What shall I do about this house?

[jampot]

There is a house we can afford in an area that we would like to move to. It has great scope for extension/improvement and is being sold by the vendors through their business. They had already put it on with an agent who has got them an offer for the asking price but the purchasers aren't in a position to proceed right now. The vendors aren't reliant on the sale of this property and really only want to attract people who are in a moveable position. We are not. However, I do have money in the bank and wonder what would your view be on putting up a deposit now as a holding deposit to show our good intention. What would you say?

hmm tricky. They would presumably want to tie you in to some sort of time limit so that even with the deposit they'd want you to commit to completing within a specified time otherwise they could be waiting for ages. How quickly do you think you will sell your house?

yep i am with krocket, our house has been on the market since April we have a buyer on the day it went on sale we still to this day have not found a house, he pulled out today

slink

Well, the problem is that even if you give a pre-deposit that only would speak about how serious you are, but they still won't be able to secure a house they liked because they need to have the full offer in order to be considered as serious buyers. I would recommend that you keep your house on sale, don't mention pre-deposit or even an interest at this time (it will only make a new viewer more willing to offer more than you do), if you sell your house you can go back with a lower offer (if they still have the house for sale they will be willing to reconsider the price), if they get somebody who has already an offer in his own house, any money you may have offered as a deposit won't make them wait for you, they more likely will return it (if they do so) and take the more convenient offer.

No, I wouldn't. You might go off the house/area or your circumstances might change. The market might fall and possibly leave you tied in to buy the house at its current asking price. The market might rise, leaving you unable to buy the house and possibly losing your deposit.

And finally, you never know how long it'll take to sell your house, which again could lead to you losing your deposit if you're tied into some sort of contract.

Sorry to be so pessimistic.