Bottom of chain collapased

RoyalDad

We were suppossed to exchanged this Monday after 8 weeks since accepting offer. Got the dreaded email from our sales negotiator yesterday that our 'buyers, buyers sale has fallen through'. He has said that it has lots of viewings lined up this week and their agent is confident it will sell quickly. We had agreed a long exchanged to completition date with our buyer as we are moving from England to Scotland and cant put offers in until we have exchanged. Totally gutted as everything was ready to go and no we have to wait for our buyers buyer to sell their home. Realistically how long quickly do you think they can go from offer to exchange? Agent is closed for holiday or I would ask them. Thanks.

JReacher1

would imagine 12-16 weeks is the quickest you can expect an offer to move to exchange

donutandbeer

Our chain-free FTB buyer was ready (mortgage, surveys, searches, enquiries .etc) in about 8 weeks. They didn’t raise much enquiries so I guess that’s why it’s quick. Depending on their council searches might come back late.

If you are confident that your place will sell then you can put the property back onto the market and maybe you’ll get a chain-free buyer. We got lots of FTB buyers in our area for our kind of property, not sure about your area. Your EA likely will not want to host more viewings and find you another buyer, but this should be something that you can insist on. You can even put it back on the market but say if your current buyer find a chain-free buyer for their place then you will reconsider. It’s sad that things ended up like this but at the end of the day it does just happen a lot in England. 

Lots of options, I’d say I’ll be worried that your current buyer might not be able to find a chain-free buyer or just someone who’s ready to proceed.

peter3hg

My last sale/purchase had the bottom of the chain pull out just before exchange. A new buyer was found and the chain completed less than 5 weeks later.

The new buyer agreed to use the same solicitor as the original buyer, and bought the searches and survey from them. This was with a mortgage as well.

RoyalDad

peter3hg said:

My last sale/purchase had the bottom of the chain pull out just before exchange. A new buyer was found and the chain completed less than 5 weeks later.

The new buyer agreed to use the same solicitor as the original buyer, and bought the searches and survey from them. This was with a mortgage as well.

That fills me with optomism - I will share this with the agent on Monday and see if he can suggest this. 

UnderOffer

Similar happened to us, FTB pulled out at 13 weeks, we were 3rd in chain. 2 weeks later new offer accepted by bottom of chain but they had property to sell, we were bumped up to 4th in chain. 10 weeks later from when  FTB pulled out we completed. So it can be done. 

movilogo

I don't know where you live, but please be aware that price has started falling in many places. So don't be surprised if you put into market and get reduced offers. 

This is one of the reasons why many chains are now falling. EAs told me that some buyers, who typically paid over asking prices, are now pulling out thinking they can get it cheaper later. 

However, if you get a chain free buyer, it may be worth selling at a lower price for a faster completion. 

RoyalDad

Thanks all. We are are hoping that our buyers are still committed to buying our house as it was the people who were buying theirs who have lost their buyers. We live in central York and had 5 over asking price offers on our house. Our buyers were not the highest bidders and we picked them because we were told they had almost exchanged on their house.