Chain fallen apart - what would you do?

julicorn

Thanks @jenni_fer and @doingitanyway! I really appreciate your thoughts. Sorry to hear you are in a similar spot, doingitanyway, I hope things go better for you soon. 

I think our buyer would most likely drop out of we don't complete by their mortgage deadline, it's sometime in December, I'll try and get a bit more details today. Today I'm leaning far more towards honouring our word and renting somewhere, re-listing the flat in the current climate is something we'd like to avoid. 

We're actually going to look at a house on the weekend, it already sounds like there is way less competition compared to when we were looking back in February / March. It's a type of property that we haven't really looked at before, fairly recently built, some eco credentials, not in the nicest location but somewhere that's actually fairly convenient for us (close to work & to our allotment). I don't think we'll necessarily like it more than the flat, but it's worth putting ourselves back out there and seeing what options there might be. 

nigem

We had a similar situation back in 1993. We carried on with the sale and moved into a rented house while looking for a perfect house for us. The money from the sale gave us interest that helped with the rent and during the first 6 months house prices plummeted. We then bought as a cash buyer, and at 25% less than we had first seen the house for sale.

lookstraightahead

nigem said:

We had a similar situation back in 1993. We carried on with the sale and moved into a rented house while looking for a perfect house for us. The money from the sale gave us interest that helped with the rent and during the first 6 months house prices plummeted. We then bought as a cash buyer, and at 25% less than we had first seen the house for sale.

A great way of looking at things, and I believe this could happen again.

julicorn

nigem said:

We had a similar situation back in 1993. We carried on with the sale and moved into a rented house while looking for a perfect house for us. The money from the sale gave us interest that helped with the rent and during the first 6 months house prices plummeted. We then bought as a cash buyer, and at 25% less than we had first seen the house for sale.

Thank you. The interest is a good point as well, we'd be looking at at least £500 monthly income from the interest alone, hopefully a bit more, so that'll offset at least some of our rental cost. No guarantee the house prices are going to tank, but it's at least not out of the question. 

michelle09

Such a pain! In your position I would sell and rent. (Easy to say when it's not me, I know).

Your posts show you aren't happy to stay in your current place, viewings are a pain and 1 bed flats may suffer more in any price crash.

But I would also be looking seriously at other places. If you find something quick then you may not need to rent for very long. Mortgage will be more expensive but you might end up with a cheaper place. 

Fingers crossed it works out. 

TallGirl

So sorry to hear that I follow your diary so know how perfect this one was.  I would move and rent. One beds are not the easiest to shift and you might not be renting for long. Storage should not be too much if you rent furnished or at least there can't be too much to move,  

I would look around but sometimes what's meant to be Is meant to be. 

Hope you have a large glass of something cold in a glass tonight. 

julicorn

Thanks so much @TallGirl and @michelle09!

I think part of why I posted here was just to make sure that we're not doing something totally crazy, and the mix of answers I think showed that neither option falls into that category really. 

I talked to the estate agent handling the sale, it sounds like our buyer and his buyer are almost ready now, and are both just really grateful that we said we'd move out. So we said 6 weeks between exchange and completion, and everyone seems happy with that. Exchange late next week looks doable. 

I'm definitely less stressed about the whole situation now than I've been last few days, and honestly quite looking forward to the viewing on Saturday. 

Sarah1Mitty2

nigem said:

We had a similar situation back in 1993. We carried on with the sale and moved into a rented house while looking for a perfect house for us. The money from the sale gave us interest that helped with the rent and during the first 6 months house prices plummeted. We then bought as a cash buyer, and at 25% less than we had first seen the house for sale.

Lovely outcome for you there, what were interest rates on savings like back in 1993?

powerspowers

What a nightmare Julicorn, I came looking for your diary to see how you were getting on 😞 
I agree with above that there’s no easy answer and whatever you do is a gamble. What is rental availability like near you? I remember looking at rented when I thought our purchase would fall through but there was so little on the market and it was a lot more than our mortgage payment!
hope the viewing goes well, keep us updated x

nigem

The interest rates at the time we were renting from 1993 to 1994 were about 8% on mortgages, and 6% on savings if i remember correctly. Think it was volatile then as well