Vendors moving after short ownership-should I be worried?

[amroc18]

Had offer accepted on gorgeous forever home. All progressing and survey due next week.
We have found out this week that the current occupants have only been there just under a year.
We've been told they want to downsize-but seems odd to have bought a 400k house and paid all the stamp duty to be selling again soon after.
Worried that it means there is something intrinsically wrong with house/neighbours etc. (hoping former would be picked up in survey).

Does anyone have any experience of moving so quickly-am I being irrational?

I always look up the last sale date for houses we're interested in and ask why the current owners are moving. It could be serious problems with the house (unlikely but possible, survey should pick this up), it could be change in family circumstances (sickness, divorce, death etc etc), it could be refused planning permission. Ask the agent, they should tell you. But yes, it would make me a bit twitchy.

It would also make me a bit worried.

I would be wondering if it was a divorce, which people don't always want to declare as it can put vendors off.

Or that there was something going on with the neighbours or a new planning application for a load of houses.

You could go to the local planning office yourself & ask to see any plans relating to the area & land outlined for future development.

I would also go & spend some time in the road, maybe later on a Saturday night, early morning etc just to check things out.

you need to ask a straight question. Try 'is the reason that you are moving related to anything that will also affect us as the new owners?'

that means they don't have to tell you about their divorce/terminal illness (hope not) etc but still have to answer truthfully.

I would second doing lots of drive-bys and walk-bys too, and ask around.

I winner if you were to take a walk around the area could you casually get chatting to any of the neighbours. They'd have the full story.

Vendors often don't want to mention a divorce as some people would see that as a chance to be very cheeky on the price (i.e. 'they'll accept anything as they'll be desperate to get the money out of the house so they can both move on'.

Yes the downsizing thing doesn't really add up, does it? I'd be worried...

Then again, the people we bought from had only lived in the house for 18 months. They said they were relocating due to the husbands change of job. Whereas the reality was that they weren't keen on one of the neighbours (we never had any problems with him) and also they were barred from the village shop (village shop owner was a bit volotile / bigoted )

I would investigate further if I were you.

Could be they are legitimately downsizing due to redundancy. Not many people like to disclose their financial or personal details.

Perhaps they've been living beyond their means and just can't afford it especially as the interest rates are likely to go up in the near future?

We owned our last house for 23 months before putting it on the market again (and selling it on day one!) There was absolutely nothing wrong with the house; we sold as we realised we had made a massive mistake relocating from London and moved back to the city. So it is not necessarily a bad thing but you do need to ask them if the reason they are moving could affect you as new owners. Good luck .

It would make alarm bells ring for me, but there are 1001 good reasons that might be totally unrelated to the house.

I would ask the vendors directly rather than the EA.

When your solicitor receives the title documents, they would (I hope!) notice this short time of ownership and raise enquiries with the vendor's solicitor regarding the reasons for selling again so soon, but mention it to your solicitor in any case so that it is flagged up.

A friend of mine did this - had the house for just under a year. They had moved for her to start a new job, but then by chance her dream job in another town came up a few months after they'd moved in. As jobs in her field don't come up very often she took a chance, applied, amazingly got it, and they had to move again.

Sometimes a job offer elsewhere comes up that is just too good to pass on, so this wouldn't necessarily worry me. Redundancy/illness/divorce can all also mean you need to sell.

Could be they bought it, did it up, and are now selling at a profit?

I owned a house for 9 months, my reason was that we had decided to get married and buy somewhere together. There are plenty of valid reasons, I'd definitely ask quite specific questions. I believe that the vendors aren't under any obligation to volunteer information but do have to answer questions honestly. Speak to the estate agents too and tell them you are worried about it. See if that brings an explanation that you are happy with.

Thanks for everyone's advice (would have responded sooner but couldn't figure out why I couldn't log into mumsnet til I checked email this morning)!

We did some more digging yesterday which did line up with the downsizing thing so think it is more than likely to be that.

Just so nervous making such a big purchase, have only bought once before years ago so guess it's just natural jitters. Appreciate the advice, feeling much happier now we have checked out a bit more

divorced couples don't always leap to take an offer, any offer. I had put an offer on a house and I heard through word of mouth that the couple was splitting up. I got stung with a divorcing couple going through the motions of selling their house but really, nothing was happening fast and they were both 'party' to slowing it down. I lost patience and looked elsewhere.

A friend of mine does think it's unlucky to move in to a 'divorce house'. I think that's mad though, worse things happen than divorce! 50 years of miserable marriage for a start