Can someone tell me what to do please? (House purchase)

[ChampagneTastes]

We are trying to move house. We have sold STC and have found a beautiful house that could be our forever home. We offered over the asking prices and are now just waiting for the vendors to find somewhere.

The thing is that it is taking AGES. There are various reasons for this and I feel really sorry for the vendors as they are having a horrible time but I'm just not sure whether we should cut our losses and pull out.

If we don't complete by the end of October our buyer will lose their mortgage offer (and will not be able to get another one as the deal will have ended) and I really don't want to do that to them. I also really really want to move before September so that my DS can start Yr1 in his new school.

There simply aren't any other houses that we like as much though so if we do pull out we won't get anything as lovely. But my DH is knackered from his commute (which will decrease substantially when we do move) and it's putting a strain on all of us.

I don't want to screw anyone over. Our buyers have been wonderfully patient and our vendors seem to be lovely, just really unlucky. I have had a little sob but it doesn't really help. What do I do?

[ThreeFish]

I would get your estate agent / solicitor to chivvy up the sellers. If they have made you wait ages, and the chain is at risk of breaking, they might be persuaded to sell up and move to rented accomodation while they look for somewhere else.

[Gazelda]

How long ago did they agree your offer?

[ChampagneTastes]

Have just got off the phone with their estate agent. They absolutely will not go into rental. The estate agent is speaking to them daily and has now sent me a list of alternative properties (none of which are as nice).

[unfortunateevents]

How long is ages? And what are their reasons for the delays?

[CabbageLooking]

Offer was made in February. They had a pre-arranged six week holiday in May.

[ThreeFish]

Their estate agent just wants a sale, either the house you have an offer in on, or another on his books. You need to make him think you are looking at other properties that he is not selling. Might buck his ideas up a bit.
Get your own estate agent on board as well. Play them off against each other.

[CabbageLooking]

(We knew about the holiday).

[peaceout]

Could you go into rental so your buyer doesn't lose the mortgage offer

[CabbageLooking]

We really don't want to be I guess we'll have to consider it. It seems silly though because it wouldn't benefit the vendors. I'd worry that the sale would fall through and we'd have to move T's school again.

[KitKat1985]

Cabbage are you the OP but under a different username? If you really love the property and nothing else is comparing, I'd probably wait it out. But, is it worth getting your estate agent to mention to them that you are starting to consider other properties as the delay is getting excessive, which may chivvy them along a bit. I appreciate you say the vendors are lovely, but really the considerate thing for them to do at this point would be to move into rented accommodation if they can't find a suitable property right now, rather than expect a whole chain to wait weeks and weeks. Also bear in mind that when they do finally pick somewhere, those vendors may then also have to look for a suitable property, etc etc, so you could be in for a long wait.

[CabbageLooking]

ThreeFish that's a good point. Unfortunately she has the only other property we've seen that looks promising!

[ChampagneTastes]

Urgh, NC fail. Never mind. Yes, you're right it WOULD be the considerate thing to do. Without wanting to get into detail, they are having quite a stressful time and I think that is why they are so reluctant to go into rented. I sympathise but it is MADDENING!!!

We do love it. Everything else is horrid and relatively new. This one will need some work but it has real character. I can see us in it. It would be our forever home.

I think we might need to consider rental.

[unfortunateevents]

So the vendors are not even in the country and haven't found anywhere to live. If they haven't even identified a house to buy then I'm afraid it looks very unlikely that you will be moving in September or even October. What is their situation, do they have any time pressures on moving? If they don't have deadlines of school/retirement/freeing up capital/whatever then they could take months to find somewhere. Do they understand your deadlines (including the potential loss of your buyer?) If they do and are still not budging on moving into rental, then I think you need to start looking at other houses.

[ThreeFish]

You dont need to tell either estate agent the absolute truth!!!
If one or both of them think they will loose commisssion you might see a bit of movement.
Start to make some noises about viewing other properties that are not listed with either of them.

[ChampagneTastes]

You see we knew when we offered that they were going away (they're back now) and there is some time pressure on them I think but it's not like ours. They've basically said that they understand if we pull out and I suspect that while putting it back on the market would be a pain, it would be snapped up pretty fast.

ThreeFish I know - you are right but I do feel like the agents on both sides are playing things pretty straight. I like them!

[ChampagneTastes]

So... DH thinks we should look at the other property the estate agent has. I'm going to do a drive-by tomorrow to check it out. If the area looks ok then we'll try for a viewing. Oh God.

[SquinkiesRule]

Start looking at other houses, they really aren't that motivated to sell. If they were they would consider moving to rented.
Maybe if you look at a couple with their EA and make interested noises it will get back to them and shift them along.
At the same time look with other EA's you never know what you may find.

[KitKat1985]

Do look at the other house. There's no harm in considering your options.

[m0therofdragons]

There's so little on the market at the moment round here. I was worried we wouldn't find anything after we sold. It's a difficult situation but I love my current house and would only move out for the right house so I wouldn't go into rented and risk being unable to find a better house than I have.

How long have you been waiting?

[BewareOfTheToddler]

Definitely look at the other house. We were in this exact situation - put an offer in, we'd accepted an offer on our place, then vendors lost the property they were buying as it was withdrawn from the market. They refused to consider rental and were definitely looking for something specific (had taken them a year to find something worth offering on ).

Massive dilemma for us as we loved the house, and we hadn't seen anything we liked half as much locally - it was definitely a forever house and the sort that doesn't come on the market very often.

We assumed we would be going into rental ourselves in order to keep our sale - and then another house came on the market. Smaller, but a better location and garden, and with great potential. We expect to complete very shortly .

Go and look! If it's not for you, you'll have wasted an hour of your time.

[ChampagneTastes]

Well I'm up at 4am so I guess I'm still worrying. My fear is that I go to see the other house and in doing so upset the original vendors who decide to pull out themselves. But of course that's ridiculous. It can't all be on their terms. My DH is going to have a breakdown if this carries on much longer.

Bewareofthetoddler thank you. That's a reassuring story.

[unfortunateevents]

The original vendors care not going to know you have viewed the house! Do you think they are lying awake at night worrying about YOU and whether they are going to meet your desired deadline - NO! Time to (wo)man up here.

[ChampagneTastes]

The trouble is they MIGHT because the other house is on with the same estate agents! But you are right. Womaning up as we speak.

[ChampagneTastes]

Oh bollocks. There's an offer on the table already. Although the EA sounded like it might be a low one.

[Allthebestnamesareused]

Don't just look at what that agent has look at what rlse is on with anyone!