Buyer taking too long?

kdot1983

Hi all, 

On 16 May, I accepted an offer on my house. Although it wasn't the highest, the buyer seemed motivated and sincere and I accepted. As of yet, he hasn't had a mortgage offered yet and as far as me and my estate agent are aware, a survey hasn't been carried out. I believe he's going with TSB.

I've had an offer accepted on the house I'm buying, mortgage approved in just over a week and paid for and booked my own survey. I'm concerned about the pace at which things are moving at his end. 

My EA spoke to his broker last week who advised after the application had been submitted, the underwriters requested copies of his tax overviews (he's self employed). My EA gave a deadline of today for a substantive update and nothing was received.

I'm now concerned of his affordability and although it's not been long in the scheme of things I've asked my EA to give him until Monday COB and if a substantive update isn't received, to reopen the house to the other offerers. I messaged the buyer asking what is happening through the estate agent's portal and the EA has emailed too this evening, but not heard anything back. 

Feel quite stressed about the situation this evening and know I'll be thinking about it all weekend. Am I being too impatient? Are TSB notoriously slow? Should I be concerned about his affordability? I really don't want to miss out on the house I'm buying. The lack of information is really getting to me.

Karen_Artioli

I feel your pain. I believe everybody is supposed to answer in a timely manner. Not answering phone calls nor emails is just weird.
Have you sold through Strike or Purple Bricks? If that’s the case I would understand the buyer not answering as their portal is just too confusing. But not answering nor returning phone calls is still not acceptable.
I would definitely speak with the other people who placed offers to see if they would be still interested. May was not too long ago and they may still be looking for a house.
If you wait too long, you will loose the other offers and will need to welcome viewings again which is quite annoying.

kdot1983

I sold through Yopa and previously messaged the buyer to congratulate him and he responded.

I think this is it, I've been diligent and provided information in a timely manner which is why my purchase has proceeded fairly well. He is a first time buyer and maybe he's putting too much trust on those he's working with doing what they should, but when my EA spoke to him last week he expressed surprise that things hadn't progressed so at that point I'd have thought he would be on it and push for progress.

I think I've given him a fair shot and whilst I don't want to start all over with another buyer (as this will mean more delays), I don't really see what other option I have. 

Karen_Artioli

kdot1983 said:

I sold through Yopa and previously messaged the buyer to congratulate him and he responded.

I think this is it, I've been diligent and provided information in a timely manner which is why my purchase has proceeded fairly well. He is a first time buyer and maybe he's putting too much trust on those he's working with doing what they should, but when my EA spoke to him last week he expressed surprise that things hadn't progressed so at that point I'd have thought he would be on it and push for progress.

I think I've given him a fair shot and whilst I don't want to start all over with another buyer (as this will mean more delays), I don't really see what other option I have. 

It’s better to do it sooner rather than latter.
I felt my buyer was slow through the substantiation process and now I regret not pulling out at an earlier stage.
Maybe not risking to put back to the market but there is no harm in checking with the other parties if they are still interested.

trakky14

I actually don't think its necessarily bad. We had an offer accepted on a house the following week from yours...solicitors paperwork only arrived this Monday because of the jubilee weekend (I don't think the solicitors did anything until the week after we instructed them!). We've started our full mortgage application, waiting on the banks valuation then we will book our survey (we've been down this road before and the house was over valued so we want to wait and see what the bank say before we spend £1k on a survey for a house that may not be worth the agreed price). Last time we tried to move it took about 2 weeks to get an appointment for the mortgage application, then another week or moee for the valuation...easily 3 to 4 weeks till our mortgage was approved. My husband is also self employed so they always want more proof of income than a straightforward employee. 

I'd try and get hold of the buyer first because they may be a victim of slow admin/banks/solicitors etc! 

K_S

kdot1983 said:

Hi all, 

On 16 May, I accepted an offer on my house. Although it wasn't the highest, the buyer seemed motivated and sincere and I accepted. As of yet, he hasn't had a mortgage offered yet and as far as me and my estate agent are aware, a survey hasn't been carried out. I believe he's going with TSB.

I've had an offer accepted on the house I'm buying, mortgage approved in just over a week and paid for and booked my own survey. I'm concerned about the pace at which things are moving at his end. 

My EA spoke to his broker last week who advised after the application had been submitted, the underwriters requested copies of his tax overviews (he's self employed). My EA gave a deadline of today for a substantive update and nothing was received.

I'm now concerned of his affordability and although it's not been long in the scheme of things I've asked my EA to give him until Monday COB and if a substantive update isn't received, to reopen the house to the other offerers. I messaged the buyer asking what is happening through the estate agent's portal and the EA has emailed too this evening, but not heard anything back. 

Feel quite stressed about the situation this evening and know I'll be thinking about it all weekend. Am I being too impatient? Are TSB notoriously slow? Should I be concerned about his affordability? I really don't want to miss out on the house I'm buying. The lack of information is really getting to me.

@kdot1983 It's only around 15-16 working days or so since the application went in, and it's self-employed which always goes to full manual review. TSB deducts SEISS grants from the 2020-21 figures so there'll likely be to and fro on that which adds to the delay.

TSB is slow at the moment but there are other mainstream lenders that are even worse, taking 10+ working days for initial assessment and 12+ working days to process a response to underwriter queries or request for additional documents.

Unless you're prepared to vet based on which lender they're using or how good their broker is, there's no guarantee that the next buyer will be any quicker with a mortgage.

Of course, if the buyer or their broker isn't giving an adequate holding response then that might well be a red flag. Hope it gets back on track soon, good luck!

kdot1983

trakky14 said:

I actually don't think its necessarily bad. We had an offer accepted on a house the following week from yours...solicitors paperwork only arrived this Monday because of the jubilee weekend (I don't think the solicitors did anything until the week after we instructed them!). We've started our full mortgage application, waiting on the banks valuation then we will book our survey (we've been down this road before and the house was over valued so we want to wait and see what the bank say before we spend £1k on a survey for a house that may not be worth the agreed price). Last time we tried to move it took about 2 weeks to get an appointment for the mortgage application, then another week or moee for the valuation...easily 3 to 4 weeks till our mortgage was approved. My husband is also self employed so they always want more proof of income than a straightforward employee. 

I'd try and get hold of the buyer first because they may be a victim of slow admin/banks/solicitors etc! 

Fair - I've messaged him through the portal and my EA emailed him yesterday evening so hopefully this spurs him into at least providing/obtaining a substantive update.

K_S said:

kdot1983 said:

Hi all, 

On 16 May, I accepted an offer on my house. Although it wasn't the highest, the buyer seemed motivated and sincere and I accepted. As of yet, he hasn't had a mortgage offered yet and as far as me and my estate agent are aware, a survey hasn't been carried out. I believe he's going with TSB.

I've had an offer accepted on the house I'm buying, mortgage approved in just over a week and paid for and booked my own survey. I'm concerned about the pace at which things are moving at his end. 

My EA spoke to his broker last week who advised after the application had been submitted, the underwriters requested copies of his tax overviews (he's self employed). My EA gave a deadline of today for a substantive update and nothing was received.

I'm now concerned of his affordability and although it's not been long in the scheme of things I've asked my EA to give him until Monday COB and if a substantive update isn't received, to reopen the house to the other offerers. I messaged the buyer asking what is happening through the estate agent's portal and the EA has emailed too this evening, but not heard anything back. 

Feel quite stressed about the situation this evening and know I'll be thinking about it all weekend. Am I being too impatient? Are TSB notoriously slow? Should I be concerned about his affordability? I really don't want to miss out on the house I'm buying. The lack of information is really getting to me.

@kdot1983 It's only around 15-16 working days or so since the application went in, and it's self-employed which always goes to full manual review. TSB deducts SEISS grants from the 2020-21 figures so there'll likely be to and fro on that which adds to the delay.

TSB is slow at the moment but there are other mainstream lenders that are even worse, taking 10+ working days for initial assessment and 12+ working days to process a response to underwriter queries or request for additional documents.

Unless you're prepared to vet based on which lender they're using or how good their broker is, there's no guarantee that the next buyer will be any quicker with a mortgage.

Of course, if the buyer or their broker isn't giving an adequate holding response then that might well be a red flag. Hope it gets back on track soon, good luck!

Thank you. I think the issue is prior to the bank holiday weekend my EA asked the broker for an update and she advised that TSB had requested tax overviews. Then yesterday she stated TSB had requested proof of salary - but surely the latter would have been provided at application stage? My EA then gave her a 5pm deadline to provide an update as to whether a desktop valuation had been provided, but she ignored it. Appreciate being self employed will take longer but now I'm concerned about his affordability etc. 

housebuyer143

As someone who is on their 3rd buyer, if you are not getting updates this early into the process it's a red flag tbh. 
Rather than pull out for the mortgage taking too long, ask them to show willing by arranging the searches if they have not already. If they don't do that then you know they are not serious or are concerned about being accepted for the mortgage.

kdot1983

housebuyer143 said:

As someone who is on their 3rd buyer, if you are not getting updates this early into the process it's a red flag tbh. 
Rather than pull out for the mortgage taking too long, ask them to show willing by arranging the searches if they have not already. If they don't do that then you know they are not serious or are concerned about being accepted for the mortgage.

I do know he has conveyancers in place and I believe has put money on his account for searches etc. Argh this is stressful! Thanks for your response 🙂

Soot2006

kdot1983 said:

housebuyer143 said:

As someone who is on their 3rd buyer, if you are not getting updates this early into the process it's a red flag tbh. 
Rather than pull out for the mortgage taking too long, ask them to show willing by arranging the searches if they have not already. If they don't do that then you know they are not serious or are concerned about being accepted for the mortgage.

I do know he has conveyancers in place and I believe has put money on his account for searches etc. Argh this is stressful! Thanks for your response 🙂

There's been a long bank holiday, everything is a bit slow at the moment.  If the buyer is anything like me, they might get less responsive as they get more stressed. Some of us respond to pressure by shutting down a bit. Obviously, you need an update, but try not to panic at this stage. It's very early days and everything you've said points to a serious buyer.

simon_or

Honestly, it's not that long at all! If you look at the mortgage forum threads for high-street banks you'll see that banks can currently be very slow with mortgage applications.

And as one myself, I know that self employed applicants have to go through a lot of extra scrutiny, often by inexperienced underwriters who ask for all sort of irrelevant stuff. I have an amazing broker so I've never failed to get a mortgage at the end but it can be a long and frustrating process.

If they have already committed money for searches then that's a positive sign as well.