How long to wait for seller to get offer accepted?

taylor86

I have also recently been this seller, I started viewing as soon as I marketed my house but what I am after was and still is in short supply in my area

I did however make it very clear to the agent and the buyers that offered that we would only accept an offer if they were happy for us to find somewhere at our own pace 

Thankfully we had an offer accepted on a new build after 3 weeks but if it wasn’t for that we would still be waiting 7 weeks on.

maladict

nervousftbuy23 said:

in fact according to the estate agent they have only done two viewings.

Your seller's just spent a year dealing with viewings that have resulted in nothing; perhaps they don't want to put others through the stress and disappointment of speculative viewings and are only looking at truly serious contenders.

We've just moved and only did two viewings because we'd just been through selling and dealing with viewings and time wasters and the whole crap situation, and ours was only on the market for a week, let alone a year!  We offered on both houses we viewed, fwiw (and so very glad we missed out on the first one).

Emily_Joy

nervousftbuy23 said:

Jittery first time buyer here!

I had offer accepted on a property that was on the market for over a year. It was a good price and I received my full mortgage offer within a week of offer accepted. I am chain free myself, currently renting.

Its now been nearly 4 weeks and the seller hasn’t yet had offer accepted on a property, in fact according to the estate agent they have only done two viewings.

Is this normal that they take a month or two to buy somewhere? Should I say they need to buy somewhere by this date or I’ll pull out?

Thanks in advance.

You are expecting too much. It took us nearly 6 months recently to find a suitable place.

Bigphil1474

We've just started visiting properties over the last week (been looking online for months), after our house went on the market early last week. We've seen about 8 properties so far from the 'possibles' shortlist, and only seen 1 property we would actually want to buy. If we get an acceptable offer on ours, we would offer on that 1, but no guarantee we'd get it, and the shortlist is getting shorter. It's a very frustrating process.

prettyandfluffy

How much do you want that particular property? Are you prepared to wait for it? You could continue to keep an eye on the market to see if anything else comes up.  I'm not advocating that course of action but many buyers do it.

RHemmings

prettyandfluffy said:

How much do you want that particular property? Are you prepared to wait for it? You could continue to keep an eye on the market to see if anything else comes up.  I'm not advocating that course of action but many buyers do it.

Why wouldn't you advocate that course of action? Assuming that you mean keeping an eye on the market. I'm keeping my eye on the market despite being offer accepted on a house which is vacant. 

RelievedSheff

nervousftbuy23 said:

Jittery first time buyer here!

I had offer accepted on a property that was on the market for over a year. It was a good price and I received my full mortgage offer within a week of offer accepted. I am chain free myself, currently renting.

Its now been nearly 4 weeks and the seller hasn’t yet had offer accepted on a property, in fact according to the estate agent they have only done two viewings.

Is this normal that they take a month or two to buy somewhere? Should I say they need to buy somewhere by this date or I’ll pull out?

Thanks in advance.

How long did it take you to find this property you have offered on?

Just chill out. The chain will take as long as it takes to form. You are at the bottom of the chain so will have a long wait for the chain to fully form.

prettyandfluffy

RHemmings said:

prettyandfluffy said:

How much do you want that particular property? Are you prepared to wait for it? You could continue to keep an eye on the market to see if anything else comes up.  I'm not advocating that course of action but many buyers do it.

Why wouldn't you advocate that course of action? Assuming that you mean keeping an eye on the market. I'm keeping my eye on the market despite being offer accepted on a house which is vacant. 

Because it can be indicative of a buyer who is still waiting for something "better" to come along.  Certainly when we've found "the perfect house" we've stopped looking because we're happy that it's the right place for us.

RHemmings

prettyandfluffy said:

Because it can be indicative of a buyer who is still waiting for something "better" to come along.  Certainly when we've found "the perfect house" we've stopped looking because we're happy that it's the right place for us.

No-one needs to know that you're keeping an eye on the market. I'm happy that the place I've offered on is the right place for me, and even when 'the one that got away' came back on the market, there was no way that I would change things. 

EssexHebridean

nervousftbuy23 said:

Jittery first time buyer here!

I had offer accepted on a property that was on the market for over a year. It was a good price and I received my full mortgage offer within a week of offer accepted. I am chain free myself, currently renting.

Its now been nearly 4 weeks and the seller hasn’t yet had offer accepted on a property, in fact according to the estate agent they have only done two viewings.

Is this normal that they take a month or two to buy somewhere? Should I say they need to buy somewhere by this date or I’ll pull out?

Thanks in advance.

We were fortunate - but our buyer had a slightly longer wait. we had the offer from her but were reluctant to accept immediately firstly because she offered below asking, and secondly because we'd not found anywhere ourselves at that stage - mainly because so often now agents are so reluctant to entertain viewings unless if you are selling you already have a sale agreed - this is why folk like you have a longer wait than they might like sometimes! 

Once we had that offer on the table we started looking, and it was a couple of weeks and a slightly increased budget on our part before "the house we're going to live in next" as I immediately thought of it popped up on good old RM. We viewed it a few days later, offered the day after that, and after a brief back and forth, our sellers accepted our slightly revised offer a couple of days later - we had accepted our buyers offer on the same day we made our initial offer on our new house. 

From both offers being accepted to completion was just over 12 weeks - and that was in spite of the one we were selling being Leasehold. All good - although it always feels like an age when you are in the middle of it.

For perspective - imagine how you'd feel if you were also selling - would you want to be able to take an entirely reasonable few weeks to find the right place for you, and be sure that it was right, or would you be happy to be being hassled into rushing your decision by a buyer? I'm guessing that it's going to be the latter - so try and take a breath. (And remember that one day you probably WILL be that seller!) 

By the way - as a note - the advice you were given earlier about always being certain you're going to follow through on any ultimatum you might lay down is valuable indeed. Never use an ultimatum as a threat unless you are completely accepting of the fact that you might just get told that any deals are off. 

Good luck with your purchase!