Current buyer being slow, got a new offer. What to do?

yourlocalcheesemonger

I'm selling a place for £550k. At the moment I have one offer for £540k from "buyer A" which I've accepted. It'll be an option contract with a 10% non-refundable deposit as the buyer needs to finish their house and sell to get the funds. It's currently at the pre-contract stage and my solicitors are awaiting the buyers solicitor's enquires. Problem is it's taken 1 and half months since the pre-contract was sent over and have heard nothing from the buyers solicitors. I've spoken to the buyer and he just keeps saying he'll speak to his solicitor.

I've received another, slightly lower, offer for £500k cash now and £20k when they sell their place from "buyer B" (I assume I can get the solicitors to come up with an arrangement for this kind of payment scheme). They seem very serious about buying it and I'm willing to accept a lower offer to get the majority in cash sooner.

So I'm not really sure what to do now. I'm a bit worried about buyer A taking so long, and so are my solicitors. Should I politely let him know that I've received another offer to get him to hurry up a bit? Would it be a bad idea to instruct another solicitor to go ahead with buyer B and just see which one completes first? If I do also go ahead with buyer B would I have to let both buyers know the situation?

Any help appreciated, thanks.

FlorayG

I would contact Buyer A and tell them you want things moving in 48 hours otherwise you have a better offer; see what they say to that. Until you put it to them you don't know what they will do

UnderOffer

So neither buyer A or B are proceedable, as they both need to sell their property to enable the transaction to complete? 

I’d probably keep looking for a new buyer. 

yourlocalcheesemonger

FlorayG said:

I would contact Buyer A and tell them you want things moving in 48 hours otherwise you have a better offer; see what they say to that. Until you put it to them you don't know what they will do

Makes sense, thanks

yourlocalcheesemonger

UnderOffer said:

So neither buyer A or B are proceedable, as they both need to sell their property to enable the transaction to complete? 

I’d probably keep looking for a new buyer. 

Yes, but buyer B would pay £500k cash and £20k upon selling their house. If we could make a legally binding arrangement to pay the £500k now, complete, and then £20k later that would work for me, but I'm not sure that's possible or a good idea.