Selling a house- moral dilemma

[CelticPromise]

I would welcome some advice on this situation, we are really torn. I'm changing a few details just in case.

We are selling a house in outer London. We have relocated and want to sell asap. It went on in December for £380k and after a bit of messing about with people who weren't sure what/if to offer we accepted an offer for £365k. We made it clear we wanted to crack on and ideally compete before end of Jan. Of course that didn't happen but surveys etc were complete by then and we were just waiting on buyers' mortgage offer. EA and mortgage broker both indicated that this was a matter of rubber stamping.

We have now found a place to buy so we want to crack on even more. But our buyers have finally been refused mortgage after weeks of faffing. This happened Friday and we weren't sure what they could do so following recommendation of EA we agreed they could remarket it and they showed 10 people round on Sat. Also on their advice it went back on market for £390k as market is rising. I told EA we would still be willing to sell to original buyers at agreed price if they could salvage things.

Over the weekend and today we have heard that the buyers run their own business and are blaming their accountant for supplying wrong info to lender. They are approaching a new lender.

We have also had two new offers after the Saturday viewings, both at £400K

I just don't know what to do. I feel we have some moral obligation to the original buyers, and we are all ready to exchange when/if they get their mortgage. But are we just handing them £35K? It's so much money to say no to. I was thinking of giving them a short time to salvage things and get to exchange... I'm trying not to just see the £ signs...

Anyone any experience/advice?

You are doing the right thing OP- it's not just about the money, it's about getting the deal completed in a timescale that suits you. At this point it's not clear the original buyers would even get a mortgage, or any time soon. Selling houses is a business arrangement, you need to protect your own interests. Good luck, I hope it all goes swiftly and smoothly with your new buyers!

You've made the right decision OP, good luck

You have made the right choice.

Look forward to hearing you have completed and/are moving.

We have sold a house and done it within 6 weeks so it is completely do-able. That was a relocation, in a rising market (many years ago) and we agreed we wouldn't up the price.

Re this house, our buyers messed us around big time, I was on the phone to the vendor explaining that we were doing everything we could to get the sale moving along.

We were fortunate that our vendors, and our buyers were using the same firm of solicitors so the vendor could get their solicitor to get a rocket up the arse of the buyer's solicitor.

But you are right, the buyers haven't even had the courtesy to contact you. I am glad you are taking the higher amount, and if they original buyers come back at all you can feel fine turning them down and tell them that they offered you £15k below your asking price and knew you wanted a fast sale.

The old buyers have offered an extra £10k, saying they have had survey, needs work blah blah. The thing is, if the new buyers get a survey, AND it shows the same thing, AND we discount the full amount, it will still put them higher up. But the searches are all done etc for the old ones. But they haven't yet made a new mortgage application...

The original buyers sound like they are faffing around.

If they haven't pulled their fingers out over mortgage application I wouldn't go any further with them.

And have they told you what is wrong in the survey or are they just saying that?

The original buyers probably find it very easy to offer to pay an extra £10k, since they can't get a mortgage for the original amount it's like monopoly money. If they've done nothing about a new mortgage they aren't serious buyers.

I have seen the survey. Nothing really surprising, plenty of obvious issues like the windows are old etc. They asked us for £4k off after the survey and we said no. They have apparently discussed new mortgage but not made a formal application and reckon they can go to £410k with it.

I have lost confidence in them really. But new buyer is an unknown quantity.

I would definitely go with new buyers. It doesn't sound like they could be much worse, and they are offering more money.

Original buyers sound like chancers, and if they have one mortgage application refused they are less likely to have another approved, particularly for a larger borrow.

*have had

Well, if you look at this way, the original buyers are also unknown quantity in that they have no finance arranged and it is not clear that they will be able to do so (and indeed, given that they have had one application refused, seems there is good reason to doubt they will).

Forget that you thought you were proceeding with original buyer before.

Just look at the offers you have NOW. One is offering 35k below, then £10k over, but picking at holes in the valuation. And has no lender in place.

The others may or may not be salaried, with lender in place, and are offering more money. Tell original buyer that you cannot consider their offer until they have a firm mortgage in place, fgs they've had months to sort that out now, and IMO they are hunting around for an accountant who will present their figures in a way that will get them as big a mortgage as possible. I don't believe the original accountant made a mistake.

No dilemma imo. Personally I think the original buyer has messed you about, and is continuing to mess you about, wanting the house as cheap as possible. they should not have gone ahead with surveys if they had no firm mortgage offer.

Also, if you have a mortgage on your new property, you need to get a
s much for this sale as poss. If you 'let them have' £35k then you could be paying interest on that amount on your new home!