How long did you wait for vendor to find a house?

[Twittwoooo]

I've just had THE call from estate agents to say my offer has been accepted on a great 2bed house. Now the vendor needs to find a house for herself. I hadn't really thought about this stage. How long did you wait and how long is too long? I really want the house but don't want to miss spring when more houses come on and then find this sale falls through.

Anyone?

I didn't. They moved into rented accommodation.

We waited 8 months. In that time absolutely no houses in our price bracket and area came onto the market so we didn't have much option. But we felt that our vendors were genuine and they also suffered from a slow market.

Ours took 2-3 months as they kept on changing their mind. A friend waited 6 or 7 months in which time the prices in the area went up considerably. Luckily, the vendor honoured their agreement and they finally completed over 9 months after the initial offer. If I were you, I'd make sure the vendor is looking and seems to be making progress.

We've given our vendors a 6 month deadline from when ours completes as we will have to pay a mortgage exit fee if it runs over that.

We're lucky and have alternative accommodation though, if we didn't I'd probably say 2-3 months!

Twenty years ago, we agreed to buy our house in a private sale, and they had about a year to find their new property. It all happened, but was high stress while in progress.

We waited a couple of months and then bought somewhere else that was empty. They knew we wanted to move quickly but they couldn't find what they wanted.

I'm currently that vendor! I accepted an offer on my place on Monday and I now have viewings lined up for this week. I had an idea of houses I wanted to view but I didn't want to get my hopes up until I had an offer on mine.
I want to find a place quickly as I don't want the buyer to change their mind and I can't wait for more space in the house, that's the reason I'm moving!

Fingers crossed your vendor finds somewhere soon and you get your new house.

I guess it's a 'how long is a piece of string' question. Not too long I'm hoping. Wow a year is a long time to wait!

It suited both parties at the time. We had a property to sell in a very slow market, and we were able to save more towards the cost, so we reduced the mortgage we needed, a bit.