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Should we start again? Seriously fed up!

13 replies

AllBoxedUp · 17/04/2013 18:08

Hello. I have nc as I am a bit paranoid that others on our chain might be on here but will go ahead anyway....

We accepted an offer on our house in November last year after it was on the market for about 2 weeks. We accepted a 95% offer as we wanted to make an offer on a house and our buyers were chain free. Our offer was accepted and everything looked rosy as our sellers were buying a chain free property too.

It's now 5 months later and our buyers are finally in a position to exchange and keen to do so but our sellers purchase looks like it is going pear shaped. It is not completely dead but I spoke to my solicitor today and she said she would advise us to discreetly start looking at other properties.

We live in an area of the country where prices are actually going up (!) so we are a bit worried as we are already at the top of our budget. I keep thinking now that we accepted an offer too soon and too low. We actually had a gazumping offer which we turned down in December which would have been £6K more which would make a big difference to us. I don't know if I am being greedy thinking like this and I know we might not get anyone else to buy our house or another sale could go wrong. On the other hand our buyers might not wait forever and if we put the house back on the market we would be resetting the clock in terms of us finding somewhere new.

Is this really evil? I actually don't know if you can say to someone that because our purchase fell through we want to see if we can get any more for our house. Even typing it out seems wrong! I'm thinking we could get some valuations done but they seem pretty meaningless anyway.

Thanks for reading!

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LittleFrieda · 17/04/2013 18:19

Might the sellers go into rented?

Your buyers have been entirely honourable.

Could you use one of those chain completion companies?

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specialsubject · 17/04/2013 18:21

communication is the thing here. Sounds like somebody needs to move into rented, probably your sellers. Suggest that they consider this if they want to preserve the chain.

you can do whatever you want before exchange but think hard before risking losing YOUR buyers.

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AllBoxedUp · 17/04/2013 18:41

Afraid I am going to dripfeed - the reason our buyers have taken so long to get to a point to exchange is they originally thought they could rent out their bought property and buy ours. It then turned out that they didn't have the equity to do this (or something along this lines) so had to sell. While not exactly their fault they have been a bit clueless and slow - they took a while to market their property even once they knew this. I think this is why I think we should remarket as we accepted their offer on the basis they were chain free and they weren't what they seemed. They haven't really done anything wrong and it would be mean to pull out now. I am just feeling pretty selfish at the moment!

Our sellers had seemed willing to break the chain and move but have been advised by their solicitor not to exchange and move into rented so it seems they are not going to do this. I don't really blame them as we would not be willing to move into rented either. They also accepted a less than asking price offer from us so maybe they are thinking the same thing!

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Jaynebxl · 17/04/2013 19:19

If they told you they were chain free then spent 5 months trying to become chain free then it seems to me they misled you. But the main issue is you finding a new place isn't it? Not sure why you would want new buyers, is it in the hope of getting a higher price for the house?

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formicaqueen · 17/04/2013 19:50

How much more would you expect/want?

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formicaqueen · 17/04/2013 20:02

I think you should have to put your property back on the market the moment your buyers second mortgage/rent aspirations fell through. They were un-proceedable at that point.

At the moment your buyers haven't a buyer for their own house so the chain is going nowhere. It's stuck in a buoyant market.

Put your house back on the market and tell the buyers that you are very sorry but you need to crack on. Explain that if they do get a buyer for their home, you would happily consider their offer.

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formicaqueen · 17/04/2013 20:03

Secondly, keep the sellers estate agents informed and look proactive.

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johnnycomelurky · 17/04/2013 20:14

Formica- her buyers are in position to exchange, it's the vendors of her new house that aren't ready to exchange.

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AllBoxedUp · 17/04/2013 22:10

Sorry if I've not been clear. Our buyers have buyers lined up and are ready to proceed. To be honest I feel sorry for everyone in this chain as it doesn't seem to be going anywhere and no one is really at fault. We've been quite laid back up until now as both our vendors and buyers were being really slow so we've just been waiting for them all to sort themselves out. I guess we should have seen what was coming.

Our buyers told us in the middle of December that they actually needed to sell. It didn't seem like a good time to put our house back on the market so we thought we would wait and see how they got on (especially as our vendors house was not ready at that point). I think the time to remarket was then though....

I guess I would like more money for our house if someone was willing to pay it. I feel if we have to start looking again now the market will have moved on (up) and our budget will be exactly the same. There's no guarantees though (just as our current buyers may get fed up and pull out). I don't think it is something I could stomach doing though - to say to our buyers that we are putting the house back on the market to see if we can get more money - but I do wonder if we are not putting ourselves first.

Thanks for the comments though - I think I just needed to work this through.

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AllBoxedUp · 17/04/2013 22:11

(I am however also daydreaming about pulling out and building an extension but I think that would be a whole other thread!).

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PigletJohn · 18/04/2013 02:58

I reckon if you have given buyers three months and they are still not ready to exchange, you can reasonably put it back on the market until they have sorted themselves out.

You might get a better offer.

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flow4 · 18/04/2013 08:22

If it falls through - and it still might not! - could you be quite open with the buyers about the position this puts you in, and ask them to increase their offer, as an alternative to you pulling out and going back on the market? You couldn't expect them to make up the whole difference, I think, but they might be prepared to move some way rather than risk losing the house...

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AliceWChild · 18/04/2013 08:24

A friend of mine waited to buy her house for 18 months whilst the sellers looked around for something after their original sale fell through. They then upped the price due to increase in the market and she paid it. So it does happen.

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