Pulling out of house sale

[Elz58]

AIBU to pull out of this sale? Is 9 weeks too long for a vendor to find an onward purchase?

We’re desperate to relocate to be closer to family, my unwell sister, a new job and for better schools. It took seven months and 4 price reductions to go under offer on our home.

It took us 10 days to find our onward purchase. We offered £5k more if our seller broke the chain and moved into rented, which he refused. We ended up paying asking price anyway to secure it . We wanted to start conveyancing process even though chain wasn’t complete, again seller refused to instruct solicitor until he’d found somewhere.

We made it clear in writing that we were happy to wait a reasonable amount of time for him to find an onward purchase, but we weren’t going to wait forever because we had secured a place in a now oversubscribed school for my son, and didn’t want to lose it.

Fast forward 7 weeks and he still hadn’t found somewhere. Our buyers are getting impatient. We tell the estate agent we’ll wait another 2 more weeks then start looking again, or sell and go into rented ourselves and pull out of the purchase.

Those two weeks pass, we saw an even better, cheaper property, warn our first vendor’s estate agent we’re going for a second viewing. Loved it even more after second viewing.

As I’m about to make an offer on second house, first estate agent calls to say vendor has found somewhere chain free.

YANBU: to pull out of our first sale, we like second property more, 9 weeks is an unreasonable amount of time to wait for onward purchase

YABU: you morally committed to the sale, 9 weeks is a reasonable amount of time to
wait to find somewhere to purchase

You don't stick to the largest purchase of your life just not to upset someone who didn't worry about inconveniencing you!! Buy the second house.

What is the chain situation of the 2nd property. Also has the chain lengthened for the 1st property?

Pull out. He was being unreasonable.

Buy the house you prefer.

Only thing I would say what if your offer on second house isn’t accepted ? But no it’s a huge purchase and I wouldn’t necessarily belief EA.. are they both with same estate agent ?

buy the house you prefer and that works for you
It is a business transaction - you are not friends and do not owe these people anything!

Offer on the 2nd house.

Don’t pull out until your offer has been accepted, and you're a fair way down the path of purchasing the second house.
Make sure you’re happy with the vendor of the second house.
I would string the first vendor along a bit. Don’t let him know you have pulled out, but just don’t engage. Make up excuses. Do this until you are completely happy with the second vendor. Treat first vendor as an insurance policy and also give him a taste of his own medicine.

Second property are buying a new build, but haven’t found a site yet. They said they’re willing to move into rented

Yes definitely, second house is in high demand, but we have a full
mortgage already agreed and we’re sold to FTB so we should be in a good position. I hope!

not same EA

Second property are moving to buy a new build they haven’t even found yet, have I read that right? That makes no sense to me..

I once pulled out after waiting 6 weeks. We were in an excellent position to proceed and bought elsewhere. In your position I'd get the second house checked out, make sure they will provide vacant possession on completion (people do faff) and go with it.

I would put offer in on second see where you end up .. bear first EA will only be interested in getting his sale through so may tell you anything

Op what's a 'full mortgage'? how do you get a mortgage agreed before buying the house. the mortgage application is only run for the house you are actually about to buy, i know the mortgage advisor genrally knows what you can get and if it will be agreed and so on but the actual application isnt done untill you're actually buying the house. You dont use the same application for any other house as far as i know 🤔

I'd take the second one if offered- first gut kicked around and now gets to to find out what that means- consequences and hopefully he's less of an arse to the next people willing to buy.

A new build makes it much more difficult. They may be willing to move into rented but when and can they find a suitable rental property? It’s very uncertain.

Yeah second one all seems weird to me; why want to move to a new build you haven’t even found yet?! Sounds like something is wrong with current house. And then the rush to move when haven’t found anywhere..what’s the incentive for them moving into rented without a property, way if theirs is so highly sought after they could surely wait and then seek no problems.
Definitely bad vibes from the second one based on the info…

Pull out!

Go with the house you prefer. Although be careful re the second house as suspect that takes longer than you think. Is there something wrong with the second house also. Full survey obviously which will slow it down.

This.

They are relocating to be closer to their son several hours away. They’ve seen a new build site they like, but can’t put a deposit down until they’ve gone under offer themselves. Rather than fall in love with somewhere they can’t progress on yet, they had to wait.

but, unlike the first property owner, they know it might take a while to build, and to not put pressure on themselves and risk losing their buyers they’ll move into rented. I don’t get bad vibes from this, but yes, house buying is always risky

It’s a large detached with a big garden, they’re in their late 60s and their kids have moved out. They know they can keep on top of it now, but know they won’t be able to soon, so they want to downsize before that happens

I would want it in writing that they're willing to move into rented.

Thanks everyone! We’ve put in an offer and waiting to hear. And I’ll try not to feel
guilty about pulling out the first house if we end up having our offer accepted 😂

I’d be worried about the new build too. The only way to hold onto a chain is if they move into rented - and it’s not easy to find any rental properties at the moment. When I was looking they also didn’t want short term (less than 12 months). I moved in with family, which may be a possibility for your chain but I’d want them to be making all the right noises now.
Nearly everyone says oh yes I’ll move out, into rental blah blah at the start of the process but when it comes to the crunch they often don’t.