Chain/ putting in an offer question please

[Fisharefriendsnotfood]

Hi

We have seen a house we love, it's empty now and we have sold our house. However the people buying ours need to sell theirs. When can I put in the offer on the house we want to buy? Will they take it seriously if we have to wait for other house to sell? Any advice welcome

Bump

Tricky one.

I started off by thinking, put in your offer now, it's up to the vendors whether they are willing to take the chance or not.

But then I thought - if they do accept your offer, you will then be under pressure to start doing surveys etc, even though you won't know whether you can actually proceed.

So I'd say... wait till your buyers have gone under offer. BUT I would tell your buyers that you have found a place you like, therefore if they are not proceedable (ie have gone under offer) within X days/weeks of today, you will be looking for a proceedable buyer to replace them.

Thanks for the reply. Also, if the house has been recently reduced, how close to asking would you make the offer?

If they have just reduced the price they are probably looking for near that with a proceedable buyer. Not being proceedable at the moment will mean that they will probably not take it off the market for you unless you can offer that amount and your buyer can quickly find a chain-free buyer for theirs. Once you are in a closed chain your negotiating position would improve.

So would you hold back on offering until you are proceedable?? Thanks

I personally would tell the people trying to buy yours that until they are proceedable you will continue to market your property - their offer is pretty meanlingless until they have a buyer to be honest.

I would then definitely wait until you have a buyer that can proceed before making an offer on the place you like. Otherwise they won't take you seriously and you'll have shown your hand early by offering as they will be able to use it to bolster up offers from anyone else interested by saying 'oh we've already had an offer of such and such' (but won't reveal it's from someone who can't proceed).

I'm pretty sure they won't take it off the market if you can't proceed and I'm surprised if you have taken yours off.

We haven't put ours on as it's friends who want to buy. That said, I have 2 estate agents coming Wednesday with a view to putting in on in case friends can't sell theirs quick enough

I'd get it on with the EA fish if you want to move fairly soon, it's such a tricky market at the moment.

Great if your friends can buy it but some places are taking an awfully long time to sell and you don't want to be stuck in an agreement with them where you are waiting for months and months.

That's the plan Monty. I'd love to be in for dd starting school in september

Sorry montblanc not sure where Monty came from

That's ok I like it! Maybe time for a new NN :) I hope you can get an offer quickly and buy the place you like, it's such a stressful business.