Lost our buyer - Need advice!

jellypigs

We've had an offer, fab, over asking price ... Except they haven't sold their place yet. D'oh!!!

prettyandfluffy

jellypigs said:

We've had an offer, fab, over asking price ... Except they haven't sold their place yet. D'oh!!!

In which case they are not in a position to proceed, so tell them you'd be delighted to accept if they come back when they've sold but in the meantime your house stays on the market.

annetheman

jellypigs said:

We've had an offer, fab, over asking price ... Except they haven't sold their place yet. D'oh!!!

Good news!

prettyandfluffy said:

jellypigs said:

We've had an offer, fab, over asking price ... Except they haven't sold their place yet. D'oh!!!

In which case they are not in a position to proceed, so tell them you'd be delighted to accept if they come back when they've sold but in the meantime your house stays on the market.

Anecdotal - my seller has accepted my offer and taken the house off the market and I do not have a buyer yet. The caveat is my flat is on the market with my housing association - it is shared ownership so I can go with a buyer nominated by my housing association, or sell on the open market at a fixed price as a backup. Either way, I am confident enough of a sale at the end of the nomination period that I went ahead and got a mortgage.

Their compromise was they they wouldn't take the house off the market until the mortgage valuation was done. Now I have a mortgage, they are satisfied I am working towards a 6 month timeline for completion on both. I think that gave them the reassurance they needed. Also in my favour is that they have no onward chain and have paid of their mortgage - this is an empty former tenanted house.

My point is maybe consider if there is another way you can feel assured your buyer is serious and could soon be proceedable before dismissing it, as that is what most will tell you to do immediately; and of course if you understandably do leave things open to someone else with a buyer or chain-free, be honest about that intention so they can withdraw their offer/not spend money on searches etc.

FlyMeSomewhere79

cymruchris said:

FlyMeSomewhere79 said:

cymruchris said:

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.

At what stage do you pull your finger out and start looking for a house? Exchange of contracts? People like you are why chains get ridiculously long and the stress is dragged on over many months. If you've had their proof of funds and they've had surveys done then why are you still sat there refusing to look at homes. Stupid behaviour because you risk your buyers thinking you are playing a horrible game and not serious about moving, they will then pull out and buy somewhere else.

Sorry - only just spotted this - just wanted to say before using the 'People like you' line - it's worth asking questions and understanding the position in detail before giving a sweeping statement that I'm the cause of the problem.

The property being sold is actually a probate property - my parents - and the executor is a local solicitor who's advised that since the first sale didn't proceed, that she'd write to me to confirm when the new buyers had their ducks pretty much in a row for me to go ahead and start offering on places. I am not yet aware that they have got their funds or that they have fully digested their survey report, although it's likely.

The structural survey was completed 2 days before Christmas - so I'm fairly confident that I'll get the nod any day now - as I don't want to hold up anyone above me by putting an offer on a property that ultimately falls through. The buyers are fully aware of the position - they don't have a chain below them, and my shortlist contains mostly chain-free properties. So I'm happy to stand by my initial comments without being labelled 'People like you...' - you might disagree, and that's ok with me, but certainly am not one to intentionally delay matters - will happily shift at lightning speed once I know the probability of proceeding is strong.

You are still approaching 2 months behind your buyer, not every buyer has a survey done so when would have started looking for house if there was no survey? I'm not sure why a survey meant more to you than the mortgage application and proof funds that made the house sold etc would have had most people looking for homes by now.

Ok so you have seen a few houses that are not in a chain, did you notice the house market has sped up again? What's your plan if those houses sell before you finally agree to view any? If you end up buying a property that's stuck in a lengthy chain you may lose your buyer.

FlyMeSomewhere79

The important thing to remember is that someone putting an offer in when they haven't sold their own home is effectively meaningless until they sell their house - they need to sell before you can take any further step and there's no knowing if their property is an easy sell, is it a bit run down or in an area that's not that desirable, are they overpricing it etc.

cymruchris

cymruchris said:

Sorry - only just spotted this - just wanted to say before using the 'People like you' line - it's worth asking questions and understanding the position in detail before giving a sweeping statement that I'm the cause of the problem.

The property being sold is actually a probate property - my parents - and the executor is a local solicitor who's advised that since the first sale didn't proceed, that she'd write to me to confirm when the new buyers had their ducks pretty much in a row for me to go ahead and start offering on places. I am not yet aware that they have got their funds or that they have fully digested their survey report, although it's likely.

The structural survey was completed 2 days before Christmas - so I'm fairly confident that I'll get the nod any day now - as I don't want to hold up anyone above me by putting an offer on a property that ultimately falls through. The buyers are fully aware of the position - they don't have a chain below them, and my shortlist contains mostly chain-free properties. So I'm happy to stand by my initial comments without being labelled 'People like you...' - you might disagree, and that's ok with me, but certainly am not one to intentionally delay matters - will happily shift at lightning speed once I know the probability of proceeding is strong.

Please don't detract from the OP's thread - but let me just be very specific and brief. It's a probate property. The sale is being handled by a local solicitor. They have said they'll write when they've received the memo of sale in order I go forward and offer. As much as I can guesstimate things like they probably do have proof of funds, and likely are happy with the survey, I don't have a crystal ball, and the process is out of my direct control. Please take the whole context of my reply, and not selective parts to suit your narrative. To re-iterate, once I've got the nod, I'm off. You might be better giving the OP some advice on their discussion.

To the OP - I would certainly look at keeping the house on the market until they've received an offer that they're happy to accept. Looking back at my own experience, the 'buyer' listed their property at the top end of the market range just as prices were dropping slightly, their reductions were behind the curve so I think that resulted in 'no offers'. I'd look at your buyers listing to ensure that as much as they obviously want to get as much as they can, that they're also realistic in their pricing, and if over the next week or two you get a more proceedable buyer, you can choose them instead. 

Has their property already been on the property portals? If so - for how long? Or are they just listing it now that they've made an offer?