Making an offer on a house

Exodi

squidley said:

The sellers have not accepted our offer. Although strictly speaking they have not rejected it either. They have said come back when your buyer has a buyer and we can then negotiate a price. I think at that stage we will only proceed if the property is taken off the market. In the meantine we will keep looking elsewhere.

Thank you everybody for your comments.  They have been very helpful. 

Well this would make a lot more sense - so, to cut to the chase, your buyer doesn't have a buyer.

I can understand the sellers viewpoint a bit more in that case, there's no telling how long your buyer will take to achieve a satisfactory offer on their property, or whether their prospective buyers offer would again be conditional on an another property sale, or just how long the chain will be or take to fully form.

It might be too tall of an ask to expect the vendors to take the property off the market, at a steep discount alongside an unknown wait. It's also not impossible that your buyer may realise they can not sell their property for what they hoped (relatively common in the current climate) and can not proceed.

I think if the seller was the one posting on this forum, we'd probably all advise them to keep it on the market.

Sorry to say.

squidley

Thank you Exodi. That is very helpful.

In my naivety I assumed we would all in effect "lock in" our offers and wait for the chain to complete (it should be a short chain). I appreciate now that is not how it works. 

I will now wait until I am "proceedable".

CSI_Yorkshire

squidley said:

Thank you Exodi. That is very helpful.

In my naivety I assumed we would all in effect "lock in" our offers and wait for the chain to complete (it should be a short chain). I appreciate now that is not how it works. 

I will now wait until I am "proceedable".

That is in effect what you do.  The difference is, it conventionally starts with the bottom of the chain not in the middle.

sheramber

The advantage of the Scottish system is missives are generally concluded in a much shorter time. It can be a short as 4 weeks.

Entry date is agreed when missives are ready to be concluded . That date could be tomorrow or  weeks from  then, whatever both parties agree.

Once missives are concluded sale is final.

CSI_Yorkshire

sheramber said:

The advantage of the Scottish system is missives are generally concluded in a much shorter time. It can be a short as 4 weeks.

Entry date is agreed when missives are ready to be concluded . That date could be tomorrow or  weeks from  then, whatever both parties agree.

Once missives are concluded sale is final.

But irrelevant in this case.

And have you seen the thread asking "should I sign the missives even though I don't know the terms of the factor?"

The Scottish system is not a golden bullet.

Flugelhorn

squidley said:

Thank you Exodi. That is very helpful.

In my naivety I assumed we would all in effect "lock in" our offers and wait for the chain to complete (it should be a short chain). I appreciate now that is not how it works. 

I will now wait until I am "proceedable".

Probably last time you moved it was a bit more like that - people used to pick up the details at the agent (on paper) having seen the sign outside the house or seen it advertised in the window of the agent or the local newspaper - phone the vendors directly and arrange a viewing. if they liked they place they would often only then go back home and put their own on the market - I think there was far less "chain management" & checking out of offers by agents 

squidley

That's exactly how it was Flugelhorn. 

Bought my house for £71k. During the sales process I used to pop round to the sellers for a cup of tea and a piece of cake and we would chat about the house. On completion day they left a lovely note and a bottle of wine. Don't remember much interaction with either the estate agents or the solicitors. Those were the days!

To say I'm dreading the process now is an understatement. 

arthurdick

Ha yes, It was all so easy then(nearly broke out into a song then).  My last 4 purchases, 22 years ago, 25 years ago, 28 years ago, and 30 years ago, were simple, all I remember was getting loads of properties sent by mail to us, we would pick out the favs, ring up for a viewing, get a solicitor, then buy, all seemed to happen in a couple of months each time, none of this EPC lark, just a survey and that was it.

ETA, And that included flogging whatever property we had each time.

Flugelhorn

I sold a couple in 1988 without an estate agent, 2 line advert for each in the local newspaper - the market was very lively at the time ( I think they were changing the mortgage interest tax relief down from per person to per property - or a limit of 30K or something)

arthurdick

Flugelhorn said:

I sold a couple in 1988 without an estate agent, 2 line advert for each in the local newspaper - the market was very lively at the time ( I think they were changing the mortgage interest tax relief down from per person to per property - or a limit of 30K or something)

 ha yes, the good old MIRAS days and savings in a TESSA, was so much easier, we never sold  without an estate agent, but I suppose we could have.