WWYD - vendor doesn't want to sell!

[anyname123]

Hi, I've seen my dream house for sale, in budget. Having tried for 3 weeks to book an appointment to view I finally have one for next week.

I guessed that there was a divorce / messy split involved and that the woman living in the house doesn't want to sell, this has been confirmed by a friend (through a friend of a friend!!) who knows the vendors.

So, do I view the house, risk falling completely in love with it and nothing else living up, or do I write it off as a bad lot?

MN wisdom much appreciated

Sad, but if she has to sell, it would be a shame for you to miss the opportunity.

Have a chat with the agent. If woman starts playing delaying silly buggers you don't want to be stuck waiting.

Never fall in love with a house until you have signed on the dotted line! Keep trying with this one but meanwhile look at others too. Keep your options open.

My friend got an amazing house for a fair bit less than it could/should have gone for in this situation.

The woman had been able to stay in the house until youngest was 21 and then they had to sell - she really didn't want to. House was filthy, not effort for viewings, made things v awkward. Put lots of people off.

Anyway, my friend persevered and got it.

If they HAVE to sell, it might as well be you that gets it.

It may help with viewing and take away some of the emotions that you already have. View it knowing it might not be yours and you may find the viewing as seeing the house for what it is and not what you have already imagined it to be. Do. not spend a penny without investigating more though.

Thanks all! The house has been on the market since October and I'm the first viewer, just due to my persistence and flexibility to view at her (very bloody awkward ) specified time.
If I put in an offer I'm assuming the EA will forward it to both estranged husband and wife, if it were to get accepted really getting ahead of myself here how difficult could she make it going forward? I don't want to spend money on surveys and things only for her to pull out, if there is a court order to sell surely she will have to stick to it?

I was in this position when we bought our current (dream) home. Husband still living in it, wife moved out to live with OM. Divorce settled with house to be sold after youngest secured school place in local Grammar school. He did not want to sell, used the house as a weapon to stick it to her at every opportunity and did not have the funds to move out. He delayed at every opportunity until finally moving in with a relative.

On moving day, after funds were cleared and keys should be handed over, he still hadn't packed his stuff. Our moving man was a super star, went in and told him to shift it. He ended up moving the rest of his crap in to our garage and said he collect the next day, keeping the key!!

He kept his word though and posted the key. If you want it, do it but take a deep breath. Be prepared for shinanigans and ask for proof she is willing/able to vacate before paying out for the survey. Don't be sympathetic to her situation, it's a transaction.

Proceed with caution and try not to fall in love with it!

We had this situation when we bought this house, but one step above in the chain (our vendors were buying from the divorcée). As I think is fairly common, the divorce had happened some years earlier but in the settlement it was agreed that the wife and DC would remain in the family home until the youngest DC left school. I did feel for the woman, as she was having to downsize from a lovely house to a fairly grotty bungalow which needed a lot of work, but we quickly lost sympathy after she messed everyone around so much. The whole chain agreed to a July completion so as not to disrupt her DC's exams, and because our vendors were teachers. She then booked two holidays during July, stopped answering her phone, and stalled for as long as she possibly could. It got to the stage where we threatened to pull out one week, only to find ourselves trying to talk our vendors out of pulling out the week later.

When we bumped into our vendors a few months later, they had had a horrendous time. The house had been left absolutely filthy and with some sort of infestation that had to be fumigated.

So - by all means go for it, but get all commitments in writing and be prepared to be tenacious. Good luck.

We recently bought our first house but previously had been set to buy another one which all fell through as the seller didn't really want to sell, it was a sad case but think the house was going to be repossesed. We waited 6 months - had had a survey done, told our landlord, involved soliciters etc and she literally made everything as difficult as possible and in the end we had to withdraw and lost almost a thousand pounds . I did feel sorry for her but she let us go on for six months thinking it was still going to go through.
I would be direct with the estate agent and see what they have to say. Good luck x

We had this situation when we bought our house. The husband had left to be with his OW and the wife was going to make it as hard as possible to sell the house.

Obviously we didn't realise exactly how much she wanted to stay until we got further into the process of buying the house. She made life so difficult and even instructed the estate agents that she was withdrawing the house from sale two days before exchange of contracts was due to happen. She'd threatened to pull out so many times before that too.Luckily for us the agent and the solicitors just carried on regardless and presented her with exchange of contracts as per the original agreement and she agreed to go ahead.

This was the fourth house purchase I'd been thorough in my life and was easily the most difficult and stressful and has put me off ever moving again.

We were in this situation. Went to see the house and loved it but it took ages to arrange a second viewing and then when we put an offer in it took ages to hear back, then there were talks of taking the house off the mearket. It went on for weeks. Eventually we gave up and walked away , it was just too much hassle. I'm glad we never got tied into anything because I think the vendor would have been a nightmare to deal with throughout the sale and it would have ended up being a total headache.