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Arghhh! After all that...

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ReshapeWhileDamp · 03/08/2010 22:23

We have been going through very painful negotiations with a vendor who, halfway through our interest in their house, upped the amount they needed. We've finally come to an agreement, just today, and this afternoon I got a call from their estate agent to say they'd finally accepted. Hooray!

He is checking out our short chain because his vendors have been stung before (they were almost at completion when their buyer's buyer pulled out) and they naturally don't want to be caught again. We were informed by our (professional, helpful, efficient, or so I thought) estate agents that our buyers were eager, and their first-time, end-of-chain buyers were also hassle-free.

I then got a call from the vendor's agent, just ten minutes after the first call, saying he'd just talked to our buyers (he had their details on his file from a previous enquiry) and apparently, they can't secure a mortgage from their lender. We have thought, all along, that this was a secure and hassle-free chain. Our estate agents were none the wiser about this development either, so clearly the buyers were keeping it to themselves for the moment. I suppose it's good that it happened at this point and not further along.

But I'm so pissed off. We've been negotiating back and forth with our vendors for the last three weeks and I've been very stressed about it all (am having a baby at Christmas and desperately want to be settled a bit before then). Today, I had barely ten minutes to enjoy the news that our offer was finally accepted, before being told that our own sale was about to fall through.

Yes, I'm feeling sorry for myself! At this point, I'd just like to know whose fault it is, so I can direct a well-deserved kicking (virtual) towards them. The buyer's lenders? The buyers? Our estate agent for not checking this out?

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Flossbert · 04/08/2010 19:33

Sorry to hear that, Reshape. I totally understand how stressful it can be. I'd probably unleash some virtual vitriol on the agents. They seem to just take people's word for it when they say they're chain-free and ready to go. They've certainly taken me at face value a couple of times when I've been winging it.

I hope your buyers are able to sort out a mortgage from somewhere. It can be devastating when a chain collapses. Am thinking Zen-like thoughts for you!

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NoseyNooNoo · 04/08/2010 21:22

What a rubbish situation. I'm sorry that your sense of victory was so short lived.

I wonder why the buyers told your vendor's EA but not yours.

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ReshapeWhileDamp · 04/08/2010 22:30

Well, our buyers were 'vetted' by the agency's in-house mortgage advisor. Which is presumably only as good as the information that the buyers let them have. They are claiming that their lenders reversed a decision and are now refusing a mortgage extension. (There's only 20K difference between what they sold their house for and what we sold ours for, but if you don't have it, it might as well be 100K, I suppose.)

Thing is, it was a Perfect Chain. They were said to be eager and thoroughly vetted and their buyers were start-of-chain, first-timers with cash. Our would-be vendors are moving into a new-build and therefore are end-of-chain. We got the asking price on our house within 2 days of being on the market. All modesty aside, it's a perfectly ordinary 3-bed semi and not in fabulous decorative order or anything, just quite nice. So I think they were the legendary right people at the right place and time. We might not get that lucky again. Just waiting now to hear if they've managed to get a mortgage with another lender.

As for telling our vendor's EA, I agree that is very fishy. The buyers seem to have been lying low and not responding to our EA's calls in the last few days, but obviously weren't expecting our vendor's EA to ring them out of the blue! But why they told him what the story was when they hadn't told anyone else, I have no idea. Certainly, he wasn't in any legal position to ask that information. Our own EA is rather horrified...

Thanks so much for the sympathy. I realise now that the stress of all of this has completely shoved my enjoyment of this pregnancy to one side. I've only been thinking about it in the context of yet another thing to worry about. I was waiting for the moment when we'd be secure in a new house to relax and enjoy this, but now I think I need to seize the moment, sod the house move and just try to get my head round the fact that I'm 19 weeks pregnant!