Buyers Mortgage offer not forthcoming

mojo293

Frustratedseller22 said:

Are we able to remarket while still under offer to the current buyers?  

Yes, thats what I did. We didn't reject the current buyer, but the EA did advise him what we were doing, and why (due to delays in his mortgage offer, and onward chain pushing to proceed).

The first buyer was still there incase his offer suddenly dropped in, but then if you receive another offer which is acceptable and more proceedable, you can choose to go with the new buyer (as I did) and tell the first that the house has gone to someone else.

I suppose the risk is, the first buyer is annoyed at it being remarketed and could pull out himself (my worry), but as long as the EA relays why its going back on, and he isn't immediately out of the picture, it should be ok.

Sarah1Mitty2

Re-market and don`t rely on the original buyer being still interested.

lookstraightahead

Op, could this be a situation where the lender 'down values'. 

MrCarrot

Are you saying your buyers have also completed most of their legal work (searches, enquiries, etc)?

What I am thinking is that it's somewhat harsh if they've forked out for all their legal fees, homebuyers survey, etc, and then you pull the plug.  I doubt there's anything they can do to speed up their lender and I understand some mortgage offers are taking up to 8 weeks (although this appears to have been a little longer than that).

What if you proceed with someone else and then their mortgage offer takes 4-8 weeks - you will effectively be back to square one.

I will be watching this with interest because our buyer's mortgage ran out and they've had to re-apply.  I am having kittens over this, but it's only been 3 weeks for us so we're not yet at the cross roads which you are.

Twins

All I would add is, cut them some slack.  We are still waiting for our mortgage approval, 2 months down the line.   The banks are inundated with applications and response times are painful.   We are not first time buyers, we have a good deposit, good LTV but it's taking a very, long, time.   If they've come this far they must be invested.  I am of course seeing it from a buyers perspective and appreciate what it must be like as a seller.  Times are definitely hard out there! 

peterhjohnson

MrCarrot said:

 I doubt there's anything they can do to speed up their lender and I understand some mortgage offers are taking up to 8 weeks (although this appears to have been a little longer than that).

I don't think that's the point. Remarketing is simply an insurance against the original buyer failing to get a mortgage offer. If everyone is getting held up 2 months+, the first buyer will still get the house. If the first buyer turns out to be incapable of securing a mortgage offer, the OP gets to move months earlier than if they did nothing.

MrCarrot

peterhjohnson said:

MrCarrot said:

 I doubt there's anything they can do to speed up their lender and I understand some mortgage offers are taking up to 8 weeks (although this appears to have been a little longer than that).

I don't think that's the point. Remarketing is simply an insurance against the original buyer failing to get a mortgage offer. If everyone is getting held up 2 months+, the first buyer will still get the house. If the first buyer turns out to be incapable of securing a mortgage offer, the OP gets to move months earlier than if they did nothing.

Whilst that sounds good in practice, I wonder how feasible it really is?

I am not sure I would bother offering on a house, let alone get my broker to do work, when there is already someone who has offered on it and is potentially ahead of me, and I am just an "insurance policy".

Likewise, if the house I am buying turned around and said they were remarketing it "as an insurance policy" I would probably tell them where to stick their house and withdraw my offer.

caprikid1

"What I am thinking is that it's somewhat harsh if they've forked out for all their legal fees, homebuyers survey, etc, and then you pull the plug.  I doubt there's anything they can do to speed up their lender and I understand some mortgage offers are taking up to 8 weeks (although this appears to have been a little longer than that)."

They have lost nothing if they complete, if they have in reality offered on a house they cannot afford to buy then the money is already lost, this stops the seller wasting any more time on someone not proceedable. This feels like over 12 weeks, cannot see any lender being that slow.

It will also focus the buyer to complete or be more honest / push the process through.

If I was another buyer and thought this was my dream home I might risk it.

user1977

MrCarrot said:

peterhjohnson said:

MrCarrot said:

 I doubt there's anything they can do to speed up their lender and I understand some mortgage offers are taking up to 8 weeks (although this appears to have been a little longer than that).

I don't think that's the point. Remarketing is simply an insurance against the original buyer failing to get a mortgage offer. If everyone is getting held up 2 months+, the first buyer will still get the house. If the first buyer turns out to be incapable of securing a mortgage offer, the OP gets to move months earlier than if they did nothing.

Likewise, if the house I am buying turned around and said they were remarketing it "as an insurance policy" I would probably tell them where to stick their house and withdraw my offer.

Even if you're (supposedly) on the verge of being able to complete, you'd rather walk away and start from scratch with another property?

MrCarrot

caprikid1 said:

They have lost nothing if they complete, if they have in reality offered on a house they cannot afford to buy then the money is already lost, this stops the seller wasting any more time on someone not proceedable. This feels like over 12 weeks, cannot see any lender being that slow.

It will also focus the buyer to complete or be more honest / push the process through.

If I was another buyer and thought this was my dream home I might risk it.

Well I personally think it's been more like 9 weeks.  The valuation was carried out on 12 July.  In my recent experience the valuations seem to be carried out very close to when the offer was applied for.  Yes there was a delay between the buyer's offer being made end of May and the valuation being carried out in July, but again in my recent experience after making an offer it took me 2 weeks to get in front of my broker (he was on holiday the first week, then had a huge backlog of work the second week).  Then 2-3 days to gather new information and make the application.  So all in all it was probably 3 weeks before the lender looked at anything - fortunately in my case the valuation was done right away and the mortgage offer sent out about a week later, but if there was an 8 week backlog (like there is now in some cases) then it would probably have taken me 11 weeks to get the mortgage offer from the date I offered on the property.

I suppose I am looking at this from a slightly different prespective - our buyers waited 9 months for us to find an onward purchase.  Now their mortgage has ran out and it's now me waiting for them to get a new mortgage offer.  With every week that goes by I am getting more nervous, but I feel I at least owe it to them to wait, especially after they've invested in brokers fees, solicitors fees and waited so long for me.  I know my situation might be different, and in reality I don't know what I will do if in another 3 weeks time their offer is still not forthcoming, but it does seem like some lenders are in a total mess at the moment with backlogs.