House purchase fell through...

Ribosome

Well, our house purchase fell through. We're very disappointed and needed a moan. 

Our vendor has, apparantly, tried to undercut his vendor (end of chain) and they've been quite insulted and refused to do anymore buisness with them.

Our vendor has asked for more time but since February we have increased our offer on their house by 5k to get the ball rolling, they have gone away on at least three trips totalling over a month out of the country and, allegedly, been ridiculously underbidding on properties.

The whole process has been horrible. We don't know if the vendor was ever really serious about moving or even if we're being told the truth by the estate agent. We had a Level 3 survey booked next week and just didn't want to risk anymore expense on someone who appears to have been stringing us along.

I'm the meantime we have a buyer for our property but just cannot go through the whole house search process again. Really don't want to take the house off the market as its not fair on them either. We don't see any other option.

Interest rates have gone up, our mortgage offer will have run out (July), everything has just snowballed to the point where I need to stop and stay put.

Do we keep looking to please our buyer or cut our losses, remortgage be a little more financially secure? I'm leaning towards the later.

Just trying to find out what costs we've incurred so far from the solicitor and dreading that. Very disappointed. 

GDB2222

If you feel bad about your buyers, send them £500 towards their wasted costs. 

Ribosome

GDB2222 said:

If you feel bad about your buyers, send them £500 towards their wasted costs. 

I would. Except we haven't wasted their time. Our vendor has. We've done everything right. 

GDB2222

Ribosome said:

GDB2222 said:

If you feel bad about your buyers, send them £500 towards their wasted costs. 

I would. Except we haven't wasted their time. Our vendor has. We've done everything right. 

You chose your vendors. Anyway, you have answered your own question. 

badger09

Ribosome said:

Well, our house purchase fell through. We're very disappointed and needed a moan. 

Our vendor has, apparantly, tried to undercut his vendor (end of chain) and they've been quite insulted and refused to do anymore buisness with them.

Our vendor has asked for more time but since February we have increased our offer on their house by 5k to get the ball rolling, they have gone away on at least three trips totalling over a month out of the country and, allegedly, been ridiculously underbidding on properties.

The whole process has been horrible. We don't know if the vendor was ever really serious about moving or even if we're being told the truth by the estate agent. We had a Level 3 survey booked next week and just didn't want to risk anymore expense on someone who appears to have been stringing us along.

I'm the meantime we have a buyer for our property but just cannot go through the whole house search process again. Really don't want to take the house off the market as its not fair on them either. We don't see any other option.

Interest rates have gone up, our mortgage offer will have run out (July), everything has just snowballed to the point where I need to stop and stay put.

Do we keep looking to please our buyer or cut our losses, remortgage be a little more financially secure? I'm leaning towards the later.

Just trying to find out what costs we've incurred so far from the solicitor and dreading that. Very disappointed. 

It’s horrible when that happens, but sadly it’s not unusual. 

In your shoes, I would immediately cancel the survey & tell your solicitors not to do any more work on the purchase. 

You have several options: 
Proceed with your sale, move into rental or with family and start looking again as a chain free buyer
Proceed with your sale very slowly, find another property very quickly, and hope your buyers will wait for you 
Withdraw from your sale and forget the whole idea of moving

FWIW, we also lost our purchase in November 2020. We were 100% committed to the sale, so broke the chain rather than making everyone below us wait for what turned out to be only 4 or 5 weeks. Not sure I’d do it again though😊

Good luck whatever you decide

lookstraightahead

I've always rented to break the chain. It depends how much you want to sell and keep your buyers. Although it's not your fault, it makes little difference to your buyers as theoretically you are asking them to wait.

hope you sort it. Chains are a nightmare which is why I like them in small links. 

movilogo

I think many buyers are having a second though as house price started falling.

Often in a competitive market, buyers pay over the odd just to secure the property thinking they can change mind later. There is nothing preventing buyers to continue to look for properties [not with same EA] and withdraw offer if any better value for money property is found.

In a market when price is rising, such probability is low - because buyer is afraid that if seller gets a better offer and sells to another buyer - so buyer presses EAs to take properties off the market as soon as offer accepted. 

Let us see what may happen in a falling market. The buyer bids a high price. The highest bidder wins. Property is marked as SOLD STC in web portals. Buyers have following option now.

⦁ Continue to look for better properties while chain waits to complete. Pull out if something better is found.

⦁ Re-negotiate price after few weeks arguing price has fallen. Buyer is in stronger position than seller as price falling and EAs will push seller to accept lower offer in order to avoid re-marketing effort.

⦁ Lender may down value the property if price agreed over asking price.

⦁ Interest rate hike may affect buyer's affordability and thus buyer pulling out.

koalakoala

I think whether you stay put depends on your reason for selling in the first place?

hazyjo

Ribosome

 
I'm the meantime we have a buyer for our property but just cannot go through the whole house search process again.  

I've always found that the exciting bit! If your buyer is willing to hang on, surely it's worth a try?

Thrugelmir

Ribosome said:

I'm the meantime we have a buyer for our property but just cannot go through the whole house search process again. Really don't want to take the house off the market as its not fair on them either. We don't see any other option.

That's life, full of ups and downs. Inform your buyers of your decision as soon as possible via the EA. Remarket when you feel the time is right. 

jenni_fer

We're back in a similar position, through nothing other than bad luck.
We still want to move and therefore while our buyers are holding on we will keep looking and hoping we get some good luck at some point.
If our buyers pull out we'll reconsider but for now they are sticking with us.

What I would say is that we have been nothing but honest the whole way through, they know about the offers process that strung us along for a month before they found a higher bid, the private sale that suddenly decided they needed more money and the subsequent frustrating re-bidding. I'd assume they are still looking in the background but unless they find something chain free they are no more likely to move quicker if they offer on something else. So for now, the whole chain waits and hopes.

The process is so incredibly broken though and made 10 times worse by ever increasing prices.

Only you know what is the best option for you, do that and not what you think is the 'right' option for anyone else.