WWYD - Seller dragging feet

[DratThatCat]

So we've accepted an offer on our house and made an offer on a house we like about 2 months ago now. The seller hasn't found anywhere she likes enough to make an offer on, so the chain is stuck. She is apparently serious about selling (so her EA says) but cannot move in with family and is not willing to rent as an alternative. EA says she wants to wait until Jan for the new influx of properties on the market to see if she likes anything.

My WWYD is would you wait or look for another property, if you were me? Our buyer is keen to move quickly (as are we) but seems happy to wait for the time being. This house we've offered on is not our dream house. We've made a number of compromises on it, so I wouldn't be too disappointed if we didn't end up there. The only thing would be that we'd lose the money we've spent on the survey and searches (£700) but tbh, I'd rather lose that than our buyer.

I've never sold before so I don't know if it's perfectly acceptable to be 2 months on from accepting an offer and to have not made any headway with your own move.

I would keep looking. You don’t have to withdraw your offer but why tie your own hands? 2 months is a long time with no progress. By Jan you’re at 3 and may still be no further forward.

You should also consider how easy it would be to get another buyer for your house at the same price or more. If your property is in demand then fine but if you’ve been lucky to get a purchaser then you could always consider renting yourselves.

I'd keep looking while trying to keep pressure on your vendor to hurry up. If you find somewhere you like better - and ideally with someone who has already found somewhere or will not be in a chain - so much the better.

I would definitely keep looking, especially as it’s not your dream house.

We had this. We waited for 4 months for them to find something before we admitted to ourselves they never would. We made an offer on another house and moved there and it worked out better anyway but we were gutted at the time. But we weren’t selling so we didn’t lose our buyer.

I would keep looking as it’s a buyers market at the moment and if it’s not your dream house you might find something better but also if you do lose your buyer it might be a while before another one comes along depending on your area. Good luck!

Btw the sellers of the house we pulled out of did move eventually, 18 months later!!

I kept looking for DD when she had this problem. However we didn’t find anything better. It’s so annoying. At least you know she’s not found anything! We didn’t even know. The solicitor agreed a possible exchange date and then had to backtrack as he had no property to buy!

I would start looking though and you could ask the Ea to ramp up the pressure if you find somewhere else. You never know, another vendor might agree to move into rented to get the sale! Your current vendor deserves to lose the sale by being difficult.

Thanks for your replies everyone. Youve all said what my gut instinct has been. We've seen two other properties that look promising so we're going to view them at the weekend.

We were willing to rent before we found this property (took us 3 weeks from us receiving our offer to make a decision) so that we didn't lose our buyer so yes, that might be back on the table now.

I understand why they say moving is one of the most stressful things you can do!

You are not wrong there!!! You have to deal with such awkward people. I would keep your buyers and do what you need to do. Buyers are gold dust. It’s a shame your vendors don’t realise this.

Keep looking.

Unfortunately there's a lesson here, not to carry out a survey or allow the solicitor to go ahead with searches until such time as the chain is complete.

I am in the same boat. It has just turned 1 month and she has still not found anywhere - I am being patient but it's frustrating. I am putting it down to the time of year and we will give her time in January when the market will hopefully pick up.

Feel lucky we have not yet done a survey or lost any money, however our mortgage application may fail because EAs won't let them do a survey until the chain is complete...

Keep us updated on what you do, I hope this get's resolved soon for you!

Be careful about deciding to rent- check out when your mortgage can be ported til (if relevant). Ours expires after 6 months so we couldn’t take the risk of renting (but we have a hefty early repayment charge).

Mildura you're right, lesson learned. We just wanted to do everything we could to get things moving.

ErickBroch that's interesting that the EA won't allow a survey until the chain is complete. Good luck with your move, I hope things get going for you in January.

Purpleflowers do you mean the mortgage we've got arranged for the new property? I just presumed that would be cancelled (is that the right word?) if we rented and we'd apply for a new one when we found somewhere to buy.

ErickBroch
I wouldn't begin a mortgage application until the chain is complete either. Mortgage offers have expiry dates.

Mildura - chain was complete, she then pulled out of a sale, and is now looking again. We had already started, she pulled out the same day we started it!! So frustrating

Ah! that is very frustrating, this whole moving business can be very annoying. Hope everything comes back together soon.

I’d keep looking. Like you said it’s not your dream house anyway. They could still be sat there in a few months time.

Thanks everyone