oooh, bit scared and stressed

[AvonCallingBarksdale]

We've had our house on the market since November last year - lost our first buyer, then got another buyer, by which time we'd already said we'd move into rented. Very straightforward in the end and we exchanged a couple of weeks ago. We've found a lovely place to rent, which, hopefully will only be for max 9 months. We've had an offer accepted on a house, but they're being v, v fussy about finding the "perfect" house, no sign of compromise. Obviously we're keeping our eyes peeled, but now I'm scared and stressed that we'll be stuck renting for ages whilst the house prices rise, effectively pricing us out... Suddenly everyone's an expert on what we should/shouldn't be doing. I think we're giving ourselves the best chance in a v fast-moving market, but it's obviously a risk. Does anyone have any happy ending stories re the above? Please, even just to humour me

I was in exactly the same position several times (had a few fall through due to sellers not finding anything) and my advice is to keep looking at houses with complete chains or chain-free, it can't hurt.

How quickly can you/do you want to move?

Could make the offer a time limited one - exchange in [8] weeks of the offer is off, and keep you eyes out for other properties that aren't in chains.

That's a good plan, whois. We've saved up to pay rent for 6 months, so that does take the pressure off financially and it also means we could take the hit of paying both rent and mortgage if necessary (as the rent money is already there IYSWIM, rather than that being a preferable option). I'm just hoping we look back on this in a year or so and see it as a means to an end.
TremoloGreen, did it all work out well for you eventually? I hope so
What I have learnt is that when we finally buy, I won't be doing this again. Ever.

Yes we've got a great house now. We kept looking until we found an older couple who had already found a chain free place. They were downsizing to a small village to be near family. So they were motivated when something had finally come up for them. It was a year of horrific stress though - unplanned pregnancy into the bargain. They can carry me out of this house in a box!

Ha, ha! Glad it worked out. Yes, it's very stressful - my dad died earlier in the year, so I do feel like I'm playing a bit of a Russian roulette game of just how much stress can I take .

Sorry to hear about your Dad . Having your sale out of the way is a very good thing, that cuts stress considerably. I did not appreciate that at the time with DD2 on the way and living in a horrible rental (didn't want to take on a big rent bill with maternity leave looming as I am self-employed) but it would actually have been so much more stressful having a chain below us as well as above. You're in a good position as a buyer now and that may offset rising prices. We got our house for a bargain and they may not have accepted so readily if we weren't chain-free, I think that gave us just enough 'edge'.