We sold our own house in two days flat, about two months quicker than I was banking on, but still a good thing. But it does now put pressure on us to find somewhere we want, in the right area, for the right price. Soon. Our chain is short - buyrer's buyer is first-time and a cash buyer but also impatient. Other houses in the area are selling s-l-o-w-l-y, so we don't want to lose the buyer. Renting might seem to be the sensible option, and indeed that was suggested by several MNers on an earlier thread, but for a couple of good reasons, I don't want to. For a start, I'm due to give birth at Christmas (and was planning a home birth). I very much want to be settled somewhere by late autumn!
We looked at lots in the last few weeks, and found somewhere we like a lot. It has generous space (enough for study for DH, which was a prerequisite, and a spare room/craft room for me - riches beyond reckoning!) and a nice garden, large enough for DC and growing some veg. Nothing is perfect when you're looking at houses, but we really like it. It's on the market at XXX thousand. We've been told from the outset by estate agent that we can get it for 20K less than asking price, as told to them by vendors. That was why we continued to pursue it, find out about local school, get to know the village etc, because the asking price is beyond our budget but the amount they were hoping for is do-able.
We made our offer (started lower, was rejected, have now worked up to what we were told they wanted) and it hasn't yet been forwarded, because the agent is waiting for the main negotiator to return from his hols to put it to the vendors. Because all of a sudden, we hear that the vendors actually want 15K more than we'd been told all along. They have got themselves into a nightmare situation out of panic in an attempt to secure the house they want to buy, and so this 15K price hike reflects the additional costs they're incurring rather than that they think their house is suddenly worth more.
Our final offer (because it's right at the top of our budget) is only 5.12% off the asking price, which is pretty good these days. We're cross because although naturally, the vendors are fully in the right to ask whatever they want for their own house (!), we've been told throughout that this amount would secure the house, and now it won't, apparently, and we feel strung along. The vendors think they now have to resort to renting the house on the buy-to-let they got to secure the house they want to buy, but are there likely to be many takers for a 5 bed house in a small village in the countryside?? It's lose:lose for them, and meanwhile, the house we want to buy will probably be standing empty of tenants or owners.
I know it was stupid, but I'd mentally moved in (a symptom of pregnancy, I think!) and other houses we've seen just don't measure up. And now it looks like we have to start again from scratch, and all the time we're pissing off our buyers and their buyers, who are getting fidgetty. I'm just so cross, and confused, and I just want to know we're going to be settled somewhere we want to be by the time DC no.2 arrives.
Anyone been in a similar situation? (Of course you have!) Should we just try to walk away and forget this house? All we've lost so far is time (argh) and emotional investment. (And I keep on hearing Kirsty intoning in my head 'A pregnant woman will take any house, she's that desperate! )