Buying our 2nd home - delays caused by our buyer

[awiles]

Hi,

Just looking for some advice on a situation we have unfortunately landed in after a very smooth first few weeks.

To put you in the picture.

We have a property (a flat) which we found a buyer almost instantly. The buyer is a well known property buyer in the area with an extensive portfolio and happens to also be the man in charge of managing the block of flats (the managing agent)

He offered us a good price and was unsure whether he would either set it up on a buy-to-let mortgage or would use cash from his many properties he is selling currently (one being a 2.3 million house in London.)
We then set out to look for a new house, which we did, and an offer was accepted by the Vendor. On we went to our Mortgage Advisor who set up our mortgage and the agreement was sent over to our solicitor along with the fixtures and fittings forms and a cheque for the searches to go ahead.
Our solicitor has had contact from our Vendor's solicitor and also our Buyers Solicitor and everything was seeming to go ahead for a very smooth transaction to exchange.

HOWEVER:

We now have had a call from our buyer, he has said that his mortgage broker has been doing the rounds to source a buy-to-let mortgage however new rules have come into effect where lenders are struggling to offer people who have several (or lots in our guys situation) existing buy-to-let mortgages any further mortgage offers as it imposes greater risks.
Our buyer then went on to say he is still keen to buy but he hasn't got the cash to hand right now to put down the full total property value but will do when the property he is selling in London (worth 2.3 million) has gone through.
Our buyer has advised me it is my choice what I do, I can either put it back on the market or I wait and see what happens with his purchase of the property he is selling (he also has another smaller property in France which he is also selling as we speak) BUT he cant guarantee timescales or that it will definitely happen until the money is in his hands as anyone his end could also pull out or cause delays at any time.

Where do I go from here, its gone from having no chain to alot of uncertainty...

Of course I will tell the people we are buying from but is this a normal thing and am I worrying unnecessarily?
We have only paid the solicitor search fees (£225.00) and also the survey for the house which was £175.00 so we havent lost out on LOADS but I am just concerned that the couple we are buying from wont want to hold out (they have a property to move into which is empty so I dont think there is LOTS of pressure to move ASAP - but of course I dont want it to be dragged out for them too much as its not fair)

Any help or advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks

I think I'd put it back on the market. I imagine a house being sold for over 2 million will take a while for him to sell.

Yes that thought has been swimming around in my brain this morning too. I think it is the best way to go.

Thanks for your advice its appreciated.

Oh the woes of buying and selling

I'd put it back on the market too, but don't reject his offer, if his sale happens to move quickly it may still be faster than finding another buyer.

Put it back on the market, make sure that you get full details of any offers that come forward, are they a cash buyer? Have they got mortgage AIP? Have they got a property to sell?

We were in a similar position a couple of years ago and didn't want to lose the house we were buying.

We only took viewings from people who had no chain and mortgage AIP. We made it clear that we would go with the people who could move the quickest, not necessarily the highest offer. We knew there would be lots of intestest in the property though.

Our estate agents also got a copy of people's mortgage and proof of deposit before considering offers. That way we could sort of see who was quick/proactive and get an idea they would make sure it went through quickly.

I can see the benefit to the seller of doing that little but as a buyer, unless it was an extremely fast moving sales market, I would find it intrusive that an EA wanted to know all that in order to get a viewing.

We bought our house from someone who'd had a sale drop through at the last minute. The estate agent just asked us whether we had an AIP/chain and it was only at offer stage did we show evidence - which was a letter saying that our AIP covered the offer amount, not the actual AIP (as it was for £s more).

wowfudge we really wanted the house we were buying and didn't want to chance being stuck in a chain (initially people were viewing who hadn't even put their property up for sale), it was just a waste of our time and buyers time for people to come view who weren't in a position to move quickly.

It was only when people put their offers in that the estate agents then asked for the AIP to be sent over and proof of deposit. We ended up with several offers over the asking price and we then asked how soon they could get their mortgage appointment. We went with a lower offer as the buyer was very proactive.

I knew there would be a lot of interest in the property though and agree a lot of people may not be keen to provide that to the estate agents. It is always worth asking for buyers position though when they make an offer. I learned the hard way, as has OP. If she would have maybe asked if the buyer had a mortgage AIP first and found out he did not, she could have continued to market it and told the buyer his offer would be left open until he sorted his mortgage.

I wish it was standard for people to have a mortgage AIP before offering as otherwise how do they know what they can afford to offer/whether they can even get a mortgage (as in this case).