Lost our buyer - Need advice!

jellypigs

The house we're living in now was the first home we bought (wanted to be here for a couple of years, we're now approaching 10 lol).

We've been casually looking at houses for a while and found a perfect one, and put our house on the market. We really thought it'd go quite quickly as its a great first time buyer / downsizer in an awesome village with good links. We snapped this house up when we first saw it and have since extended. Obviously there are some downsides that we know will put people off, but we thought it'd get snapped up.

In a month and a half, we had three viewings, which we found disappointing. It did sell on the third to be fair, but they pulled out after a week. Apparently they had a row and one of them didn't want it and the other acted rashly. Whoops! 

However, in that time we got the ball rolling pretty quick. We have our mortgage and have paid the solicitors their deposit for the searches. Our estate agent told us not to the tell the estate agents of the house we're buying yet. Why would that be? I'm not sure what to do. I believe in being as honest as possible but I am just petrified of losing our forever home! 

NameUnavailable

I guess they're hoping to find you another buyer fairly quickly.

I'd maybe hold fire for a little while, a week or two, in case they do have other potential buyers lined up but beyond that I think it would be unfair. That said what is your vendors position? Have they found a place? If the chain up ahead isn't complete then they would probably be OK with giving you time to find new buyers.

Brie

As I understand it this is the season to get selling.  So don't worry about someone pulling out (it happens, a lot in my experience). 

Get someone other than you and the EA to have a look at the listing.  Is it attractive?  (so many aren't) Does it sell?? How can the ad be improved?  

As for the viewings - wrong side of Christmas I think.  Things will hot up.  Hopefully!!

And as for being truthful...well perhaps we were overly unloading on the selling EA when we bought our current forever home.  But we were in a bind and a tricky 3 way move and our EA was making all sorts of suggestions like move into rented to not lose our buyer which was the last thing we wanted to do.  I know that it may be the luck of the draw but our sellers EA was much more sensible and managed to calm the sellers by letting them know how much we wanted the lovely home they were going to move from.  Start to finish it took nearly 8 months but it was well worth the wait.  

jellypigs

NameUnavailable said:

I guess they're hoping to find you another buyer fairly quickly.

I'd maybe hold fire for a little while, a week or two, in case they do have other potential buyers lined up but beyond that I think it would be unfair. That said what is your vendors position? Have they found a place? If the chain up ahead isn't complete then they would probably be OK with giving you time to find new buyers.

Vendors haven't sold up, they're relocating to spend the rest of their years by the sea! When we first viewed the property we were told they'd be renting for a while so no chain, but now we're told they have a few places to look at...

I would like to think they'd wait but they were really difficult to get an offer accepted with for a while - Apparently there are other people interested and it was a race to see which of us sold our house first. I'm fairly certain that the EA would advise them to put it back up, which makes me want to put a letter through their door reassuring them that its our forever home, it feels amazingly homely, we'd look after their well tended garden and I grew up there etc! 

NameUnavailable

jellypigs said:

NameUnavailable said:

I guess they're hoping to find you another buyer fairly quickly.

I'd maybe hold fire for a little while, a week or two, in case they do have other potential buyers lined up but beyond that I think it would be unfair. That said what is your vendors position? Have they found a place? If the chain up ahead isn't complete then they would probably be OK with giving you time to find new buyers.

Vendors haven't sold up, they're relocating to spend the rest of their years by the sea! When we first viewed the property we were told they'd be renting for a while so no chain, but now we're told they have a few places to look at...

I would like to think they'd wait but they were really difficult to get an offer accepted with for a while - Apparently there are other people interested and it was a race to see which of us sold our house first. I'm fairly certain that the EA would advise them to put it back up, which makes me want to put a letter through their door reassuring them that its our forever home, it feels amazingly homely, we'd look after their well tended garden and I grew up there etc! 

That old chestnut - we don't have a chain as we're going to rent for a while, and then when you're ready to set a completion date, it's 'oh we changed our mind and are looking for a place to buy now'.

Given the vendors situation I'd hold out for a while to see if you get another buyer although if their solicitors start asking your solicitors about progress I guess they'll find out then.

As they're apprently in no immediate hurry to move they might be quite relaxed about it all but who can second guess? But you also need to clarify exactly what they're doing as if they're now looking to buy as well, how long could it be until they find somewhere?

jellypigs

NameUnavailable said:

jellypigs said:

NameUnavailable said:

I guess they're hoping to find you another buyer fairly quickly.

I'd maybe hold fire for a little while, a week or two, in case they do have other potential buyers lined up but beyond that I think it would be unfair. That said what is your vendors position? Have they found a place? If the chain up ahead isn't complete then they would probably be OK with giving you time to find new buyers.

Vendors haven't sold up, they're relocating to spend the rest of their years by the sea! When we first viewed the property we were told they'd be renting for a while so no chain, but now we're told they have a few places to look at...

I would like to think they'd wait but they were really difficult to get an offer accepted with for a while - Apparently there are other people interested and it was a race to see which of us sold our house first. I'm fairly certain that the EA would advise them to put it back up, which makes me want to put a letter through their door reassuring them that its our forever home, it feels amazingly homely, we'd look after their well tended garden and I grew up there etc! 

That old chestnut - we don't have a chain as we're going to rent for a while, and then when you're ready to set a completion date, it's 'oh we changed our mind and are looking for a place to buy now'.

Given the vendors situation I'd hold out for a while to see if you get another buyer although if their solicitors start asking your solicitors about progress I guess they'll find out then.

As they're apprently in no immediate hurry to move they might be quite relaxed about it all but who can second guess? But you also need to clarify exactly what they're doing as if they're now looking to buy as well, how long could it be until they find somewhere?

Here's where it's funny, our solicitors are potentially theirs too! When we were there dropping paperwork off, I saw an email printed out on her desk from their estate agent asking for a quote for ++ and ++ of ++ address..!! Our estate agent knows them and said they are pretty good and will keep their mouths closed for now. We obv had to email and ask them do to do searches yet so, we will see! 

BobT36

You didn't mention the critical thing, the price of what/when you bought it, and now.. 

cymruchris

BobT36 said:

You didn't mention the critical thing, the price of what/when you bought it, and now.. 

Very important point this. OP - you say you've done some work on it - how did you come up with your listing price? One thing that stops a house selling is an unrealistic asking price. There can be other reasons too - if you wanted us to take a look at your online listing we might be able to give thoughts as to anything that might obviously be putting people off.

jellypigs

BobT36 said:

You didn't mention the critical thing, the price of what/when you bought it, and now.. 

Ah, we bought for 164 10 years ago, Spent 70 on an extension, 20 on a premium garden office.. listed for 325 and had accepted 310. Desirable village, house a few doors down (1 less bedroom) sold for 310 a couple of years ago.

cymruchris

jellypigs said:

The house we're living in now was the first home we bought (wanted to be here for a couple of years, we're now approaching 10 lol).

We've been casually looking at houses for a while and found a perfect one, and put our house on the market. We really thought it'd go quite quickly as its a great first time buyer / downsizer in an awesome village with good links. We snapped this house up when we first saw it and have since extended. Obviously there are some downsides that we know will put people off, but we thought it'd get snapped up.

In a month and a half, we had three viewings, which we found disappointing. It did sell on the third to be fair, but they pulled out after a week. Apparently they had a row and one of them didn't want it and the other acted rashly. Whoops! 

However, in that time we got the ball rolling pretty quick. We have our mortgage and have paid the solicitors their deposit for the searches. Our estate agent told us not to the tell the estate agents of the house we're buying yet. Why would that be? I'm not sure what to do. I believe in being as honest as possible but I am just petrified of losing our forever home! 

In addition to my previous point above - I'm currently in the position of having 'sold' for the second time. My first buyer had a property to sell, and they didn't make any progress even when they reduced their asking price several times. My current buyer has nothing to sell, and appears to be making all the right noises, mortgage valuations, surveys etc. but I am not going to 'offer' on my own choices of property until I am reasonably confident that the buyers are going ahead. The market does have a few more 'return to market' properties at the moment - so will depend on how patient your seller is.

The first time I 'sold' a few months ago - there were 5 offers, 2 at asking.

When it was put back to market at the beginning of December I wasn't expecting it to shift until the new year, but an offer came in after a week of being relisted.The market had changed a little since the first 'sold' - and so it was a very close offer to asking that was accepted.

I'm constantly 'watching' properties in my chosen new area, keeping a shortlist, and I can see many over the last few months have gone 'sold subject to contract' - so property is still moving, even if it might not be quite as quick.

If yours isn't - then there is likely something underlying that's causing it. As others have said - you can be patient and give it a week or two - but if there's no interest you might have to consider a price reduction to see if that'll generate renewed interest.

bluelad1927

In the  current market I'd brace yourself to losing your 'forever home". You'd be amazed how many 'forever homes' there are out there for most people. With our last move we gave up on a 'forever home' after a survey. Turns out we found one we are even happier in.

The vendor won't be interested in a note through the door. Everybody's different but it would be a sign of desperation for me and I'd promptly re-market the property.