Another WWYD?

[NoUnicornsToSeeHere]

Our house has been on the market since March; we sold instantly, put an offer in on a house (house a) in early May, had it accepted. We were restricted to a small area with little choice in four bed houses, only about 10 have come on the market in that time.

Our buyers dropped out in July, they’d found something else and weren’t prepared to wait for house a vendors to find something.

We got new buyers by early september. House A found a house to move to.

House A was a two bed semi which the existing owners have doubled in size, but they’ve done the work theirselves (he’s a builder). The building survey is ok but has highlighted a few issues - they’ve reused boiler /water tanks so issues of capacity for the new sizes house, the (older) conservatory is going loose all the heat from the substantial open plan extension so will need replacing fairly soon, there’s a crack in the new build garage which is probably a result of them taking too long putting the render on but needs keeping an eye on. There’s no guarantee for the work - includes a flat roof, bi fold doors, because he’s done It himself. We’re cautious people but can already see £££ signs on a house which looked ‘done’.

Vendors want to sell quickly now (well they would!) but haven’t even provided the building control sign off in the first pack of information they sent to our solicitor.

House B has come on the market. About 10 years old, better location, more money but still within budget.

There’s nothing wrong with house a but if house b had come on the market two months ago we would probably have definitely gone for it. But if we drop out of house a now, we may lose our buyers... and the market has slowed massively.

House B is on the market with our agent (who I rate), we’ve not looked round it yet but it has just been reduced in price. We would go in at a near asking price offer, I think. Due to the restrictive nature of our search we know the sort of houses we would like and we would almost definitely buy this one.

Are we suffering buyers remorse? Or should we look round house B, which if we like we then risk losing our buyers?

Writing it down, we should look round house B shouldn’t we... ?

Go and view House B. You've said it yourself, better location. You need to know the circumstances of the sellers and how quickly they are prepared to move to sell to you if you can do a deal with them. I think your buyers will be more likely to stick with you if you can say there were lots of issues with House A so we pulled out. However we have already had an offer on House B and will proceed as quickly as possible so as not to keep you hanging on.

Couldn’t have said it better than wowfudge, if it’s the same estate agent they’ll be invested in getting the deal done. If you do like it see if you can both use the same solicitors form too to speed things up.
The only real problem I can see is if house B vendors aren’t chain free? If they’re looking for somewhere to buy you might not be able to complete quickly for your buyers even if you push for it.
In that case it might be worth considering moving into rented between your sale and purchase.

Thank you both for clarifying what’s in my brain. House b have found a house they want to offer on but can’t until they know what they’ll get for their house... and the house they want to buy is empty.

House a vendors we will see in the playground every day which will add to the awkwardness, but if it’s right for us we need to do it...

As long as that empty house isn't a private sale waiting for a grant of probate then go for it.

Probate sale, not private sale!