House sale taking forever…

Take the new offer OP.

First buyers clearly do not have the funds in place & probably won’t have after all this time.

Don’t waste another day on the first buyers.

Of course you re doing the right thing for you. You have no loyalty or allegiance to that first buyer.
they messed you around so because of their arrogance/stupidity/whatever they will
loose out on a house.

it s another 12 weeks but at least this time it should happen.

buying and selling is a business, take the emotions out of the equation.

We were cash buyers , it was an older persons house . First problem they were moving in with family because they were struggling . Then it was deemed they lacked cognitive awareness so it had to go through court to get that passed . Then they died so to probate . Took 6 months in the end .

Unfortunately that doesn't sound unusual. My in laws have recently moved and it took 9 months to complete their sale and onwards purchase. Mainly due to two time wasting buyers pulling out, but there were constant issues with the buyer's mortgage right up until a week before the move as well. Really hope you get it sorted!

We had one agreed in principle. Solid as, we thought. No problem.

Then they made us jump through crazy hoops, and we nearly lost the house. It took months. We then went through a broker to have a (less favourable to us) backup which we could have lived with, but was frustratingly unnecessary, given our favourable position.

Mortgage lenders are unhinged in their requests atm. I believe these buyers genuinely have problems with their lender. But the OP needs to do what's best for her.

final assessment means that they havent approve them on principal which should have happened prior to looking at houses. Thats why it is taking so long.

they are not doing extra paperwork. The buyer took their chances, with an agreement in place or not, decided to change lenders or to start the process as soon as an offer was accepted.
whatever way, they are now in the process of being approved thats why it is taking so long especially for a first time buyer (as subsequently you can transfer mortgages).

they ve taken yoy for a mug. Take your losses. Put the house back on the market. Tell them that if they are ready to exchange before a new offer then you ll honor the agreement otherwise tough luck.

it s good to be nice… but to a point when enough is enough

BS. Of course you can apply for a mortgage before. We slways a mortgage agreed before putting an offer.

put the property back on the market. Tell them you ll take it off once morghgage has been approved. You ve wasted precious by being so accomodating

The broker sounds rubbish, we all know that screen shots are not accepted. Full bank statements showing name and address etc. Definitely done right thing relisting it.

I think that’s the right decision OP. Are you sure the reasons given are genuine for the delays? Hopefully this will either gee them up or you’ll get a better buyer with an improved offer maybe.

Good luck 🤞

I don't think a new buyer would tolerate being in this situation as a mere back-up and second fiddle tbh. I wouldn't, sorry OP.

Sorry for slow reply. Hopefully it will be a final underwriter check just to make sure they have not taken out more credit and everything is as it should be. A mortgage application to offer can be about 10 days but that's for very straight forward, we have just had one take 4 months just because lender were so rubbish and kept asking for more random documents but this is unusual, most are much quicker. Good luck.

Totally fair. Whoever comes up with the money first gets it.

5 and a half months is not that long for the whole process but it seems long for the mortgage part.

When we sold our house last year, it was the solicitors that were dragging it out. They would eventually get round to reading the answers to queries and then quickly put off the work off by sending another small irrelevant query to our solicitor so they didn’t have to do anymore work on it until that was answered. They then waited another week to read that answer and then send another small query back, it went on like that for weeks. It would be things like can you draw a red line round the boundary and send it back so it’s absolutely clear even though the boundary was clear from the land registry anyway.

I think they had too much work on and not enough people so they literally just tried to bat work away for each sale they were doing. It sounds like this mortgage advisor might be doing the same thing. All through this we were worried our buyers weren’t motivated but they were. In the end it meant a short few days between exchange and completion which we didn’t want, we wanted longer to get organised.

I didn’t mind that it took so long, that wasn’t the issue at all, I minded that there was so much time with so much uncertainty, and then a quick rush at the end to get sorted.

4 to 6 weeks is average for a mortgage offer to come through IME

You’ve very patient, more than I would have been. I’d give them until the end of the month and if they are still fannying about I’d relist. I’ve bought and sold a few houses and all have completed around 12 weeks.

Sorry but IME that is far too long for a mortgage application and I would have gone back on the market months ago

Also this! One particular saga about my student loan was ridiculous.

My payslips clearly showed a student loan, as did the application. A whopping 5 weeks after they’d received both these, they randomly started asking ridiculous questions about my student loan. I provided them with the account statements and the Plan details, detailing the repayment terms. They continued to ask for evidence and comfort that my student loan repayments wouldn’t increase BEYOND the terms of the loan 🤔. They suggested a wet ink signed letter from a “senior person” at the Student Loans Company…. When I questioned why they had such a ridiculous ask (I also felt like it was just designed to trip us up and make sure we didn’t buy the house!) they said it was what was required as comfort as they had no evidence of the size of the repayments I was currently making…. At which point I pointed out that every single one of the 12 months payslips that I’d provided on Day 1 showed the exact same amount being repaid each month (because you know, how else did they know I had a student loan?!). It was a mixture of ridiculous standards and sheer incompetence that blew my mind!

I work as a mortgage advisor, it seems odd it is taking so so long but it does depend which lender they are using, some are very very slow at reviewing documents. Once one document is reviewed it often leads to a request for another document. Also Aip are abit pointless, often when it comes to the actual application being submitted, often move lenders due to property not meeting criteria, rates being changed etc. I would suggest give it another week, and then say enough is enough, but be caredul acting in haste as the market is very very slow in my area.