To be so angry that our EA and buyer have put us in this position?

[AngeloMysterioso]

DH and I are expecting DC3 and need more space, so trying to move house.

Put our home on the market early July, one viewing pretty much straight away, thanks but no thanks, then nothing. After a month reduced our asking price by £10k, had another viewing, another thanks but no thanks.

Two weeks ago was another viewing, with someone we were told was a cash buyer. Great! Offer made and accepted the next day, we viewed a place we’d had our eye on the day after that, our offer was accepted early last week.

Our vendors had previously accepted an offer from someone else in July but their original buyers still hadn’t been able to provide proof of funds after 8 weeks so they started having viewings again, and because we were in a more proceedable position having a cash buyer (or so we thought) they accepted our offer.

Except- it turns out our buyer isn’t really a cash buyer. They don’t have liquid cash sitting in the bank ready to go, it’s coming from inheritance that is still tied up in probate - in AUSTRALIA. Which wouldn’t be too much of an issue because fuck knows house buying in England isn’t exactly quick, but it’s being handled by solicitors who are apparently so inept that almost two weeks after our buyer made the offer, they still haven’t been able to provide the one piece of documentation we need in order to establish proof of funds, get memorandums of sale issued and get this transaction started. And because they’re in fucking Australia, all our EAs can be arsed to do is keep emailing them and hope they get an email back.

That’s two weeks closer to my due date. Two weeks that our vendors have yet again been kept waiting by people who can’t provide proof of funds.

DH and I are so utterly powerless here and I’m fucking raging. I’m angry at our buyer for making an offer when they weren’t in a proceedable position. I’m angry with our EA for sending them through our door in the first place telling us it was a cash buyer when it wasn’t. I’m terrified we’re going to lose our onward purchase, a place that is a bit of a fixer upper but otherwise so perfect for us, because our vendors will lose patience and accept another offer from someone else. And there’s less than fuck all we can do about any of it.

Lodge a complaint with the EA and then take it to the property ombudsman.

I think face to face could be a better bet. And really emphasise that you don’t want them taking their foot off the gas because your property is apparently sold. You want them to continue marketing your property hard and you are hoping for more viewings ASAP.

Off the wall idea - talk to your mortgage adviser about putting your house on the rental market and covering the new house payments from the rent. Rental market is much stronger than the sales market right now. Rent on a one year lease, then if existing buyer does come through, they don't have long to wait before they can move in.

And if they don't come through, you keep your old house on the market, take your time selling it as a property with sitting tenant on a shorthold lease, and enjoy your new baby.

I feel for you
whst I've learned from EA - even the most high end ones - is that they will do anything for an easy life and quick money. I've had them try and push me into all sorts of inappropriate situations (renting my home). You need to double check and chase everything.
back on market I'd say. This is not an cash buyer. I was a cash buyer and had fund ready to go immediately.

Really sorry to read this OP. Cash buyers are just not all they’re cracked up to be - my parents have been trying to sell their home and have been messed about by two cash buyers now, meanwhile the property they want may not be available much longer. I say keep your house on the market - refuse to have it marked as ‘under offer’ and look for another buyer as this situation is untenable. Consider switching agents too!

You need to more proactive. Don't just wait passively for this piece of paper. Call the solicitors in Australia yourself, email them yourself. Find a conveyancing solicitor, get yourself sorted out with paperwork instruct searches ask EA to copy you on every email. Show you are a serious buyer. Make them earn there money.

I think you have to accept that this sake isn’t going to go through in the timescales you want, as PP have said, probate in Oz takes up to a year.

I would either do what PP have said, stay put now until the baby is 6 months (or 3-4ish months if you want to be out by the time baby is 6-8 months) or put it up for Auction for a quick sale!

You can also just keep it on indefinitely until you get another buyer, but that doesn’t look v good IMO.

You never know, your vendors might not have re-sold the house you want, the market is slow!

I'd be furious with your EA. Honestly some of them seem to want to do no work for their %.

I think you need to make a decision how important selling is to you right now to proceed with the house you've offered on.

If it has to be that property and right now, I think you need to consider a further reduction, new EA if possible in your contract.

If you need a certain price or think there will be other house options that meet your needs and can risk loosing this house, keep the price the same or delay and re market.

Good luck. House buying and selling should be easier than it is!

Tell your agent that you want to recommence viewings immediately, work out the bare minimum you need to achieve in order to secure your onward purchase, and reduce accordingly (leave yourself a “buffer” for costs and negotiating). Tell them that you would like your property to be a “featured” property on Rightmove etc. Change photos on the first sunny day (we won’t have many of them left) to freshen up the look.

I’d be annoyed as well, but EAs are not psychic either. If they are told that someone is a cash buyer, on application, then they will believe it. However, the property cannot be marked as sold, until all the compliance is in, and other viewings from proceedable viewers should not really be suspended until that point.

Daughter and son in law had this earlier this year. They fell in love with a property and offered the asking price. The same day another couple offered under asking but were apparently cash buyers. The vendor was apologetic, but went with the cash buyers.

only it turned out they weren’t. The vendor by this point felt she was so far into it she couldn’t back track and the sale was still going through when DD moved into her new property last month.
in their case the agent was not happy about the whole thing and said as much to Dd. He has apparently reconsidered vendor sell to them but she hasn’t listened, even though his commission was fixed and it wouldn’t have made a difference to his money. Never did find out how it got that far without the proof of funds from them
our housing market really does need an overhaul

I was told my buyer was ready to go and had a large deposit but actually it turned out the money would be coming from their ex buying them out - needless to say the ex was not bothered about speed. I was so pissed off because I turned down first time buyers and the ex state agent should have asked to see some proof! I insisted on having the number of the buyer and talking to them in person as the estate agents were useless, and I contacted them and the estate agents weekly to chase timelines etc. luckily it went through in the end.

I'm so sceptical of so-called cash buyers. They make the offer like they're top dog, good to go, then it so often turns out they don't actually have the cash, need free up the funds from some other asset that will take ages and might never happen, or it's all contingent on some other process like inheritance. Such BS. Hope you get a better buyer, but also good that you're staying put for the birth. We ended up moving a week before my first was born and I wouldn't wish that on anyone! Good luck with it all.

I would be in there raging at the EA director in person asking why they LIED to you about the buyers and why they are doing precisely nothing to rectify it. Your bump will help the effect.

I would also be slightly concerned why the buyers aren't badgering the EA to have it taken off the market?

I'd give the EA until the end of the week and the list again with someone else (assuming your contract allows).

OP just be careful going in too hard. If the person dealing with it is on holiday then that's the way it is.

Giving away your position that you are desperate to sell is an open invitation for a price drop.

On your position I don't see time as a bad thing. You won't want to move straight after baby is born so if it drags on so be it.

Of course the risk is in losing the house you are buying but it is a buyer's market just now. While the probate is a pain in the arse, a lot of time maybe already have elapsed and not having the same mortgage valuation requirements is still a better position to be in.

The reason house buying and selling is so stressful is because nothing is in your hands or control. Fighting that will bring you a lot of grief but won't make any real difference.

Your EA should have imediately ruled your buyers out for having no money ready. There is zero point in getting a letter from their solicitors to say how much they will receive some time in the future. I've waited almost two years for an inheritance in the past. You need to find someone in a position to proceed.

My take on this is that you need to remember the probate solicitor in Australia is obliged to fulfil his probate duties to the Government/Executor. Your buyers are not his client or calling the shots they are potential beneficiaries. If the solicitor finds the estate holds debts they will come from the estate before it is distributed.

I expect the probate solicitor is entirely unconcerned whether your buyers house purchase falls through and would feel that they should not be trying to buy a house with money that is not yet theirs and is not guaranteed.

So I feel that any approach to the probate solicitor (from anyone) should be a polite “please could I ask what stage in the process you are at and what timescale you would expect for the release of monies to the beneficiaries”. I would expect any requests of “please can you hurry up” to be met with “no”. It’s the solicitor that will carry liability if they don’t follow due process and then debts are found that can’t be settled because the money has been distributed.

From the perspective of your buyers (not you) and their probate solicitor it reminds me of that meme that goes “failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part”.

But you are not helpless. Find out a timescale from the probate solicitor if you want to and they are willing to give one but otherwise ask the agents to aggressively market the house or you will move to a new agent.

If there are no buyers at the price you are asking then you will have to consider your next steps - to reduce the price or stay put for now.

Can the buyers not take out a short term loan /mortgage and say will be paid off in a year /probate is granted and dealt with

This question coming from wanting to understand… When you accept an offer don’t you require proof of either cash on hand or a pre-approved mortgage?

I’ve read a lot of buying/selling threads and always wondered about this. I’m in the US so it’s a different process here. But dealing with a cash offer the offer was accompanied by a letter from the buyers bank verifying available funds (obviously not full proof but the offer also includes earnest money held in escrow that would be forfeited if the sale falls through).

What I’ve gathered from this and previous threads is that the offer isn’t really binding?

Well, it’s all officially gone to shit.

Why?

I would put your house straight back on the market, and tell the buyers that if they realise their money before you get another offer, fine.

Who knows how long probate in Australia could take?

The EA were completely incompetent not to see proof of funds.

The probate solicitors can’t confirm how
much the “buyer” is due, they still don’t even know how much tax might be due on the estate and she had no proof she was even due to receive it in the first place. Basically she had no business making an offer, and the EAs (in my opinion) massively fucked up by letting her arrange a viewing, much less make an offer that she couldn’t honour.

Our EAs have insisted to DH that no estate agent requests proof of funds on prospective buyers until after they’ve made an offer, and that’s just standard across the whole industry. I’m so mad it’s taking all my self control not to go down there and scream at them.

I’ve told DH I want to reduce the asking price to the absolute lowest we can afford to accept whilst still being able to honour the offer we’ve made. The EAs have told us they’re sending the particulars out to the people on their mailing list… well that’s nice but as far as I’m concerned it’s not good enough, I’m going to ask them to make it a featured property on the various sites it’s posted on and if that’s something that has to be paid for then they can bloody well pay for it.

We have to contact our sellers (or rather, their EA) and explain that we made the offer in good faith and we still really want to buy the house, but our buyer was disingenuous and couldn’t honour their offer, and see if they’re willing to give us any kind of grace period to find another buyer. But I’m not holding out any hope.

Right now I have 10 minutes to pull myself together before I have to go and pick the DC up from nursery.

House buying is shit and really stressful.

I think you're putting a lot of extra stress on yourself and getting all worked up.

This buyer obviously hasn't worked out.

Get your property back on the market. Lower the price by 20k as a minimum and you should get more viewers.

Don't accept any offers until proof of funds has been seen. And be prepared to lose the property you've offered on. Again you're just putting too much pressure on yourself trying to keep to what you've offered.

In this market you have to price to sell. And if you haven't been getting much interest then you've definitely priced too high.

Nobody has to prove they have money to go and view a house. But, the estate agent should have checked out the money situation when getting the details of the offer to pass to you. I had to answer all sorts of questions about how much I’d sold my house for, how much deposit that gave, how much I earned etc before they would pass my offer on.
(Cash buyer just means they don’t need a mortgage though, not that they have cash ready and waiting.)
Sounds like your agent messed up at the offer stage. Take it to another agent.

Get your property back on the market. Lower the price by 20k as a minimum and you should get more viewers.

Lowering it by that much would mean our asking price is only £5k more than we bought it for 4 years ago. There’s no way we can afford to do that. We could drop another £10k at the absolute most.