To be frustrated that sellers haven't found onwards property after 3 months?

[MrsBrandySnap]

Hi all, my husband and I accepted an offer on our London property at the start of October 2019. We had been actively looking in Brighton and within two weeks of accepting our buyer's offer we had made an offer of our own and had it accepted. So far so good. Since then, our vendors have not managed to find anything they like. Granted, the market became quieter over Christmas, but the agent tells us they are viewing properties weekly and looking at anything new that comes on. It's now been three months and there's no sign of movement. Is this normal?! We bought our current house from plans so have never been in a chain before. From our end, it is beginning to feel like they are quite fussy! To add to this, our buyer is renting and we're told he negotiated a rolling lease with his landlord when his actual lease ended in November 2019. The landlord is now pressuring him to sign up to a longer term and in turn the buyer is asking us to agree a completion date to avoid doing this. We don't want to lose him and are contemplating finding a different property... How long have you waited / would you wait for vendor to find an onward property? We're becoming disheartened. Thanks for your thoughts xx

It took us (first them buyers) a few months to find a house we liked. We had offered on a few properties and lost out to higher offers along the way though. But our vendors found somewhere in about 2 weeks. Would they be willing to move into rented for a while to speed up the process?

Ask your sellers to go into rented.

It took us about 5 months to find our current house. We had specific wants & needs and there’s not an unlimited supply. We were clear to our buyers that we hadn’t found anywhere / stayed in communication with them & they were first time buyers so at least no pressure of a chain.

We weren’t moving because we needed to and actually would have been ok staying where we were so were only going to bother if it was for something perfect.

You could ask them if they’d consider renting if they can’t find anywhere... that might give you an idea of how keen they actually are to sell.

It's not normal but it's not uncommon. I have bought and rented back to sellers but that was for property I planned to rent out anyway.
You need to give them a deadline - even if they find a place tomorrow it may take two to three months. Your buyers have also been very patient. I'd go ahead with your own sale, store everything and start looking again.

We got an offer on our old house without having found anything. We immediately offered to rent if we didn't find anything within a month. As it happens we did but I would personally go ahead with your sale and ask the vendors to either go into rented or let that house go.

We were in a similar position but in our case we made our offer on the basis that there would be no onward chain. Obviously this was bullshit so we pulled out after waiting about 10 weeks.

If you don't want to lose your buyer and your vendor won't move into rented accommodation you may have to do go into rental yourself. Depending on how much you've already spent on your 'purchase' and how much you love the house of course!

We waited nine months as the vendor refused to go into rented.

If we’d got under offer this time last year, I think we’d still be waiting to find something in our village. People are very cautious about buying and selling now.

I wouldn’t be willing to lose my current house by going into rented, so it’s a ‘how long’s a piece of string’ question. If your vendors refuse to go into rented you might have to find another chain-free house.

Ask your sellers to move into rented or say you will walk away. Otherwise, you will end up being walked all over (as we have been) and will probably lose your buyers.

We have been waiting 4 months since having our offer accepted - vendors finally found somewhere and were supposed to exchange today. Their solicitor has chosen this week to be out of office/ completely unresponsive. We will be pulling out next week (as much as it pains me to start again) if they don’t commit to a date.

A seller greeing to go in to rented is great in principal but sometimes does not work out in practice.
When I sold my last property I agreed to go in to rented if I could not find anywhere to purchase and I stuck to my promise.
Later on the sellers of the new property I found said they had no problem going in to rented as I wanted a quick sale. Just before exchange they back tracked on that and I was livid. If there had have been an alternative I would have pulled out, but felt between a rock and a hard place.
It depends how much you want the property and how much they do not want to lose you as buyers.
I agree ask them to go in to rented, or rent yourself, but be prepared to pull out.

I would say that more houses are added to the market around now so more likely they will find somewhere around now if they have a realistic goal. Perhaps give them a month to have an offer accepted with a proceedable property or be prepared to go into rented. Our chain took a year to complete and I lost all trust in people, estate agents and solicitors. Do not trust anything anyone says. They have all got their own agenda and will ultimately act in their own interests regardless of what has been agreed. Bitter experience taking here. Good luck!

your buyer does not have to sign up to a longer tenancy. He may get a section 21 but that would rather defeat the object if his landlord doesn't want an empty property.

issue an ultimatum to your sellers - get a rental or you walk. If the latter, you will have to go into rental.

Our sellers took 5 months to leave , we were same situation bought first house off plans . We found it so frustrating because we were anxious to get in and get kids settled and sort school transport for the following September

Hi everyone, thanks for your responses. It's really useful to hear about other experiences and I think you've given us the courage to go back to the vendors this week and ask them to go into rented / negotiate a deadline. At least it will give us an idea of how motivated they are to sell!
We have a three year old and dog so keen to avoid renting but it's becoming a more and more likely outcome as the weeks pass by...

Following with interest. Finally had our offer accepted but seller is only now going to start looking. He's had his property on the market for a year!

30under most sellers won’t consider your offer until you are under offer yourself. So it’s pointless falling in love with a house, if you haven’t got a proceedable offer on yours.

He could have seen 20 perfect houses in that time all of which sold. It’s quite normal to get a buyer then look seriously.