Seller taking time to find new home

Hoenir

Until the chain is complete. No contracts will be exchange. Your vendors are unlikely to take any action with regards to their sale until they've found an onward purchase. They might have mortgage to arrange, surveys to be performed. On top of which if the property they are intending to purchase isn't empty what plans do their vendors have. 

This is one of those situations in life where we all have little control. Every party has their own agenda. I always remind myself people are great actors. This is a business transaction. People can soon show a very different side. 

cymruchris

FlyMeSomewhere79 said:

Can I ask that people please only post genuine advice or experiences. I am future thinking, I'm not impatient or frustrated or demanding my sellers buy a house instantly.

I think your thread title and OP does come across a bit of 'why are they taking so long' and 'what am I to do?' - when maybe that wasn't your intention.

babyblade41

I know it's a bit late in the day for you but before viewing potential properties I always ask if they are committed and have somewhere to go to...not always are prospective sellers are going to be upfront but it does help planning your next move 

youth_leader

If you had asked me that question @babyblade41 I'd have to say I was committed to moving as I had no option but to downsize, but I hadn't viewed any properties because I was waiting for an offer.   

I would have answered like that because I had offers from two cash buyers, six months apart, and both withdrew after several weeks because they couldn't prove their funds

Jonboy_1984

Last year in the very heated market it took us around 10 weeks to find somewhere having viewed 20+ properties and offered on at least 6 of them. 
 
The frustrating bit was there was a two-three week window in March where literally nothing in our price range/required area came onto the market at all.

MultiFuelBurner

As long as as they were upfront that they hadn't found a property when you offered you just all have to sit tight.

Not too much on the market right now that isn't stale and been there a long time round us.

Bigphil1474

OP, we started viewing other properties early on after ours went on the market just over a month ago. We then paused as after the first half a dozen viewings we did, the one house we really liked sold before we were in a position to offer. We've had plenty of viewings on our house but yet to have an acceptable offer, so we're only going to view properties if we think they will definitely tick most or all our boxes, which is very few at the minute. Even if we got an offer on ours today, we wouldn't be in a position to offer on a new property yet anyway as there are none in this area in our price range that we would want to buy, at the moment. Might take a couple of weeks, might be after Christmas, who knows. We're certainly not gonna buy any old house just because our buyers might be in a hurry. It will be the biggest purchase we have made in our life, so we'll take our time, which is fair enough I think.

babyblade41

Bigphil1474 said:

OP, we started viewing other properties early on after ours went on the market just over a month ago. We then paused as after the first half a dozen viewings we did, the one house we really liked sold before we were in a position to offer. We've had plenty of viewings on our house but yet to have an acceptable offer, so we're only going to view properties if we think they will definitely tick most or all our boxes, which is very few at the minute. Even if we got an offer on ours today, we wouldn't be in a position to offer on a new property yet anyway as there are none in this area in our price range that we would want to buy, at the moment. Might take a couple of weeks, might be after Christmas, who knows. We're certainly not gonna buy any old house just because our buyers might be in a hurry. It will be the biggest purchase we have made in our life, so we'll take our time, which is fair enough I think.

The way I go about it when I want to move is about 6 months before marketing I set up my search criteria on RM and see what's about, if there are real potentials then I put mine up for sale.  I roughly know each time how much to set the price and set it realistically.

Once I have an accepted offer I whittle my potentials down until I have about 4 or 5 of real possibilities, I list these in order of preference and work through them.

I'd already done my due diligence on each of them (down loaded title register , sale history etc ) and gain viewings ASAP . I'm usually on a position to make an offer within a week of accepting an offer .

If my potential purchase relies on finding another property and they seem to be dragging their heels then I pull my offer and move on. 

The problem of waiting too long is the probability of losing a buyer gets higher as the weeks go by 

400ixl

FlyMeSomewhere79 said:

The seller runs the risk of losing the house sale if he doesn't make enough effort or agree to vacate because several months isn't really workable, we need somewhere to go once the sale of our property is complete. Most buyers aren't going to be happy to sit for many months waiting for someone down the chain to find their dream home. There's plenty of property on the market currently, it's about not being ridiculously picky.

He has seen houses he really likes so that's a step in the right direction.

Yes they run that risk, more importantly, you run the risk of losing the house sale if they can't exchange before your buyer runs out of patience and you are not willing to move into temporary accommodation.

You can hope they find somewhere (and that onward chain moves at the rate you need) and keep your fingers crossed, You can ask them if they are willing to go into temporary accommodation (they may decide, like you, it doesn't fit their lifestyle) and see if that fixes your issue. You can re-evaluate your willingness to go into temporary accommodation (depends on how important it is that your sale doesn't fall through). You can get your buyer to delay until the onward chain is ready.

Lots is in your control, but there is no requirement for your seller to go into temporary accommodation, they like you may decide it doesn't work for them.

The key really is whether your buyer is willing to wait. If not and you stand by your decision not to go into temporary accommodation and your seller also does not then the house of cards falls.

If your seller has the attitude that they want that perfect home and are willing to see the sale fall through and re-market if that needs be then you can do nothing about it.

Difficult position, ultimately you can control it by splitting the chain, but that is not something you want to currently consider. So you need to either find a way to lengthen your sale, or shorten your purchase, but you have no control over those, its in the hands of the seller and buyer. Negotiation will be key and something you should be getting your solicitor onto.

FlyMeSomewhere79

Yes we did the Rightmove contender list thing in readiness for when we got an offer.

The problem is also that I don't have contact with my buyers so I am completely in the dark.as to what their thoughts and expectations - I am guessing the the exchanging of contracts is when the real discussions about a completion date will take place.

To be honest we are in a situation where we don't want to move too quick, first week of Jan is ok but we go away on 27th January on a long ago booked holiday and because we have cats to settle in we can't move in too soon before that holiday. Mid Feb would work well. I'm hoping it will all click into place and the buyers of my house understand how it is to be in a chain.