Advice please

newsgroupmonkey_

Look at everything as a positive.

If you get an offer on your house, that's the hardest part done!

I worried more that no-one would want to buy our place. We had about 20 people came round to look at it.
The very last person to view made an offer, well above the asking price.

RAS

Get decluttered now. 

Do as suggested regarding keeping a rolling long-list of potential properties. 

And research possible short-term storage and accommodation.

If you've got a chance or a sale and purchase 2 weeks apart, would you sacrifice everything to avoid the double move? If it meant your buyer losing their mortgage? As long as you've exchanged on the purchase.

Mustlovedogs

RAS said:

Get decluttered now. 

Do as suggested regarding keeping a rolling long-list of potential properties. 

And research possible short-term storage and accommodation.

If you've got a chance or a sale and purchase 2 weeks apart, would you sacrifice everything to avoid the double move? If it meant your buyer losing their mortgage? As long as you've exchanged on the purchase.

I think i know what you mean, but no we won't be moving unless we can secure a property that's right for us, but any potential buyer will be made aware of this 

EssexHebridean

Mustlovedogs said:

Bigphil1474 said:

We sold up and moved last year. First time in nearly 30 years. The mistake we made was going to viewings before we'd sold, finding houses we wanted to offer on, but couldn't as we weren't proceedable.

We had a reset and basically just did shortlists and 'viewings' online through Rightmove. If a property sold, we took it off the shortlist, added more on as they came on etc. When we did get an agreed sale, we had a shortlist of about 10 houses ready to go look at straight away. We liked 2 of those, offered on our favourite, they wouldn't budge on price so we had to move on. Offered on the second and accepted. Moved in 6 months later. We were looking in areas we knew well though.

Sounds great and thanks for the advice.
I've woken up feeling sick this morning 🤣 I have anxiety anyway and I'm just worried about not finding anywhere and having to let a buyer down. What if they spend money on a survey etc and we have to pull the sale, in that case I suppose I should compensate them really....

In the instance of you not finding somewhere as fast as the buyer wants, then it will be the buyer pulling out, not you. You won't need to do anything at that stage - the buyer will agitate via the agent that they want things to get moving, you will respond that as soon as you have found a property to purchase, you will instruct your solicitor and advise the agent. Remember that the agent will be working for you, not for the buyer - they will just be liaising with the buyer, you're paying their bill, so if you need them to buy time then tell them so.  If at that stage the buyer wants things to move faster then the ball is in their court - they can wait for you, or they can find somewhere else to purchase.

You absolutely do not need to compensate buyers in any way.

Don't feel pressured to buy somewhere you aren't sure about just to appease an anxious buyer.

Mustlovedogs

EssexHebridean said:

Mustlovedogs said:

Bigphil1474 said:

We sold up and moved last year. First time in nearly 30 years. The mistake we made was going to viewings before we'd sold, finding houses we wanted to offer on, but couldn't as we weren't proceedable.

We had a reset and basically just did shortlists and 'viewings' online through Rightmove. If a property sold, we took it off the shortlist, added more on as they came on etc. When we did get an agreed sale, we had a shortlist of about 10 houses ready to go look at straight away. We liked 2 of those, offered on our favourite, they wouldn't budge on price so we had to move on. Offered on the second and accepted. Moved in 6 months later. We were looking in areas we knew well though.

Sounds great and thanks for the advice.
I've woken up feeling sick this morning 🤣 I have anxiety anyway and I'm just worried about not finding anywhere and having to let a buyer down. What if they spend money on a survey etc and we have to pull the sale, in that case I suppose I should compensate them really....

In the instance of you not finding somewhere as fast as the buyer wants, then it will be the buyer pulling out, not you. You won't need to do anything at that stage - the buyer will agitate via the agent that they want things to get moving, you will respond that as soon as you have found a property to purchase, you will instruct your solicitor and advise the agent. Remember that the agent will be working for you, not for the buyer - they will just be liaising with the buyer, you're paying their bill, so if you need them to buy time then tell them so.  If at that stage the buyer wants things to move faster then the ball is in their court - they can wait for you, or they can find somewhere else to purchase.

You absolutely do not need to compensate buyers in any way.

Don't feel pressured to buy somewhere you aren't sure about just to appease an anxious buyer.

Thank you so much, that's really helpful 

Bigphil1474

Don't forget, buyers sometimes pull out after getting the survey report back anyway, so that will be their choice. If they are happy to proceed after getting their survey report back, and getting their mortgage approved, that's the point for you to go all in finding somewhere to buy.

pinkshoes

If your buyer loves your house then they'll wait.

We made the mistake of looking at some houses before we'd had an offer. When we then accepted an offer on ours, the house we really wanted had sold the day before.

Our buyer had to wait, but nothing was coming on the market that was suitable. In the end, our buyer actually offered to up their offer if we'd move into rental, which we accepted.

We then couldn't find a suitable rental so moved in with my in-laws for 4 months until we found a brilliant house. Being chain free then also put us in a better position to buy too.

Just go with the flow. If it's meant to be, it will.

Scotbot

Happened to me last year.  Got offer on my house and put offer in on another.  That fell through as major issue with extension.  Under pressure from EA as my buyers mortgage about to expire so offered on 2nd house. 

A few weeks later realised this just wasn't the right house so withdrew my offer. My mother then had to go into hospital so withdrew my property as well. Felt bloody awful.  In the meantime prices were dropping then interest rates started to fall. So hopefully my buyer ended up with a better house

Now about to start again. This time I will be crystal clear that I need to find the right house before I will exchange. I may even look at breaking the chain by buying first which I can do although it will cost me.

What I have learned is be honest with people, let buyers know they may have to wait. The ball is then in their court 

Mustlovedogs

Scotbot said:

Happened to me last year.  Got offer on my house and put offer in on another.  That fell through as major issue with extension.  Under pressure from EA as my buyers mortgage about to expire so offered on 2nd house. 

A few weeks later realised this just wasn't the right house so withdrew my offer. My mother then had to go into hospital so withdrew my property as well. Felt bloody awful.  In the meantime prices were dropping then interest rates started to fall. So hopefully my buyer ended up with a better house

Now about to start again. This time I will be crystal clear that I need to find the right house before I will exchange. I may even look at breaking the chain by buying first which I can do although it will cost me.

What I have learned is be honest with people, let buyers know they may have to wait. The ball is then in their court 

Thank you, yes this would be hard for me but at the same time, hope all works out in the end for you, and sounds like it just wasn't meant to be at the time. Everything works out for the best in the end I think. I've been super honest with EA and asked her to pass on exactly what i said so fingers crossed. I feel a bit more positive about it now. If we don't find somewhere then we don't find somewhere. A friends buyer dropped out today and I have to remember the buyer is free to drop out at any point too. I think it's because I'd never been part of a chain before I've always managed to either part ex or sell and move in to somewhere til I found the right house. I just can't do that this time with two toddlers. 

youth_leader

Very glad you are now more relaxed, as you rightly state, a buyer can drop out at any time as I found to my cost. Once they have 'exchanged' they are committed to complete.

Do start decluttering and start packing in readiness.  I had many many books and found the double bunded smaller boxes sold by www.kitepackaging.co.uk were strong enough to stack.  My daughter used them to ship her possessions to Belfast without incident.

Good luck.