How the fuck do you move house? Help me!

[whywhydelilah]

Our buyers have pulled out so the chain has collapsed. The house we wanted that we were buying is now back on the market.

This is the second time things have fallen through. The last time was in December. Our house went on the market and only took two weeks to sell. So how have we ended up still there?

We only have one estate agent marketing our property. There is one particular estate agent who seems to have a strangle hold on the area we want to buy in, they are also marketing the house we were buying. They have very few houses for sale where we live (only a mile away- different estate). I'm considering engaging that estate agent in addition to our original one, in the hope that the fact that they know we are interested in another one of their properties may give them an incentive to shift ours. They've almost been quite rude and unhelpful, so engaging them may force a bit of manners out of them.

I desperately need some advice. Trying to move house has dominated our lives since September and I'm bloody sick of it. We're supposed to be TTC DC2 too, which isn't working.

I'm lost. Seriously considering giving up and just living in a shit house in a shit area.

@Seeleyboo that's insane! What on Earth do you do know?

I don't think there are any restrictive convenants on the one we're (not) buying but we have one forbidding the house being turned into a pub.

@littlemeitslyn 😁 want to buy it?

No my life is shit enough

The restrictive covenants on our house date from 1860. We are restricted as to how many houses are built on the large plot and you can only run businesses from here that are one of 5 professions (DH & I are both on the list which is great because the office for my Practice is in the garden)
The covenants are to protect the character of this part of the village. The family that wrote them as part of the sale of this plot still own some of the surrounding land.

My restrictive covenants prevent ourselves or NDN parking boats,, caravans or motorhomes on the drive. I am cool with that, I dont want to look out of the window at a bloody motor home every day.

We're not allowed the following

1. No hut, shed, hoarding or advertisement or caravan house, or house on wheels shall be erected, placed or used on the said premises and that the original vendors may remove and dispose of any said erection or any such other thing from the property.

I was never very keen on 'houses on wheels' anyway

quoting @TitusP 'In the end we sold, moved into rented and then bought but only considered houses with no chain and buyers with no chain as I couldn't cope with another failed chain. I know this may not be logistically possible for you but it was the only way to save my sanity in the end!'

We did this too after 2 complete collapses. Sanity is worth the extra cost if you can possibly manage it at all, do it

Can I join in, please? We have just sold stc, but its early days yet. Our buyers are ftb and are really being quick with everything, but I've sold houses before too many times to be complacent about that. It's always nerve wracking!

We're not allowed to have a pig farm or a brick factory at our house, hopefully that won't put off any prospective buyers!

OP. I have to wait at least 3 months for the report to come back and for all parties involved to be notified and works to be carried out to repair it. Then we can get another valuation done and that's only if the vendor rectifies the situation. I'm already exhausted with the process.

@Seeleyboo - surely its time to walk away?

It happened to me 3 times. Twice in the day of exchange, once 3 days before. It took us 2 years to actually move house.

In the end we rented ours out and got a let to buy mortgage on our new house as it was driving me mad.

We had 2 agents selling ours.

@sandybayley
Yes, you could be right but there is such a shortage of affordable property and this one ticks all the boxes. But ultimately I may have to walk away on this one.

And guess what... our buyers have come back with a much lower offer.

Why do people act like this? FFS

Property buying seems to bring out the worst in people. Are you thinking of accepting?

Going to put a lower offer to the vendors of the house we want. If that's accepted, yes.

Haha at questioning why people do this and then doing exactly the same thing yourself!

You what?

Not much else I can do. It's this lower offer or we don't buy the house.

I think it's fairly common to 'pass on' reductions in price or at least some of it. People can accept it if it's the price of keeping the chain together.

@whywhydelilah - have your buyers explained their reasoning? Is it that prices have dropped or us there an issue that needs resolving?

Ultimately FTBs have quite a lot of power in that it's easier for them to walk away. Which is why lots of people recommend selling and going into rented before buying.

How much of a reduction is it? I'd try and speak nicely to your vendors and explain your position rather than just dumping this on them.

Our buyers are BTL and they're citing Brexit as the reason. Only a few days from exchange.

We spent much of last year trying to move house, we lost a buyer 3 times in total, thankfully it never got that far along, in the end we gave up for a few months as our 2nd child was due over Christmas and we had definitely had enough. Fast forward a few months and we are doing it all over at, we have just accepted an offer but nothing has progressed yet and we haven't found anywhere we want to live. I hate the whole process! I don't see any harm in doing a multi agency agreement and think it's makes sense to use the agent that has the monopoly in the area you want, surely it's more motivation for them as it's double the commission.