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Buyer not instructed solicitor
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.happymama.
Posts: 6 Forumite
Hi all,
We sold our house via auction a week ago, to a cash buyer who made a 'buy it now' offer. They said they are keen to exchange within 28 days of offer being accepted.
We instructed our conveyencor the next day and put an offer on a house we have loved and is luckily still on the market. This has been accepted and we're ready to go.
Not heard anything since day of offer accepted, so I rang estate agents and conveyencor to see if there had been any developments. They said as far as they're aware, the buyer hasn't even instructed a solicitor yet.
Am I getting too ahead of myself and getting nervous over nothing, or should we prepare for this to fall through? (FYI, the buyer has had to pay 5k upfront for auction fees, which is not refundable, so we're hoping they won't just walk away if 5k is at stake)
We sold our house via auction a week ago, to a cash buyer who made a 'buy it now' offer. They said they are keen to exchange within 28 days of offer being accepted.
We instructed our conveyencor the next day and put an offer on a house we have loved and is luckily still on the market. This has been accepted and we're ready to go.
Not heard anything since day of offer accepted, so I rang estate agents and conveyencor to see if there had been any developments. They said as far as they're aware, the buyer hasn't even instructed a solicitor yet.
Am I getting too ahead of myself and getting nervous over nothing, or should we prepare for this to fall through? (FYI, the buyer has had to pay 5k upfront for auction fees, which is not refundable, so we're hoping they won't just walk away if 5k is at stake)
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Comments
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So it sounds like what's called "The Modern Method of Auction".
As you say, their motivation for moving forward should be that they'll lose their £5k reservation fee if they don't.
Their exclusive reservation period will have have a time limit (maybe 4 or 6 weeks).
You can try hurrying them along by saying that if they don't exchange contracts within that reservation time limit (or they at least demonstrate that they are making good progress towards exchange by then), you'll put the property straight back on the market - or maybe in the auction again.0 -
Just to add...
You might find that the estate agent and auctioneer aren't particularly helpful in progressing the sale (i.e. chasing the buyer etc).
They've been paid their £5k, so they won't really be too bothered if the sale completes or not.
In fact, even worse, if this sale falls through, and you auction the property again - they'll get another £5k reservation fee.
So it's actually in their interests to let this sale fall through.
(So maybe you need to chase the buyer yourself, in case the EA doesn't.)0 -
Thanks for the heads up! Didn't think of that.
I guess all we can do is give the buyer the grace of a few more days/ a week and go from there.0 -
Update: EA has confirmed buyer has instructed a conveyancer. Phew!0
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Do you get that, or the EA?.happymama. wrote: »(FYI, the buyer has had to pay 5k upfront for auction fees, which is not refundable, so we're hoping they won't just walk away if 5k is at stake)
Can we ask why you went for a "modern auction" to sell the place, rather than just putting it on the normal market, or a "proper" auction?0 -
As eddddy says, the EA pockets it every time some mug comes along wanting to buy it under this arrangement. All the seller gets is the eventual price (which will be restricted because any sensible buyer will have deducted the EA fee from the "proper" price).Do you get that, or the EA?0 -
We have been with several EA, all of which promised a good price but jot managed to even drum up any viewing, let alone an offer. We thought we'd try the modern auction route because we have to move sooner rather later due to husbands work.
Regarding the 5k, we didn't get that, the auction EA did.0 -
We're not saying auction is the wrong route for you - we're asking why the "modern method" of auction (where the benefits are highly skewed in favour of the auction house/EA) rather than a normal auction.0
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ThePants999 wrote: »We're not saying auction is the wrong route for you - we're asking why the "modern method" of auction (where the benefits are highly skewed in favour of the auction house/EA) rather than a normal auction.
A "normal auction" would probably have been worse than the "modern method" in this case.
Traditional auctions are only really suitable for cash buyers - trying to get a mortgage would be complex and risky.
If you want to sell a standard family home, probably 95%+ of prospective buyers would want to buy with a mortgage.
So if you restrict yourself to cash buyers at an auction, you'd probably take a very big hit on price.
(Conceptually, the modern method of auction is fine. The key problem is the large non-refundable reservation fee.)0 -
.happymama. wrote: »We have been with several EA, all of which promised a good price ... We thought we'd try the modern auction route because we have to move sooner rather later due to husbands work.
So did you get the same good price at the auction as promised by the other EAs? Genuinely interested as auctions are normally treated as a second to last resort for people like you who have an urgent need to sell quickly.Every generation blames the one before...
Mike + The Mechanics - The Living Years0
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