Offer accepted but vendor not found a property

RM_2013

Sorry this is my 2nd question (the first relating to surveys)
apologies for my questions as we’ve lived in our current house for 19 years and feel very inexperienced at the whole selling/buying process!! Things seem very different from when we bought our current house.

We sold STC on 31/7 and had planned to move out, clear debts with equity from sale, rent and wait for a new build and use the remainder of the equity on a decent deposit.

We then saw a perfect property come up, viewed and offered same day 13/8 after some negotiating as were in a bidding war because the house is worth to
ua what we offered.  Unfortunately our first buyer pulled out 22/8 for personal and reasons but we sold again 23/8 to FTB.

We’ve had our mortgage offer and valuation done and our buyers are progressing with their mortgage however we’ve spoken to sellers EA today to chase some paperwork and they are actively looking but haven’t found anywhere.

I understand finding the perfect house takes time but should we put a timeframe on things? Conscious that our FTB will be keen to move as soon as they can.

we really love the house we’ve offered on and there isn’t really anything comparable that ticks all the boxes without spending an extra £30k or so. 

If our only option is to break the chain we could rent or (very short term) stay with family but moving twice isn’t ideal.

has anyone experienced long delays with the chain being completed? 

TIA 

Adam16

We had our offer accepted beginning of August. 

Took our vendor 3 months to find an onwards purchase.

Its very much a “how long is a piece of string” type thing on timescales - it varies. 

One thing I’d say is carry on getting your contracts and things sorted in the meantime. At least then you’re making some progress. 

babyblade41

Keep looking for other properties and tell the agent what you are doing, might focus vendors mind a little

RM_2013

Adam16 said:

We had our offer accepted beginning of August. 

Took our vendor 3 months to find an onwards purchase.

Its very much a “how long is a piece of string” type thing on timescales - it varies. 

One thing I’d say is carry on getting your contracts and things sorted in the meantime. At least then you’re making some progress. 

Reading some conflicting advice some saying not to progress with solicitors searches etc.

according to EA the vendor was taking all the contract paperwork to solicitors today so our solicitors have advised that they will start searches on receipt of this 

hopefully they will find somewhere soon 

RM_2013

babyblade41 said:

Keep looking for other properties and tell the agent what you are doing, might focus vendors mind a little

Still looking on rightmove. Would consider viewings on other properties if need be.  Shame I love this house so much! 

Thanks for your advice 

RM_2013

babyblade41 said:

Keep looking for other properties and tell the agent what you are doing, might focus vendors mind a little

Thanks for advice I think they know we love the house a little bit too much 🤣

anselld

Do not spend money ( solicitors, searches, surveys, mortgage applications, etc, etc) until the chain is complete to the top.  It is not just your vendors but they might then have the same delay with their vendors, etc.  The agent will encourage you to invest in progress but they are just trying to tie you in to this purchase.  The reality is there is no advantage and no point in being ahead of the rest of the chain; it just means you are the biggest loser if it collapses (hopefully not!).

[Deleted User]

If it were me, I'd probably break the chain. Simply because you were intending on doing this anyway so it's not really any different. If you really love the house, and think it's a rare find, then stick with it. If they don't find anything and the purchase falls through then you aren't in any worse a situation than where you thought you would be.
Absolutely keep your eye open in between but I would rather stay with the house I love than risk compromising on something because the timing worked.

MrCarrot

I sold my house STC and my onward purchase needed to find somewhere.  Almost 6 months later I pulled the plug on it because they hadn't found anywhere, and I really started to get the feeling they weren't trying very hard, or were searching for that 100% "perfect" property which doesn't exist.

I found somewhere else to offer on in the end.  For what it's worth, I didn't spend any money until the chain was complete.

RM_2013

anselld said:

Do not spend money ( solicitors, searches, surveys, mortgage applications, etc, etc) until the chain is complete to the top.  It is not just your vendors but they might then have the same delay with their vendors, etc.  The agent will encourage you to invest in progress but they are just trying to tie you in to this purchase.  The reality is there is no advantage and no point in being ahead of the rest of the chain; it just means you are the biggest loser if it collapses (hopefully not!).

We’ve had a minimal outlay so far as mortgage valuation was free - we didn’t pay for additional survey as it’s a fairly new house. We’ve had to pay a retaining fee to solicitors but they have done any searches etc yet.  Really unsure what rondo for the best as obviously our FTB will be keen to move forwards as long as survey is all ok

RM_2013

MrCarrot said:

I sold my house STC and my onward purchase needed to find somewhere.  Almost 6 months later I pulled the plug on it because they hadn't found anywhere, and I really started to get the feeling they weren't trying very hard, or were searching for that 100% "perfect" property which doesn't exist.

I found somewhere else to offer on in the end.  For what it's worth, I didn't spend any money until the chain was complete.

6 months is a long time! We’ve already said we would pull out before that stage due to expiry of mortgage offer and we’ve let the sellers EA know.  We haven’t really spent any money as yet as solicitors haven’t started any searches but they plan to start them once the sellers solicitor has returned the draft contract pack but should I tell them to hold off? My concern is that with how long I’m told searches are taking if we delay then it will take much longer but if they decide not to sell or can’t find an onward purchase then we’d be out of pocket.  Definitely don’t remember it being this hard when we bought 19 years ago!!