How long will our buyers wait?

[lessonsintightropes]

We sold our house in SE London in October to first time buyers who had missed out on a lot of properties. They were swift with legal work and surveys and we have been ready to exchange on this one since late January.

We had an offer accepted a week later on a place by someone who nobbed us about until we withdrew when they'd made no progress at all moving on by late Feb. Two weeks later, we'd had an offer accepted and three weeks later had had the survey done. All the legal work has now been done on our purchase and we are now ready to exchange...

But our vendor (wants to sell quick after a divorce) now still hasn't found somewhere. It's only been four weeks since our offer was accepted and realise there will be some delay. So far, our FTBs have been incredibly patient; we think part of it might be down to the incredible price acceleration in our part of SE London, the fact we've been clear under no circumstances will we raise the price on them at the last minute, accepted a drop in asking price following valuation survey and are currently in rented with a low deposit (so getting further away from the bottom of the ladder as time passes).

No-one's patience is infinite. Our EA assures me that our buyers are happy in rented with a guaranteed price and mortgage in place.

How long would you wait?

I think I would wait longer with good communication from you. Are you able to move into rented accommodation while the house you are buying is sorted out. So sell yours so you are not holding them up and move into a short term let until yours is ready to buy? In the worst case, the higher the chain goes, the more people have to find somewhere to live after selling their own, so it could go on a while.

We accepted an offer on our house in October and have been living in the new one for three months now. I would have been getting really hacked off now if their seemed to be no movement above.

They would actually be insane to drop out given the way the SE London market has risen month on month since last year. They are more likely to be worrying about you dropping out.

Thanks both. I'll make sure I update the agent again tomorrow with the latest situation. Again, I've been very clear we won't mess them around on price and I'm hoping that's enough in this market...

We can't move twice though (costs, and cat) so private rented is out.

Couldn't your vendor who is wanting a quick sale go into rented? It might be an option rather than loose a sale. Are your FTB renting? They might put the squeeze on you if their tenancy is coming to an end. That is what happened in a chain we were in and our vendors, who were moving into a caravan on land they owned, had said it would take 2 months to go when everyone else was ready for the following week! We had a month in rented so the chain didn't collapse (not easy or cheap in a post 2007 flood hit area).

How did you find your short let Freckletoes? We are thinking of asking the vendor about this in a couple of weeks if she's not making any progress, but given our own lack of willingness (yes, we might be being unreasonable about this too) to bear the costs of moving house twice and unsettle the cat etc I am not sure we can push it.