EA knows the lender will send someone to the property for the valuation is a mystery as the lender will decide that when a mortgage application is made, they may only do a desk top valuation.

I certainly wouldn’t be booking a survey until I had a mortgage offer at the very least. After all you are paying potentially hundreds of pounds for something on a house you may not get a mortgage offer on otherwise. I agree with anselld that nothing starts until the chain is complete.

Thrugelmir

How is your onward purchase progressing? 

10 days less weekends is just 6 working days. Give them a chance. 

Noneforit999

Buyers and vendors seem to work to different timescales, some are on the ball with stuff and others seem very laid back and not in a rush.

We are selling at the moment and 10 days after we accepted out offer, the EA had just about sent the memorandum of sale as our buyer took a week to get quotes for conveyancing despite us instructing ours within 48 hours of offer.

We want to move as quickly as feasible but I can't force the buyer to do the same. Its now about 5 weeks in and they still don't have a mortgage offer and their lender hasn't even done a valuation. They seem to be on the ball but the lender is just being slow.

Searches take as long as they take, probably several weeks so I would just accept you are looking at 3+ months from offer to completion and perhaps just chase once a week which is what I am doing. 

There are so many people in the chain if you include the EA, conveyancers, lenders, buyers, vendors etc. Its no wonder it takes months. 

TripleH

We were on the ball when we bought our last home, but we had a conveyancer lined up already that we were happy with and a mortgage broker who had our information (we just needed to update them) from 2 previous recent aborted purchases.

I think it took 12 weeks from offer to completion (new build from rental).

We had the stamp duty window close mid way through our purchase (but we knew we wouldn't hit it).

Our middle purchase, they said they wanted a quick sale but in the 5 weeks we were under offer before realising they were stringing us along, all we got was a half completed form about the property that they recycled from their previous aborted purchase and no answers to any of our queries raised.

jonnydeppiwish!

As a buyer, I wouldn’t be instructing a survey until I had received a mortgage offer.

As for timelines, the sale of our house took just under 4 months - buyers had lots of enquiries. The purchase of our new house to 9 weeks - this was a cash purchase and a vacant property. We move out and renting to ensure our buyers didn’t miss the stamp duty holiday (even though they had the audacity to ask us to split the difference if they had of done).

Interestingly, they’ve just sold the property for &90k more than they paid last summer for it. Market is mad