Some advice please.
We sold our property here in SE London in early November. The asking price was (we thought) high, but the agent was sure we'd manage to get it, which we did. We then put in an offer on a property (also in SE London) with the same agent on 23 November, owned by an elderly lady with mobility issues who was obviously going to take some time to move, which was accepted.
Two months down the line, we've had our property sale go through mortgage valuation and local search issues and we are basically ready to exchange (with first time buyers who are anxious to get in). Our vendor hasn't even been to look for another property.
So we felt it would be reasonable to look for something else as she's not made any progress/movement in the last two months, despite repeated asking of our agents and by our lawyers.
We found two other properties today, both of which are brilliant but very different. We want to offer on one on Monday and if we don't get it to offer on the other - both are relatively problem-free chain wise (one is let out and an investment property, the other has a chain with one further link).
Would we be reasonable to tell the agent that whilst we're still interested in the property we first offered on back in November, that we will have to look elsewhere and offer on something else, given the lack of movement, but if this doesn't come off, would still be interested in buying the first one?
I don't think we'd even need to worry about this apart from the fact that if we offer on anything we've seen today, the first thing any self-respecting agent would do would be to call our selling agents (i.e. also the ones who are selling the first property) and see what our position is.
Should we withdraw the first offer? Should we just come clean with all concerned and risk losing all three (property market in SE London is nuts, massively over asking price offers on the basis of one viewing at an open house is the standard practice here at the moment).
WWYD in our position?